sootopia

Got some cunje and crabs at low tide then waited for the sunrise Nothing on the live bait rods and no bonnies on spin pretty slow day Hit option 2 for some groupers or pigs they were definitely around. Multiple bust off's but managed to land a few! Pb grouper 60cm ...always get busted off by anything bigger i reckon.... tons of blackfish swimming around but didnt have the right gear along...managed 3 on my yakka rod with unweighted brown weed

what i find works really good is steal some old stocking from the missus.. then a rock/sinker inside with a pilly or some fresh fish flesh then same deal out on a hand line once it moves wind in slowly and net... the get stuck like anything in the stockings!

Yea mate off the western side of barrenjoey.

G'day Raiders, Back in Sydney for Christmas so decided to visit some of the old haunts .... 2 meter southerly so most ledges were out of the question so paid a visit to a sneaky spot out of the swell off barrenjoey head. Bit of a late start after devouring left over Christmas feast... decided to fish the run out to run in tide. Climbed down to the spot around 3pm, sent out some old squid and a pillie tail then it was time to rustle up some liveys. Water fairly murky after the rain and no yakkas out to play. Slow day, first fish around 5:30pm a legal bream on a pillie strip....desperate times so he becomes a strip bait which works surprisingly well Fish No 2. a small soapie around 55 cm on bream fillet! back he goes to grow...now where's his big brother hiding! Pity about the new size limits i actually prefer the 60+ sized fish a much more manageable size for the table Getting really desperate for some live bait before dark and finally manage a few chopper tailor on sunset Live baits out at dusk. Really quiet for the next 2 hours, only a few small bream. Changed over to some tailor strips on the small rod to try pick up some bream and typically.... end up hooking up a decent fish on the light gear! After about 15 mins of blistering runs manage to land this fella, gut hooked and bleeding like crazy so poor candidate for a release, looks to be the last Jewie for 2014 ! Measured up at 100cm on the dot and just over 8kg, fairly skinny for his size but heaps of fun on 10lb and a great way to end the year! Fished till the high, liveys ended up untouched...go figure! Sorry for the poor photos didnt have a better light... Merry Christmas all!

ive got a top recipie for cale haha..... get a rock, pop it in a pot with the cale, stew for a few hours, throw away the cale and eat the rock how do you cook it?

finding the depth is one of the main tricky parts imo... look over at the guys who are catching them and try to see how deep they are setting their drifts. Is your float weighted properly (needs to be neutrally buoyant for sensitivity of strikes) , are you using leader using too thick (6-8lb should work), hook size too big (size 8-12), bait presentation/type, missing strikes use the search for more info there are heaps of pro black fishermen in this forum who have made lengthy posts on the topic!

Just gotta say that's some great photography.... Well done !

Amazing work boys!

wow thats epic! congrats

good work mate they are awesome fish that go way harder than their size!

great work and nice pics what bait were you guys using?

Top work mate! Got my vote too

Not many chances to get out and wet a line with Prac and the damn dodgy weather we have been having ...... Had the day off today so the plan was for a late morning sess after my mate got off work, We arrived at the spot around 10 just in time for high tide at ~11 Got a nice berley trail going with bread and mashed up pillies then tried to get some liveys Very slow going, water looking pretty dead. Hooking up the odd sweep or so after 45 mins. My mate throws in the towel and hooks up a pilly on a paternoster and casts it out wide, 10 mins later hes on and reeling in snapper no. 1. Desperate times.........with not a livey in sight out goes a medium sized sweep under a float on my big rod. Time to change tactics, i setup a small float for the bait rod with the bait ~15ft underneath casting out further, next few cast brings me in a small trev...BAIT! re bait the big rod ....In the meantime my mate reels in snapper no. 2 I notice some pigs moving into the berley trail so swap over to prawn instead of pilly fillets and bring in some small pigs, and eventually i hook a better one! on the scoreboard 12pm the big rod starts clicking away gently on and off...squid !! we rig up a spike with a pilly and do the old switcheroo with the livey and the spike and land a nice 30+ squid. Time to bring the big guns out ...... squid goes back out on the 24kg rod under a balloon For the next hr or two we alternate between attempting to catch bait and casting out pillies. Finally get a few yakkas and out they go. We get the odd 30cm pig and one bigger pig, I finally get a snapper of my own !! Pretty quiet after that a few undersized snapper and pigs....... Packup time @ 5pm... ended up staying longer than we planned because we had such nice liveys out. Nothing touched the squid or the yakkas Squid comes home as a consolation prize.... Calamari rings mmmmm !

ive fished clarke's point for bull sharks with a mate when we are bored, we get the odd bronzie as well its prob taylors if all your using is pillies/small fillets. we usually use whole mullet or taylor or a really big mullet fillet slab for the noah's

yea its near the middle harbour system haha yes i have every detail recorded......i have caught jews nearby but usually on live bait and its always within a 30min-1hr tide period! prob got something to do with the tide filling up the holes....this is a first for SP's tho