mulcahya

Where exactly is "the colours"?

What exactly is the poor mans down rigger technique?

Fished DY beach on Sunday for some small undersized whiting, and no meaningful bites on some live bait and pillchards. It's a baron wasteland ATM! ??

Do squid (or any fish for that matter) care if it's windy? I know my lines and the boat care, but the fish?

Mike the squid whisperer! Next thing you know you'll be tickling their underbelly. ??

Smallest long shank hooks I could find in the tackle box, like the ones I use for catching yakkas. Metal traces helped eliminate gear loss. Tied the main line straight onto the metal trace, all unweighted, to give better feel, and minimize gear loss. The trick we found was to keep the bait in sight, and when you see them start sucking on it, drag it away and you'll either be on or very shortly. Cast a little wide (but still in sight), with a slow retrieve, will keep tension on the line so you can feel them. If you do drop the bait out of sight, you will be baited without knowing it in no time, unless you jig the line up and down into and out of sight. On the up stroke pay attention for extra weight and strike if it's fishy feeling. Best of luck raiders. If we work together we can rid our waterways from this pest. ?? BTW: tasted great! Wife and kids loved them.

AFAIK, no legal size limit on leather jackets, but possibly a bag limit of 20. Probably because they are a plague!

Launched from Tunks Park this morning with a plan to get some squid and/or yakkas from the spit thru to balmoral and then scoot off some else and try for something big like a kingfish. After getting no squid and nothing but sweep, it was looking ominous for the day. Fortunately our luck changed a little and we got seven yakkas in 15 minutes after we upped the burley. And off we go..... ...but everywhere we went, nothing but stripped leather jacket, who were stealing not just our bait, but our entire running gear on multiple occasions. after loosing countless hooks, sinkers, and swivels, in all sizes, it was either go home or start targeting them. We chose the later because a) they don't taste too bad and we figured we should start a harbour LJ cleansing program, which would benefit all fishers, and not just us. one more LJ in our boat is one less gear thief in the water. All in all we bagged ten of them which we'll eat tonight, and which hopefully reduces the LJ population in Sydney by 0.000000001%. You all can thank me next time you're on the water. ?? Baffler

Rookie question: what's a key-ring king?

Ripper Jew mate. What gear and bait did you use, if you don't mind me asking.

I stayed on denarau last November for 10 days with the family and loved it. Took a 2 piece Berkeley dropshot to flick around the canals with some lures and SPs. Caught some fish here and there, with the highlights being a couple of decent sized trevallys off the beach using a small surface popper. Take some Shimano waxwings as they were also productive. I did a charter with a group advertised in the port. We left 45 mins too late in the morning, did not get a bite despite trolling for 2 hours around some atolls, and they wouldn't go out to the big blue for some decent fish! We did however catch a good feed of local coral species, like Fingermarks, which tasted fabulous when cooked up by the resturant chef in the hotel we stayed at. I tried as hard as I could to find a local that knew somebody who knew somebody with a boat, but didn't have much luck, and had to go down the touristy charter trap. There is a guy who departs from the sheraton who apparantly knows where the fish are, but I was concerned it was a little dodgy and it was VERY expensive, and he wouldn't budge. Not helping much I know, but just fore warning.

Truly bad luck, but at least you had the experience of monster on the line. I'm still waiting for that. Just wondering, other than not taking a knife to a gun fight, what would you do differently next time? Would it have been an option to completely back off the drag, flick the bail, and free spool for a bit to see if he slows down and comes back to shore, then start the process again?

Trung, I think you should give up your day job and become a lure fishing comedian. Hysterical post. The prawn is a ripper catch. Which reminds me. I once caught a prawn when it swam on the surface from about 5 meters away right up to the side of my boat. Bent down, scooped him up, put him straight on a hook, threw him out and caught a small snapper with him.

If you don't mind me asking......which FAD was that?

The jacket will definitely do that to ya. I doubt it would be crabs, as they would tend to get tangled. Nice haul though!