Pat Williams

Thanks for the info, mate. Nice setup you've got there. Cheers

Nice one mate! Been considering doing a trip out there in my little rooftop tinny, just wondering where's the best spot to put in to fish Jerusalem Bay if you're fishing from a 'yak or very small tinny? Cheers

Thought I'd chime in with my $0.02. This might sound like a cop out, but in my opinion if you really want to catch more jews, stop wasting your time and energy in Sydney. Sure, there are jewies around, and there are some dedicated guys who get onto them semi consistently, but the population of jews in the northern Sydney region is fairly small, and catches are slim for the vast majority who target them. I no longer fish for jews in Sydney, I just don't have the time nor patience to be going out and coming back fishless time and again. Instead, I've got a handful of spots a number of hours drive north that produce consistently. Spots that I know I can fish hard for a couple of sessions and generally catch at least a couple of soapies, with occasional encounters with larger fish. Others make some great points. Scratchies list is spot on. I guess the key point being to fish known jewie spots. The fact is that there are a multitude of spots up the north coast that hold so, so many more jew, that I find my time and energy better spent planning a few trips up there each season, and generally catching a few jews each trip, and spend my time in Sydney targeting other species. Pat

Have landed a couple of eagle rays off the sand while targeting Jew, and granted they do pull a fair bit off string, but how disappointing is it when you realise it's just a ray? Just seems like a waste of time and energy fighting them.. Others might feel different though. Reckon they are best left alone to do their thing.

No aggression intended at all champ. Most anglers I know hope to target good sport fish or table fish, and hopefully to combine the two. As rays offer neither quality, I question why anyone would target them. Of course they're often taken as bycatch, which is what I referred to in my original reply... Anyways, if you're into your ray fishing good on you.

Thrilling if you like winding in a big truck tyre from the deep, or a giant suction cap off the beach... whatever floats ya boat though, I guess.

Surely no one actually targets the bloody things? Must be bycatch...

I've never actually tried them mate, but I assume that they'd be worth a try if you bled and iced them properly. I really rate regular bonito as a quality sashimi fish when they're bled/iced and prepared correctly, so will give a Watson's a try next time I get one.

That's a Watson's leaping bonito mate, often turn up about this time of year, hardly ever see them above about 40cm. Wouldn't be surprised if a few spotties do turn up in Sydney pretty soon though, with the warm currents we've had of late.

Was the six kegger a Sydney fish, or down the coast? I know they had a cold snap in the current down there last month which accounted for a few respectable reds.. A 6kg land based snapper is a very special fish!

Nice fish mate, and very early in the season too. I don't normally start to target reddies from the Sydney stones for a couple more moons yet, but goes to show they are always about. Were you fishing the bottom or floaters down a burley trail?

That is bloody awesome! Don't know how many would believe it if it wasn't for the background of that shot, clearly Pittwater. Heard of a couple outside over the years but that's the first inside Pitty. Congrats

Xrap Slashbait

Are you talking land based? If so most of the deeper headlands around Sydney will produce bonnies when they're around. Just been a really slow start this year. This time last year they were in plague proportions and hung around until June. Looks like they're just starting to turn up now, with a few fish getting caught at the usual spots.. Which side of Sydney are you on?

Hey guys I'm heading over to New Zealand on saturday for a couple weeks and looking to do a day out on a charter targeting kingfish. I was thinking around the Bay of Plenty area as it seems to have the reputation for big kings and I'm planning on staying there for a few days. Also gonna hit up the west coast Raglan area. If anyone's had a good experience fishing for kings anywhere on the north island, I'd be really keen to hear some details and which operation you fished with. Please only reply by PM due to the site rules. Cheers Pat

^ What Jewhunter said. Although I've never had a bimini fail on me and it does give me a little more faith in my slim beauty.. FG is also a pretty good alternative to the PR that doesn't take quite as long to tie as the PR and doesn't require a bobbin. Pat

Hey anyone started flicking SPs in the estuaries for flatties yet? I normally find they really fire up in the shallows around September and are responsive to lures especially in the arvos when the shallows have warmed a bit.. Much more so than later in the season for some reason. Thinking with the slightly warmer weather we've had lately it could be worth having a crack at em now.

It's a good time of year to have a go at the flatties on plastics, if you're into that type of fishing. They start to fire up after winter as the days get a little warmer and the shallow edges of the estuaries warm up in the afternoons. Probably the best time of year to target them on lures, I've found.

Trout stalker, mind if I ask what time of year it was when the stripies where thick like that?

Mate south coast LB tuna fishing means a long time between drinks, obviously the holy grail in that part of the world is a big 'fin but you don't hear of many LB captures these days, better off targeting kings if you want to fish the south coast. If you're set on fishing for tuna better off trying the north coast during autumn, you can often spin up good number of mac Ts with the odd LT if you put in the time.

Nice one mate, takes more than just luck to land a groper that size on 12lb

Top fish. Were you fishing the creek that feeds into the main estuary (Round Hill?) or Baffle Creek, the one half an hour or so out of town?

Congrats mate, How good is that! Beautiful fish.

Floaters are the go, mate. I've been getting into them lately by burleying the wash hard with chopped up pillys and fishing strips of bonito/slimy/frigate/mack tuna down the trail on a 3/0 gama occy hook with a pea sinker directly above.

60lb Black Magic supple mono leader for jew, connected to 30lb braid mainline. I've been using a really long 4m leader as I do pretty much all of my jew fishing from the rocks into the wash. The long leader allows you to deadlift fish up to about 5 or 6kg up onto the edge once you've got them to the bottom of the ledge. Need to use a long gaff for fish much bigger than this though. The extra long leader also introduces a little bit of stretch into your system that you lose when fishing braid and can help to keep the hook in while the fish is lunging and shaking its head.