ross patti

I hear you, Brett !. I fished Sunday from the road bridge to Pumpkin point, with primo baits and came home with 1 flattie. Caught 2 gajillion bloody catfish, 1 undersize bream and the flattie. Very quiet, very sad.

Nice bag Yowie . . . you fish magnet, you !

Snuck out again today to usher in 2015 in the fishiest way possible. Sounded around in between Juno and the Western shoreline opposite . . . Challenger head, I think ? . . . and found a good patch of bottom . . . we dropped the pick and put a spread of rods with bloodworms and live nippers, chucked out some burley pellets and sat back and waited. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait too long, although it was a beautiful morning with light winds and glorious sunshine. The first few whiting were around the 30cm mark, mixed in with some nice keeper 28cm bream. I have a theory that if you are not catching bloody skates, you are not on good whiting ground. Well, based on that fact I was the skatemaster today ( must have caught 7 or 8 of the bloody things ! ), I was quietly confident we were in for a good day. I reckon we had arsed our luck and came across a small cockle bed . . . coz the whiting action improved as the run in tide grew stronger. I will master this photography business one day soon, but I'm sure you will get the idea of the beasts we tangled with. The 2 biggest in the photo I titled " 2 horses and a hat " went 42 and 41cm. Some of the better fish appear in photo 2, most there were above the 36cm mark. That blue esky they are on is 72 cm across . . . as a guide. A great day, a great feed of primo fillets, and a great way to start the new fishing year !!. Happy Hookups fellow Raiders !!!

Ribs, The flatties were not really thick at any time. A fair bit of water between them. The biggest factor seemed to be decent tidal movement in the water. No run, no fun. I reckon the run up tide would fish best, so tomorrow morning should be OK. Don't forget . . . not TOO shallow Good luck mate !!

Hi Raiders, After a long lay-off from any fishing because of a broken arm, I finally got the chance to go with a good mate on his boat and wet a line after 3 long months !. While still a bit hesitant with the busted wing, I was absolved of all anchor duties ( for this trip, at least ! ). All that time at home allowed me to study the online fishing and tackle shop and I topped up with leaders, hooks, and I even gave them newfangled vibes a look - in. I used to fish hardbodies on the racks, and so thought I'd give these "new" metal things a shot. We fished among the patches in Botany Bay, but a bit wider and deeper than everyone else. You could just make out the weed clumps, and I put my best efforts into casting this little missile so I could flick it back at the edge of the weed. I had a nipper out at the same time and was kept busy with a few smallish bream and whiting. Once the tide got a bit more momentum, things got interesting. My nipper was smashed by a solid take, run, and fight. After much coaxing, the magnificent 40cm whiting slid into the net. Less than 5 minutes later, a well executed cast had the vibe in a prime position between some patches. I was unsure of the speed of retrieve for these things, so I just went with the general speed settings for vibes . . . . slow, fast, and true love. Anyway, after some delicate twitches and rolls and flicks, the middle flathead in the picture engulfed the vibe. It was a 5.5cm, 12 gm lure, and when I finally netted this flathead, the lure was nowhere to be seen. Once he chilled in the slurry for a while, I opened his gob and there was Mr vibe, lodged in his mouth. He went 53cm. It was a great fight, and it brought back all the memories of my days on the racks. Presentation and finesse, followed by brute strength, then backed off drags to land it. Ended with another nice lizard on bait ( the biggest in the pic . . . went 65cm ), and a nice fat bronze bream that went only 36cm, but he was solid. All in all, a very nice day on the water. It was so good to get back out after all that time, and even better to bring home a primo feed. Happy hook-ups fellow raiders. Happy 2015, too !!!!!

Went for a quick lone fish in Botany Bay Sunday morning. After carefully positioning right on the GPS mark, I set about tying traces and terminals to the rods. I usually do all this the day before so not to waste time on the water . . . but family stuff got in the way on Saturday. Anyway . . . after meticulously tying the 6lb FC rock traces, I laid out a 3 rod spread that covered both sides of the drop-off with prime live bloodworms and nippers for enticement. I then set about putting the knife, pliers, net, etc all in their "go to " position, and finally sat down. Then out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a boat sitting quite close to me and wondered where the hell he came from. Pretty sure he wasn't there when I anchored, and I thought he was a bit rank anchoring so close to me . . .probably only 15m away. I just shook my head . .what can you do ? As it turns out, he wasn't anchored at all. He was drifting, and heading in a line to take him across the back of my boat and only 3 or 4 m away from my transom. I sat and watched him for a minute, thinking that he would obviously see the direction he was heading in, and that he would make a quick move. It soon became apparent that he wasn't gonna move at all. I politely said to him that maybe he might start up his motor and head away from the anchored boat. He muttered something to his 2 mates in their language and started his motor. Just when I thought that common sense had prevailed, he then proceeded to drive forward in the exact direction the drift was taking him, ensuring he collected all 3 of my lines around his prop. At first I wanted to kill him, then I looked up at his 2 gorilla mates. Then I wanted to kill all 3. They had the gall to lift their motor and remove the now entwined fishing line . . . . so it was no accident. My repeated swearing at them could have seen me stabbed . . .but I was livid. Now . .I very much doubt they are fishraiders . . . but on the off-chance they see this, please let me say this: 1. I hope my super fine braid gets spun onto your propshaft and works it's way down to your gearbox seals. 2. Everything I said about your mother is true. 3 Everything I said about your wife is also true. 4. I curse you with no fish for 5 lifetimes. 5. I took down your boat rego. God help you if I find out where your boat lives. In 20 years of boating, mostly on typically crowded Sydney waterways, I have never seen such an arrogant pig SOB. And after all that, I finished the day with a modest catch of 4 bream and a whiting. I put it down to the boiling blood. I feel better for having gotten that off my chest. Thanks for listening . . . .

Yeah, I went up for a mid-week fish near good old Juno Pt and kept 7 whiting from 34 - 41cm, and a lone 50cm flathead. The wind sprung up early and made it difficult to fish . . . but came home with a nice feed anyway.

Nice fish . . . good read . . . great pics . . . and caught on a nice sporting outfit !!. Well done !!

Did you pin a 8/0 in it and send out on the 'rigger ? The smaller one is a nice squid !. That's a great catch !!

Ah Tony, As others have said, you are a wordsmith. Or a wordsmithopolous maybe !. Your writing is as evocative as 50 shades of grey . Salmon grey in this case. Next time I see you I'll say G'day. If I see a boatfull of kids ready to stab each other over a trevally flippin about on the deck, I'll know I'm on the right track. Cheers . . . Rosco

Welcome Ollie . .. This is a great site to catch up on all things fishing. Plenty of local experience to share, and experienced guys and gals to share it with. Enjoy !! . . .

Many years ago while on a fishing club weekend away, the BBQ man got adventurous and filleted and cooked up a number of " odd" fish. I distinctly remember the humble pike as one of them. Despite a few bourbons on board, the pike was remarkably nice. They all had a laugh coz I was always critical of them keeping all manner of crap just to weigh them in !! Tony ( Keflapod ) mentioned that we all have different tastes. I'm a fussy bugger when it comes to fish. Ice slurry every time . . . no exceptions . . . I don't keep more than 1 trevally for the cat, coz I sure won't eat them !!. But the funny thing is that things like pike, butcher's XXXXXX, red rock cod, and who knows what other ooglies actually taste good. Sure, the pike smell . . . but so do some of our favourite things !!!

Hey Gilbey . . . I'm pretty sure the info you are looking for is on the fisheries website.

Well done Dunc !!! Bet you can't wait to show the pics of those little beauties to your coarse fishing, slingshot berleying, 20foot long pole carrying buddies back home !!!! You will be the king of the pub for months !!. Enjoy.

pm sent micl . . .

Yeah, micl . . . I have to add my vote to the esky idea. Most of the reasons have been already mentioned, so no need to go over them again. I have avoided keeper nets for 2 reasons : First, that horrible thud sound as you motor away to a new spot . . . but more importantly is the resting place of the net in the top 1/2 meter or so of the water. In summer, I guess the temp in that top-water would be maybe 25 or more?. If you turn the fish twice, they are poached even before you get home !! Mate, I have a 4.3m open tinny with a removable esky. Get yourself sorted with a good quality "keeps ice frozen for 7 days" esky, buy a bag of ice each trip and tip in a litre or so of river water to make an ice slurry. It is a more humane way of knocking out the fish you want to keep, and I guarantee you will notice an improvement in the quality and taste of the fish you keep! Nice whiting, btw . . .

Hey there Phil, It's illegal to keep a female crab that has eggs. To answer your next question, when you turn the female upside down, you can clearly see a whole bunch of small orange/brown eggs protruding. Female blue swimmers are generally more brown in colour, so it's easy to tell them apart. As far as keeping females without eggs . . . . well, I guess it's like keeping big flathead. You know for fact that you are killing breeding stock if you do keep them. Depends if you listen to your conscience, I guess.

Years ago, I saw a guy there at the waters edge with rod in hand. Oh grow up ! . . I wasnt making willy jokes and trying to tie them into fishing vocab. Jeez . . what do you take me for ?? !!! Rod was the name of his boyfriend standing next to him

I gotta disagree there Eastwood. I fillet mine, and I'm not scared of a dinner plate. I couldn't eat more than 3 or 4 that size filleted. If you can polish off 4 whole whiting like that, you'll be scratching your belly like a big ole contented lion seal. Let alone 8 !! But then again, you might be a 150kg eating machine. When they get up to that size ( I'd guess 40-42cm ), they have a good amount of meat on them. Mind you, not like a jewie

Hey Keflapod, Good to hear that there are other lunatics on the water. A 47cm 'ting is a great fish. My best is 46, so I have a bit of catching up to do yet. I'll give it a crack this winter, and let you know how I go. I don't know if you recall,but around 12 months ago you answered a post of mine about tips for Botany Bay here on Fishraider. We spoke a couple of times, and I was gonna give you a call when I got the soccer coaching duties out of the way. If your still keen, I'll drop you a pm and we might go out for a combined Greco/Italiano fish. Maybe share some ideas, discuss things like Italian super cars, Italian super bikes and souvlaki's. Don't forget to vote for my Whiting. VOTE 1 FISH 4 . . Thanks Squizzy, yeah I was pretty happy with it . . .as you can tell !

Hey Jez, The pics are up . . .enjoy !. Yeah, the poker game was the TJ event at Bexley. I qualified at New Brighton ages ago, and didn't play another game with them because the games were too far away from my place. So I only got the 15k on the table, and a single 5k bonus chip for registering 1/2 hr early !. There was a bloke at my table who had 290k in bonus chips FFS !!!!! Anyway, me and my crappy 5k in bonus made it to 15th place out of 300 odd players. . . which I thought wasn't too shabby. No probs for a game one day !!! Ross

Hey there Raiders, After the lucky win by my Wests Tigers on Friday, and a good result for me in a poker final on Saturday, I decided I would treat myself to a fish on Sunday morning. Conditions were excellent, with glorious sunshine and only a few knots of breeze. Although it wasn't my preferred run out tide, it was such a beautiful day just a pleasure to be out there. I ended up in front of Kyle Bay and sent the anchor and berley pot to work. After a while, I started to get some undersize fish, and duly set them free to do some growing. I was using bloodworms and tubeworms, and was hopeful of a couple of keeper whiting. The first "size" whiting was around the 35cm mark, and as I slid him into the ice slurry the confidence grew. Around 20 mins later, another fish pretty close to the same size joined him in the icy sleep chamber. Not long after that esky release, the 2kg outfit started to show signs of fishy interest. The tip danced for a few seconds, then line started peeling off the little baitrunner. My first thought was "bream", and I lifted the rod to set the hook . . .ever mindful of the 5lb flourocarbon leader. As soon as this thing felt the sting of the hook, he took off !. As I was fishing on pretty clean bottom with no major structure, I let him have his way and we traded small victories of line on the spool. When he ran, there was no stopping him . . .and I didn't even try to as I could tell this was a nice fish. I first called it for a flathead . . a big one of maybe 70cm. The repeated dives towards the bottom fooled me. Not long after that, I got colour. And what a glorious colour it was. Did I mention that I was on my own ? . . . that might be worth knowing as I reached for the net. 2kg rod doubled over in the left hand . . . a horse of a whiting doing it's best to escape . . . and the landing net in my right hand. After 2 or 3 nervous attempts to net this beasty, I finally slid the net under him and heaved him aboard. As you all know, most fish tend to shrink a bit in size once they are in the boat . . . as soon as our imaginations settle down !. Not this one,baby !. I gazed upon it's size and felt good. It was a fair dinkum horse !. I don't know if it was the adrenalin from the great fight, or the endorphins from seeing such a great fish . . . but I looked at it still in the net and said to the whiting . ." your an effin horse". I then proceeded to stand up and make horsey noises and stamping my feet and clip-clopping in tight circles in my 14ft tinny. I then saw some people on the bank pointing towards me shouting "jamie soward . . jamie soward !", and I sat back down. This great fish soon joined his little cousins in the slurry. It's amazing how quickly a 35cm whiting goes from being a nice size, to being tiny !. After that, I got a nice little bream and a trevally for the cat and turtle . . . and called it a day. Home by lunchtime with a great feed of quality fillets. A great day on the water in beautiful sunshine. What more could you ask for ? I think I'll enter him into the "Catch Of The Month" comp. Please see pictures attached. Note that I didn't have to use the lil girly cutters in the pic . . . straight to the 20cm long-nose pliers. The whiting has got them well and truly covered !!!! Managed to post the piccies . . . . the big one was a whisker under 44cm, but fat as. Cheers . . . Ross

Thanks for the replies. That's what I love about Fishraider. Obsessed crazy fishermen helping out other obsessed crazy fishermen I reckon I'll give it a crack this weekend . . . the tides look good to launch on the 3/4 rising tide, and retrieve a couple of hours on the run out. Once I'm there, I can suss it out further. Thanks again for the help. Rosco.

Hi there Raiders, Just wondering if a local raider can give me the low-down on the ramp at Kurnell. I have a small 4WD, so a bit of sand isn't too much worry. Is the ramp concrete, sand or what ? I'd guess that there is a beach next to the ramp that you can pull the boat up on to while you park the car ?? Any other info or tips appreciated. Thanks . . Rosco

Great work, Jenno !! To take your own kids out for a fish is a good thing. To take 10 of someone else's kids out is a great thing. Well done, I'm sure the kids will be telling that story for ages. Karma will repay you.