Oscarthebeagle

Hi Looking to get an ID for this fish. Caught by one of my kids in Back Creek at South West Rocks. Approx 12cm long.

Hi, Hadn't had a chance to get out to the FADS off Sydney this season and decided Fridays RDO was my best chance to go. Launched from Grays Point about 6am and headed out to the Port Hacking FAD with a tank full of livies. Conditions were a bit rougher than I expected and after a bumpy slower trip I arrived at the FAD about 7.30, water 24 degrees and only one other boat there. Got in position to drift, first cast and hook up almost straight to a just legal Dollie, bled & on ice and motor back up for next drift. Get in position cast and straight away on to another fish, this one fought better and with the wind, waves and current it needed to be chased after a fun fight I netted a solid little 85cm Bull Dollie, bled and onto the ice with the first fish. For the next couple of hours every drift was like this position the boat cast out, wait 5-10 seconds hook up, catch fish, release and move back up, this only worked with livies as any dead bait was ignored. All fish were 65-75cm, only kept 4 more fish that were hooked badly as not everyone in my family likes eating them. With only one other boat i could even fish for them my favourite way of skipping a bait on the surface as i motored back up, holding the rod, watching the bait (dead baits, pilly pieces, fish strips), as the fish start crashing around free spool than strike, boat into neutral and your on. Great fun and very visual. After a few hours i'd had enough, it was getting a bit rough, the other boat was gone and left the fish biting. As not everyone in my family likes dollies i stopped for a flathead drift out off Jibbon. Tried a drift in 50m, 45m, 40m before finally finding good fish in 35m, kept 8 fish (most 42-47cm) before it was time to head back to the ramp. Picked up my wife and little girl from the ramp at about lunch time and headed back out, cruised around the river for a bit before we anchored off deer park and my little girl had fun catch the small red bream till it was home time. The plan was to take my two boys on a fishing trip over the weekend but with the poor weather forecast we decided it had to be a Friday arvo trip. Dropped my wife and little girl at the ramp in time for school pick up and she brought the boys back down with their rods just before 4.00 giving us nearly 2 hours to fish. Headed back out and anchored in the deep water off Lilli Pilli, after about 15min the burley did it's job and the boys caught fish consistently until it was dark. A mixture of not quite legal red bream and Trevally around legal, great fun for them on their 2kg outfits. All fished released, except one badly hooked trevally, as we really didn't need anymore fish. I did have a live bait out but nothing was interested. Pulled the boat about 6ish and got home about 12.5hrs after i left home in the morning. Not really a fan of frozen dolphin fish so gave meals away to the neighbour, everyone in one of my boys soccer team, family and we ate some fresh. None wasted and if I want some more I'll just have to go back out again. Thanks for reading Ash P.S I haven't posted in a while found motivation for fishing a bit lacking over the last few months, still getting out but not as much, but am trying to make an effort to get back into it, even took one of my fathers old outfits (a Shimano TLD 5) out to the FAD for a few fish.

Well done Yowie. Looks like you were having a nice morning till a red bowrider boat with a wakeboarder tried to run you over!! I pottered past you in my boat just after. On the Jellyfish I have never seen them like that in the river, have seen them like that in the Georges River and Woronora but never in the Hacking before, not sure what is causing it but hopefully they don't last. Ash

Well done Kobi. You guys caught a lot more fish then we did the week before, although i suspect you put in bigger days than us. Did you get a chance to snorkel Back creek? Water clarity was amazing during our visit and i was surprised with the number and quality of fish. Baxter wants to know if you beat his Butter fish on the fridge?

Well done Kobi, that is a cracker of a Flathead and will be hard to beat on the annual family fridge PB's!! Ash P.S. Tyler you can add your Cod to the fridge as well.

Thankyou all for reading the post and your your kind words. Not sure if it's true or not but it is a lovely thought that he is in now a happy place where one of his old fishing friends was waiting at the ramp to head out fishing together. He might even get that big Dolphin fish that eluded him!! Yowie, if dad was poking fun at you and casting in your spot it means he probably liked you and thought you a friend. You two would have crossed paths many times over the 40+ years he fished the Hacking before you meeting through this site. Phil, Weipa was one of dads favourite places to go and i'm sure he loved chatting about it. Our first trip up there was about 20 years ago fishing with a guide doing day trips and from then on he visited most years doing the houseboat hire. He loved the peace and opportunity that staying on the houseboat provided and I think he really enjoyed the challenge of figuring the fishing out on his own rather than being told where to cast what lure by a guide. I remember him being annoyed one year when a local guide saw us in our Red Cliffs Barra spot only the guide to beat us to that spot the next day. The most recent trip it was my brother and his boys fishing, my brothers eldest kid posts on here as @kobi caught a fish. Bruce was very excited for this trip and most of our family discussions for the 6 months before revolved around this trip and planning for it. Including a fun afternoon in the backyard trying to teach the boys how to throw a cast net. Unfortunately my boys ( 6 & 8 ) were still just too young for the houseboat trip and will do a trip in a few years time in his memory rather than with him. On a side note Bruce passed away from an Asbestos related cancer, he was diagnosed just over a year ago. For those of us that work with this stuff take the safety measure seriously, it is horrible stuff and it robbed my father of years of his life. Ash

Uncle used to be a pro-fisherman, he always got a good price for them and had alot of charters where clients were excited to be catching Wirrah.

Pilchard schools come into the Hacking during summer, sound around looking for bait schools and drop a bait jig. Best bet is to put a big hook in them and fish it back around the school, pretty much everything eats pillies.

Hi It is with sadness that I announce that my Father @hookerbruce sadly passed away last week. His actual name was Bruce Robinson he was a fine fisherman and a wonderful person. He enjoyed this forum and posted to this site for over a decade, I don't know who he actually msged with on here, but I thought it was best to make a post to let people know what has happen. He loved his fishing and passed on that love to his Brothers-in-laws, his children, his grandchildren and many friends. He was always happy to talk fishing and loved every aspect of the sport from simple fishing trips on his local Port Hacking to chasing exotic species in Northern Australia. He was perhaps happiest at South West Rocks with his last fishing trip, in early August this year, being chasing Blackfish off the wall there. He shared his knowledge with many and will be missed by all who knew him. Thankyou for reading, if you get a chance maybe have a read of some of his old reports. As a favour to him and me next time you are frustrated and haven't fished for ages, take the next sunny day and just go, there is no guarantee you will get that chance later. Ash.

Thanks for reading and thankyou for the comments. Sorry for the delay in my responses. Jewies were a lot of fun and a surprise for me as i don't really catch many. My lifetime total has now gone from 4 to 7. Have sent you a PM regarding what Bruce is up to. Always love spending time at SWR, can always find something to fish for. i wasn't there when the Kingfish were in the river but heard they were terrorizing the Blackfish, taking some off the line and hitting floats as they were being wound in across the surface. Time spent fishing with family is always time well spent. I definitely find staring at the float waiting for a down incredibly addictive, spend most of my winter fishing trips watching a float. Haven't tried flyfishing for them but i do often have a green weed fly as a second hook on my rig, it accounts for a few extra fish. Ash

Thanks for reading and thankyou for your comments. Sorry for my delay in responding. Ramp was very quiet, although it was a Friday a couple of weeks ago now. I was first car there at 630 and the river was quiet. Whiting were up river towards Grays Point, I find in cooler months I get more whiting up-river. Ash.

With kids winter sport over and the boat still ready from my trip the day before i decided Saturday was a good chance to take the two boys on a fishing trip. Launched just after lunch and spent the arvo fishing around the Woronora river, it was a very frustrating trip as the wind and tide could never agree on which way they wanted to go and it felt like every time i set up for a drift or anchored the boat it changed and i missed my spot. With yesterdays Flathead still in the fridge i told the boys they could only keep one fish each as we didn't really need the fish. They kept a nice bream and a whiting and I let the 6yr old keep an extra 40cm Flathead, that was his first ever fish lurecasting. We fished till almost dark, threw back a few other fish and listen to the footy on the radio, was a lovely way to spend the arvo. Pulled the boat out at 5ish and the boys grandpa was waiting at the ramp to see their fish and listen to their stories. Thanks for reading Ash

Hadn't had the boat out for a couple of months (weather, kids sport, life, chasing Blackfish landbased) and decided Fridays RDO was a good chance to go, started the boat in the backyard on Thursday arvo and put one of the batteries that was low on charge, added a bit of fresh fuel to the tank ready for the morning. Launched from Grays Point at 630ish and headed out stopping and starting a few times, letting the engine cool, starting it again just getting confidence before going in the ocean. I was going to have a cast for squid around the bombie but there was a bit much swell so headed out for a Flathead drift. Fished in 30-50m of water, moving around fish where never thick but managed 9 fish between 40-48cm before I moved on. Heaps of Dolphins splashing around. Had a bit of a sound around the John Dunphy Artificial reef, plenty of bait on the sounder but only got one undersize red bream and a few Barracouta casting a lure around the area. Came back to the ramp at 11ish and picked up my wife and little girl who brought hamburgers and chips for lunch. Swapped one of the flathead for a couple of poddy mullet with a guy who was fishing off the pontoon. Went back out in the river for lunch and got a couple of nice whiting (33cm & 40cm) on live nippers to my wife and a few little red bream to the 3 yr old to keep her busy, nothing on the poddy mullet. Pulled the boat out just as a rain shower came through but other than that the weather was better then the forecast and we had a lovely outing. Thanks for reading. Ash

A report from a couple of weeks ago. Took a few days off work and headed up to SWR to fish with my Dad @hookerbrucer who was up there for the week. Packing and travelling without the usual wife and 4 kids made for a very easy trip. Last time we all went to SWR I had rods taped to the roof racks the car was so full, this time 3 rods, small tackle bag, pillow and small suitcase had the car looking almost empty. Plan was to leave Sydney early Wednesday morning and returned Friday evening in time to say goodnight to the kids.. Had an easy drive up and arrived 11ish, dad was already at the river fishing. Fished a couple of 2hr sessions each day targeting Blackfish out at the river wall or Back Creek depending on the wind and tides. We caught close to 50 legal Blackfish over the the trip, kept maybe a dozen to eat and released all the rest, most were 32-36 cm size with the biggest fish at 43cm going to dad. All trips produced some fish but the most memorable was one of the afternoon trips where i found a nice eddy along the wall and fished into it, almost every drift had a down but all in the same 1sq/m spot next to a rock at my feet, before or after that spot nothing, 1/2m to far out nothing had to be right on that spot, I counted 14 solid fish caught in a 1 hour period, plus a few just legal or undersize fish right in that spot. Did a couple of morning trips out to the wall casting a lure for Jewfish, not something i know much about but gave it a crack anyway, casting a 100mm pearl wriggle tail on a 8lb braid 2500 size 7ft outfit. Just walked along the wall having a few casts anywhere i could see a nice rock to stand on close to the water. Caught 1x Jewfish at 63cm the first day, 2x jewfish about 50cm+ the second day and missed a couple of hits, surprised me that I caught anything and gave a good fight on the under-gunned gear in close to the rocks. I had an enjoyable few days sitting on the rocks next to my father and did a few chores around the house in between fishing trips. Made it home at 1/4 to 8 on the Friday evening just in time to put the kids to bed at 8pm. Thanks for reading Ash

No wonder the neighbours seemed very pleased when i gave them a bag of fresh flathead fillets as a thankyou for constantly throwing the kids soccer/tennis/football balls back over the fence. 4 boneless fillets off of 45cm fish is probably $40-50 worth, to me it was free!! Ash

Snook are a longer thinner fish and generally lack the yellow stripes. Long-finned Pike are what people think of as the "stinky" pike. Striped Seapike are a separate species that looks similar. Just to add to the confusion Snook is used as a common name for a few species including Spotted Mackeral in some parts of Nth NSW. Hopefully that helps Ash

Hi Well done for getting out and having a go. Definitely not the Pike that people refer to as "stinky" although I have eaten Long-finned Pike and they are perfectly edible. Looks more like a Striped Seapike (#437 in Sea Fishes of Southern Australia) caught a few and have found them nice to eat. Ash

Great report Kobi and well done on some new species. Very lucky to see a dugong. A Weipa trip on the houseboat is an incredible experience, hopefully one day your younger cousins can join you. Any idea what the smaller dark fish with the large tail is?? (Last photo in the original post) I guess it is a Sand Bass?? Uncle Ash

Yes, ANSA fisherman. Member of Happy Hookers Sport fishing club and fished tournaments for 35+ years, never won much but have set a few records over the years. My dad Bruce Robinson wins a bit more than me. Have done line class fishing since I was a little kid, always liked the challenge of it and have always found lighter line gets more bites.

Sorry another slightly late report from 2 weeks ago. Took my 2 boys out on the Woronora for an afternoon trip, i find it a nice easy quiet river to fish. Dead low tide when we launched and we pumped some nippers and squirt worms as we moved down the river chasing some tide movement. Started fishing around Como area first couple of fish went to 8 year old, undersize bream and whiting. For some reason the fish just would not bite on the 6 year old's line, same rig, same bait, same area just would not bite. Noticed my 1kg outfit getting a small bite and told the 6 year old to take it from the rod holder, he strikes and starts pulling in what appears to be a small fish but things change when it doesn't come up to the surface, but continues under the back of the boat and and heads straight out the front of the boat. Heavy weight on the line, head shakes and continues to take short 5-10m runs before coming back to the boat before taking off again in a different direction, all those trevally over the past months have his technique pretty good. Keeping the pressure on, trying to keep his head in the water, keeping the line clear of the boat/motor all on the lightest of fishing line where any mistake will cost you. These runs happens probably a dozen times before we finally get sight of the fish, dirty water meant we couldn't see very well even in only a meter of water. Quickly change to the bigger net and keep encouraging the angler, first chance and a nice flathead slides into the net. Not the biggest fish ever, but a 71cm fish on 1kg (pretest mono) when you are 6 years old is a great capture. Once it was in the boat we found out why it was a strange fight, in the fishes mouth was a 22cm bream and our little whiting hook stuck in the roof of the flatheads mouth. I assume the bream took the nipper bait, the flathead saw an easy meal and ate the bream and the hook has slipped out of the bream sticking in the flathead. After a few photos I gave Coen the choice as it was his fish and he choose to keep it, being his first big fish I think was a reasonable decision, and into the esky it went. We move back into the Woronora fishing a few spots but only catch undersize bream and whiting, pull the boat out just on dark and take home a very excited boy with his big fish. We showed it to fisherman at the wharf, the neighbour, to mum, to Nanny, to Marnie and Grandpa @hookerbruce and even took photos to school for show and tell. Thanks for reading Ash

A photo from a separate trip in February this year, between rain events, to remind us what the Port Hacking is meant to look like.

Hi, I've been a bit lazy with reports so thought I would put a few trips from the last 2 months into the one report. Trip 1 Launched from Grays Point on a Saturday arvo with my two boys (6 and 8), dirty water and the summer crowds gone kept the river relatively quiet. Pumped some nippers and started fishing around the ballast heap area. Visibility pretty good at about 1m, first off fishing in the shallows produced a few little bream and whiting. Tried in slightly deeper water which produced a nice mid 30's trevally for the 6 year old, gave him a good fight on his 2kg outfit and went into the esky. Next solid bite was on my rod but I let the 8 year old have it so as to try and even the score with his brother. He did well on my 1kg outfit to land a low 50's flathead which joined the trevally in the esky. The current made this spot difficult so we moved back up to the deep water off Lilli Pilli, anchored up and set a burley trail, what followed was a couple of hours of the best easy fishing I have seen in the river. Simple technique 2kg outfits, 12lb fluro trace, no sinker, drop the bait (live nippers) at the back of the boat, bail arm open and let it sink, when the line sped up close bail arm strike and your on. Every drop produce a hit within 10-20 seconds a mixture of trevally, tailor, 29.5cm Red bream and rat kings. double hook ups were common and triple hook ups if I managed to get my line in the water. All fish were caught on 1 or 2kg line, anytime we tried heavy outfits the bait was just ignored till it got to the bottom and little red bream picked it apart. A live yellowtail was left to swim around untouched. Notable captures were a Rat king (56cm) to the 6 year old on 2kg line, his first king. I got a couple of Rat kings on 1 kg line, which gave me a good run around on light line and had me around the boat a few times and fighting off the bow a lot of the fight. Pulled the boat out just on dark and ended up keeping 1x flathead, 1x Red bream and half a dozen trevally releasing heaps more. Trip 2 Fished similar areas to the previous trip but without much luck, not the exact spot as someone else beat us to it. A few small fish and the 8 year old got a solid salmon casting metal slices at surface fish that were feeding along the edge of the dirty water. Trip 3 A morning trip this time in the Port Hacking with both boys. Water visibility was terrible, couldn't see my feet once the water was over my ankles while launching the boat, didn't seem to bother the fish. Fished the deeper water off Lilli Pilli, same technique as previous trip anchored up, fishing un weighted baits down a burley trail on light line. First cast and a solid 43cm Tailor to the 8 year old, could not see what the fish was until it was on the surface, made netting fish very difficult. Pretty much every drop produced a hook up, a mixture of Trevally, bream, Watsons leaping bonito, tailor, 29.5cm red bream and yellowtail. Once again heavy rods and bigger baits were ignored with most of the fish caught on 2kg outfits. Something for @Yowie now. With yellowtail at the back of the boat the 8 year dropped his handline in to fish for them, after a few minutes it went whizzing off stinging his fingers as it went. He had a bit of trouble with the fight, handlining is not easy, but slowly he got the hang of it and started winning the fight. A few tense moments around the boat before a salmon slides into the net, not a big salmon but a fun capture on handline. The boys grandpa @hookerbruce and cousins arrived during the fight and after trying to run over the salmon managed to anchor up nearby and the two boats fish close by. 8 year old drops the handline back in and once again it whizzes off. More stinging fingers and tangles in the boat but he manages to get another fish to the net on his handline, this time a rat king (his first). With the handline put away for now he moves to his next challenge, "What new species can I catch here?" I have a think "maybe, Flying Gunard" "How do I catch It? So I set up a bottom rig for him, he drops it down, first drop he hooks up and pulls in a little Flying Gunard. Release that fish and he drops down again and pulls up a slightly bigger Flying Gunard, a few photos of a happy boy with his new species before it is released. He puts that rod away after that as he has achieved that goal. After a couple of hours of catching constant fish the boys decide it is getting boring and we move on but don't catch anything else of note before we take the boat out. Trip 4 An ocean trip this time fishing with dad @hookerbruce in my boat. Start off targeting squid around Jibbon Bombie, no squid but there is a bit surface action so we change over to lures and trolling. Catch a few rat kings and bonito before we head out a bit deeper to drift for flathead. Wind and current make drifting difficult but we manage 8 keeping flathead before we get sick of chasing the bottom and head back in near the bombie and anchor up and fish down a burley trail after an hour or so of catching sweep, trevally and rat kings it's time to head back to the ramp and swap dad for my wife and 3 year old daughter. We head back out off Lilli Pilli but find it very quiet, move to near Dear park and find some small sweep and red bream to keep my little girl happy. Notice a squid following up one of her red bream, so put out a squid jig which is taken almost straight away by a nice green eye. Give that rod to my wife to cast and she gets a couple more squid while i fish with my daughter. After that it's time for a play on the sand at Lilli Pilli, we stay far to long but it's a nice sunny day for a change, before quickly getting home just in time to pick up the other kids from school. Sorry for the long report and thanks for reading this far. The Port Hacking has been the dirtiest I have ever seen and stayed dirty for longer than I can ever remember with plenty of stuff floating in it, but the fish have still been there and the crowds have been down. Ash.

Well done on getting a feed. I was in the white cuddy cab fishing with my little boy at the Bombie near you. We caught nothing good, but my little boy had a blast catching Sweep, X-large yellowtail, slimeys and rat kings (some looked smaller than the yellowtail) out of the burley trail. I had some bigger baits out but only a Bonito wanted to play. There was heaps of bait schools to the north of the reef area and we got our live bait size yellowtail from there, not that it helped. I fished a livey all around the bait schools and bombie for no takers. Did see a 1.5m ish shark swim past the boat which gave the 8 year old a bit of excitement. Ash

Hi, I take my 7 year old fishing around the inshore reefs out from Port Hacking in a 5.2m cuddy cab boat. All my kids have been in boats since they were old enough to fit a life jacket. I tried taking my 5 and 7 year old together but managing them both was too much and felt unsafe. Pick your day and pick your target species, I have found bottom bashing in 20m+ water tires him out too quickly and some fish pull too hard (kingfish) but anchored over shallow reef fishing into a burley trail is great. I set up some rods specifically for him to use and he loves the variety of different species he can capture. His favorite so far was a big Sergeant Baker he caught drifting over Osborne shoal, turns out they taste similar to whiting just hard to fillet around the bones. Another day near the bombie we hit a school of surface fish where for 2 hours straight he caught fish after fish until he was too tired to fight any more fish. Mixture of bonito, Mack tuna, rat kings and a rainbow runner. A suitable boat, good conditions, a bit of experience and a kid who is comfortable in boats and I think inshore ocean fishing with kids is fine. Ash

Good to see you out and about fishing, a couple of good fish a nice reward for your efforts. No thankyou for the mysterious weed delivery?