Jump to content

kiwicraig

MEMBER
  • Posts

    308
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    8

kiwicraig last won the day on January 4 2019

kiwicraig had the most liked content!

1 Follower

Profile Information

  • Location
    Blackwall

Recent Profile Visitors

1,285 profile views

kiwicraig's Achievements

MORWONG

MORWONG (7/19)

160

Reputation

  1. @mrsswordfisherman we really need a reaction that captures "OMG that looks so good I could eat my phone". Like seems inadequate! 😂
  2. Thanks Adrian! That looks amazing and I for one will be following your posts with interest. I'd love a few more non fried options - particularly for the humble flathead. Keep them coming and I may well come back with some questions as I delve into this more. Cheers, Craig
  3. Great stuff. Don't lift the crab or of the water. Scoop the crab quickly from behind. There are few things better than fresh swimmer. Hang in there!
  4. Beautiful morning for it. Well done.
  5. Picking up this thread as I was outside today and had a few spikey flathead in with the bigger models. Here's a photo of a spikey. @Yowie is quite right really easy to spot the difference when you know there is one. This one was fairly badly hooked so his fillets made some good baits.
  6. I'm back to work on Monday so today I got out for my last fish of my holiday with my good mate Chris. I launched from Blackwall at 5am and headed over Palm Beach to pick up Chris with a quick stop at Lion Island where I grabbed a slimy and a yakka for some bait. After collecting Chris we headed out into Broken Bay to drift for some flatties. Are first drift was a long one because we just kept catching fish. Chris had some tackle issues and was re-rigging while I was fishing. I had three keepers in the esky before he really had a line in the water - but I lost the live yakka without even feeling the bite. We were fishing a mix of pillies and slimy mackerel strips but the pillies were easily out fishing the fresh bait. Go figure. We had a fairly busy time. Amongst the flatties I also pulled up a slimy that I put back down as a second live bait. This one caught a nice flattie in the mid 50s. I also pulled up a horrible little leather jacket. My high and my low was the same drop. I was pulling in a nice flattie and as I caught sight of it I say a tailor following up the bait on the second hook. I dropped the tip and the tailor took the bait - but pulled the other hook straight out of the flattie. Unfortunately the fish were still biting when the conditions deteriorated and I made the tough call to head back in. No regrets though. I had 9 flatties and a tailor in the Esky and Chris had 5 flatties. I gave him a couple of mine to even it up and dropped him back off in Palm Beach. I'm also a little relieved because the last couple of times he has fished with me has been unsuccessfully chasing hairies in the dead of winter and his wife was beginning to think we couldn't catch fish in a pet store. On my way back home between Lion Island and the channel into Brisbane Waters I ran into a big bust up on the surface. I put in (quite) a few casts into it with a metal but could not tempt anything to strike - but was not too worried. I ended up with a nice feed and we had a great time. Here's my share.
  7. +1 for Navionics. I made a power supply for my sounder. More info here.
  8. Wow beautiful fish. Well done.
  9. I have been getting stuck into the flathead lately so this morning I decided to mix it up a bit and try something different. Low tide slack water at Rip Bridge was due just after sunrise so I decided to soak some baits in the hope of a nice Jewie. It was still dark as I launched just before 5am and standing on the jetty Rip Bridge was lit up not far away. It was not going to be a long trip. I motored gently over to Rip Bridge. The tide was still running out so I anchored on the downstream side of it just on the ledge where it drops into deeper water. I was just fishing one rod with a butterflied slimy mackerel on snooded hooks below a swivel and a running sinker. I had one hook pinned through the head and the other just swinging loose towards the back of the bait. There were certainly fish around - I could often see some nice arches around mid water. This screenshot shows plenty of fish but it is nowhere near as busy as it got. What are we seeing here do you think? The problem I had was the current was still running hard out - even well past the time where it should have slackened off. I'll need to figure out exactly how far past the top or bottom of the tide it actually slackens because despite the promising looking sounder I struggled to get a bait down to where the fish were. I switched up to my biggest ball sinker and cast up stream to let it sink but it was being swept back before it got down to where the fish were. I tried putting the reel into freespool and feeding line out to sink the bait a bit further back. Doing this I lost my first bait to a amazingly subtle bite. Encouraged I rigged up my next slimy and tried again. This time I felt a bump and dropped the tip, counted 5 and lifted it up. The line came up tight and there was weight, but it felt weird. I was getting little nods and a very light pull but could not feel any tail beats or head shakes. After a short fight I got sight of it - a great big eel. I didn't measure it but I would call it at somewhere between 80 and 100 cm. Hard to tell because it was going nuts and tying itself up in knots around the line. Couple of bad photos attached - sorry about the quality but it was not cooperating. I grabbed it with the lip grips and did a few quick snips to free up the loops around its body and dumped it unceremoniously over the side. I hate those things! Out of fresh bait and with only an hour or so before I had to head in I shot out to Ettalong to try prospecting for some flathead with a soft plastic. I had two really good strikes but failed to hookup either time. Pretty sure the first one was a tailor judging by the cuts in the soft plastic. Second one felt like a flathead - but I ran out of time before I managed to land one. Back home by 9am so a pretty great way to start the day - even without a feed.
  10. I use them in Brissy Waters on a handline for blue swimmers. I prefer the backbone and tail but the heads work too. I wrote a post about my crab rig a while ago. I'll find the link for you later.
  11. Stonker squid - well done on the PB.
  12. Top effort. Brisbane Waters has certainly been producing some great fish lately. Well done.
  13. Thanks Luke. Was within metres of where we got the 63 the other day.
  14. I went out yesterday morning with a friend of mine. We started by gathering some live bait from the bait station by Little Box Head, then came inside by Lobster Beach to drift. We had live baits and a cut bait out the back I was casting ahead of the drift with soft plastics. We were only on our second drift when my rod - which had a live slimy on it - folded over. I grabbed it and lifted the tip to set and I thought I was on. I started bringing it up and there was a lot of weight on it. I got it up to the surface and my mate got sight of it - a huge flattie. Then it opened its mouth and was gone. It was not actually hooked - it had just been holding the bait. I brought in my now dead livie to re-rig, but told Jas to keep his livie down because that same fish might take it. And then it did. We were drifting towards the channel and a ferry was coming so I was a little concerned, but then in a stroke of luck the sea anchor caught the yellow 4 knot buoy and stopped us drifting into the channel. Jason brought the fish in and it was a cracker of a croc. We measured it at 80cm, snapped a quick photo and let the old girl go with big grins on our faces. We carried on like this for a while and had a few hits, but were struggling to connect. I decided to anchor up in front of Half Tide Rocks so I could make some coffees. I had a very frustrating stretch with 4 hits on my plastic in 5 casts without connecting. After each hit I would drop the tip, then give it a few jigs to try and draw a second strike, but it was not happening and every time when I wound in the plastic was pulled down the hook and needed to be straightened. It was going quiet and I had suggested we move up stream a bit a s the boat traffic in the channel was becoming a pain. We had pulled in the lines and I was about to go lift the anchor when I saw a huge bait ball on the sounder. I told Jason to drop a line down again an I put down the plastic for some @flatheadluke style vertical jigging. It was a good call Jas came up tight and it took off on a run. I said straight away - that's not a flattie. I was right. After a couple of runs and a few jumps we boated a nice salmon. It even came with someone elses hook and leader hanging out of its mouth. We removed both hooks, took a photo and let it go. After that we headed up past The Rip Bridge to one of my spots. We tried a drift and towards end of we were getting bites. The wind had come up quite a bit so I preposition and then anchored at the end of the drift. Jason pulled out a nice flattie and a lovely bream. I pulled out two lumps of weed, half a cockle shell and a pair of pliers. At this point I was feeling a bit crap if I am honest. Putting a mate onto fish is the next best thing to catching fish - but it is a distant second. I had even changed tactics as I could see bait was winning the day. And then I came good with a couple more position changes I brought in the next three fish - all good table size flatties - and a new personal best for starfish! LOL. We closed out the day with a drop over by the rip bridge but were just getting baited by little fish. We called it and headed back in. Took a while to get it but we did end up with a great feed. The three on the left were mine.
  15. Great stuff @antonywardle! I am super excited for you. Can't wait to come off shore with you and give her a try.
×
×
  • Create New...