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wazatherfisherman

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wazatherfisherman last won the day on April 3 2023

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KINGFISH (11/19)

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  1. Do you mean catching Gars or using them? Just ask on the forum- they are around much of the year to catch, great for bait all year
  2. The spot in the movie is the 'island' I've been telling you about for ages!
  3. Great fishing again Chris! Whatever you've targeted you always come up trumps
  4. There was never a ladder at Old Man's Hat- it wasn't needed. You just followed the old wall all the way from the road to the end, stepped through the huge break in the wall, walked back to your right a short distance to where the gully is and follow the lowering ledges back towards the water. Other than a few 'larger' steps, there is no climbing involved to get to the spot. The ladders down north head proper were removed by council years ago. Bluefish was barely a climb either, the rope was there more as a 'steadier' than a climbing device. You carried all your gear and rods and only used one hand on the ropes to get down. Most 'climbing' spots you have to lower your gear down. From the guys who fished there regularly, it was the blocking of parking that was more of an issue. We used to access the spot just north of Bluefish called 'The Gutters' via the same closed carpark, which was on the eastern side of the treatment works. Walking north down the fence-line until reaching another spot with a large hole in the fence, hop through the hole and walk down the treatment works road to it's lowest point and then straight down a steep track to the bottom. There are 3 'gutters' (as they're called) and they are top Luderick spots, with Black Drummer, Groper (no take now!) Bream also available, plus gutter's 1 and 3 are good spots to spin for Tailor at dawn. No good for Kings due to the terrain. The gutters can still be accessed from the Fairy Bower end by going down the ravine at the end of Bower St (east side!) then walking back south. It's a much longer way in (about 25 mins) as opposed to going from the treatment works end (5 mins straight down), however you could still go that way. Last couple of times I fished the Gutters, the entire steep track up had tomatoes planted all over the hill, presumably to help bind the soil together, because in heavy rain, it became super muddy clay and a bugger to walk the steep track up. That was many years ago now though.
  5. Great fish Chris! Those things pull as hard as anything and that's the biggest one I've seen caught in Sydney. Not as memorable as your Marlin but a great capture!
  6. Middle Head is rock fishing same as the ocean- plates and safety gear needed. The climb in is pretty easy- there used to be chain concreted in at the top instead of a rope, not sure if it's still there. You access the different spots separately, decide on which looks best and safest by viewing from the top. There are Luderick, Drummer, Bream, Trevally and Squid all along, plus the middle spot is ok for spinning for Tailor and pelagic fish, not a great spot to land Kingfish though. Enough cabbage to have a fish for Luderick and there used to be quite a few large Blue Groper (no take now) floating around towards high tide. The spots east of Cobblers Beach have similar species and if you walk as far east as you can go (just this side of Middle Head spots but no access this way) there's a rock in the water you can climb on (you get wet doing so!) that is a really good spot to spin for Tailor- cast parallel to the shoreline over the washy area on your right. Also in case you didn't know- beware of naked people- it's a legal nude bathing area Worth getting a national park pass? If you are going to visit any of the park's (bar the snowy) more than 6-8 times over the year it's worth it at $65 as all are $8-12 a time
  7. Still fish for them at times, but my rock hopping days are long over due to a chronic leg condition. Fished the Dover Heights area for about 22years, much of the time catching Luderick. There are some good posts and articles on the site in regards to Luderick and plenty of folk here to answer any questions you might have on the subject
  8. In most areas there's little need to cast very far as the float carries the bait naturally via the wash and tide dependant, the fish will be wherever the food is at roughly the above mentioned depth. Towards the highest stages of the tide- particularly on reasonably calm days- the fish often move in quite close to access growth themselves. Provided there is some wash for 'cover', it isn't unusual to have them feeding almost on the edges at full tide, but as this is also the domain of other species like Drummer, Cale's, Sweep, Surgeons etc, fishing for them a little further out often sees primarily Luderick and fewer of the 'unwanted' fish. Wherever you fish, maintain a careful watch on where you think your burley is going and try to imagine how far out it would get before it's sunk down to the 9-12ft range, this is where you want your bait. Once you're in that sort of depth range, from the ocean rocks, the fish won't mind a couple of feet of difference in depth, so there really isn't much need to change depth too often. It's all about a naturally presented bait floating amongst other baits (your burley) Luderick eat plenty of cabbage in a feeding session. Any other questions you have, feel free to ask- there's almost always great advice on the forum from someone with experience.
  9. Hi mate, the swivel above is purely for line twist- no other reason. If you need to cast any distance with it then maybe a running float will assist, however, as most deeper water locations throughout the eastern suburbs don't really require distance casts as the fish are in greatest numbers (usually) towards the back of the wash. Reason being it's where naturally broken off cabbage has sunk down to the 9-12ft depths where the fish seem 'happiest'. This of course is also both location and sea condition dependant, but generally speaking, wherever the green growth has naturally sunk around that depth, the fish will be in bigger numbers and feeding. Although the Steelite's are a great old reel and function as required, they are more difficult to cast because they're heavier spooled. There are plenty of cheap alloy 'pins' available these days, that are miles easier to cast. One thing you could do with the Steelite is wipe all the grease of the spindle and replace it with thinner oil like sewing machine or gun oil, which will get it turning more freely, aiding in easier casting.
  10. Hi Birdy yes- if you're after Luderick and the water is deep, they are usually found about 9-12ft under the surface. If fishing shallower locations obviously less. Fixed float is usually a better option when fishing the ocean as you have direct contact. Reason I asked was more about repeated casting with the sidecast reel- if you're fishing a depth that's less than the length of your rod it pays to have a swivel above the float where possible. Liken it to pulling the garden hose off from the side of it's retainer- it twists, same for your line. So when fishing shallower than a rod length you can use the swivel above
  11. Nice species to christen the new outfit on Birdy! Like XD351 says the spool is too heavy for centrepin style casting. How long is your rod, how deep do you normally fish and is the float fixed or running?
  12. Black Drummer but the official name is Rock Blackfish. Harder to land than Kingfish in my opinion.
  13. Hi Pete firstly let me apologise for lack of communication over the last few months- much going on at present. The first rope climb at the Mattens (shown at 3.31 in the movie) only needed 1 rope (we had to climb it without a rope 3 times after the rope was stolen on each occasion) as there are wide chiselled foot-holes that were 3-4 inches deep, which were in two 'lines' directly under each other. As you know, 90% of climbing is done with your legs rather than arms, however on the big climb -the next stage (shown between 4.30 and 8 minutes), there were several spots where you needed to turn at 90' to the wall and use protrusions that were only about 1-2 inches wide. If you tried only using one rope at these spots, it's likely you would become 'unbalanced' or in fact (as happened to a few including me) spin outwards rather than inwards. Having two ropes as a steadier is similar to how you climb a ladder and also having two ropes in each hand a good safety measure. Weight-shift also aided both descent and leg-pushes on the way back up, again facilitated by the steadier of a rope (or two) in each hand. I know the guys in the movie fished the spot at times and were experienced at climbing the cliff, however, there's no way that most of us would approach climbing in the manner shown. Adding to this, probably 75% of the time we were climbing down while it was pitch dark- between midnight and about 4am. Their safety harness was a wise investment
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