PaddyT

Sent my reply-over the top nanny state with its eye right off the ball strikes again. My boat is 5.4 m and is a far safer platform than a 6m bass boat but said bass boat owner will be able to hoon along at 100km per hour without an LJ on and i wont be able to down rig for kings at Longie on a dead flat day without one-ridiculous to say the least. How about Maritime start spending some dollars on new boat ramps instead? I am really not a fan of inflatable life jackets and actually just got rid of mine and replaced them with the zip up collared jacket PFD 1's (or whatever they are called now-100's i think-wonder which consultant made a motza off the number change?) . I dont like inflatables for two reasons-its a pain to make sure you service them to the letter of the law-and i know 2 guys who got fined for self servicing instead of the manufacturer (and watch-this will get worse, it will become compulsary) and secondly i actually dont trust them-its too easy to put a nick in the bladder /the seams deteriorate- i actually wouldnt trust them in a bad situation. This is a bad piece of regulation-i sniff revenue raising all the way.

im not a local to PS -but have caught a pretty fair number of them at Broughton both prior to and after the MArine Park came in. Trolling livies is great BUT if you really want to catch kings get a downrigger-catch rate will go through the roof-even better get 2.

there is the odd legal snapper in pittwater-used to have dealings with a bloke who targetted them in Cowan Creek-night time, lots of berley, super stealth mode fishing with unweighted baits in the berley. He used to get some good fish up to the 3-4 kg mark-as for spots -well he didnt give them away. I would suggest a similar approach for Pittwater along the deeper bits of the western shore

Hi All-sorry for the delay-just finished my work stint in Qld and have moved back home, hope you enjoy!!! Final Installment-Lures, tactics and the fish Lures. Metals can be broken up into 3 categories and every fisho should have some of each style. The first , longest serving and most utilised all round the world are the slow retrieve style of lure which was derived from a spoon. Some of the more famous ones are the ABU Toby, the Wonder Wobbler and even the mackeral spoons or Smiths Jig type of lure fit in this category. They generally wont handle much in the way of speed but the anchored single hook system of the Smiths jig and mackeral spoon will change that. They will catch pelagics with a high speed retrieve but line twist will end up causing grief.Having said that I have had a couple of days at Terrigal chasing frigates when the only thing they would eat was a 10gm Wonder wobbler. This style of lure is an excellent choice for tailor, salmon , trout (caught plenty on wonder woblas, and the ABU Toby style is still used heavily in the northern hemisphere for trout), flatties don’t mind them either. The next type are the all rounders. Probably first came about with the introduction of the Iron Jigs from the USA back in the late 60’s. There are quite a few types on the market Raiders are probably the ones I use the most. The big advantage with this style of lure is their versatility. They have an excellent action at “medium pace” with a slight flick of the tail, they can be used with a slow retrieve especially with a bit of rod tip work and at the other end they can handle a very fast retrieve without causing line twist if rigged with a dual ring system (as I explained previously). Other examples are the old 1/2x1/4 (very important to get the ones with the bevelled corners), some of the Japanese shore jigs (prices are ridiculous though), another surprise one is the Bumpa Bar from Nth QLd which can handle a suprising amount of speed, Halco Slices and Twistys are also very handy to have (just hate those stupid triple split rings Halco insist on putting on them-they inhibit the action of metal lures quite a bit, they are fine on large hardbodies though). The final category are the pure speed merchants. The simplest and still incredibly successful barrel sinker and a treble hook has caught me everything from tailor, tuna, mackeral (spotties, spannies and they are actually a slimy mackeral weapon ) bonito etc. They are particular good on frigate macks especially painted metallic gold (I hope the guys that kept that secret for the last 40 years are not members on Fishraider -this was Central Coast magic). The commercial types are the Sea Rock/ Lead slug style of lure and all work well . Speed is often the key to getting hit and this is the type of lure to do it. A good little trick with these is to use a very fast retrieve-then stop-then fast again. The hits often come as you recommence winding. White is a good general colour choice. Rock Tactics Some general pointers here are 1. Work the whole water column-you can count the lure down 1001, 1002,1003 etc-when I was really fanatical and didn’t know a ledge I would make my first cast with a hookless lure and count it all the way to the bottom so I knew the maximum sink time I had. So you can start the retrieve at varying depths and also work the lure IN the water all the way back to the edge its really important to not have the lure skipping in from 30-40 m out. 2. Change the retrieve up-10 fast cranks/stop, 10 fast cranks is my goto for a couple of species-bonnies and mackeral will ignore straight retrieves and smash this all the time. 3. Don’t go rockfishing without a rigged spinstick. Even when I go blackfishing or drummer fishing I take a spin stick. The number of times ive been quietly watching a float and had a school of tailor or whatever bustup is too many to count. 4. Having said that-Summer/Autumn is the peak season-don’t expect too much mindboggling action in late winter-late spring, the East Australian Current is the key to pelagic action on the NSW coast Boat Tactics Use the wind-EVERY SINGLE SCHOOL OF BUSTING PELAGICS ive ever seen feeds into the current or wind. SO-DO NOT DRIVE INTO THE SCHOOL-go upwind/current and drift down on the school. And once again-DO NOT DRIVE INTO THE SCHOOL-just in case you didn’t get the message. Oh and if you troll through the school there is a special place in fishing hell just for you!!! Lure placement is also critical in this situation-cast in front of the school, not into the middle-fish don’t have eyes in the back of their heads, also as you arrive at a feeding school turn the boat away as you go neutral, this stops slack line situations from the momentum of the boat taking you closer to the fish and means you have full contact and situational awareness with your lure. Final factor is don’t discount using a longer rod when spinning pelagics from a boat, long casts on boat shy fish can make all the difference some days. If you want to spin blind then look for places where tide/current converge in very clear water- I must admit its not something I do much from the boat as I can use my mobility to find fish (not an option on the rocks). An example of a spot where ive done well at times is Longnose Point in Pittwater.The other “bustup” is the deepwater bustup. This is how we catch a lot of spotty mackeral on offshore reefs. We see the baitballs and fish on the sounder, cast a metal out, let it sink very deep and use a very fast 10/stop/10/stop retrieve back to the boat. We don’t drop the lure straight under the boat as we want the lure in the water for a long retrieve. Follows but No Commitment Happens all the time , or the fish just ignore what you are throwing at them. The most common solution to this is using a smaller lure , the second is wind faster . When this doesn’t work you start to get into the realm of other lure types eg when salmon are feeding on “eyes” in spring around Sydney-metals probably aren’t the number one choice. Some notes about fish; Bonito-speed and the 10 crank stop retrieve are very effective, not usually over fussy on what they will eat, 40-60 gm size lures probably the go to option. Kings-big white lures have been my most successful off the rocks 85 gm white raiders are a very good start point.Speed is not so critical a lot of the time , I found a side to side wiggle from the lure at a moderate clip worked best. Kings can be hit and miss on metal-poppers/stickbaits/plastics and spinning with garfish are all more effective (on most days). Tuna-match the hatch and wind fast-end of story really. Mackeral-both spotties and spannies love speed but the 10 crank/stop retrieve works better than a straight crank. A short bit of single strand wire is usually needed with spannies but spots can be really wire averse-some days you just have to accept the lure loses.40 and 65 gm Raiders are my goto lures-purple or red and white flash tape seem to be best (but then again they are the ones I use the most so who knows with colour!!!!) That just about sums up most aspects of chucking metal-hope you all enjoy the read!!!

Albright will do the job reasonably well

There are plenty of deep water weed beds around the inside of the spit-caught them on the bottom in 90 ft of water there with a paternoster

ATO and Border Force websites will tell you what you need to know

Well-this is a can of worms!!! 2X24kg game ,2X15kg game, 2 heavy downrigging outfits, 1 heavy spin, 3 medium spin, 1 10kg game outfit, 3 baitcasters (heavy,medium,light), 6 light spin outfits and a couple of beach rods and a couple more blackfish rods- all up i think about 20 reels and 24 rods- but then again my wife collects shoes-lots and lots of shoes!!!!!! i am trying to rationalise. But heres my point-if im trolling for marlin-3 or 4 rods out , downrigging for kings-3 lines out, trolling for flatties 3 or 4 out, trolling minnows around the Coffs islands-4 lines in the water its not unreasonable! I also am actually not a fan of other people bringing gear onto my boat-i have systems when i fish and will prerig before i go to suit what i have planned-i hate fishing with someone who is still rigging a rod (to the point of putting a reel on a rod, feeding line into guides, tying on leader /lure etc ) and only starting fishing halfway through the first trolling run or missing the first drift past a FAD .So i can easily justify all of them.

Just go fishing ..........or is it angling?..............dangling?.....................

Where you fishing? Nth Coast an 8 ft rod is the way to go, if you are fishing JB and the sandstone then honestly a standard game rod will do the job-also a Talica 16 is probably a bit low on line capacity for 15kg mono. Jump onto Rodwerks (Adelaide rod building supplies ) and see what they have-they were the Calstar agent in Oz

by LBG you mean? Line class? livebait or spin? location of use?

certainly can be very fussy, a fresh livie can set them off , a butterflied fresh livie can, some days its squid, otheris its gar, yakkas,slimies -whatever takes their fancy on the day. Next time speed up , or take a very lively livie and lop the tail off and chuck it straight out- and by lop the tail off i mean the whole tail at the wrist, or hook the livie underneath and hold it on the surface-welcolm to the world of kingfish

had an issue with the seal on the hydraulic ram on my motor out of warrenty that was picked up in service before it was a problem-but Yamaha fixed it for free-why you should always buy Yamaha-actually its a minor issue that i reckon any Yammie dealer will quickly fix for you. One thing thats a given though with any outboard is that you shouldnt rely on those little metal brackets as they can break-a block of EDM rubber with a notch cut out of it and jammed over the rams while driving around is a much better shock absorber.

Ive caught them in a few places in the Hawkesbury system-the common theme for me has been structure and back eddies, the closed season is paradoxically the time when they are easiest to catch-which is why its a closed season, there is a fair bit of thought that even catch and release during these periods disrupts spawning, it can be easy to get large numbers when they are schooled up.

Ive got a Motorguide Frank and its very good-also integrates with Lowrance. Once you have spotlock you will never go back

PART 3 CHUCKIN’METAL In this little or not so little installment im going to cover rods, line , rigging and terminals. RODS The early days of rockfishing were changed forever by the start of the readily available hollow fibreglass rods mainly made in Australia and for the serious rockfisho usually custom built by the many rodbuilders that plied their trade all over the country or home assembled by those with the patience and skill to do so. My first serious rod was a custom built Snyderglas FT 70-120, followed by a home built Butterworth FSU 4120 and my current (very underused) stick is a Calstar Graphiter GF900M which I had specifically built for spinning the north coast ledges. Lighter rods for me have included various of the shelf models but my current beach/light rock rod is a PPG Spin that I extended to 10 feet long . The evolution of rods has gone from heavy fibreglass to fragile graphite to incredibly light and tough composite materials. For the modern fisho there seems to be an unlimited choice of store stock models that will do the job. The keys for me were this; 1. Toughness around the rockfishing environment 2. Casting ability, the key being a tip that folded away during the loadup and powered the lure towards the horizon. This is still important and is all about matching lure weight to the rod 3. Lifting ability-the good old FSU4120 was a cracker of an early design because of the combination of its light tip and the very fast taper to a heck of a lot of “guts” low down. I could belt out 100 m casts and still pole a 5 kg fish up the rocks with no fuss (as long as I timed the lift). With modern composite blanks the radical fast taper is not so important and from a boat or even a shorebased scenario other than the ocean rocks the need for a brutal lift is not there. Some important things to consider with any rod are matching the lure weight but of course you can adapt your casting style if you go over or under . Composite rods will break if you are a “high sticker” , learn to fight fish with low rod angles and side pressure-its more effective than the old pump and wind. If I was doing a rock trip today I would have the following outfits; 1. Daiwa Sealine O/H reel with 20 lb mono , Calstar GF900M and either a popper or an 80-100 gm metal 2. Saragosa 6000 with 20lb braid, the PPG Spin and a 40gm metal-this will cast 80-100M with a flick of the wrist if I don’t have a headwind With smaller lures from boat based situations just about any spin stick will do the job-ive got that many I don’t know where to start but they are all essentially matched to casting weights then I match the application and line breaking strain- the Diawa Gen Blacks are excellent examples as are Samurai , and probably a hundred others that I haven’t used- for me these crisp casting flick sticks are just so far ahead of the old fibreglass rods I started with that its ridiculous.I have outfits for the boat ranging from very light 1500 size spin sticks with 4lb braid that I can throw tiny lures all the way to a Stella 20000 with 80lb braid that I bought for a GT trip that never happened but I pull out for big kings and tuna . LINE Braided line is the single biggest change in everything about fishing in my lifetime. Its low stretch , thin diameter properties have changed the art of lurecasting , im not going to go in depth about brands etc but rather talk about some of the differences and considerations that need to be taken to assist with successful fishing . 1. Spooling and casting-99.9 % of problems with wind knots/tangles and twist are solved by two simple acts when using braid-when you are spooling your reel.The first is to USE SOME MUSCLE. Typically I spool reels with my Busted Line spooler which enables me to put good tension on when spooling, it should be hard work spooling a reel. Prior to getting the Busted line spooler I would wind the line onto an old Penn Jigmaster , bolt that to a bench with an Alvey reel seat (the type you can bind onto a rod) and then wind it onto the reel it was meant for. I set the drag of the reel at about 1/3 of the lines breaking strain (which matches the drag settings I would use) and that allows me to gauge the correct tension . The second is DON’T OVERFILL the reel. Up to the spool lip minus a mm is about right. I simply don’t get wind knots with any braid by doing these two things. 2. Keeping hook in fish is a bit easier with braid , mainly because the low stretch enables a better initial hook set. I remember the first time I spun up a striped tuna on braid, the impact was like getting run over by a bus compared to the hit on nylon. With nylon tuna would often not pull drag until the line stretch was taken out whereas the fight is instantly on with braid. However if you are fast tuna will often go into a strange shock mode when first hooked and if you are fast thinking you can have them in the boat before they know whats hit ém. With braid your fighting style needs to be smooth, short lifts, side pressure rather than big pump and wind type action. This keeps the hook hole from opening up and the hook falling out . 3. Rigging-again keeping the low stretch properties in mind building a shock absorber into the rigging is vital. A bimini twist double will do this (it has a bungee like effect in the rigging system ) and using a mono leader will help too. The leader is also vital for abrasion resistance of which braid has very little. We can get into all sorts of debates about knots/leader length etc but generally I would try to tie a fairly short leader (depends on rod length but short enough that I could avoid winding my leader knot into my rod tip on a normal cast) onto my short double and away I would go. You can get away with longer leaders if you are tying FG or PR knots but I rarely see the need . 4. Mono-if you are using an overhead you will need mono-braid and backlashes are not a good combo and neither are the thumb burns that braid causes. TERMINALS Well-hooks I suppose, I will go into lures in the next installment. I don’t use swivels but an excellent rigging trick is this; 1. Tie a solid brass ring to the end of your leader and use split ring pliers to change your lures, saves a lot of knot tying and means with my short leader habit I don’t run out of leader. The double ring also helps some lures “run” better in the same way a loop knot does with soft plastics 2. Hooks-change all your hooks to black or brown chem sharpened- DON’T ARGUE WITH ME ON THIS!! Ha-ha. Seriously though the theory is that rather than “nipping” the back of the hooks the fish will swallow them, I also think it gives a better lure profile . I keep my metals in boxes without hooks these days and just put the hooks on as I use them Look for hooks with small barbs and often go a size up from the supplied hooks (which on some lures are often too small) . Just check that the lure runs well. I don’t use singles on metals but have played round with them in the past. I found that high speed metals got thrown off axis when I used them instead of a treble and couldn’t be bothered with further experiments. For salmon and tailor its probably an advantage but honestly I loose less fish than I ever did because of the excellent penetration of chem sharpened trebles and the no stretch properties of braid 3. Split rings-are often made of chewing gum these days-when chasing bigger fish change them out if they seem a bit crappy. If you are using Halco lures with those stupid triple rings-cut them off and put some normal quality rings on (look at Japanese popping/jigging gear for an idea of quality). Your Halcos will run better and you will be able to change hooks much easier.

Gulps ARE bait Bob !!! , they certainly catch but are a heck of a pain to store

all the time-then again 99.9% of the squid i get are from middle harbour or the oceanic bits around middle head. The toxins that the DPI are worried about tend to be bio accumulators and in really short lived animals like squidies i doubt they are an issue.

I will answer the last bit first-the most likely 50kg fish these days off the stones would be sharks or if you are willing to join the circus at the JB tubes a large black marlin. The gear you have will deal with a 50kg shark from the stones without too many issues but some of the blacks hooked at JB are more like 100kgs-you will kiss your spool contents goodbye-the guys that chase these aim to have at least a 1000m of line on the spool-usually 24 kg with a lot of backing. Most fish on the east coast rocks are well under 20kg with kings (that dont run far) and longtails (that do) your most likely bigger fish-the yellowfin are long gone. The first part of your question is a conundrum-i can honestly say most fish i hook of the rocks are not more than 50 m out-fish patrol the edges looking for bait-you dont need to get 150m out and depending on the spot you will be suddenly in boat territory. Also with a bait 150m out , hook a decent longtail and it will run 200 with no probs-suddenly you aint got no line! I always aimed to have 500 on the spool no matter the line class. Also finally-heavy braid and heavy drag settings can lead to some serious safety issues on the rocks-be careful. Final point-casting livies usually knocks them about -thats why they dont move after a decent cast. Lob them into the back of the wash and let then go out with the current or breeze if you use a balloon. Personally i prefer torpedo floats in 99% of situations, usually if the bait wants to go out to the 150 m mark in clear water its a sign that there are very few predatory fish around and the bait is way too comfortable out there, when they are trying to hug the rocks its a sign something big and nasty is around

na-buy a bowmounted electric and all of a sudden you are both safer and have vastly increased the fishing utility of your boat-oh -and a hand held marine radio so you can call for some assistance if you do have problems (which as long as you maintain your boat and batteries these days is highly unlikely)

on the theme of chucking metal i did actually catch a blackfish cleanly hooked in the mouth on a 10gm slice at Terrigal Haven once-but ive caught quite a lot of bream on weed-especially on cabbage off the rocks in winter.

Metal lures have been around for a very large part of fishing history, from the humble spoon lure to the most sophisticated of slow jigs the are essentially a lure which attracts a fishes attention by imitation of a fleeing or wounded baitfish. Whilst these havent changed much (despite marketing hype) the delivery systems have simply gotten better and better since i started fishing and i really cant see the quantum leaps in gear of the last 25 years recurring REELS Its often speculated that high speed spinning started on the east coast of Oz at the Avoca rock platform . When i started there were a couple of older guys (cant remember names) who claimed that in the 50's and early 60's huge schools of uncatchable tuna would ignore every lure thrown at them until some one worked out that by throwing a lure at the fish and then running backwards as fast as he could while trying to wind the reel that hook ups would come. The reels were typically Penn Squidders , Grahame overheads all with slow gear ratios and these were the limiting factors to hooking fast moving pelagics. Ironically the Penn Squidder was designed by the Yanks for throwing metals for bluefish (tailor) and striped bass off the beach-both species that respond better to a slower , wriggling pattern of lure . The first and most revolutionary reel was built in a shed in West Wallsend by Don Charlton -the Seascape. This reel first came in 4-1, then 5-1 and finally a 6-1 gear ratio which would rip in a meter of line for every crank of the handle -the gold standard for a true high speed retrieve. I used a Seascape for one season in the late 1980’s (it was one of the re released ones made in 1985. I bought it from a mate and sold it back to him when I bought a Shimano Speedmaster) and they were a bugger to cast and the drag was pretty ordinary. They were notorious for blowing pinion gears but this never happened with the one I used. The next really good reel out on the market was the Shimano Speedmaster IV which had the required speed (it was faster than the Seascape) and it was a massive step up from the Seascape , they were tough, fast and had a smooth and robust drag system. Mine stayed in my collection until about 6 or 7 years ago when I sold it on the old Sydney Angler webpage (funnily enough I think Frank S may have been the buyer). Loaded with 20 or 25lb Maxima I could land cast after cast with an easy swing . An 80 gm Shiner would plonk in the 90-100 m range and a 50-60 gm 1/2x1/4 or Raider would consistently go 70-80m. Casting with an overhead has always been about the easy swing and getting kinks out of your swing before attempting the big throws. The best caster I ever saw was a Central Coast local -I only knew him as “Red” who had a roundhouse cast that pulled the lure from in front of the left side of his body in a 270 degree arc over his right shoulder- he could chuck a 1/2x ¼ well past 100 meters-probably 120 if the wind was good. He was dangerous to fish beside (he probably preferred that!!!) but his cast was long because it was so damn smooth. Some other notable high speed reels included the Diawa SLOSH series , Penn Jigmaster (a bit slow and hard to cast) and the later Diawa Sealines which i last used(very smooth but not an easy casting reel). Shimano also released the Toriums later on but the lack of a decent thumbing ledge limited them and Penn had similar reels. The most obvious change these days is that overheads have become a lot less common on the rocks with the massive improvements in threadline’s or as they are more commonly known -spinning reels. The first candidate in the large high speed category was the Mitchell 499.They were very fast, a bit tricky to cast (the reel had a ball bearing line guide rather than the bail arm system and if you didn’t trap it with the outside of your palm it would catch the line on the cast and stop your lure dead in its tracks and often snap it off!). I caught stacks of fish with mine but the drag was very ordinary-the biggest fish I hooked from the rocks was a yellowfin that I watched eat my lure at my feet at North Whale from the low ledge there (not a normally fishable platform ) on an incredibly calm day. The run was earth shattering , the amount of vibration that came through my arms from the shaking drag was incredible and the line popped with the fish well over 250 m out. I preferred an overhead , it was lighter, easier to carry round and once I got my trained thumb easier to cast (especially really heavy metals over 80 gms because the line didn’t rip the tip of my index finger off). Later on I used an 8000 Stradic loaded with 30lb braid-my son used this to catch a 22 kg Spanish Mackeral at Muttonbird Island and I used it from the boat for years for an allrounder before a mate bought it from me. Again it met the 1 m per crank of the handle that I regard as essential . With the overall move to braided line I doubt there will be a return on mass to overheads but the quality these days is so good I don’t see that as a problem. A good quality 8000 sized reel that holds 4-500 m of 30 lb braid will handle ANY medium sized pelagic off the east coast rocks (as long as the taxman isn’t too close by). Smaller reels will restrict casting distances (line slap on the cast ) and retrieve speed and probably be less robust and if I was still rockfishing that would be my choice. With smaller outfits spinning reels have been my choice ever since braid came on the market. I still spin with a baitcaster here and there-just because I love the feel but the versatility of a 2500 eggbeater with 6-8lb braid is hard to beat. When I first used small spinning reels for pelagics drag rebuilds were part of the art- I can remember one trip to Port Stephens chasing tuna on 2 and 3 kg where I rebuilt the drag on my little Diawa every night. That’s a very rare problem these days and a good quality 2500 outfit will catch bonnies, frigates, rat kings, striped tuna without many issues at all. I have a 2500 Stradic that is 20 years old , just got new bearings and it still catches fish. Ive used it for my light metals for that entire time-it has caught thousands of fish. I did manage to cook the drag on another Stradic I own , a 3000 when I hooked a black marlin on it jigging bait but that was a bit above the reels paygrade-they are tough reel. The advantage of spinning reels over baitcasters in these smaller sizes really becomes apparent when throwing really small lures at fussy feeders (like spring time salmon for example), it’s a job that only the most educated thumb can achieve with a baitcaster but the spinning reel user is in the game immediately. Probably the most versatile pelagic outfit anyone could own would be a 4000-6000 sized spinning outfit with 15-20lb braid . I have 3 reels in this size range-a Diawa Seagate , a Stella 4000 and a Saragosa 6000. They all do slightly different jobs on my boat and the Seagate got used off the rocks a lot when I was finishing up my landbased career for chucking 30-40gm metals for bonito etc. The Stella is my favourite spinning reel (no surprise I guess) but the Saragosa is better value for money and actually has a better handle for fast retrieves – as a hint here you want a handle that is large and can be gripped with more than thumb and forefinger when you are doing cast and fast retrieve after fast retrieve. All three of these reels have very good drags and get minimal maintainance from me other than a thorough washing and a spray with Inox here and there. Next Installment Rods,Line and Lures (depending on how much I ramble on!!!)

thanks Waz-your style of post is what ive hopefully emulated, i think a lot of young guys skip the formative stages we had to go through and dont have a deep understanding . Fishing Mags these days are largely advertorials and social media is "here today,gone tommorrow type of info"-Fishraider provides a store of knowledge that hopefully we can all add too.

Ive noticed a bit of interest from a few folk on the site about metal lures and using them for chasing pelagics-SO -i thought id write a bit of a story on chucking heavy metal and techniques/tackle etc. A Bit of History I started being interested in lure fishing in my early teens. I grew up in Castle Hill so not near the water and with non fishing parents . We did however go on fairly regular holidays to North Avoca where I started catching a few tailor of the beach on pillies and mullet. One Xmas hols i took a walk down to South Avoca "to see where the big fish lived" and was standing with my precious beach rod (A Daiwa GS9 and Rod that was a birthday present) at "Mugs Rock" catching rod cod in the sun . Suddenly a bloke ran up onto the rock with a Seascape festooned rod and yelled at me " have you got a lure kiddo,get one on and cast it out"-i dug into my tackle box and pulled out my one and only lure-a red sparkly Halco slice-30 or 35 grams (Waza will remember them), carefully tied it on with a crappy store bought wire trace and cast it out as far as i could (i was a bit of a twig as a kid so im guessing 30 meters). The bloke with the Seascape suddenly had a bent rod and "wham" so did i . The hit on the lure was life altering (as you will see)- and after what seemed an eternity i had what is still the biggest tailor i have ever caught flopping beside the rocks- Seascape man was still fighting what turned out to be a large striped tuna. He talked me through washing the chopper up and i doubt i wiped the smile off my face for about 6 months . I never weighed that fish but it was around the 8lb mark-and i still havent caught one bigger in the 38 years ive fished since! This fish (and watching Seascape man in action) started an addiction ive never beaten-just modified with time and circumstance. For me a good fish on a fast moving metal is as good as a marlin on the short corner or sight fishing a trout. The physical effort , the violent strike followed by head shakes and the inevitable hard run never lose their shine as far as im concerned and probably never will. What Happened Next I was only 14 when i caught that tailor and remained pretty limited with transport and funds but like any addiction i wanted more. We continued to holiday at Nth Avoca and i managed to get a small rod and reel combo as my next fishing present -we had a family friend who worked for Capstan Plastics who had stopped manufacturing reels by that stage but had an agency for Diawa. The reel was a Black Diamond 1300 and held about 200 meters of 6lb nylon-but most importantly -it had a 5-1 gear ratio and had SPEED. By this stage i was getting up before dawn-walking 2km down the beach to Sth Avoca and had learnt a bit about bonito and rat kings and had caught bugger all . I had a few mini metals by now and a couple of the legendary 1/2x1/4's but didnt realise that my GS9 was way too slow . That all changed one amazing January day (i was 16 i think) when the sea in front of the Avoca platform became a boiling mass of frigate mackeral and underneath bonito. That day i caught my first tuna species (frigates) and then the following day finally a couple of bonito-i had started to learn the art of landing fast fish off the rocks on light tackle . Spinning with 6lb mono off the rocks taught me very quickly about side pressure and rod angles-especially with a 6ft light spin stick. From here the addiction just got deeper, i soon realised that the GS9 wasnt cutting it and saved up the $99 (a lot in 1983 ) for a Mitchell 499 -the fastest reel on the planet and spooled it with 20lb mono and paired it with a Snyder FT 70-120 built by John Bell from Dee Why Sports -after i read in Fishing World that he was the best rod builder in Sydney (when such things mattered!!!). I caught a lot of bonito on that combo and will come back to it soon. The first really decent fish i caught came next on my little Diawa Black Diamond. It was the last few days of the old August school holidays 1984 and through some family friends we had gained access to a house at Mackeral Beach on Pittwater AND the house came with a 14 ft Quinnie and a 15 hp Evinrude-I had a boat!!! I was there with my mother and a mate from school (who wasnt a fisho but was happy to explore). On the 3rd September 1984 we started the day early in the usual morning mist and headed up the river and mucked around at Juno point , Flint and Steel then went up Patonga Creek (my first bar crossing i suppose). We had hot chips for lunch from Patonga and then crossed back over to West Head in the afternoon towards the top of the tide . ....and then i saw huge silver bullets broaching the top of the water in pods of 10 or more fish-TUNA. They were big mack tuna making the long forgotten spring run (there are plenty of old stories of them pushing up as far as the rail bridge in dry years) smashing microscopic bait. They werent worried by the boat at all, the only other boat nearby was a cruiser that tried to troll the schools for a few minutes then left. I tried a 1/2x1/4 on my 499 , then switched to a Halco slice, then (by then i knew the principle of "keep going smaller until you get the bite") to my "little rod" and a small slice, then a wonder wobbler, then finally-i had two brand new unused 15 gm Juro shiners in my very understocked box. I drove the boat up to the next bust up, killed the motor (this becomes important later....) and cast. 1,2, 3 cranks of the handle and whack....Im on and a run like id never experience before and ping....its gone, along with the lure. I looked into the tackle box and picked up the other Shiner. I had read about doubles and their importance in sportfishing-so try not to laugh. I tied a spiders hitch and looped the final shiner onto the double . Same procedure as before, drive up, kill the motor, cast, wind and whack. Line started screaming off the reel and within seconds i was down to half a spool and i was screaming at my very stunned mate "start the engine"-"how do i do that"-"pull the bloody cord", "right what do i do now"-DRIVE THAT WAY. So we drove after the fish and it fought and fought and fought. Just as the sun disappeared behind the Broken Bay hills the fish came to the surface about 15 meters from the boat and circled us. I had a gaff and a prawn net on board. My mate was totally unwilling to try the gaff so when it did its next circle he stuck the prawn net in front of its head . Fortunately the fish was stuffed (so was i) and the net broke as i tried to lift it but i had the fish by the tail. I hooked it just off west head and landed it about 2 kms to the north of Lion Island close to an hour after hookup. We drove back to Mackeral Beach in an orange seascape where it was hard to tell the difference between the water and the sky. I weighed the fish a few days later at home on some dodgy bathroom scales and then again on someone elses dodgy bathroom scales. It went 18lbs cleaned and i later learned would of been a Junior World Record for 6lb line if id been an ANSA or GFAA member at the time. After this the addiction was incurable . I spent weekends playing cricket on Saturdays and fishing the rocks on Sundays . When cricket was over i just fished.The eggbeaters got replaced with overheads (çause thats what real fishos used) . First a Seascape and then for many, many years a Shimano Speedmaster IV. A Butterworth FSU 4120 became my big stick of choice and loaded with 20 or 25 lb Maxima i felt i could catch just about anything from Sydney and the rock platforms to the north. From the rocks i spun up bonnies,kings,striped,mack,longtail tuna, spottie macks , hooked a hell of a big yellowfin one day at North Whale (an utter smoking) , trevally, snapper, bream , flathead (yep), frigates (still a light tackle fav of mine, especially at Terrigal ), the odd GT further north , a couple of amberjack from the rocks at Noosa. I livebaited too but never loved livebaiting like i loved high speed spinning. When i finally had a boat of my own (and still to today) i never left port without a spin stick rigged with a metal. I still use them all the time and from the boat have caught all the tuna's (except a Southern Blue), jewfish, kings, Spanish,spottie ,school mackeral, bonnies by the thousand,salmon (of course) ,tailor and even trout in the fresh etc etc. I still have some goals with metals-i would really like to spin up a wahoo (but as a few mates could testify-i dont catch wahoo, i just gaff them for other people) and ive spun up a couple of cobia on soft plastics but would again love to get one on metal. In part 2 i will go into lures/species tackle and techniques. I will also go into what makes a spot fire for pelagics-especially for some of the land based younger guys. Pelagic fish have patterns and understanding those patterns will help prevent a lot of wasted effort

Personally i always find the week after the full moon to be very poor for kings-the week leading up is usually excellent . Ive also found the 12 to be better a little later in the year -done best there July/Aug/Sept.The Peak is usually firing around now.