ParaPaul

Haha, mate I deliberately left it behind in order to be uncontactable for a few hours 😁. Next time I'll take my gopro for the money shot. Your 'lamb vs mutton' comparison makes perfect sense, my thoughts were along the lines of taking one big fish vs 4 to 5 regular sized is more environmentally friendly. Cheers.

Thanks fellas, I understand that I am within the law to keep a big one, I guess that after reading a few horror stories of people being roused on by fishos for keeping instead of releasing made me feel that I didn't want to be 'that guy'. I feel that keeping one big one to feed an extended family is more economical than 4 or 5 small to medium fish, everyone loves a feed of flathead at $45 or more per kilo from the fish shop ... AND you get to use the bones and all for stock or soup, no wastage. Although the law allows to keep one at over 70cm, I hear of people being called out for doing so. Has the DPI got it wrong? Should the law be changed to 40 - 70cm keepers only? Confused. 🤔

G'day all. So I was at Currumbene Creek near Huskisson fishing with my Alvey estuary setup using salted pillie cubes on a 1/0 suicide hook, short 10lb fluro trace, swivel and sinker onto 12lb mono. I was casting into a drop off, pulled in a coupla small fatties and a couple of 40cm models, when I was hit by a beauty! It put up a good fight and when landed and measured, came in at 79cm ... pb btw. No photo as I left my phone at home. I know that it is best practice to put them back in the water, so I did. Heart pounding, shaking and sweating, shitting myself that I'd get spiked, but off she swam. Now. I REALLY wanted to keep her for a few photos and to feed the fam but anyway, back she went. I want to know, if it is best practice to release them, then why is the law that you can keep one over 70cm in NSW? Why not just make it that you can only keep 'em between 36 and 70cm? I read on a forum here that not all big ones are females, approx 25% are actually males, and there is a way to assess gender by rubbing the abdomen. I'm not sure how prolific 'regular' sized fatties are at breeding, but if there are large ones releasing up to a million eggs and others producing a healthy amount as well, then surely the creeks are well stocked? Just asking as I seek to learn. Thanks raiders.

Haha, yeah, always a bonus 😆👍

So I thought I'd head out early to catch the 2 hours run in before high tide and try to nab a couple of flatties. Got down to the Cook's river breakwall at Kyeemagh at around 0730 with my 7' 2-4kg rod and Daiwa 2500 reel which is spooled with 14lb Fireline and an 8 lb fluoro leader, rigged it up with a 1/8 oz jighead and loaded on a 3" ZMan MinnowZ in bloodworm colour and cast in towards the bridge on General Holmes drive. First cast at 0740, 3rd cast around 0742 and I was on! Line came screaming off and then it stopped, I thought I was onto a flattie at first, but then zzzzzzzzzz.......line came screaming off again and towards the pylons. I then reassessed and thought either a kingie or a jew. I abandoned the jew idea after a number of good, strong runs and not feeling as if it was tiring and settled on the idea that it was a kingie. A couple of guys came and had a look as I had been playing this thing for about 15 minutes, I threw one of them the keys to my Commodore and asked him to get my landing net out of the back for me as i didn't think I would be able to land it on the gear I had. Good bloke whoever you are, thanks. Another bloke came down to the rocks with me ready to assist with the net. Anyway, managed to land it after 25 minutes, kept it going right towards the ocean as much as I could, there were a couple of hairy moments there. Ended up with a nice kingfish, coming in at 72cm on the tape. Machine guns thumping in my chest and a couple of nice frays on my leader. Lovely early morning surprise. I had a few more casts after that but couldn't stop thinking about that high octane half hour, so pulled stumps and took him home. Happy fishing to all

Bill, It's actually called Woolamia boat ramp, at the end of Frank Lewis Way. About 2 minutes out of Husky.

Thanks Toilor3000 Don't be surprised if I take you up on that, always keen. I'm gonna be down in another month. Many thanks. 👍

Toilor3000, Nice catch mate. Was it on chicken gut or supermarket chook? I was land based and only tried my usual haunts but trying to avoid the wind direction changes.

Big Neil, Yeah it's certainly usually a fisherman's paradise. This time around I didn't see anywhere near the amount of fish milling around like I usually do.

Thanks Green Hornet. Yeah I have made the trek to Steamers and Caves a couple of times before and done alright on pillies and spinners. I'm dirty on myself for not bringing my surf outfit down this time. Maybe i can convince the minister of finance and war that it's a necessity to have a second surf rod kept down there.... I have seen the weed flies online but never used them, they sound like an economical and time saving solution to finding and storing weed.

Mate, I've been coming down here for over 20yrs and never not seen or caught a few beauties. I've got a spot where normally I'll come home with a bag full of drummers. Whiting at Moona Moona creek are almost a gimme on small poppers thrown at the mangroves or bait with a red tube and #6 long shank hook off the beach at any time of year. I've always caught squid at sunset near Vincentia and Currumbene boat ramps too, usually on any tide. Guess that's why it's called fishing not catching eh?

Just been down to the holiday house in Vincentia for the past five days, fished early every morning (land based) and some afternoons and evenings for one legal sized salmon off a gutter on Nelson beach with a 20g Spanyid raider in silver. I salted him and dried him for bait. Otherwise, nothing. Not a skerrick, nix, nada, nought. I have been at Currumbene creek, Moona Moona creek, Huskisson wharf, Collingwood beach, off the rocks at Vincentia with spinners, poppers, bait, SPs, Plantation point with floated baits (windy and snaggy). Light tackle, medium and heavy. Different times, different tides. Even went squid jigging at night still without a hit. Reports from a couple of local fishos come back with the same. Just one bloke catching luderick off Husky wharf by floating some dough. Where have they all gone? Migrated north or what? Can't complain too much though, beautiful weather and crystal clear water. Hope you all have better luck (or skills) than I did.

I'm thinking primarily a setup that will allow me to switch between targeting luderick one day, to bream/ drummer/ whiting/ flatties the next without having to re-spool every time. I might just have to get an Alvey 60 reel to spool a bit heavier and use it with that same rod if chasing tailor and the like.

Great advice, thanks GoingFishing. I know where those fish frames are going now. Usually I make a nice fish stock and use it in my seafood risottos. Reckon the stock will be better served attracting some choppers.

Thanks for the advice kingie chaser. The setup I used was out of pure laziness and opportunism. I had been in jervis Bay for the long weekend and had been using this outfit off the beaches in Vincentia (with no luck I might add until I took my lighter outfit to the estuary and jigged a couple of flatties on SPs.) I had a couple of ganged rigs already setup from my beach sessions and on impulse decided to have a crack off the rocks with the whole shebang after the weather broke. Glad I did. I'm still not sure on whether it was just pure dumb luck in combination with a good tide and full moon. Incidentally, my new Alvey Estuary Special 55 rod (3.2M / 10' 6") just arrived by courier this morning so I'm looking forward to setting it up with my Alvey 500 reel and trying the same spot on a lighter setup and rig. Thinking 8-10lb mono with a 6-8lb fluoro leader onto the same (but lighter) paternoster type rig. Whaddya reckon? Not sure on whether she'll be able to handle the ganged hooks, or even the same sized fish as they were bloody good fighters on the heavy setup I used last night. Any advice on hook/ sinker size for targeting good tailor on this outfit?

Hi all, first post and just thought I'd share my bonus evening with you all. It was the first clear evening after the storms and decided to try and break my recent drought of decent fish having only caught the odd flattie and squid when targeting them. I went to the Yarra Bay groyne out in front of the sailing club at about 4.30pm. It was the slack tide, and about to start coming in. There was barely a wave in sight - as flat as a millpond, which was a welcome sight after the recent crappy weather. Rigged up and had my first cast at about 4.45 just as the sun was setting behind the clouds. The setup I used was a Shakespeare Outcast combo I got for a good price at Ananconda. 10' rod and 8500 reel. I took off the generic line they had on it and spooled the reel with 300M of 40Lb JW braid and whacked on a rod's length of 30Lb mono. The rig was a metre of so of the same mono, size 4 swivel down to a gang of 3 x 4/0 hooks with a drop loop and size 1 snapper sinker about a third of the way down from the swivel. Bait was a whole servo pillie and cast out towards the container wharf approx 30-40 metres. Nothing but the odd picker for the first hour or more until BAM! Line started screaming off the reel. I set the hook and let him have a bit of a play. Back and forth, back and forth until I netted a beautiful shiny 45cm tailor at my feet, Iki spiked him, bled him out and straight onto ice. Cast straight back out again and rolled myself a smoke, waited about another hour and was about to go home. I actually packed up my bag and reeled in what I thought was an empty hook but saw the pillie was still ok, just the head flopped off the top hook. I readjusted and thought 'Righto, this is the last cast' when I got another hit! Same again, line screaming off the reel, more play, more drag, I thought it was another Tailor as it fought much the same as the first one, when out of the light of my headlamp I saw it was a Snapper. Beauty! Netted him up, unpacked my tools, cleaned him up and straight onto the ice with the Tailor. 44cm, fat and heavy, I don't know how heavy. Stumps on day one, I decided to drive home via the bottlo and attempt to placate a fuming missus with two lovely fish. (It worked). The Snapper will be baked whole with eschallots and Asian flavours, the Tailor will be filleted and floured for me young bloke cos he doesn't like to eat fish off the bone (time for some education on that methinks.) Anyway, after a month of bugger all, seems the hungry winter fish are on. Hope this helps.