Mike Sydney

@linewetter great fish but that sucks about the rod. Worse, they were on sale last week for $99 at the big snake but the sale has ended from what I see. Should’ve broken it a week ago 😏 Huge Trev that one on 6lb gear. Welcome to the snapped rod club.

Great read. Congrats on so many fish and finding your float again at a different location too!

Happened to me too, can’t recall why, I posted here by taking a screenshot of the old photo and uploading the new screenshot

I worry about hooking cormorants too. My friend hooked a bat which took his lure mid flight in parramatta. I imagine the law would be that it’s accidental by catch and as long as you made reasonable efforts to free it you’d be fine. It’s not like you were targeting them (….right? 😄) Community outrage would be the biggest issue I think. A video on social media or a harrowing picture could raise a lot of anti-fishing sentiment.

Yeah @faker that’s what I was thinking maybe a long mono leader for a bit more stretch as well

Thanks @Steve0. See for me I’ve always found them on artificial lights and had never clicked to targeting them on the full moon. A lot of my losses last couple years was on bream gear 6lb . The losses were just cut line as they hit the lure - a big splash and then slack. I was running 12lb last night mainly to throw heavier lures and didn’t suffer any losses yet. Interesting you say throwing to the edge of light source / edge of the school. I got a lot of hookups / started follows on the light edge but wasn’t consciously targeting those areas, rather it was more the angles available to me from the land spot. If smaller tailor cut more lines than bigger ones, then is the logic that the bigger fish are naturally on the outside edges of the schools (I.e. closest to the bait )

Ah but in my defence Mike only one fish was during work hours 🤣

Yes it is. The one I was using tonight is the “Fatso” model. I usually find tailor a pest when I am targeting bream but during this window I love chasing them on surface lures. Big splashes is just too good to pass up. That is a big height for a handlie with such big fish - must’ve been working those biceps @Yowie! I agree the lights seem to be what do it. It’s the same at any ferry wharf at night. The only difference is the size I find during these months (I presume it’s them leaving the estuaries for the open seas) The “pointy end” has cost me a lot of money in lost lures. It’s nice to get a return once in a while 😂 I’ve been stocking up on topwater hardbodies each pay since Christmas as I’ll probably lose several to those teeth in the next few weeks!

Every year in mid April through to end of May, schools of big tailor come and play under bridge lights in the estuaries. The season started tonight and I was chasing them on surface using the Nomad Riptide 95. Last three years I’ve picked up dozens of 50cm+ models in the Parramatta and I find it doesn’t really matter what you throw at them or what tide it is. Permanent lights and bridge pylons they’re around night after night until early June. It had been a fun start to the day, I hooked up my first kingfish at cooks river mouth on a grubZ 1/4oz only to drop it trying to net it. Was disappointed of course to lose my first but boy did the reel get a workout. Anyways tonight I landed 8 big tailor about two hours into the tide, the smallest a 40ish and the largest at 52cm. Some blokes stopped for a chat including an ABT finalist last year and while we were talking we saw activity on the surface and I was delighted to cast in and catch straight away with them. Some happy snaps below of almost 4 meters of tailor on surface. I find they like a pop and commotion more than a walk the dog so was dragging/sweeping the lure tonight.

The approach to Tempe station at high tide.

Went down to Tempe bridge this morning cooks river. several cars submerged someone had driven through the SES tape blocking the road more cars trying to go through. I waved many back but several idiots ignored me and drove past, three of them bogging out in the floodwaters. the bridge was closed anyway so they had nowhere to go, one moron even thanked me as a I spoke to him only to ignore me and get stuck in the floodwaters. I know people are stupid but the idiocy I saw this morning was mind blowing

Hahaha 😂😂 what a tale. Lure gone. Lure back. Lure gone. As I started reading I was shaking my head you’d lost it already - it was a gift to replace your recently lost splash prawn after all! - but glad you got it back. Though at least you were casting it and getting hits before it decided to take a break from you. I ended up gifting a Cranka crab to another fisherman on Sunday night. He left delighted and minutes later I snagged and lost another cranka so now I’ve only got one one left with a missing claw. Losing lures sucks! still @Little_Flatty did you keep that found lure at Iron Cove? That balances out the loss of the wobbler 😂

It was basically bubble wrap. The cover had been off the pool for several weeks so Amy gave it a hose clean and left it to dry. Just the magnifying glass scorching it up but the speed it happened was wild.

We’ve got Sir Walter in the back yard. A few weeks ago my wife put the pool cover out to dry, two hours in 26 degrees. Shocked to see how quickly it died: Brought her to tears. But just a week later after some watering and seasol she was basically good as new again. A sturdy grass for sure, a couple weeks later it’s too long for the mower to clip in one pass !

Stunning photos Dave and what hospitality. I’m not sure which is prettier, the sunrise or sunset photo. What a beautiful part of the country. The other birds nesting, are they apostlebirds?

I realise it looks huge in the photo (which is a screenshot of a paused video) but they were of course about the size of my little finger. Each of them came out of the water a muddy brown looking like a moving piece of algae/seaweed and didn’t “blue up” until they were placed on the rocks (which were probably pretty warm for them TBH). I wondered about residue on the lure but just gave them a quick safety rinse. From what I read after, it’s only direct contact from a bite that’s the concern but better safe than sorry!

Ouch @mrsswordfisherman that hurts. I am battling critters in my lawn too - first time I’ve had to deal with funnel ants. Lawn is only a year old after we did a knock down rebuild. Dozens of these little mounds of dirt they’ve pushed out from their tunnelling. Started on the edges but they’re everywhere now front and back. We’ve an exterminator coming to deal with them next week, they inject something down into each hole.

I’ve had trebles become doubles plenty. I still catch with doubles as I’m far too lazy to replace trebles. Figure that if folk often replace with singles I’m not really missing out on much!

I’m not sure but how many tickles until an octopus laughs? …. Ten tickles.

My experience as a night fisherman is the full moon sucks. Exciting high tides in the estuaries but rubbish fishing. Yes it’s an easy bogeyman to blame and I’ll still go anyway but I’ve had enough bad nights fishing on a full moon to believe the pattern. maybe tonight is different there’s a lunar eclipse at 7.03pm Sydney time edit: agree it’s still worth going out as you definitely catching nothing at home, and it’s always a pleasure being out under moonlight. Not much prettier than a full moon on the waters edge

Yes i suppose that’s the key takeaway - not to remove debris absentmindedly. These octopus moved on the lure so I knew something was afoot but if they’d been still they were the colour of your average bit of random debris. Brown and wet 😂

When they first came out they were mainly brown with a few bits of yellow. The blue rings were shown once I put them on the rocks. Has been a dangerous week actually - last weekend there was a fish floating around very close to my ledge at night just hanging around, like a flathead but with an eel tail. I tried to net it for a closer look and it was half in and fell out - just as well I realised later it was a cobbler…

Had a morning out at the cooks river mouth yesterday looking to catch a feed using the cranka crab at the cooks river mouth. Arrived an hour into the run out and went down onto the rocks below the airport tower wall. Beautiful weather and the water was very clear. Lots of bream around and I figured it was going to be a quick and easy catch. Tied on a cranka crab and started casting. Not much interest at first and was collecting a lot of leaf litter. I was told very early on to always check before I pulled off leaves and sticks from a lure, good thing too because my first critter caught was a nasty fellow: What do you know! My first blue ringed octopus. Thankfully it crawled off the hooks itself so I didn’t need to handle it. This was quickly followed by a second blue ring. Then a third, all three taking the crab in about a twenty minute span. I gave up after that and went home without a feed!

Well done @faker some nice catches there, you eating them ?

I’ll second the vote on the Berkley bender as a cheaper alternative to the OSP. Besides bream on surface, I’ve also had success with the 105 model catching surface flathead. Yet to land a really big one but have had four surface flathead on run out tides on the sand flats using the bender. They come in closer to $20, the 76mm ones around $16 bucks and the larger 105s $21. One of the big retailers - the orange one - had a promo a few weeks back offering two for the price of one and I stocked up. The 105mm model is still pretty light and can be cast on your bream gear, though I’ve been using a 12lb leader instead of my normal 6lb when casting it. Three bloops, pause, rinse and repeat.