Max_fish

Yeah 6:30 - 8:30 is the prime times in the afternoon definitely worth giving it a try.

Regarding your other questions, there are so many fish to choose from, if you like your estuary fish there is luderick, the obvious bream and flattie and so much more, however preferably I like to target the pelagics, including kings, bonito which come in around the start of the year and salmon. But you can never dodge the chance to target some flatties, squidding too is also much more fun then you expect. For breams I like to use the smallest hooks possible as those ones will get you the most hookups, however with flatties you do want hooks that a bit larger as they have fairly sharp teeth, so I prefer 3/0 or 4/0 hooks. 1.7m is definitely long enough, however if your targeting bream is go lighter than 14lb, but if you want flatties then that is a good line weight to go with. Live Yellowtail is also a good live bait for bigger flathead.

Hey mate, Congrats on first fish, I know that spot very well, definitely worth giving squidding a try there specifically from the other wharf at the spot, pretty consistent spot for them, but you have to fish early morning or late afternoon into night. Also caught a king from there too, and a big flattie, lots of fish given the right times and right tides.

Great stuff, try middle harbour just after the spit bridge, lots of surface action including tailor salmon and kings hitting the surface in big bust ups, lots of fun they’ll take anything you throw at them.

In my opinion, I like most fish, except I will not eat leatherjacket, no matter how good it is I can’t stand it. And I don’t eat bream anymore because IMO it isn’t anything special and they are often really old and usually don’t get a whole bunch of meat off them.

Couldn’t agree more, always good to see them swim off though, especially when it’s a fish that you enjoy to catch.

Haha, all about the fight and the picture

Yep, haha

Sadly no, she went 57cm, just a good picture haha. Although for a second when I was bringing it up it did look legal but alas it was not.

Haha so true, especially on the light gear, however not legal it went 57cm, would’ve been great if it was legal.

Not quite, 57cm haha so it was released

Hey everyone, Decided to head out for a morning fish early this morning with live yellowtail and surface plastics, the first hour was met with nothing for the yakkas except one take which just pulled it straight off the hook. Then, small and scattered bust ups started to appear around us, so for the next 30minutes we were playing cat and mouse with this school of mystery fish. Finally I managed to get a good cast in right on top of a bust up which appeared basically at our feet, then, as I am jigging the weightless 5in jerkshad along the surface I see a dark shadow come up from behind and suddenly my lure disappears. I was on, after a 5-10minute fight on light gear (6lb line and 2500 reel) I get it to the surface and to my elation I see it’s a kingfish, my first king on soft plastics. So cool to get these rats on soft plastics, easily the best way to catch fish. Tried chasing the school of kings around for the next hour but they managed to allude us as the bust ups would only last for 10-20 seconds with only a few fish hitting the surface.

Hi everyone, I recently caught a jewfish that suffered from barotrauma, where the rapid change in pressure effects the fish in such ways as bulging eyes and swelled up swim bladders. I thought it was a bit odd that this fish suffered from barotrauma when it was only pulled out of 8m of water, however it released well after about 30 seconds of swimming it and it never floated back up to the surface. I was wondering if fish can survive the affects of barotrauma and why this jewie got it from relatively shallow water? PS This particular fish had its swim bladder protruding about 2cm from its lip and was extremely swelled up thanks, max

Yeah I thought it was a bit weird that the fish suffered from barotrauma especially when it was only pulled out of 8m of water, but after about 30seconds in the water she swam off well, we then stayed in that spot for another 20mins and it never floated back up to the surface. I have never heard of puncturing it to get the air out as this was my first fish I ever caught that suffered from barotrauma, but I’m pretty sure she survived.

Great stuff, was that a 90cm king or snapper?