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Trapper Tom

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Everything posted by Trapper Tom

  1. G'day Guys Great fish and great report. Same as Catchen Jack here. I'm heading to Port Douglas in a week for 5 days. Taking wifey who is also a very good fisho. As you guys clearly get around and know your stuff If you know of 1 or 2 really good charters request a pm if at all possible. Cheers Trapper Tom.
  2. Hey Swano. We do Point Stuart at Shady Camp in the run-off. (late April). Hire a polycraft there and do it yourself, so much more rewarding its a absolute blast and so much cheaper. (good boat experieance is necessary as if you get stranded on the mud banks the crocs will eat you but only if the bugs don't get you first.) You get to adventure, explore, and do what you want without being constrained in a guides boat with other people. You also get to fish the fresh and the salt sides on either side of the barrage. Stop off at the famous lure place on your way (you'll hear about it) and make sure you get some gold bombers and little devils. At that time of year the salt side is the best for larger Barra but the fresh has a stack of smaller barra for the taking. Secret for trolling for Barra, keep your lure well back from the boat, at least 40-50m and get your lure right into the strike zone. By that I mean within 3 foot of snags branches or anything that will hold Barra. Remember they are a total ambush fish (check out their eye orientation on their bodies) they sit in cover and then explode out onto their prey. Have not been overly impressed with the darwin charters we have occasionly done, very hard currents and very hard fishing. The best mud crabbing has to be at Boynoe Harbour, there is one camp and resort area and you can also hire their runabouts. Mate you will come home with truckloads of muddies but you gotta get into the really bug infested parts of the mangroves. No prob there long pants, shirts, face net and dont forget the socks on your feets with heaps of repellant. Boynoe is also a bloody hard place to fish, so its a 2 day mud crab thing and if you get fish its a bonus. Could carry on about other places but hope that helps. Cheers Trapper Tom.
  3. Butch The original Doyle family (Watsons Bay)were the fishermen of the harbour.!!!!!! They have some amazing photo,s and great historical records. They have a few books out, I got one can't tell you the others though. FYI Cheers Trapper
  4. Hey Butch Here's another snippit of info on the harbour for you. It did indeed have a snapper fishery that was nearly as good as Port P Bay many many long years ago. The reason was it had extensive mussel beds to support them. Fishing practises and pollution took their toll and it was goodbye snapper. With massively improved water quality,and the ceassation of commercial fishing now the beds are no longer being destroyed. Expect bigger and better catches in the future. I used to fish the harbour, reakon I will have to start again. Cheers Trapper Tom. .
  5. Hey Nibbles Yes it is a matter of principle. There is no credible science attached to this, it is driven by whats called the "Green Dollar". Idiot intellectuals chasing funding for a project etc etc, and bingo some wacko hairbrained scheme appears. The green dollar value around the world amounts to billions of dollars, its a economy unto itself. I am a enviromentalist and I can never support actions that divert money away from the true enviromental issues that face our eco systems. Greenies be ashamed of yourselves, you only serve yourselves and not the environment anymore. God damn I get cranky about this stuff!!!!!! My rant for the day. Trapper Tom.
  6. Hey Scotty Simple get a cat (ps the sticky stuff does work as well) Cheers Trapper Tom.
  7. Hey all fishraiders, finally getting back into the fishing. Lucky enough to score 2 days fishing on Fri and Sat just off Kiama. Georgous weather and conditions. Day 1. Started with a flatty drift, lots of little ones to start with, moved around several times then got into the good fellas. All about 35 to 38cm. Stacks of flathead got 18 keepers. All caught on the snaaper flashers with squid, boy don't those lures produce the goods. Got sick of that so we anchoured up to some washes, burleyed and sent out some floaters. Instant success, 2 really big sambo's on 6lb line. Kept for fish cakes. Then a nice reddy and bream both about 40cms, bream was fat as and a horse. Then the tevours moved into the burley trail and we spent the next 30 mins catching just them as they hammered the baits before anything else worthwhile could get to it. Kept 4 only for sashimi. Headed back, one more wash fish just off the harbour produced 2 more big bream, a reddy and a truck load of yakkas to supply bait for the next day. Day 2. Headed out started with a flatty drift. Zippo. OOOOH NOOOO they have gone away, bugger. Southerly came through mid morning at twice the strenth predicted so we headed for a sheltered headland and decided to burley and fish the washes. I just love fishing the washes from a boat with floaters, you never can tell what you pick up. As we pulled up Sambos were jumping out of the water and we went "Oh Yeah beauty newk" were into em. Burleyed for the next 45 mins with a total of Zippo. We were thinking what the hells happening here! we knew the spot held good bream and other surface fish. Low and behold Sammy the Seal appeared at the back of the boat begging for a fish. Thats why we caught zippo! fed him 3 big yakkas seemed very tame, then it was bugger this for a joke there will be no fish within 500m of this critter so up anchoured and headed down to gerringong, wind eased off so back to a flatty drift. Instant success with good sized 40cm sandies, got 17 in all. And to add to the mix a wonderful 3ft gummy shark yum yum. He scoffed the snapper flasher as well! One more quick wash fish produced 3 breambo,s, a monster squid and more yakkas for the next trip, trolled the Kiama headland on the way back in the hope of a good kingy and wait for it, a sargent baker snaffled a rapala, could not believe it. Headed back for the tedious clean the fish thing. For those down that way all the flatties were caught on the 80 foot mark and there are plently of em if you move around and find em. Sorry Guys no photo's, no camera but posted this just to let the FR's know to get out to the 80 foot mark and get into the flatties Oh yeah I almost forgot a albratoss torpedo dived into our burley trail about 6 foot from the boat scared the absolute bejeevers out of us, never had that happern before. Was cool. Won't forget the camera next time. Cheers Trapper Tom.
  8. Grant The pearl perch will be all over them like a rash. Trapper
  9. Hey Tasksta Yep a bit of squid or other bait on the end. I use the Black Magic ones. Heres a storey. Was fishing off Kiama couple of weeks ago. We pulled up to drift. Rigged the flasher and had it just sitting in the water whilst I turned around and cut a bit of squid to put on, turned around and there was a huge chinaman leatherjacket sitting just about a foot away from it ready to eat it (and my line and rig). Grabbed the gaff, wack and straight into the boat. Beautiful eating. Oh also for other raiders you do need to expose the rig to sunlight before sending down to the depths. They glow. Its part of their effectivness. Cheers Trapper Tom.
  10. Hey Brettman Confirm that they are a absolutely brilliant rig. They catch anything, but for this summer they have smashed the flatties offshore. Get double headers often and have bagged out numerous times. Peter S, I know you love a flatty drift if you read this and have not tried them. Rec you give a go. You'll definately out fish Syd. Cheers Trapper Tom.
  11. Hey Guys Most definitely not baby Flatties. Wrong envroment structure etc etc. They are very common in rock pools etc etc and other shallow sandy areas. Commonly called "Gudgeons". Have not sourced their scientific name but I am sure someone will. heers Trapper Tom
  12. Hey Cath (Cat) Have read a few of your reports and noted that you need a really big Barra. Heres A tip and a good one. You have to go to Shady Camp and I mean you gotto go. Point Stuart, hire the the Poly crafts there and try to go in the end of the run off. Other times are also good though. Do not caste and retrieve, shady is a troll spot. Don't be tempted to to go out through the tommycut channel. Stay in the river and head down to what are called the S bends. Troll gold B 52 bombers behind and the "secret" is, FAR behind like 50m. Try to navigate the passes of the lure so they they pass within 4 foot of the overhanging snags or logs. Barra are a classic ambush preditor, check out the position of their eyes on their body. There are two other close spots to the S-bends that produce really BIG fish, will track them down in my diary if you wish. PM me if you are interested and will reply will details. Thats a 1000 post pressy. And yes you DO need to go there. Cheers Trapper Tom
  13. Hey Thumper. Thats sorta a 3 part question. 1. When you are working plastics or even hard bodies, generally you are moving around/drifting etc etc and letting the lure do the attraction work. You are targeting the fishes likely holding places its a different sort of fishing, all that be said. 2. Off shore even in close to headlands/washes we do burley then throw the SP,s through the trail and end up with really good results, mind you attrition rate on the SP's can be terrible from rubbish fish. 3. And finally yes!!!! flathead respond extremely good to burley. Constantly did that for years in Lake Mac with wonderful results, particularly in a slow moving current. Burley was cooked prawn heads and shells (last nights dinner)mixed with sand to assist a better sink rate. All flathead caught had the tell tale prawns shells in their stomach when cleaned. Bait was not SP's but Lake Mac prawns. For those interested one of the spots was just north of Pulbah Is in the channel leading up to the drop off. Diver 1 may also be interested in that, if he is still viewing the site. Also did saltwater red flies through the burely trail there and also got em on that. Must bottom bounce them. Water depth was about 15 foot. There is a bit there to explore so go forth and explore. Regards Trapper Tom.
  14. Mrs Swordie Priceless reply Trapper Tom
  15. Hey Roberta. Glad to hear your yakking about again and the hips Ok. Have been watching your posts etc. Noted in one of your last posts that you had lost your weed collection area for your blackies. With winter comming on and the weed dying off don't forget that they love and resort to worms and nippers to tide them over. Have nailed some crackers in the shoalhaven with those baits used as straight floaters. As for the spider, yes I was also trained in entomology and yep its a huntsman. They look mean but really not so bad. Also Just some totally useless information for you and other Raiders. All spiders toxins are "Necrotic" ie its designed to either paralise/kill and then dissolve/liquify the internal contents of the prey so that the spider can then suck up the contents as food. Most spiders have very short fangs so bites tend to result in necrosis of the skin areas only. Bad enough, think white tailed spider reports about disolving skin (mind you this has been proven a myth for this species I beleieve). But with say the funnal webb it can penetrate to sub-cutanious areas hence the seriousness of their bite. They are also extremely agressive. Rule of thumb. Any ground spider bite, serious trouble straight to hospital. Any above ground spider (ie Trees etc) eh shouldn't be a prob. Note also what is commonly called the "House spider" thats the one that lives in the corner of your windows and catchs flies, packs a really really serious punch hurtwise. And believe it or not so does the humble little "money spider" at about 2cm in size. Stangely enough the same rule generally also applies to Aussie snakes. Ground snakes generally highly venomous. Above ground snakes no probs. Now that I have passed on that totally and utterly useless piece of info on what is a fishing site I should get back to work. PS I haven't posted for a while either but was at Hamilton Is last week and and got lots of Coral Trout and Golden Trevours going out and fishing from the hire dingies available there. Cheers Trapper Tom.
  16. Hey Cephalopod. Sorry to advise, but if that sort of sign is up the works are already contracted and locked in concrete. Yes it is the typical Govt railroad thing. Yes not good organisation, but locked in concrete it is. Can't say much more than that, its a bugger. Cheers Trapper Tom.
  17. Geoff Yes it was. And bugger your guy is a lot cheaper. Cheers and good luck with the re-fit Trapper T
  18. Hey Geoff I've just replaced springs and axel etc on my trailer for my little 12' runabout. Got it out of mothballs as its just so much easier launching when I am on my own rather than fighting with the big boat. Went to a specific trailer parts supplier in moorbank. Wow Was cheap as chips. Don't know If I break site rules if I gave the name here though? Will try to pm you with the details Regards Trapper Tom. Ps Mods am I breaking site rulkes if I provide the info here.????
  19. UUMMMMM Marky Not the same salmon buddy. He's talking about the Australian Salmon. Cheers Trapper Tom
  20. Hey any other fishraiders. Just out of curiosity has anyone put a live bait down in the hole off Clifton Gardens/ deeper areas of Bot B or Even Newcaslte Harbour. If they are in they Hawksbury they may very well be in these spots. A suggestion for a try. Cheers Trapper Tom
  21. Hey Eastwood. I can comfirm that no they are not just a winter species. It just happens that for the last 20 odd years they have been mainly reported/documented in the press in the colder months around the Sydney area. Hence the misconception. Classic is Cowan Ck at night followed by Bot Bay both day and night (but not of late) and Syd H off Clifton Gardens (but not of late). Stewy has a theory on this ie why they have been missing in numbers for the last 7-10 years and I agree with him. They are getting netted before they reach their destination, when they do its because a large weather system has interferred with normal systematic commercial trawling and hence they get through in smaller numbers. Verfied documentation exists that they have been caught by anglers up and down the coast at all yearly times and even been caught as far north as townsville harbour in the middle of the summer. It is interesting to note that if they are a colder water species that (as far as I know) they are not caught in our far southern waters. They are a very very interesting prehistoric species of which very little is known. Great Teeth Hey! Research however suspects that they sort of live around New Z and migrate between there and here. No evidance exists that they migrate here to soley spawn etc etc (ie like trout) as a species mating ritual, so why they would come here, that would take about 2 pages to explain. Mate if they are here now go chase em they will be hanging around for a bitlonger, Oh and particularly on full moon nights contrary to some beliefs. Chase the baitfish and you will find them. Cheers and good luck. Trapper Tom.
  22. Hey spooled. I really think you will find that you may be abraiding the braid when casting!!!! Either from the rod tip or the movement of the sinker during casting. Smooth as is always the way to go when casting, even with mono, its a timimg thing. Practise smoothness and you can build up to a really hard smooth caste after mastering the slower caste. Also when casting with braid try to caste with the mono leader on the last rod tip runner so that you minimise abrasion to the braid. Its a common problem and I really think you need to practise your casting techneque. Also check your top runners for very small nicks and abrasions. Do this by getting a cotton bud and running it around the inside of the top runners. Any nicks will leave a sight residue/fibre of cotton on the runner/s and if so you will need to replace the top runners immediately otherwise the same problem will keep recurring. Also with any light line all good fisho's constantly run their fingers down the leader to feel for nicks or abrasions from fishes teeth and or abrasions from rocks etc etc. ANY slight nick or abrasion means the leader need replacement immediately, It means the differance between a landed fish or a lost fish on the next caste. Each time you catch a fish or get reefed check constantly on the status of your line, it is the only thing conecting you to yhe fish so its condition is a priority. Hope this helps and my opinion. Cheers Trapper Tom.
  23. Hey guys cop this one. Family always had a holiday house at Mannering Park and we stayed there for a month of each year. When we were about 10yrs old our Uncle Ray came to up to stay for a week and brought his new tinny and brand new 9hp tiller outboard. Needless to say we were allowed to hoot around in it. Raced around Vales point passed the CO-OP and out into Wyee Bay heading for the Hotwater outlet flat out. An all mightly noise and all I was left with was the rubber from the throttle in my hand. The screws to fasten the motor to the boat had loosened and the motor spun of the back and into the middle of Wyee Bay. We sat there for a few hours (very few houses and people in those days) waiting for someone to get us but ended up having to row all the way back around to Mannering Park and present ourselves to Dad and Ray. OOOOH BOOOOY! Was all cool though. Was quite dangerous actually as when the motor came off it spun around and up into the air before hitting the drink. Till the day he died Uncle Ray never let me live it down and he always got a great laugh out of doing it. Cheers Trapper Tom.
  24. Hey Outdoor. Yeah initailly looks like a Fantail leathery and would maybe call it for that, but the spike is too high up on its back and the mouth is too big. Was the spike a leathery defensive spike or was it just the remanets of a dorsal fin. If it was the remanets I will throw it out there and say maybe a juvinile John Dory. Damn hard though being half digested. Cheers Trapper Tom
  25. Now that is damn well worth bragging about in anybodies books. What a Top Jewie on lure!!! Trapper Tom
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