Juzza

Yum! drummer. Those larger ones must of been fun to pull in . I have a question too, did you use a float or a sinker straight to a hook? Justin

A comparison between a 31cm blackfish and the 47cm blackie Fillets ready to be panfried, YUM Justin

Sorry admin, posted in the wrong section while i was looking the the rules for fish of the month

It was monday afternoon and i was fishing a local haunt on the north beaches. The downs were few and far between, even with burley. So decided to move about 50m away to see if there were anymore fish. The downs were continuous after the first cast, half the time the float didnt even have time to sit upright and BAM off it went into the water. The fish were being caught...like no tomorrow. When sun set approach there was a subtle down, i waited, and the float disappeared...2 seconds later i struck. The fish went balistic in the shallow water and my 2000 tiera reel had line screaming off it, at the first run it took about 10m of line off meanwhile i was crossing my fingers that the 6lb leader wasnt going to break and that all the knots were tied correctly. The fight took about 5min, with drag being peeled off and regaining line until the fish was tired. was holding my breath until i saw it and MAN WAS IT MASSIVE!!! . With a sigh of relief it was in the keeper net. It managed to smash my 42cm pb by 5cm! Well, there you go. a 47cm blackfish...once in a lifetime blackfish at least for this day and age. Also i managed to catch over 30 of them, with the average size to be 35cm. All but 9 were released, you could see that they were probably about to breed and full of roe. more little blackfish on the way Monster 47cm Blackie Justin

We met up at 7am, i had already arrived at 6:30 to get ready. Armed with my 'Bream' tackle, 4 wrap live fibre and a 5000 sized shimano loaded with 30lb braid already knew i was going to be on the losing end of things. Peter showed me his 8 Wrap with titanium runners armed with an alvey, with Peter armed with a Broomstick i knew who was going to have the upper hand! It did take a while to get the fish biting with constant burley, Peter got a few pickers..while we were chatting my bait drifted close and BAM my rod just loaded up with a reasonably large angry pig. The sheer power of these fish as they find their rocky home was unimaginable. BUT i won the fight and caught my first legal PIG! at 42cm and about 1.5kg. After Peter's nice pig that completely dwarfed mine, i had a few enquires that completely dusted me, it felt like my bream stick was going to break in half. In the space of 5 seconds the pig found its rocky home and busted my leader. Wow what a day, thanks for teaching me the ropes Peter. Looks like ill need to get my groper gear out Justin Oh and by the way, i ended up going again this afternoon and caught 1 pig and 1 trev

Hey Peter, nice rock blackfish, fished monavale today for 2 trevally and loads of sweep and small wrasses . Was using the 4 wrap wilson live fibre. I managed to bring 4 prawns instead of 3 Justin

Nice catch! im sure it would have put up a good fight, just wondering if it turned blue already? must of been about 5-6kg? Justin

Nice fish Peter! I need to source some new floats..lost 1 of my nice cider one a month or so ago to this big bream that bust be off in weedbeds. Sadly the guy isnt able to make them anymore. Justin

Are you sure it wasnt you clicking in and out? Jokes* Nice fish Pete especially on the bigger plastic! Maybe i should fish at lake mac when im traveling from newcastle to sydney every weekend! Justin

just wondering, how does the jewfish see the soft plastics at night? does the area need to be well lit? Nice catches by the way, i guess you next goal is to hit the 1m mark! Justin

Hey guys, Iv been fishing in my backyard, at the local jetty just a walk away. It has heavy structure! Pontoon encrusted with mussels and 4 wooden pole that surround the pontoon. I have to say, when extracting the fish with limited walking space is somewhat challenging! Thats what makes it fun i guess. Friday morning, i was flicking lightly weight bread baits near the poles and the surrounding area. Was using my softplastics rod, with 4kg mono and 2kg fluro. Got monstered in the 5th cast...BAM! and straight into the pole. No control at all! The drag was tight, rod tip bent and rod was pointing towards the fish. It was the 'perfect' situation to extract the fish... Well, that was that, done and dusted on the pole, with the 2kg leader shreaded. Over the next 30min i caught a few undersized ones and 2 other that were around 28-30cm. That was great fun. Untill i realised there was still a bluenose still around the area. I cast sideways close to the pole (quite an awkward position to be fighting a fish in)...just had to wait about 15sec and had a very solid take. The fish went ballistic upon striking and went straight for the adjacent pole. Couldnt turn it!!!!! i was exasperated.... However, the fish had actually bypassed the pole and didnt manage to rub my leader onto it. However the 4kg mono...was still rubbing against the pole. Must have stripped 20m off my reel! I was quite pleased that the fish had swum back the right way and not around the pole. With a perfect net shot, and a few snaps. This fish was going to the neighbours...they dont seem to mind the 'dioxin contaminated' fish. All the better All the other fish were released. 40cm Yellowfin Bream Justin

Should i still be using 3kg braid with ~10 pound leader? Ill experiment a bit and see if it affects the amount of bites i get. Still got the feeling of the adrenaline rush as you struggle to get the fish away from it's rocky home..

Hey everyone, Does anyone have tips of pulling the big brute out of their homes? using baits or lures. Currently landbased, fishing bridge pylons and jetty pylons. Have been dusted by a few bream too heavy to steer out of heavy structure. Currently using diawa tierra 2-4kg ~7ft rod (for both SPs and bait) and a tierra reel spooled with 3kg braid and 3kg leader. Justin

Ahahah, not sure if ill eat them uncooked though. even if i was in a dire situation Roberta, the other fillet wasnt affected, but i think the other side was thrown away anyway. Just in case

ahahah, nah i didnt use the alvey, used a spinning reel with a 10ft rod. I havnt really used the combo i bought, its pretty much collecting dust at home .. Yeh most of the fish were chucked if they had...worms...and other nasties in the flesh

These fish are from the northern beaches, some batches of fish i catch have them, some batches dont. Both of these are from different fish. The one in the bottom picture, i think, had this very hard object in the skin (possibly a foreign body since its encapsulated by a cyst) however the skin was not broken and looked quite normal. I find that if one of the fillets have something...then the other side a very likely to have it. Im curious, you know how a large majority of jewfish (especially the larger fish) have worms in them. Do they look like the one in the first picture? Justin

Does anyone else find that some of their blackfish are 'infected' with worms and/other weird things? Doctors are alright..but anything within the flesh seems to put me off a little. Most of the time i just cut off the offending piece of flesh. Other times i just throw the fillet away if it is not salvageable. Here are just 2 of the pictures, there are probably 2 other scenarios that i have come up against...brown like worms and loads of black spots/splotches within and on the surface of the flesh. Anyone have any experiences of thoughts they want to express on this topic? Finally i have to say, they're a great fish with a good fight and taste pretty good =] Justin

Nice one Peter! especially for the lake. Its funny how you get the occasional big one thrown in, maybe there will be a few more coming into the lake after those higher tides Justin

The Harbour blackies are going to have to watch out!!! Looking forward to see what happens Justin

Thanks guys, ill give the fisheries a call and let them know the approximate location. Is the net meant to be attached to a buoy and is it meant to be visible or under the water? Im asking this because it wasnt actually visible to the naked eye at night while we were looking for a place to anchor. There were live fish in the nets. The Net was about 50m from the moorings about where the weed meets the sand (2.3m of water on a falling tide), however we drifted about 100m towards the port marker along the flats while we getting the net off the anchor+prop.

Had a night session at pittwater off a boat with dad and sister, decided to find a nice secluded bay away from all the wind and waves. Had pumped some nippers and had a few poddies to soak in the water. Just on dusk, we landed 3 whiting to 35cm and a bream which are going to dinner sometime soon =] Around 8pm, it was quiet and we decided to move spots to the flats on palm beach...bad move Set out the anchor and dropped 1 line into the water, dad hooks onto something MASSIVE and heavy...with minimal movement! It was directly under the boat. Anyway, we snapped off and decided to move the boat a bit further out, started both engines...and when we put them into gear the left one seized and shut down. Pulled the pin and tried to quickly find the problem, we couldnt see anything much on the inboard motors..so we winched up the anchor and set off with 1 engine about 50m. Ok well...we found out what was causing the problem! A GILL NET attached to the anchor and the left prop, It was the massive and heavy thing that we had hooked onto at the start. We realised when there seemed to be weight on the bow of the boat: ie when your anchor gets stuck and you try to drive. Spent a great deal of time trying to cut the ropes around the anchor, additionally we found heaps of fish, live and caught up in the nets. Managed to release a few big ones but the net was too heavy to drag up so we cut it off =[. Cant imagine the damage it would do to the system :ranting2:Drove back with 1 engine, glad that this boat was a time share thing or else the session would of given me a headache. That must of been the biggest catch of all nights we've been on pittwater..

It was a nice day to get out of the house and relax on the water. Decided to go out to narra lakes for a fish opposite the caravan park. Nice blue sky with sun and little clouds. Besides the cool wind, it was nice to have water lapping around your legs. In terms of the fishing...i had 1 hit on plastics but didnt manage to hook up. Pulled a few hook on baby fish on a SX40. The only disappointing part of the trip was...my THONGS got stolen...!!! Not as bad as rods and reels, but it still bothers me. Normally i place my thongs next to the bushes close the bank of the lake, done this over 20 times with no problems. Someone must of pinched them while i was walking along the flats flicking lures, i would have been facing the culprits!!! Searched the whole bank to see if anyone had placed it elsewhere...but no. Went back to the car thongless Besides this dilemma, i have a feeling that the flatties are slowing down currently for the front of the lake. Justin

Sounds like a fun trip! its great fishing with family! Congrats on the Jewy, have yet to catch my first legal one =] Justin

Those whiting are hard to entice =] but when they're interested they just gulp down the bait. Iv been using beach worms, sight fishing for them on the flats. They seem to like fighting each other on the flats and are quite competitive. Cast a lightly weighted beachworm upcurrent of 2 whiting that were having a commotion...and BAM 34cm whiting...nothing like those elbowslappers though. Justin

Massess and Masses of small bream and whiting + bait fish. Havnt seem to caught many big flatties on plastic recently at the caravan park. This is all during the day ofcourse...wonder how the night action is going. Justin