nsw drifter

Hi Dean, Fished moyura a bit. Kings are a bit of a hit an miss target. Depends if they are about - plenty of days when they don't co-operate. Should be in with a chance in january. Can target them in a variety of places - directly in front there is heaps of reef - mainly to the north - fairly shallow and trollable. They are also caught up at broulee island - but need to watch the marine park boundaries up there. The other spot that can be popular is about 6km out from river mouth perhaps a tiny bit south. Bit of a large reef in 50 meters comes up to 40 - marked on charts or iphone navonics etc. Pros work it a bit. Normally boats on it. Not so much trolling - it tends to be jigging thats popular here. Livebaiting should be just as effective and your bottom bouncing outfits may suit this style of fishing more than jigging. Get your livebait on reefs closer to shore. Bait jigs or small hooks - slimies ideal. Rigs not that different to standard bottom bouncing - sinker , swivel - leader to hook and pin your livey on. Can fish one on surface but generally more action on bottom on that reef. Stripeys or bonnies - yep trolling anything shiny should work if they are about. Could go even wider and target Striped marlin in january - depends how confident you are - need a bit of good weather and saftey gear to think about that. if there not there can always consider a run to montague - less than an hour by road from moyura - not the best run in a boat in summer from moyura as it would be nasty coming back if a north east wind comes up which it tends to do. best of luck

Hi kermadum, You'll find all of the above species in Durras lake itself - not difficult to find the lake - more diffiuclt to find the fish. Tiny bit early than what i think of as prime flathead time (next month or two I think are generally better) but you may find some flatties willling to play on lures or soft plastics in the lake. Try to cover a bit of ground - can walk around a bit down near the ocean end of durras lake - north side better. Not sure how far you'll get on foot around the boat ramp but it is fishable there for a bit as well. There are blackfish in there but in still clear water like that could be very tricky. Bream are in the lake but i always find small ones stealing baits a pain. Whiting are in there too - down towards the mouth is the one spot ive seen a few. Could also find a tailor if your lucky. They grow big in the south coat lakes so if you land one its likely to be a good one. Plenty of other options - the beach is just there - potential for salmon or bream of it. Blackfish of the rocks at either end also -probably a much more realistic target in the ocean than the lake if you take some burley and can find some suitable weed. The Clyde Rivers only 20 or so minutes away also. Probably need to tell people if you'll be shore based or have any type of watercraft. More options for watercraft. anyway best of luck should have nice time weathers been good lately.

Hi , Sounds like your having some fun which is most important thing. I'm fishing this area at moment and can confirm kingies do exist but they aren't thick on the ground. Whilst its a great idea to try for them they aren't neccesarily the easiest of targets. They can be in one spot one day - and you can't find them the next. If you want to upsize your catch snapper may be an easier target. You may already be picking them up in your mixed bags - and there are plenty of how to's out there. i will point out a few advantages of aiming for "pinkies". 1. this is an excellent time of year for them - particularly shortly after this really bad weather dies down is prime time. 2 you can be really close to shore and pick them up in shallow (10m) of water 3 they are fun to catch 4 don't require live baits or gear thats heavy duty 5 kingies can turn up in a burley trail meant for snaper - keep an eye out and watch your fish as they come to surface - sometimes they follow up another fish. If your picking up lots of flathead its probably a sandy bottom - better snapper fishing generally at edges of reefs - if your picking up red rock cod and seargant baker your closer to reef and hopefuly closer to snapper. Alternatives to that to upsize catches are trolling a shallow diver round the headlands for salmon this time of year - they are fun and don't require speacilist gear. When you pick up one go back over the ground again as fair chance youve found a school. The other options mulloway in the clyde river or tuross - Can live bait, toss soft plastics or even troll, hardbodies - not the easiest of targets but does hsave the advantage that you can do it when the seas are up. Plenty of how tos out there or just head up to the corner of big island (downstream end right hand side as you head up ) and i'm sure sooner or later you'll see someone tossing big soft plastics for them its not exactly a secert spot. Watch them for a bit and copy. best of luck

Nice work on light line. Looks a lot like a longfinned eel to me. Anguilla reinhardtii - very similar to the shortfinned eel but generally the shortifin is an even brown colour - whilst the longfin is mottled and green. Can also tell by where the fins start and finish (hence - longfin or shortfin) . More commonly found in the fresh than the salt but they do venture into the salt. Grow quite a bit bigger than that.

Hello, I'm living up the bay / Port at the moment. The Carpark you mention is indeed wide (on the shelf 20 or so kms wide) . It gets masses of slimies and other bait in the warmer months (Jan -Feb - March) and is a hotspot for marlin in these months. I don't go wide often as i'v got to go on someone elses boat to get that far -(mines to small). Haven't heard that many reports of whats been caught wide round here lately. t is very busy out wide during those warmer months when the marlin are on but a bit quiter now. The Newcastle herald has a fishing spread on whats biting on Fridays sometimes its relevant.- I'm sure the local fishing tackle shops ( at least 3 of them) will be happy to tell you whats been caught wide lately. Chattiness levels do vary a bit but they will all let you know whats been caught wide if asked. We've been having some good weather so someone will have been. You could have gone to sea in a bathtub today it was that nice but that may not continue. I'd say your right to think tuna this time of year if going wide. the other spot you may want to get marks / info for is the allmark mountain (wide off shore - North ) which is an option for jigging (kings) or deep water species. Perhaps the Canyons (Norah or newcastle i think a bit further south could also be plugged into the plotter for tuna but i could be wrong. They are pretty big distances for trailerboats but I've seen them otut there when conditions are right - but thats for you to decide. Besides that much closer in your in with a shot at snapper. If your boats big enough to go wide - broughton and surrounding reefs like wide of edith breakers (north) are options - do get and check a marine park map - there are a few restrictions on spots but plenty of fishable water. After that your into the noramal bread and butter (arguably less glamorous ) species - heaps of blackfish and salmon around at the moment. The slamon are very abundant and great fun on light gear so they aren't a bad fall back plan for half an hour of fun if you get no joy from the more serious targets. I'm away next week but good luck

thanks muchly - will look into that monster mesh - good to have more than one option -

hello all, Just wondering if anyone knows of any heavy duty spins (15-24kg) that are 2 piece that break into sections under five foot besides blue water t curve (7' 6" ). Have found a few - considering a godzilla from nitro. price range $200-600? End of short version Thanks Start of Long version (reasons why) Going on holiday (samoa), Mainly for surfing but also planning on trying poppering for GT's or anything else that will eat poppers, lures etc . Perhaps tuna. I have already invested in a five foot twin barrel rod tube for previous hol. (2 * 9cm diameter rod tubes joined together in cloth from aussie company). I picked five foot as the tube length to match a short stroker trolling rod I use. I kind of like the length as you can normally fit it in most cars - somehow. Had made a decsion that all travel rods bought from now on must split into 5 foot sections or less. With a bit of effort I can fit 5 rods in the tubes (therefore thinking of taking 1 light spin, 2 trolling rods, and 2 heavy spin rods - want two to share fishing with girlfriend / others and backup etc). So I have 4 rods sorted (1 spin light, 2 trolling and 1 spin heavy ). Want one more heavy spin. The heavy spin I have is the bluewater t curve 15-24kg spin at 7 ft 6 inches- (butt removes) which just fits (blank is about 5ft and 1/2 inches and butts between 2 -3 feet.). So I'm after another spin - similar size and similar line class (ie very heavy). i could just buy another t curve but seems a bit of a shame not to have two different models to compare. T curve do put out a gt special in the t curve - but at 8 ft with I'm guessing the same butt section its going to be 6 inches too long. Diawa put out a gt rod at 7 foot six with a removable butt section (Saltiga SG Muramura 76) but I can't find out how long the blank (top section ) is off the net and doubt my local stocks it to check. May have to track one down. Anyway - back to original q - any suggestions for a heavy duty 2 piece spin that breaks into short sections ? Will probably ask exact same question in a forum with more gt focus but may as well try both? many thanks

G'day, Beautiful spot kangroo valley not a local - have visited - . Think it could well be a very difficult spot to catch any fish. Main reason I believe the river is upstream of tallowa dam. Migratory fish like bass therefore can't get up there easily. Tallowa has been stocked with bass but don't think you can expect high numbers. Its also not prime bass time (generally considered better when circadas are buzzing). Still don't let me stop you - it is possible you could hook bass. If you want to think a bit outside the square you could target eels up there as they get almost everywhere on the east coast- don't know however if many would consider it sportsfishing. Slightly better odds I'd guess if you head somewhere downstream of the dam or to one of the other little dams behind nowra if your after freshwater fish - or for that matter plenty of saltwater opportuities around nowra. Best of luck and I'm sure you'll like the place - nice scenery , pub etc - but don't give up on "river fishing" if you get no result

Yes have this unit. Got it because it was portable. Fairly easy to use which ranks up there as pretty important to me. Have to buy a datacard as well (couple of hundred). Actually use it in the car sometimes as well (seperate software needed). In the boat I haven't used it for anything tricky just finding reefs - wrecks but is much easier than an old style gps as for marked strucutures you can see how big they are and surrounding landmarks - better sense of distance. Suppose only drawback i can think of is you could probably get a fixed one with a larger screen for similar money if you don't require portablity (i wanted to move between boats and have only limited space for eletronics so suits me)

I reckon those who identified it as a gudgeon are right and think vass was spot on with empire gudgeon. It is a native. They occur around sydney and often have red on their fins and it sure looks like one to me. Firetail gudgons often look similar but generally don't grow very large (for a gudgeon).

Sorry to hear you had poor luck with the fishing and battery. Assume there was three of you on board if you had six rods out - if not might be worth checking regs before next trip - don't want to have a bad day with the fisheries inspectors as well - pretty sure its 2 lines per fisher in salt. Hope you have more joy next time - think it is partly a matter of hours on the water with jew. As for batteries - a spares never a bad option.

G'day , GrantM glad you didn't get too miffed at my interpretation of your post - as I said was playing devils advocate a bit - suspected you weren't advocating banning rec fishing for blue groper/ wrasse. Still to some extent you seem to have a slightly different philosophy to me, the followings taken from your last post I'm think this resoning is flawed. Try substituting "snapper" or "mulloway" for blue groper in the quote ie Does that demonstrate why I think your reasoning is flawed? I don't think studies should be done only on species where the fishery has collapsed to the extent rec fishing is banned - I'm sure you don't really either - Spending 200k on understanding mulloway or snapper I'm sure wouldn't offend most rec fishos if it was likely to provided more of them in the future. I don't really have much difficulty with what your saying, to a large extent I think we probably have similar attitudes - I am also no great fan of how commercial fisheries have been managed. To play the devils advocate though I see no problem with 200k going to study a fish that as you say is not rare enough to warrant rec fishing bans. Think thats entirely appropriate if the knoweldge gained is valuable enough. The value of the studies a whole different arguement - I don't really see myself disagreeing with what iain or yourself in a major way - money does have to be spent in ways that provide good bangs for bucks. I also think pro buyouts may return very good results "bang for buck" wise for saltwater fishers and I have no problem with the idea of funds being spent that way. However I don't see scientific studies as always being "fiddling around the edges" Science is a neccesary part of responsible management. Think few dispute it - as to the value of this particular project - can't say don't know enough of the details. I agree banning spearos from taking them pretty well solved a lot of problems as far as ensuring the species doesn't disappear (bashirs comment). I suspect those conducting the study hope to learn a bit more than whats the minimum steps needed to ensure the species survives. Daves comments seem pretty shrewd to me. I have no idea if he has guessed the management implications of such a study correctly but I can see the logic in his guesses. I can't resist making one comment though. I won't dispute the concept that there is no need to tag fish to get the answers to the types of questions he suggest might be being addressed - its possible for some species. However I suggest tagging may quicker, cheaper and give more reliable info than other methods and that high tech tags (as discussed) may provide information that no other method can for some species. If you can think better study methods than tagging dave - share them with the world (assuming the fish is not landed commercially - so studying commercal landings is out , and recreational catches for blue wrasse are presumably biased towards small fish - so using rec fishing catches like bass catch data is going to be difficult ). see ya

Hello Mainly to play the devils advocate I'll put in two cents to say it could be a good thing. Think to look at the idea too narrowly is wrong. A quote from an earlier post. "You dont need a $200 000.00 study to work out how to best conserve and protect the species, you've just got to stop taking them out of the water and they will be fine on their own. Seems a bit strange that the Blue Groper study is such a big thing and yet they are not protected from rec angling. If they were really concerned wouldnt they ban that first ?" Yes stop taking them out of the water and they'll be fine, if theres concern ban rec fishing first - I'm assuming this was a temporary lapse of reason and you didn't really mean it? If there is a serious concern over a fish disappearing regulate those things with the biggest/significant impacts - whether thats commercial, spearo's, line fishers or something else entirely (like water extraction for freshwater species). I'm sure you meant impose bans/regulation only if they are needed/ likely to be effective with the most effort expended on activities with the biggest impacts. Banning rec fishing I'm sure most here will agree is not neccesarily needed for blue wrasse. I am sure however some parts of waverly and coogge councillors / members of the community would like to ban fishing for blue wrasse. I'm sure I could design a valuation system that put the value of the wrasse at Coogee at upwards of $10,000 per big fish - its certainly makes you feel like the money you spent on a dive is worthwhile when a big blue fish makes friends with you. So I'm sure theres political pressure to protect the species more. If more is known about the species - perhaps it will be demonstratable to the sections of the community that not only is it unlikely that rec fishers will target /catch/keep the really big blue fish but that some forms of protection (like bigger aquatic reserves or a total ban on taking) are not needed to protect this speces. It could of coursework out the other way - but doubt it. - can't see why a minimum and maybe one day a maximum slot size limit shouldn't be ample for line fishers. Anyway I might have totally got reason for the study totally wrong there are other reasons why the study could be good - like if australian researchers learn how to track fish in the detail possible from this technolgy - maybe it can be applied to other fish wihich have more "issues" - I think starting with an "easy" species to study (and if skeptical to get funding for) is a wise move before moving onto something tricker - got to learn to walk before you run. see ya

[Kit, Can help you out with what a fishladder is - fish migrate - bass for example commonly move from freshwater to estuaries to breed, adults and young then move backupstream. Most fish don't have legs so they have to swim. If they can't swim upstream because of a barrier in their way weir, dam etc the fish are pretty well stopped from moving back up. Imagine someone putting a wall up blocking the road (and theres only one road ) - not good. A fishladder provide fish with a way to get over a barrier. Theres a few different ways of doing this. There is more info on fishway types on the web at nsw fisheries website or the murray darling basin commissions got some nice pictures search using the term fishways. The different types look different - but its easier to understand how they work from pics. Best of luck with the carp - my guess is there in there for good - sounds like the type of situation they like, slow water with few predators. No idea if its been stocked with bass. If they can bass will probably escape downstream in a high flow event after a few years. Whatever the situation if they can't get in there naturally it will need continual stocking to maintain a population. Can be very successful though in some cases. see ya

re bass in Toongabbie creek by bashir, Think it is quite possible that there is the very occasional bass caught or seen in the creek and at Parramatta Park. Very much doubt they are wild fish. Lake Parramatta (Hunts Creek) has been stocked with bass numerous times. Imagine the occasional bass manages to move downstream and takes up residence in the weir pool or toongabie.