MrChipsnSalad

Sorted, thank you so much.. Wayne

Round two for the weekend and this time I put the boat in at Little Manly. Only got down at about 10.30am, so the tide was well and trully running out. My son and his two young cousins were my crew today, so I planned for a session of baiting hooks and tying traces. Having the young ones on the boat I opted for a quiet anchorage north of Dobroyd, but under the cliffs. After a few little Bream and not much else I suspected that it was going to be a little quiet, so I motored over to Flagstaff. The westerly was picking up, so my thoughts were for putting the kids in a warmer spot, with not too much motoring to get back to the ramp. So I decided on an empty mooring about 50-60m off Little Manly Point. We fished with prawns and I was tossing in bits of pilchard every 5 min or so. It wasn't long before the action began. We began to get a lot of hits, and after about 15minutes we landed our first Trevally for the afternoon. The action was fairly evenly dispersed around the boat, and the esky was looking good. Throw in a nice Black Bream and some reasonable leatherjackets, and dinner was sorted. We noticed a few Garfish around and my boy actually caught one with a hook that was way to big for the Garfish. I rerigged him with a Sabiki jig, and let him have a go. A few minutes later he pulled up the jig with 2 Garfish, and two Trevally to boot. What a mess trying to unhook that lot. The hooks were caught in the net and chaos reigned supreme. I few more garfish later and it was time to pack up. We basically fished the run out and had a blast. You can't wipe the smile off the little ones face. My son fighting a Trevally. My boys cousins had a ball, as it was the first time they had ever been fishing. They are on Holiday from Dubai, so it was a real thrill for them. 2 more young fishermen recruited - hook, line and sinker. We all had fish for dinner, and the kids were thrilled to be eating fish they had caught themselves. I have a few pics, but i have no idea how to post them.

Went for an afternoon session on the tinny. Dropped the boat in at Roseville and went straight to Grotto to see if I could hook a Flatty. There were heaps of leatherjackets that really made it a non-event. You just could not get a bait past them. Moved to Middle Head and picked up a few Cockney Bream and Wrasse, but nothing worth sticking around for. The breeze looked to be picking up, so we made the decision to try around the Spit Bridge. Once again it was the little Bream and nothing else. We moved around the area and tried here and there, but there was not much on the chew. Decided to have a final go around the moorings at Bantry Bay. We grabbed an empty mooring on the Eastern side of the bay at the last group of boat moorings before you head up to Roseville Bridge. There was not mush there, but we started to throw in bits of chopped pillies from time to time. After about 10 minutes or so we were visited by a small Kingy, probably around 60cm. The Kingy was picking up the bits of pilchard as we tossed them in. My son dangled his light bream gear over the side, and the Kingy grabbed the lot, taking the sinker and all. My dad was also rigged for Bream, but tossed the bait in, to promptly donate his rig to the Kingy too. I dropped in a more suitable 4.0 with a 30lb Flourocarbon leader. I had a squid on it, but the Kingy kept grabbing the pilchards. I retrieved my rig and changed baits to a pilchard. The damn Kingy grabbed every pilchard bit, except the one with my hook in it. After awhile, we had fed it enough scraps and it seemed to go. We decided to pack up and go to, so I emptied the bait board over the side and started to wash it off. Low and behold a bigger Kingy started ripping through the pilchard scraps. It was probably around the 70-80cm mark. I grabbed my heavy gear again and tried to entice it, but the same deal - everything but the hook. Then the leatherjackets arrived and my bait was shredded to bits. I would be interested to get any ideas about how to deal with Kingys when they are so close to the boat. They were way to close to use lures or anything like that. We were literally able to dangle our gear on their heads they were so close. It just did not seem like the way to catch a Kingy. They were also very careful to grab every bait that had no hook. Damn frustrating. Anyway, it seems that berleying up was the go, and they were loving the small bits of pilchard.

Thanks for that. I have not posted for awhile, but thought that I really should get back into it. Wayne

It is a few days late but nevertheless. Put the tinny in at Roseville with a mate. Only hit the water about 10.30am, so it was always going to be a tough day out. Noted the really brown water from the rain and was expecting to find it like that all the way to Balmoral. Surprisingly it cleared up just around the 8kt speed zone heading towards the Spit Bridge. Started off around the Quakers Hat Bay side of Beauty Point. Tried plastics, prawns and pillies for not even a bite. drifted around the moorings close in, but it was no good. Went to the Spit Bridge and drifted around the second pylon from the Southern end of the bridge. Used the same baits as before. We picked up a lot of baby Snapper initially. We decided to put out a few whole pillies and drift them down around the pylons. Lost a couple of 40 pound fluorcarbon leaders to big hits with clean bite offs, but never saw the culprit. Tried the same tactic for longer, but never had the hits again. At a guess, it was tailor. Picked up a black bream (28cm) on one drift, between the bridge and the marina on the eastern side of the bridge. We released it in good nick. That fell to a prawn on a #2 suicide hook, with a lightly weighted running trace. Picked up another one at about 20cm in the same spot, although we released it without measuring, so just a guess on the size. Decided that it was only going to be small stuff there, so we packed up and did some drifts near the beach at Clontarf. There were quite a few small leather jacket that were turning our plastics into something resembling a half eaten apple core, so we upped and left pretty quickly. Stopped at the point between Shell Cove and Balmoral and tried a drift there. Lost one big fish that gave a solid pull for about 15 seconds, but then we were chewed off again. Once again, a whole pillie, so possible tailor. We saw a fairly large fish on the surface, and motored over to find a Kingy wallowing on the surface. Netted it to see what the problem was. It was still pumping water through the gills, but had a fairly swollen belly. We ended up tossing it back because it was undersized (around 50cm) and we did not want to be caught with it on the boat. It had a few bites out of the tail, looked unhealthy. It may have been hit by a boat, or swallowed something bad. It swam off when we dropped it back in. Anyway, we motored over to the northern shore and drifted just east of Clontarf, on the sand to try for a flathead. Not much luck there, but we lost a few rigs to pesky leather jackets. We brought in a one small and very toothy leather jacket, leading to that assumption. There were no hits, just bitten off hooks when we reeled in the gear. That concludes a day that left us empty handed, but we did have a bit of fun. The most promise seemed to be by the bridge. We lost some nice fish there.

This whole MP idea is great, but rec fisherman should not be excluded. The commercial fisherman should be targeted. Breeding areas should be made exclusion zones for high powered water craft. Bag limits on each species should be reduced, as well as size limits increased. There should be more strict control of these limits, and the penalties for failure to comply should be harsh. But stopping the sport entirely, is a ridiculous notion. Fisho's, as I seem them, are as concerned about over-fishing as the next person, and given their unique relationship with the fish and their habitat, we are in many cases more concerned than others. This draconian idea has been talked about by Jim Harnwell in his editorials (Fishing World) for years. I have followed the discussion with interest, but I never thought that our doorstep would be targeted in such a broad and ill conceived manner.

Well, I have missed few reports over the past weeks, but since the fish were scarce, i have not bothered. I had a dinner at the in-laws in Sylvania this evening, so I convinced my wife that we should take the Tinny out for a run and throw a line. As is the case, when you take the whole troop along, the early start finally kicks off at around 10.00am. So it was today. Being a Northern Beach based fisho, I knew nothing about the south. A quick call to my accountant (he fishes this area in his boat a lot), and I had a plan. Stopped in at the bait shop near Smiths Seafood, and picked up some ammo. The guy there was really helpful, and he suggested that I drop the boat in at Hawkesbury Blvd Ramp in Sylvania Waters. This seemed good, as it was a short drive from dinner. The tide was really low too, so a deep ramp was appreciated. Anyway it all started badly when i caught my wedding ring on my handle for the canaopy on the back of the ute, and was left with a perfectly round cut around my whole finger, and shredds of skin hanging off (lucky it wasn't broken). Then I backed the boat down, only to find a massive crevice under water at the base of the ramp. Lucky I didn't smash the motor, the tilt lock held, and the axle for the trailer didn't suffer too badly. The joys of visiting area's without local knowledge. Some other guys were coming in, and even they admitted not knowing about the crevice. Well it's there and I found it!!! The mood lifted as we headed out towards the oil tanker jetty, where there were Trevally, so I was told. Spent about 30mins tossing prawns, squid and squidgies around the area, but not even a sniff. Drifted in close to the pier, and realised that those big yellow signs were telling us that we needed to be 100m from the pier. Fished around something that looked like a fish farm, until we saw signs telling us to get 50m away. Started to feel a bit unwanted, so we went to plan B. Plan B was a drift 100m off the front of the boat ramp near Towra point. The idea was to find Flathead. This also proved to be fruitless. After about 1.5 hours we had not even had a bite. My son was having a ball practicing his casts. The wife was settling in for the long haul, and asking where we would get lunch. I remained indifferent, hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Towed a Halco Lazer Pro for a half hour or so, as we decided to motor slowly back and look for spots that may hold fish. Not having a depth sounder is a real pain in unknown waters. As it turned out, we didn't need a sounder. You just needed to look over the side. We were about 300 -400 m off Towra, and I thought we were going to run aground. Man it is shallow there. Next stop Captain Cook Bridge. For zip. And on to Tom Ugly. Spent some time around the Pylons here, as we were actually getting bumps on the line, for the first time to day. Worked around the pylons and got nibbles and soft tugs, but nothing hooked. Does anyone actually notice that the bridges are "No wash Zone". There are big signs everywhere, yet everyone hoons through the place like there is no tomorrow. That goes for the local Waterways launch too. No wonder there was that accident there some months ago. "No Wash" means go slowly!!!!!!! Anyway, we called it a day at about 4.00pm and packed up. Not a single fish was taken, nor did a single fish even cross the rail. On the other hand, the day was pleasant, and warm. The bay was lovely, and the sea nice and calm, which made travel comfortable. Had a fish soup at the inlaws, so I did at least taste fish today.

Am always happy for suggestions mate. That's what it's about. I'll give it a go. I tend to use a jerk and wait retrieve on the boat, which works well in deeper water, but I have not used it much in shallows. I don't really know why I change my method when i'm not on the boat???? Regarding the swivel, you think it is better not to have it. I might give that a go. I recently had to replace my end eye that got blown out when I casted without noticing the swivel was through the guide. I always had this idea that you need a swivel just to avoid line twist, although plastics seem to travel without twisting, unless you have them on the hook wrong.

Hi Kabz, I have answered your personal message, and thought it may be useful to someone if I posted my reply here. Coming from someone who calls themselves MrChipsnSalad (a reflection of the need for plenty of the latter for a good fish dinner at my place), I'm not sure how useful it is, but anyway if it is all wrong someone may point it out and give me some better advice too. I was using Squidgies, which I mostly use, although Gulp and Powerbait seem to work just as well. The colors I was using were the black combinations, with the shad tails. But I have also had a lot of luck on the larger green ones and the blue ones. Flathead don't seem to care to much, and I have caught them on all sorts of colors. I often think it is almost a territorial response, and that they attack because it is in their patch, and not always because they are hungry.I don't think that they glow in the dark. As for the spot, we were at the park on the Southern side were there are a few boat ramps. I am not exactly sure if there is a playground there, because I never took notice. I suspect there will be because there is a park there. There is a long sand bar that juts out into the lake on the western side of that area, near a small creek that runs into the lake. We were fishing at the end of that sand bar, into the channel. All fish were actually caught quite close to the edge, within 10m of our feet. We tend to use a very slow retrieve and drag the plastic along the bottom, with lots of stops and starts. I also find that the best results come from using as light a jighead as possible. Don't get sucked into buying the more expensive jig heads that have fish head shapes moulded and painted. I have caught more fish on the simple round lead ball type jigheads, than I have ever caught on the moulded and painted you beaut jigheads. I also don't have much use for the jigheads with the moulded barb in the lead, as they tend to wreck a perfectly good plastic, if you try to remove them to change to another color. I go for jigheads that have a nice sharp and thin hook, with out barbs to hold the plastic. If they are put on properly, the curve of the hook will keep them in place. Just make sure that the when the hook comes out of the plastic, the "mouth" of the plastic is touching the lead ball. That way everything should stay in place. I also strongly recommend that you don't buy the jigheads that have been painted orange and white, as this paint seems to melt off them and block the eye's of the hook and make a mess in the tackle box. Plain lead balls and a nice sharp hook, are all you need. I also use a short leader connected to the main line by a small swivel. That is just a personal preference, and may or may not be useful. I fish 6lb line, with an 8lb leader. Depending on which rod and reel combo I use, I may have braid on or I may have Fireline on. I find braid to be very good for feeling the little bumps and knocks, and it is really good for striking as it has very little stretch. I use 7" and 8" 2-4kg graphite rods, that are very stiff, with 4000 size Stradic and Sahara reels, which seem to be quite balanced. I hope that this helps in some way. Good Luck.

Where about do you fish? I have never really worked the place out. It all seems so shallow. I've often tried the channel on the northern sea side of the bridge on Pittwater Rd, as it looks like some good water, but nothing is ever there. The only place that seems to work for me is down the road from Bunnings and also the Southern end by the park and boat ramps. But I have never caught anything note worthy. I do often see little mullet there, which look good for bait, but never bothered to catch any.

My thoughts exactly.

I went down to the lake at about 7.30pm and my wife, sister-in-law and myself and tossed plastics around for about 1 and a half hours. We tried Powerbait, Gulp and Squidgies, but there were no takers. We tried the area around the end of the street by Bunnings. It turned out to be a sensational evening nevertheless. The lake is open to the ocean at the moment, so it is quite low. I did see plenty of fish jumping, but I guess they were Mullet and possibly some small tailor. There was an official from Warringah Council who wondered over and warned me about a 5' Bronze Whaler that has been spotted in the lake over the last few days. I was wading around at the time, so I guess he felt like he should warn me. Needless to say I retreated to knee deep water for the rest of the evening. Apart from that the evening was uneventful, and we went home empty handed although we did have a pleasant end to the day.

Unfortunately I'm in Tamworth this weekend, but I would like to find out how to get hold of a cap in anycase. Cheers Wayne

Nice to meet you too. It's about time we had a fishraider cap or shirt. I'll stop for a longer chat if I see you guys again. I have seen you guys before, so it won't be long I guess. Cheers Wayne

Nice to meet you, my names Wayne. Yep, you guys were heading a bit further up the beach just as I was packing it in. Cheers