tide'n'knots

gday guys i just got back from a week in wooli on the north coast with a couple of mates and had a ball catching snapper and kingfish on the reefs just outside the river mouth. im sorry but i didnt take a lot of pics and regret it now but the excitment of catching fish and watching majestic whales breaching every day overtook the urge to fiddle with my phone to get photos however i did manage a few. the ocean was a bit messy the first day so i spent a couple of hours pulling blackfish from the river opposite the local tackle shop and fish was on the menu the first night! Over the next couple of days we caught the odd snapper here and there and on day four we decided to venture further out to solitary islands and a large school of fusileer started schooling around the back of the boat we caught half a dozen in no time flat along with an 80cm cobia which was a first for me and a couple of rat kings. one of the fusileer was 43cm and after checking fishraider records i discovered that no one has claimed to have caught one yet so i guess that is a fishraider record! on the second last day we were there we were told about a bommie about 2 miles out and decided to head out there and drift bait for some reds.After a little bit of exploring we located the bommie and first drift i was into a snapper not real big but the right species not long after we anchored a licenced fishing boat anchored near us and began to catch quite a few large snapper that needed to be gaffed as well a several good kings around 80cm. upon closer inspection we discovered that they were using cuttlefish for bait and absolutely braining them!! next year we are planning to go back and my mate joe has already purchased 3kg of cuttlefish ! half way through the day a whale glided under our anchor rope and popped up about 15 metres tp the side of our boat......WOW !! the was worth being there just for that. on our last day the guys in the licenced fishing boat were there again and jokingly offered to sell us some cuttlefish for a $150 a kilo!! at one stage they yelled "look at that: and over to our left about 30 metres away a whale breached 4 times and came almost completely out of the water ....awesome! not long after that they ccaught a snapper so big that they took photos of it and we guessed it was around 20lb in weight ! Although we didnt fair as well a s some others we still did ok and managed probably 20 or so snapper as well as other fish such as a very big tailer around 65 cms and a 70cm flathead . all in all a very enjoyable week away and cant wait for next year! pete a couple of fusileer (very pretty fish) 80cm cobia (sorry i dont know how to rotate the pics maybe a mod could help?

good on you for getting out there and having a go with the crappy weather weve been having . pete.

well done mate , the next one will come easier pete

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Good work on getting a king! They are very cunning and know when something isn't right. I have seen them in the harbour scoffing bread floating on the surface but when you slip a hook into a piece they swim up and have a look then swim away! Well done Pete

We'll done mate! It's always good when you get your target species no matter how big or small. That fish would have been good fun on light gear. Pete

sorry about the pics ! they are up now but no idea how to rotate them! pete

G'day NathanYeah mate I think the Jew have been waiting for the weather to get a bit colder and it finally has! Just got home from another night with my mate joe last night and joe busted up on a decent fish and we managed 6 bream all crackers including one 43cm!

G'day mate the masthead light is ample light to see a bite on the rod .... I also paint the rod tips white or wrap white insulation tape around it and with the light shining on it against a black sky they stand out like neons !Pete

niiicee!!!! its always good when a plan comes together. pete.

gday raiders , i went fishing on saturday night with my son paul and we had a great night together. we arrived at the ramp around 2pm for a turn of the tide around 4pm and we didnt have to wait too long before we got results! around 3pm Pauls rod baited with peeled prawn buckled and screamed off. Its been about 18 yrs since paul has caught a decent jewfish and he handled it like a seasoned pro. About 10 mins later i netted a nice 88cm jew and it was high fives all around! unfortunately i video'd his capture but couldnt get it to download. About half an hour after dark one of my rods screamed off baited with chicken marinated in aniseed and parmesan and i landed a nice 74cm model. Throughout the night we caught about 15 or 20 bream flathead and undersize jewfish and the pleasing part was that quite a few of the jewfish were up around 50 or 60 cm and they have definately become a more frequent catch at that size since they upped the size limit to 70cm so it has been a success in my opinion and should only get better now that they have a chance to reach sexual maturity. About 2.30 am i managed another 74cm model that looked like the previous ones twin! i took a pic with the yellow torch so i can submit the catch for catch of the month but i have no idea how to download the report and pics into that section? maybe a mod could help out please? Cheers pete

Being able to retire is dependent on income not age Jeff ..... You must have plenty of cash !!!!! Lol Nice report ..... Hopefully junior will catch all the fish next time and you will be religated to net duties! Pete

well done ....its amazing what a little burley will do ! pete

hey chappo, my son has been fishing wisemans ferry the past 2 weeks at night and getting heaps of school jew around the turn of the tide around 50 to 55 cm on hawkesbury prawns and chicken fillets. no legals yet but i dont think one is too far away the biggest he caught last saturday night went 67cm! I use to marinate the chicken in tuna oil and i have caught a lot of very big brem in the past on it but these days i use aniseed oil and parmesan cheese and it is a lot less messy and i have found that the jew really like it as well as bream and flathead. pete.

a few years back there was a storm that tripped the electricity off to a bbq area where i was living that had a deep freezer full of bait and fish including a jewfish around 15lb......we discovered it about a week later!.....you know the rest! pete.

Have a great holiday guys hope it's very fishy!!! Sorry I just realised that I missed your birthday Stewy ..... So happy belated birthday mate !

I remember almost losing a big black fish with you too white lips!!!! Mammy !!!

thats gold nathan! pete

well done nathan, shame the jew was just under legal but it was still a jew and they all count when you get your target species! glad to hear you had a fun time. pete.

Wow Tara top effort ...... I hope you gave Stewy heaps all day ! Sounds like he gave you fishing space instead of hogging the good spots for himself! Lol great read and well done

Nice report mate I'm heading up to wisemans ferry for a couple of days in early April so it's good to see quality fish coming in the river! Pete

awesome fish dan and great read also.... i enjoyed the read immensely !!! pete.

gday mate, the boat was designed to take a short shaft motor and when i bought the boat i told the salesman to make the back of the boat higher and put a long shaft motor on it as i was concerned that water might come in the back from large boats while i was at anchor. to cut a long story short they didnt make the back high enough and lifted the motor so that it wasnt sitting on the transom firmly and over time it has flexed and caused small cracks so i had the back lifted and fixed up.Its my own fault because i should never have accepted the boat the way it was but just thought it would be ok and it wasnt! pete

hi paul sorry for the late reply, i took a week off work to do the work on the boat and it took me all week. dollar wise probably around 1200 bucks some of the stuff wasnt excactly cheap. The hatch at the front and the anchor well were 100 each 2 sheets of building ply @ 60 each, carpet, aluminium angle, glues ,screws, hinges etc and welding cost me 200 so it soon adds up

Good work Nathan and bad luck about the ones that got away.... I bet you remember the landing net next time Pete