Drummer in 2-3m of swell?

[chokpa]

Just wondering if anyone has experience targeting drummer in big seas. 

I have a spot that is probably 6 or more metres off the water so it's safe in big seas. I have fished it in low swell and dragging the fish up is no problem (so far). 

Just wondering if a float and bait can really survive waves of that power, and will the berley just be spread across the tasman sea with the water movement? Are the fish just hiding in holes when theres that much movement?

I'm fishing with cooked prawns and a weed fly, but i suspect luderick wont venture out with that much wash. might try my cabbage fly for drummer.. I usually berley with bread and prawn crush. might need to make it a bit more dense tomorrow so it had a chance of reaching the bottom

Cheers

Edited September 6, 2019 by chokpa

[wazatherfisherman]

Back in the 80's, 4 guys fishing as a team for Sydney Eastern Suburbs Anglers Club, caught about 400+ fish overnight in the Sydney Metro Rock Championships, from memory there were over 200 Black Drummer up to about 3.5+ kg's. 

They fished at 'Big Rock', the northern most extremity of the Cliff-base spot- 'The Mattens'- the sea was big that night and they were up high. My club fished the south end of the Mattens about 850 mtr's south of the Easts guys, we were on lower level platforms and barely could wet a line as the sea was just too big, although 73 yr old Wally McLuckie from our club won the Veterans title (for the 6th or 7th time) with 2 really big Snapper, hooked from a ledge about 20 mtr's above the water.

In big seas, like that night, the Drummer (and most fish) were well out from the rocks and about 4-5 mtr's under the surface (the water is about 15-18 mtr's deep there)- a size 1 or 2 ball running between swivel and hook the rig, cunje the bait, they had tons of burley- not sure what other than heaps of bread. They caught a couple of dozen big Luderick, Bream, Tarwhine and finished the session catching big Tailor on Pillies in the morning. One of the best catches of fish from a "non-murk" location in AFCA Competition.

We used to get big Black Drummer down "our end", but mainly when really calm on super low ledges fishing down the sides of deep "walls"- the fish would be about 4-5 mtr's straight down the wall- again it was about 15+mtr's deep.

Luderick are usually really active when it's rough, but you have to take into consideration how far out the 'naturally' washed in cabbage goes before sinking to the 3.5-4 mtr's depth that the fish seem to prefer feeding at. 

Often, less experienced Luderick fishers fall into the trap of kicking burley in (with rock plates) and it doesn't sink until well out- same as when it's rough, The fish are watching from below and follow the 'non-sinking' cabbage "out the back", where they instinctively stay, waiting for more. Picking a good water pattern to drop burley in so it sinks close rather than far is key to getting them feeding back in close. You can't tell other guys what to do however, and sometimes you have to drift to "New Zealand"(as it's known) to get a down, Had plenty of days when we couldn't get them to come in regardless of "selective" burleying and drifting floats out 40, 50, 60+ mtr's the only way to get them.

In answer to your question, yes they feed actively, just not so much in the 'washing machine' conditions.  A suggestion re burley- we found that chicken layer pellets are THE burley for Pigs (Drummer)- you have to soak them in a bucket until they have broken down completely into a 'mushy-mud-like' mess, like thick sand- they/it sinks quickly and we've had great success with them- just make sure the pellets have broken right down or the fish will eat them and ignore your bait!

 Hope this info is helpful and you get some- they're really tasty

Regards Waza

 

[Rebel]

Grear story Waza.

[chokpa]

Wow Waza great piece of history. Fascinating... Thank you so much. I think I'll be thinking of that story for years!

[wazatherfisherman]

7 hours ago, Rebel said:

Grear story Waza.

Hi Rebel there were tons of stories like that in those days, you had basically no chance of being competitive as a team if you didn't get at least a couple of hundred fish between the 4 of you.

The same 4 guys and I think another 4 in a second team from their club won a Sydney Metro Beach Comp with another big catch of Drummer, Bream, Tarwhine and Luderick- all caught on cunje from Tamarama Beach-  There was a huge complaint at the weigh-in re species, but I know for a fact that they had been burleying the spot for days prior to the comp and although not 'usual' beach species, they cleaned up on them. I think they even had a couple of Groper also. The guys with Bream, Whiting etc-traditional beach fish- were no chance, as those comps used to be 1 point per fish and 10 points per kg. A couple of decent Drummer outpointed a whole bag of Whiting.

Regardless that they were arch rivals, they were both skilled and innovative in their approach to comp fishing. Didn't work for them the very next year, they only caught about 40 fish on cunje, but managed to catch a big bag of Tailor on 1 block of pillies- somehow

[wazatherfisherman]

6 hours ago, chokpa said:

Wow Waza great piece of history. Fascinating... Thank you so much. I think I'll be thinking of that story for years!

Hi Chokpa Curracurrang Bay in the Royal National Park is a good example of a spot that fishes well for Drummer etc during and just after a huge southerly swell. Masses of dislodged whole cunje pods get washed up into the protected corner of the bay, where they rot in the sun. The fish know they are there and on the high tides come into really shallow boulder strewn area to get at the decaying/breaking down cunje. 

This area, although normally harbouring Drummer etc, really turns on good fishing when the weather is/just has been wild, with heaps of hungry, active fish seeking the cunje- far more fish in there when wild conditions rather than a 'normal' day.

[Rebel]

Great stories, thank you.

I grew up at Tamarama beach. I helped my father and his mates build that three story brick house opposite the beach. I will never forget it as a teenager.

Cheers.

[Waza]

The old AFA days were similar .

Eastern Suburbs Anglers and South Sydney AFA  were the gun clubs.

We all fished the Mattens, Light, Gap & Roser 

Comps were a berley feast for pigs and luderick but we stayed south of Maroubra with this style of fishing. 

I had Malabar Little bay at my back door , it was a great place for kids.

3x strength 1/0 hooks with a ball sinker and cungie with 8wrap rods and  alvey winches were the go. The days of scunning the fish are long gone in comps but it was fun times.

I used to help out in SSB&T and we were always dialed in 🤓

Hooking pigs fishing for luderick was always a challenge 😳😳😳

[JimT]

I lived just opposite the main entrance to Prince Henry Hospital at Little Bay during my latter high school years. There was a group of us that fished around the Little Bay area- Julie-Ann, The Gutter, The Jump, Doctors Rock, Greeny, The Trap, The Shute, This next spot we climb down a short ladder to a large low level platform, the Shakey and Cape Banks and Browns Rock. These were all walking distance. Some of the names in the group were Craig T, Gary P, Scotty ?, Jim T, Phillip C, and our Tackle shops were Mascot Bait and tackle which became Matraville B&T, South Syd B&T with owners over the years being Chris G, Phil A, and Peter Z who was a big Slavic boy who saved me from a fall while climbing down to Julie-Ann one early morning during a club rock comp. This was around the mid to late 1970's. I had moved out to Parramatta area but always head back to these fishing areas which I knew and could almost always get a feed no matter what the weather conditions were. However, the numbers of fish caught difinitely has dropped as the years have gone on. Most memorable vision I had over the early years was when the "Paragon" was washed in during 1974 storm. This was the first really big weather event after the Breakwall for the container terminal was first built. Swell patterns all changed in the Bay and the rest is history. They ended up building little breakwall thingies out from Yarra Bay to mitigate the swell which is deflected by the Breakwall. I think during this same weather event a huge rock like 4m by 4m by 4m was moved near where we would leave our gear when fishing The Gutter. The power of a really big sea is immense.

Regards Jim

[wazatherfisherman]

On 10/18/2019 at 3:20 PM, Waza said:

The old AFA days were similar .

Eastern Suburbs Anglers and South Sydney AFA  were the gun clubs.

We all fished the Mattens, Light, Gap & Roser 

Comps were a berley feast for pigs and luderick but we stayed south of Maroubra with this style of fishing. 

I had Malabar Little bay at my back door , it was a great place for kids.

3x strength 1/0 hooks with a ball sinker and cungie with 8wrap rods and  alvey winches were the go. The days of scunning the fish are long gone in comps but it was fun times.

I used to help out in SSB&T and we were always dialed in 🤓

Hooking pigs fishing for luderick was always a challenge 😳😳😳

Dave Carter, Billy Brown, Jim Clarke and I put the big ladder in at the lighthouse- the spot was developed by Dave and Billy. We mostly fished the Mattens, but fished the other spots as well (usually with "non-climbing" club members)- my old club was the AFA of NSW and we fished against Easts and S/Syd, Caringbah, St George etc. in the old Syd Metro Division of the AFCA

Fished the Mattens continually from 1976 to 1998. Last "work" I did there was replace the peg on the small climb (with Tim Walker)- great days and awesome catches of fish back then. My brother Mick was a regular at Julie-anne (he only did the Mattens once and up via helicopter!) and used to just spin for Bonnies and Kings. I used to like fishing at Donkey's, but had a few hairy moments there and the Trap.

Great to hear from others of the "era" Fished with Steve Davies and Tony Clibborn a couple of times at the Mattens also

Regards Waza

Edited October 19, 2019 by wazatherfisherman

[Waza]

Yes Waz & Jim I know and fished with those pirates as a junior and fished most of those haunts, dived them too .