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Starting rock fishing


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Hey Bud im guessing you are a fairly young bloke with no large family background in fishing-i think you are getting a long way in front of your self and worrying about fish you are not likely to encounter at this point. My advice is this-get a medium spin outfit with two spools-load one with 20 lb braid, the other with 12-15 lb mono. Get a few metals, couple of poppers/stick bait and a few ganged hooks , couple of light floats,and some general terminal tackle.Hopefully we will be free from this lockdown by December and this will coincide with the usual run of small pelagics around Sydney. Go to some of the more popular ledges-Avoca, Bass Point etc- a bit of research will find other spots. For Avoca get yourself cleats. Learn how to catch bonnies and rat kings, learn how to catch livies, upgrade from there. When the weather cools off in autumn do a bit of wash fishing for bream, small snapper, trevors etc. Learn how the ocean moves, learn to read a rock platform, spend time with experience rock fishos (Pickles gave an excellent suggestion regarding Alex Bellisamo), learn your craft. It will ensure your safety (which is above all else) and dont get your hopes unrealisticly high for huge fish. I reckon there are probably a total of 2-300 people who have caught a marlin off the rocks in Australia, LBG is a hard road  and every fish is earned. The north coast is an excellent place in autumn for higer levels of action with longtails and a lot of mack tuna. Fighting a fish off the rocks is not about brute strength-some spots the fish just has to swim in the wrong direction and "ping" its all over-heavier is not always better. I NEVER tied my rod off when livebaiting -I ALWAYS held the rod-amazing how many times i saw fish lost because the fisho was lazy and stuck his rod in a crevice and i also saw a couple of outfits launched into the sea despite "safety lines" Good luck

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26 minutes ago, PaddyT said:

Hey Bud im guessing you are a fairly young bloke with no large family background in fishing-i think you are getting a long way in front of your self and worrying about fish you are not likely to encounter at this point. My advice is this-get a medium spin outfit with two spools-load one with 20 lb braid, the other with 12-15 lb mono. Get a few metals, couple of poppers/stick bait and a few ganged hooks , couple of light floats,and some general terminal tackle.Hopefully we will be free from this lockdown by December and this will coincide with the usual run of small pelagics around Sydney. Go to some of the more popular ledges-Avoca, Bass Point etc- a bit of research will find other spots. For Avoca get yourself cleats. Learn how to catch bonnies and rat kings, learn how to catch livies, upgrade from there. When the weather cools off in autumn do a bit of wash fishing for bream, small snapper, trevors etc. Learn how the ocean moves, learn to read a rock platform, spend time with experience rock fishos (Pickles gave an excellent suggestion regarding Alex Bellisamo), learn your craft. It will ensure your safety (which is above all else) and dont get your hopes unrealisticly high for huge fish. I reckon there are probably a total of 2-300 people who have caught a marlin off the rocks in Australia, LBG is a hard road  and every fish is earned. The north coast is an excellent place in autumn for higer levels of action with longtails and a lot of mack tuna. Fighting a fish off the rocks is not about brute strength-some spots the fish just has to swim in the wrong direction and "ping" its all over-heavier is not always better. I NEVER tied my rod off when livebaiting -I ALWAYS held the rod-amazing how many times i saw fish lost because the fisho was lazy and stuck his rod in a crevice and i also saw a couple of outfits launched into the sea despite "safety lines" Good luck

yeah your right there, my direct family doesn't give a crap about fishing so yeah. My uncle does tournaments all the time but yeah. This December Im going up the coast and have plans to go rock fishing for bream, drummer, luderick, ect during the day and target sharks at night. Ill try some of those ledges. Its annoying because I have never caught a rat king, I have only ever caught bigger. snapper is something id love to get into a bit more and luderick but I just haven't spent the time to really give it a go. TBH im not really interested in getting a marlin off the rocks im more interested about learning a new thing, like I just picked up beach fishing again after quite a few years and finding i'm doing alright now. the why i have the heavy gear is for shark and since im not really allowed (like they don't mind but they kinda don't like it i feel, think its a waste of money) to respool or buy much new gear its been hard when I want to try something different.

I do have a 6000 size reel with 20 lbs mono i guess ill try on the 5-10 kg, would you recommend this setup?

what about slide baiting with the slammer though? don't you need the heavy line? My plan for the slammer was to attach a lighter leader to the wind on leader and just use the lower drag so incase i really need spool cap ill have plenty.

thanks for all the help though. 

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1 hour ago, Green Hornet said:

No problem at all the deep, vertical ledges around Jervis Bay are user friendly and you can use conventional game rods at most platforms. 

Floatation for the baits depended on their size and anything from a small bobby cork for garfish to a balloon for bonito and small mack tuna were used.

Baits like live frigates were pinned through the top lip and sent out without a float. You’d let them swim until they lost their energy, then up the drag a little and wind them back to the rocks quickly. This put a rush of water over their gills and reenergised them. 

Under a balloon a frigate will die in about 10 minutes, but with this method they’ll last half an hour or more.

Once they’re totally shot, put a hook through their back and float them out in a wash until they’re just sitting at the edge of it. Kings love them.

ahh yeah I completely forgot that they usually had a drop off. how di you deal with the weeds? they were an annoyance in some spots when we were there 

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1 hour ago, PaddyT said:

do a bit of wash fishing for bream, small snapper, trevors etc. Learn how the ocean moves, learn to read a rock platform, spend time with experience rock fishos (Pickles gave an excellent suggestion regarding Alex Bellisamo), learn your craft.

Some bloody good advice right there.

If your planning on some Luderick fishing, you’ll learn quickly about the ocean as you often need to fish low ledges.

On the question of taking off your life jacket . .. why would you remove something that will keep you afloat when exhausted?

Hope you get to travel in December.

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54 minutes ago, Burger said:

Some bloody good advice right there.

If your planning on some Luderick fishing, you’ll learn quickly about the ocean as you often need to fish low ledges.

On the question of taking off your life jacket . .. why would you remove something that will keep you afloat when exhausted?

Hope you get to travel in December.

theyre a pain to swim with LOL 

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11 hours ago, slothparade said:

ahh yeah I completely forgot that they usually had a drop off. how di you deal with the weeds? they were an annoyance in some spots when we were there 

I'd say if you're experiencing problems with weed you're fishing in the wrong areas.

Almost all the good live baiting platforms down this way have very deep water right up to the edge of the rocks.

If it was floating weed you were referring to, possibly there had recently been a very large swell and it should clear within a day or two. I can't recall weed ever being a problem.

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