freeride76 wrote:

I bet- thats a fish of a lifetime for most anglers.

For the table or released?

I actually knocked the sides off it, I fish to eat. That's the biggest I've managed so far fishing the passage and the canals however would you believe that's a small one between the small group of us that fish for them specifically! My neighbour has caught 12 over a metre this year! I gave the rod to my 5 y/o son for the entire fight, he lost his mind when it jumped, I just landed it, entire fight was filmed by a very prominent fisho on the sunny coast and makes very funny viewing but we agreed not to show it as too many landmarks would give my position away.

You'll probably see me up there next time I'm on Bribie- I knew they were becoming more common.
Awesome catch.

Peter Reynolds wrote:

freeride76 wrote:

I bet- thats a fish of a lifetime for most anglers.

For the table or released?

I actually knocked the sides off it, I fish to eat. That's the biggest I've managed so far fishing the passage and the canals however would you believe that's a small one between the small group of us that fish for them specifically! My neighbour has caught 12 over a metre this year! I gave the rod to my 5 y/o son for the entire fight, he lost his mind when it jumped, I just landed it, entire fight was filmed by a very prominent fisho on the sunny coast and makes very funny viewing but we agreed not to show it as too many landmarks would give my position away.

How do you specifically target them Peter? Technique? Equipment? Any tips.

seeds wrote:

Peter Reynolds wrote:

freeride76 wrote:

I bet- thats a fish of a lifetime for most anglers.

For the table or released?

I actually knocked the sides off it, I fish to eat. That's the biggest I've managed so far fishing the passage and the canals however would you believe that's a small one between the small group of us that fish for them specifically! My neighbour has caught 12 over a metre this year! I gave the rod to my 5 y/o son for the entire fight, he lost his mind when it jumped, I just landed it, entire fight was filmed by a very prominent fisho on the sunny coast and makes very funny viewing but we agreed not to show it as too many landmarks would give my position away.

How do you specifically target them Peter? Technique? Equipment? Any tips.

Sorry seeds no other tips, you gotta put the time in up north in order to target them down here and learn how to tie a very specific knot, oh and learn how to throw a castnet.

freeride76 wrote:

You'll probably see me up there next time I'm on Bribie- I knew they were becoming more common.

Awesome catch.

Cheers mate, I remember you saying you've got family around Cardwell, everything you do up there works for down here, if you can get one on lure I'll buy you a beer

I've been seeing and hearing of good catches in the Gold Coast Canals also. Some people are putting in the time and effort for the results.

Peter Reynolds wrote:

oh and learn how to throw a castnet.

Ha ha that's about as hard to learn as casting with an overhead reel. Both can end up in absolute frustration and disaster.

I'd love to get one on a lure Peter- be very, very hard to tempt one no doubt.

I have my ideas though- mostly fishing slackwater at night on new moon tides.

Peter Reynolds wrote:

seeds wrote:

Peter Reynolds wrote:

freeride76 wrote:

I bet- thats a fish of a lifetime for most anglers.

For the table or released?

I actually knocked the sides off it, I fish to eat. That's the biggest I've managed so far fishing the passage and the canals however would you believe that's a small one between the small group of us that fish for them specifically! My neighbour has caught 12 over a metre this year! I gave the rod to my 5 y/o son for the entire fight, he lost his mind when it jumped, I just landed it, entire fight was filmed by a very prominent fisho on the sunny coast and makes very funny viewing but we agreed not to show it as too many landmarks would give my position away.

How do you specifically target them Peter? Technique? Equipment? Any tips.

Sorry seeds no other tips, you gotta put the time in up north in order to target them down here and learn how to tie a very specific knot, oh and learn how to throw a castnet.

You use a paternoster rig then?

seeds wrote:

You use a paternoster rig then?

close.. Pete uses the 'jackarse patroniser rig'. double privilege jackhook with a light running shot.. bogong larvae bait. cool fish, congrats : )

How you SA tinny fishos faring?? Gonna be a long haul..

I wouldn’t eat anything caught down there at the moment. Beef sales are up.

My daughter just had her 2nd pack of Jack Link's Teriyaki Jerky..
NZ beef and fartiness is certainly predicted to be on the rise.
(made her have a psyllium smash before the second pack!)

Embrace the human body’s processes
How good is jerky?

it's in the excellent range.. 8.25?
clearly depends on the jerky.. Jack Link's 8.75 to 9.00 -
Mike's from Robe where you hung out @seeds, a solid 7.00 to 8.00,
depending on the drink you wash it down with.
Territory Jerky a definite 4.5, which I know is generous,
but a compelling journey that tastes like arse sweat,
and has the texture of chewed cardboard deserves a bit of a nod.

Haha territory jerky. You could get a job on the marketing team.

Marriott Meat.
Commerciial St Marleston
11 for their biltong.
Got the Saffa flag on the sandwich board out the front.

IN-TELLLL..!
(cheers, @mattlock).

seeds wrote:

Peter Reynolds wrote:

seeds wrote:

Peter Reynolds wrote:

freeride76 wrote:

I bet- thats a fish of a lifetime for most anglers.

For the table or released?

I actually knocked the sides off it, I fish to eat. That's the biggest I've managed so far fishing the passage and the canals however would you believe that's a small one between the small group of us that fish for them specifically! My neighbour has caught 12 over a metre this year! I gave the rod to my 5 y/o son for the entire fight, he lost his mind when it jumped, I just landed it, entire fight was filmed by a very prominent fisho on the sunny coast and makes very funny viewing but we agreed not to show it as too many landmarks would give my position away.

How do you specifically target them Peter? Technique? Equipment? Any tips.

Sorry seeds no other tips, you gotta put the time in up north in order to target them down here and learn how to tie a very specific knot, oh and learn how to throw a castnet.

You use a paternoster rig then?

haha. gold,

basesix wrote:

seeds wrote:

You use a paternoster rig then?

close.. Pete uses the 'jackarse patroniser rig'. double privilege jackhook with a light running shot.. bogong larvae bait. cool fish, congrats : )

BAHAHAHA I'm privileged for catching a fish! Tell me your single and childless without telling me your single and childless hahahaha
Sorry for existing greta basesix thunberg, you have a great night now brother, in-laws coming round tonight for my famous beer-battered barra fillets! My lad will recount how he fought this huge prize-fish to his nanna and pop and we'll switch on the box and watch the footage of said fish. You enjoy your night of raging online and projecting your insecurities bruh, oo-roo!

sounds a lovely night, Pete.
like I said, cool fish, congrats : )

Just curious- no need to answer- what knot you are referring to Pete.

Still plenty of long tail tuna hanging around here- end of July!

seeds wrote:

I wouldn’t eat anything caught down there at the moment. Beef sales are up.

when in Adelaide, my local fish shop is Brighton Fresh Seafoods next to the Foodland.. unbelievable little shop for the suburbs, local pelagic, line caught cuts, shellfish, fresh as, really good range.. was heartbroken to hear from one of the owners last week, people are lobbing up to their shop, asking if they have any imported fish.. has turned a little family business with best practice on its head this thing. They are still selling 'local' (from deep water, Portland, SA's SE or Eyre Peninsula), but people think it's all poisoned.

That’s not right, bloody hell.
I meant caught land based or inshore not commercially
Surely fishing fleets are still getting good fish

Lucky I've got a freezer full of fillets because there hasn't been too many decent days to wet a line or take a tinny or yak out in the gulf of late. My brother-in-law knows all the best spots and normally bags out but for the first time in his life is coming back with nothing, not even a nibble, reckons it's a desert out there.
Says he's not eating anything with more than one head or glows in the dark.

seeds wrote:

That’s not right, bloody hell.

I meant caught land based or inshore not commercially

Surely fishing fleets are still getting good fish

This thing'll be around till next year, nothings flushing it, it's got a hold.. and it'll sit up the tip of the gulf forever ready to bust out when the conditions are right. Little local operators are smashed. Even big local operators, cray, ab and oysters too.. this is a hella thing. As everyone, like @old-dog's bro-in-law, is acknowledging, it is a catastrophic extinction event.

Yeah didn’t think of the of the crayfish and oysters etc. My bad.

I definitely feel for the recreational and commercial sectors down there.
I imagine farmed salmon sales are up in the supermarket. :(

Yeh, what makes it extra horrible for SA gulf/Fl.peninsula/KI/Yorkes dwellers, is they have happily traded whiz-bang lifestyle, for clean and easy lifestyle for decades.. 'surf, fishing, weather may be better up north, but mate we have pristine and untouched that northerners could only dream of'.. that's a hella thing for SA to contemplate possibly becoming complicateder into the future..

My brother-in-law Joe is sad with the situation here in S.A. He lives for fishing like we live for surfing. He is like the Kelly Slater of fishing.
He owns two boats and could walk out on a jetty where no one is getting a bite and fill his bucket.
He makes his own sinkers and floats and knows every trick in the book and then some.
He pumps for worms on the tidal flats and breeds his own maggots for bait.
As a small boy he would walk down to the river Torrens and fill his bucket with carp, take them home and put them in his pond so he could fatten them up and catch them over and over again.
When his dad died we were cleaning out the shed and found 4 huge boxes of fishing trophies, he said chuck them, so they went in the skip along with a few of his old home-made cane rods.
In later years he would go out on fishing charters on the tall ship one and all. There were TV celebrities from fishing shows and fishing magazine editors aboard and he put them all to shame, always catching the biggest Tuna, Snapper, GT's, Kingies, nannygai etc. etc. They were sometimes guilty of holding up his fish for photos and claiming them. They called him the fish whisperer and the guru.
I have learned a lot from my trips out in his boat, but I am a total kook in comparison. He has a rig for every occasion and swaps it with each wind shift or tide turn, he thinks like a fish.
He has been on charter boats all over the country and caught every species from leather jackets to black Marlin but still enjoys catching a few mullet and whiting from his local beach.
He once reeled in a 2kg lobster from the rocks at Yorkes on his Salmon rig.
The poor bastard is thinking of taking up lawn bowls.
Hopefully it won't come to that, and things will get back to normal.

epic pen portrait of a bloke, send him down to the sa/vic borderlands @old-dog.

Live bait bottom right hand corner?

zenagain wrote:

Live bait bottom right hand corner?

No good unless you learnt up north and know a special knot.
Might catch a croc… or maybe that’s the other way around.

Good bait for little old ladies.

Catch and release only though.

As long as they bring scones, jam and cream.

Numbers have increased over the years.

I think they're going to re-introduce the old bag limit.

haha, tight line, @zen!

That went well . They say the worst day fishing beats the best day working.

View this post on Instagram

@ zen, how did you know the dogs name? The other one is cockle.

Wild guess Old-D. I didn't notice Cockle till you pointed him out.

No doubt heartwarming with a name like that.

Hey Steve Freeride

how about swellnet does an east coast fishing report every now and then?

now that fishing monthly isn't around anymore i really find it difficult to find out whats happening up and down the coast.

I think you'd be great at it.

Cheers
Marcus

Lost a very large Jewie this week.
Midday on the high tide wasting off a rockwall into deep water past the sand bar 60 metres away.
It paused after the first 100 meter run with head shakes, I tried turning it so it took off again even faster , looked like I was going to get spooled so kept tightening the drag
Then the leader snapped - keep wondering if should have been patent and risked losing 300m of braid

I'm getting the hang of catching fish now. On live yabbies it's easy, even despite my lack of skills. The young fella hooked his first luderick this morning, hopefully now he's hooked on fishing. Worst case, he loves hanging out on the jetty whilst I fish.

My problem now is this morning we caught 8 fish, all luderick and only one legal. Caught a small bream yesterday after three yabbies after pumping them, that's a slow bite on the yabbies so I went home. So lots of fish caught, not much eating fish.

Is the solution as simple as walking closer to the river mouth/breakwall? To be honest, I'm kinda scared of the fish that I could catch. The fisherman that way take a rod and a gaff! A gaff seems like a tool for real fisherman, not a beginner like me. Or will the fact that I'm lobbing yabbies on a size 2 hook keep the big kingfish/jewfish away?

Oh but I did keep a 28cm one. Not enough to feed the family but it's a start.

There in lies the problem with bait fishing. Particularly with baits like yabbies/nippers, all the tiddlers love them too and usually pick you off before a decent fish gets a look in. Generally bright light periods of the day, say between 10am-4pm, the bigger fish are weary and all you'll get is little guys. Closer to dawn and dusk and at night are much better chance of bigger fish. Towards the mouth/ breakwalls can be better, and throwing yabs you're unlikely to get something huge. Although it can happen and you'll get dusted before you even know what happened if you're fishing light gear.

Nice size snapper .

View this post on Instagram

Funny how those kiwi snapper look different to ours.

I think the Aussie snapper are better looking.

I'm catching Blackfish reliably now. Not the bream I'm targeting but decent eating and reliable to catch.

Yesterday I went fishing with the boy, it was blowing a strong southerly and I hooked up a 29cm one early, first fish caught which was dinner and I got out because it was pretty unpleasant conditions.

I had lots of yabbies left over and fished them (half dead ones, half alive) this morning on the last of the run out tide.

I got a big surprise when my light rod bent in half and the fish went into the channel. Double suprise when the line went slack and no yabbie or fish on the hook. Pretty sure it was a very decent flathead.

I'm using size 2 baitholders. Was it too small a hook for a flathead? Did I strike too early (I doubt it because I thought it was hooked)?

If I'm targeting eating size fish and flathead, is it worth going up to a size 1 or bigger? Or am I over thinking it?

Some guy caught a 71cm one just near where I was fishing on a tinny and live yakkas so they're about.

You're always going to run the risk of a big flatty busting you or biting you off on light gear and bait hooks.

I wouldn't worry about it.