A week in NSW

New South Wales Fishing Reports
DougieK
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A week in NSW

Post by DougieK » Thu Mar 22, 2018 12:16 pm

I'll preface this report by saying please do not turn this into an argument about locations or rock fishing safety. The location is obvious and the rock fishing safety discussion has been done to death.


Following a recent successful trip to Green Cape (not in this report) and a couple of really good reports from a bit further north, coupled with Darth K competing in Sydney last sunday I planned a fishing trip around being able to corner her on the day and get a proper crack at a couple of spots I scouted out in January. Targeting Yellowtail Kingfish, first thing to do was pick up some baits...

On Tuesday my ever faithful Caddy and I made the trip to our local squidding spot and picked up a a couple of rippers....

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That combined with some leftover sambos from the previous trip should do for the first couple of days. I Vac sealed them up in my new aldi vac sealer (can't really recommend one of these enough), packed up on Weds, trained and then headed to Darth K's. Leaving at stupid O'clock the next morning, the Hume stretched out in front of me as the sun rose.

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This road never seems to end but as the day wears on the podcasts fade into each other and i forget what the hell i'm listening too.

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Podcasts while driving solo are the best thing ever. Upon arriving i quickly set up my camp, tie my rods into a sling and head to the ledge I scouted in January. There is a turn off for a very promising looking spot that i'll check out when the weather is better....

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Despite being kind of long the walk in is pretty comfortable (comparably)

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2km later i arrived at the spot to "climb" in. It's not so much a climb as it is a traverse. Utterly stunning place.

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It's marked on the map as "Mermaids Inlet" but the LBGers just call it "Big B". This ledge is on the North East corner of the Beecroft Penninsula and is one of three ledges still available to fish since the closures a few years ago.

https://youtu.be/RikTkHklEsI

This is the first bit of the view as you walk in. I like to fish all the way on the opposite end, about 500m away.

Rigging a squid strip 2 metres under a balloon and with a gentle crosswind, I set the first bait out and had a quick spin while I marvelled at the beauty of the place.

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About 10 minutes, in, i hear the distinct sound of a rubber band snapping, and see the Caddies loaned 8'6 Majorcraft double over, the drag on the Gosa 20k screaming and the tasline rapidly dissappearing off the spool. After a brief brawl, I managed to haul this guy in.

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75ish cm of kingfish. A ripper for the start of the trip. 10 hours in the car and then the full setup and walk in, i didn't feel like carrying fish back to camp. One thing for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC_LVpty3-U

I'll never get sick of releasing fish. Needless to say i was pretty pleased with myself about this one. I rebaited the float and kept spinning. About 20 minutes later I got bitten clean off by something on busted 75. Just as I was swearing at it i hear that same 'ping' again.....

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Much smaller model was no match for GTShoons big 20k Gosa. Felt good to release my second fish for the trip only an hour in.

It was getting dark so I called it a day and headed back to camp.

Next morning predawn back on the ledge, same bait out but this time with a second rod setup for ballooning and a third to spin with. Started spinning hard just as the sun was coming up and was instantly rewarded.

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Little bonito hit a 25g gillies hard.

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Not having had time to change to singles, I did more damage than i would have liked too unhooking him. He swam around under a balloon for about 20 mins and promptly died. When i brought him back in to check it looks as if he's been attacked by a really really big squid.

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Leaving him under the balloon i decided to allow the gentle offshore wind and outgoing tide to drift him out anyway. It didn't quite go as planned, with him drifting back into the ledge and hte balloon popping. As i went to recover the bonnie, the rod doubled over and I had a 30ish KG wobbegong thrashing around under neath me. Not wanted to gaff it and with no way to get it onto the ledge without killing it, I did my best to get some pics before cutting the leader.

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Having seen me hookup, a guy who had arrived and was fishing 200m away instantly decided to come over. His first cast actually went in between my float and my balloon and tangled both of them on the way in. You have half a kilometre of ledge and there are two people there, don't be this guy.

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About an hour later, boom goes a squid strip under the float, again another 75ish kingie.

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Realising they were eating squid and not lures, I tried a couple of little tricks to get a hookup on while holding the rod. This counts as a lure right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4J5kLtmRoQ

Hookups happened, not the kingie i was after.

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Is that a f----ing bream? I'm not wearing enough hair product for this.....

That night i shot down to honeymoon bay to camp instead and replenished some squid stocks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiVX2A20zfk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwqXpLuaRlU

Beautiful place to pick up some squid and relax a little bit.

Woke up early the next morning and packed up, spun the little jetty for no result and decided to head up to kiama. Needing to be at Sydney Uni at 9am on sunday I wanted to be a bit closer to allow for traffic, and Kiama has a good reputation for fish.

About an hour into spinning hard I hooked up on a nomad stick bait at long range and got utterly f---ed up by something with more power and speed than anything i've ever felt. It snapped my 20lb tasline and 40lb leader after a blistering run. That was a 30 dollar lure....... 3 minutes later my bait rod doubled over and this baby arrived nicely.

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Being legal, I offered it to the two guys next to me who were spinning hard for marlin baits with no results. As he was feeding the line out of his 50w, a wave came blistering over the end of the ledge and knocked him down. He was lucky not to have ended up in the water. This place is nuts.

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I came back at dusk and spun for a while longer but dind't really do any good. Nice place, very accessable but dangerous as hell. As I was leaving I noticed the congregations of anglers in a bit closer, no idea what they were fishing for but not interested to find out really. I love rock fishing but this is not why i do it....

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Spent all of Sunday at a Jiu Jitsu comp with Darth K who had flown up the night before and stayed with some friends. She had a couple of tough ones early on but came good towards the end of the day. Super proud of her like always. Also thank god for air conditioning at Sydney U

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Monday morning back down the coast. I stopped in at Ocean Storm to grab some advice and picked up a couple of new casting Rapala SLXR's while I was in there.

Monday night I carried a heap of gear back into the ledge I'm fishing. Stopped while there for a quick spin and was instantly bitten off on one of the new Rapalas. F----

Started spinning very early on Tuesday morning and was instantly rewarded.

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Ballooned him out with a 10/0 through his back. He swam straight out..... about 25 minutes in the balloon pops, rod doubles over then stops dead. The seal that took the bonnie waved a flipper in the air as if to say F you and swam off. This was all that was left.
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I got a good look at the whole lot of them.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvIf2ZALSIU

I quickly strip baited him up (having run out of squid) and was rewarded with a kingfish.

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I kept spinning hard into the sunrise.

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And eventually picked up another bonnie

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With plenty of bait, i decided to try a bit myself. Fresh bonnie sashimi is glorious.

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I could see the rain that was forcast rolling in and the swell slowly increasing. Decided to call it a day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy9fwSJ-2uY

Weds morning knowing I had only a couple of hours to fish cos i had to get home, I hauled ass into the ledge, going super light to make sure i could carry all the gear i'd left down there back out. After sitting up the top for 20 minutes at low tide and watching the waves roll over the ledge i'd been fishing for a week, I decided i'd prefer not to drown and turned around and walked out. As I was packing up my campsite, the wind and rain hit super hard, making me glad i'd decided to call it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHM-eVah2Yw

Finally tally for the trip was 6 Kingfish, 5 Bonito and twice smoked.

It's a pleasure to write a report like this for your guys. Thanks to all the people who helped me out with the different aspect of this kind of fishing, you know who you are.

Until next time.....

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Last edited by DougieK on Thu Mar 22, 2018 12:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Chasing LBG and sharing a love for the Martial Arts, everywhere, all the time.


LBG Season 2023/4 :

Kingfish : 61

CarlG
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Re: A week in NSW

Post by CarlG » Thu Mar 22, 2018 12:27 pm

:thumbsup:
Beauty, nothing more needs said.

purple5ive
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Re: A week in NSW

Post by purple5ive » Thu Mar 22, 2018 12:31 pm

Holy **** you caught a bream without even trying :rofl:
Well done man , looks like this year is being good to you already, may there be a lot more trips like this for you :thumbsup:
Cheers

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4liters
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Re: A week in NSW

Post by 4liters » Thu Mar 22, 2018 12:33 pm

Nice bream
2015/16 Fisting Victoria Species comp total: 289cm
Brown Trout: 37cm
Flathead: 51cm; Squid: 36cm; Australian Salmon: 51cm; Snapper 46cm; Silver Trevally 23cm; KGW: 45cm
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mazman
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Re: A week in NSW

Post by mazman » Thu Mar 22, 2018 1:21 pm

Nice bream, shame about the other junk....
Youtube channel:Hawkesy Fishing

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Fish-cador
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Re: A week in NSW

Post by Fish-cador » Thu Mar 22, 2018 1:29 pm

You merciless bugger. You are not supposed to put fish you intend to release on dry rocks.

Lightningx
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Re: A week in NSW

Post by Lightningx » Thu Mar 22, 2018 2:21 pm

Top report!
Awesome pics and vids. Cheers :thumbsup:

Nude up
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Re: A week in NSW

Post by Nude up » Thu Mar 22, 2018 2:23 pm

What a great report loved reading and watching it keep it up.

smile0784
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Re: A week in NSW

Post by smile0784 » Thu Mar 22, 2018 2:36 pm

What a awsome week

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davek
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Re: A week in NSW

Post by davek » Thu Mar 22, 2018 3:46 pm

Mega report Dougie, well done on the fishing, cheers davo :a_goodjob:
It's an exhilarating feeling catching a fish
But it's an even better feeling releasing them

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