Towing the boat back from Queensland last week with 2300 no hassle kilometres under the belt. Less than 100 kilometres to go and BANG. Look in the rearview mirror and smoke is pouring out from under the boat trailer with a background melody of a horrible scraping sound:
Turns out the rear driver’s side spring broke, letting the axle slide backwards, damaging the new tire, and breaking the mudguard. I’ve spent pretty much the rest of the week buying parts and taking them to Shannon for the repair. By Friday I reckoned I’d earned a couple of hours fishing. But with no boat, what’s a bloke to do?
Chase blackfish, of course. Laugh if you like, but I grew up fishing for luderick. Watching a float slide underwater never fails to get the heart racing. But with the radio broadcasting warnings of a large dangerous swell, hitting the ocean rocks was off the agenda. No problem! Obelisk Beach is inside Sydney Harbour. I know the rock shelf there like the back of my hand because decades ago, as a schoolboy, my grandmother would drop me off there for a days fishing:
A quick phone call and good friend Darryl said he was up for the hunt. I grabbed a couple of our 802 blackfish combos and got underway. This is the same $95 outfit we use for carp and salmon. But in blackfish mode we spool the reel with 3 kilo colour change braid, then topshot with 3 kilo fluorocarbon:
If you’re thinking about giving it a try - here, or anywhere else – there’s one thing I recommend. That is, a pair of shoes with rock fishing plates attached. These will help keep you safe on the slippery ledges. And they’re not expensive:
First job was to sort the burley and bait. Not easy, because everywhere we looked the cabbage weed had been nibbled almost flat. An important part of success or failure, as you will see. The 802 combos were set up for fishing before we headed to the rocks:
This involves putting just the right number of split shot on the trace to make the float sit at the ideal height, and checking it in a little water tank made from a Coke bottle (:^D)
Bait options weren’t good, and instead of a nice fresh leaf I had to settle for a heavily nibbled chunk of cabbage weed on the size 8 Sneck hook. Set the float just six feet above the hook, because the water is pretty shallow in this spot. Cast, and let the float drift out in the wash. It only went a few feet and then slid under the surface. Lifted the rod tip and I was into a good fish:
Quite a surprise, because I’ve never caught a bream on green weed before. Got him chilling in a rock pool and went right back to it:
And that’s how the morning progressed. Not fast fishing by any means, but they were there. At one point, I found a clean fresh leaf tucked under a rock pool ledge. Very carefully put that on the hook, with the barb through the middle and a half hitch of line around the tiny root of the plant. Cast that out and hooked up almost immediately. Quite sure if all our bait was that quality, we would have caught a couple of dozen. But I wasn’t complaining:
Can’t recommend this type of fishing too highly:
ideal for when the weather is too rough to fish offshore
no boat, bait, or expensive tackle needed
target fish is plentiful and fights hard
target fish is good eating if managed correctly
and most importantly:
You can get all the gear needed to catch them from us for just $95 or $110 including delivery to your door. That includes:
8 feet 2-piece rod
Our brilliant Lesson 3000 reel – which has carbontex drags!
A full spool of 3 kilo colour change braid
3 kilo fluorocarbon leader
Float, stopper knot and bead, splitshot and hook – all correctly balanced
Basically the complete outfit ready to go. Click here to order or to find out more, the 802 Blue rod in the pics above is what we’ll supply:
I can email Google maps of where to fish - but only for around Sydney, which I’m familiar with. Thanks for reading,
Andrew Hestelow
Managing Director
http://www.downriggershop.com.au/
Tel. 0402075000
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