Fishing reports, tackle specials and angling politics from Downrigger Shop, Friday 26th August 2016

Spring just around the corner but, because ocean temperatures run four weeks later than land temperatures, the fishing focus is still on winter species. Here’s Steve from Perth:

4000 clicks east, and Luigi Pelaia fishing Sydney offshore this week:

Nice! Lachlan Bilston out there too:

Murray at Texas Reef wide of Terrigal, same day. That’s a good king:

Wazza reported in too, Murray! So grateful to you both:

Yours truly out last week and with a great forecast Serk, Dean and myself were keen to go east twenty two miles to Browns Mountain and return with a boatload of prime deepwater table fish. On an extra high this time, knowing that a major poacher has just been busted. Geoff Jones writes:

So am I, Geoff. For those unaware, the bag limit on gemfish is two per angler with a maximum number per boat of ten. Meaning this bloke’s way over, and in big trouble:

Launched and headed down Middle Harbour. Annoying to find some dirty grubs had dumped their rubbish at The Spit. This is one of my favourite blackfish spots:

Scored a tankful of live bait pretty quickly at the Centurion wreck, then off we went. First stop North Head to check out last week’s giant rock fall. Incredible! Here’s a short video:

North Head Cliff Collapse

A comfortable run to the Mountain on a light following sea, with the wind dropping off every mile we covered. Only five boats there when we arrived which genuinely shocked me. Considering that fish are swarming and the weather is perfect, you’d expect more anglers on station? Or maybe it’s just because I’m out there so often. Anyway, I knew the crews on four of the five boats (!) here’s Bob Greenhill in his element:

Rob Graham with his Tanacom nicely loaded up:

And two gemfish boated:

But, the numbers of fish are nowhere near what they’ve been in previous seasons. Knowing they are in huge numbers south of Sydney I put that down to our unseasonably warm water temperatures this year. There are still stacks of fish on the Mountain but mainly hugging the humps and bumps:

rather than on the tops and flats:

First drop right on the mark and a double hook up in less than a minute. Two nice fish brought to boat, note squid tentacle marks on the bottom gemfish:

Dean is a competition bream fisherman and loves his luring. He asked: ‘Andy, will gemfish take a soft plastic? That’s what I’m used to fishing with.’ ‘Give it a try’, sez I:

I usually spend the day at Browns reversing the boat into the current and reminding the crew not to let the sinker touch the bottom. But the weather was so good on Monday was able to kick back:

We were very fortunate to score so many in such a short time but now is the peak of the gemfish run. Mev wasn’t so lucky on Thursday. It’s a kick in the guts when this happens:

PING!

After bagging out we put out a deep live bait on Serk’s Saltiga combo and a shark bait on the TICA. Got the burley going and drifted across the mountain in the hope of an albacore or mako. But nothing doing and the wind started to lift so we decided to get on the go. Coming up to the Spit again and spotted a big CC with the great registration FLYGUY N. ‘Hey, Andy!’ It was Lionel, a mad keen fly fisho who’s fished with me way back when. He’d been out with a mate,chasing salmon with the long wand. Good to see you after all this time, cobber:

The icing on the cake was when I got home after cleaning and stowing the boat to find this nice note from one of the crew:

What a great day. Good weather, good mates, and some prime fish for the table. You can’t ask for more than that. To boats, and Dino pleased as punch with his new Leisure Cat. Hoping to fish with him on it soon, and will write a review on return:

Jason Hotop’s new Barcrusher. The jealousy! It burns:

To tackle, and clients using all kinds of sinker options for deep dropping. Reinforcing rod, sash weights, Coke bottles filled with cement .. I’ve tried all those myself. But there’s nothing like lead to get down fast, especially when it’s windy or when the current’s running. Lead is 45% denser than iron. Everything else being equal it will get to the bottom 45% faster. And now we’ve got a killer deal on lead. Ten pounds of lead in either dive weights or cylinders ready to be used as sinkers for just $55 INCLUDING DELIVERY. Each sinker between 2.5 to 3.5 pounds, total ten pounds. To anywhere in Australia. Or $40 for ten pounds, if picking up. Good for use as downrigger weights, too. With these you just crimp or tie a loop on the end of your sinker dropper and pass the loop through the hole then up and over the weight. Fast and easy:

Jamie pleased with his reel knob upgrade:

More info here

We have the ideal rod. Our Hercules jig stick is a two-piece with foregrip join. Five feet six inches long and rated to 24 kilos and 250 gram jigs. Some mighty kings have been caught on that one, have attached a few photos. However, it is not a broomstick. It has a slow action with a full parabola load profile and when you hook a good one you can feel the foregrip flexing under your hand. The best part is they are super popular, we order them one hundred at a time, and pass the savings on. The rod is only $130. It is available in both spinning and overhead configuration. Let me know if that one works for you?

Glad you’re pleased, champ! When we were at Browns this week there were guys endlessly trolling around and (from what we saw) catching nothing. Meantime we’re bringing up blue eye and gemmies, two of the best tasting fish on fins. Why not stop, drop, and take home an esky of delicious dinners? Here’s Mark on Monday:

Victoria, and always get a buzz when the name Geoff Wilson appears in the ol’ inbox. He’s helped countless thousands of anglers with his fishing knot books, he’s helped me by sending so many great pics for our readers enjoyment. And now he’s helped himself with this big beautiful ranga:

Brisbane reporter Glen Cadoo shares his wisdom. Too true:

Tim from Wollongong GFC boat Stainless 4 proud of his son’s extraordinary achievement. Well done, Jacko!

Overseas, and Craig Phillips and friends back from Fiji, where they had a ball. Got to be a great option for blokes who’ve had enough of cold and wind:

Well mate considering the way we froze coming back from Browns this week I could go some of that action! Thanks for your report. To politics, and going through some old boxes of files this week. Found this old pic of protesting against greenies outside Parliament House, way back when. Those koala suit heads are just too hot:

From memory that pic was from the Wonboyn wilderness protest. Wonboyn is a pretty little coastal village on the far south coast. Some years ago, it had the misfortune to be targeted for bullying by the Carr Labor government and their legion of greenie orcs in the NPWS. Newtons Beach – which had a graded road, large parking area, plus male and female toilets - was declared to be a wilderness zone.

Like every other wilderness zone in NSW it was full of feral animals and noxious weeds and badly needed some hazard reduction burning. But wilderness is not about conservation. It’s about politics. It’s about telling the inner city trendies who vote for you that you’ve declared whatever number of wilderness areas, so they can feel good about themselves. Just as we’ve seen with Baird and the greyhounds, those affected by these bullies are the last to be considered. Going through some old photographs and found a pic that proves what a joke green bureaucrats are. See these two toilet blocks? They were at Newtons Beach:

When the beach was declared to be wilderness, the greenies had to maintain the façade that it was a precious and fragile environment. The toilets had to be removed – but the perfectly good two lane road to them couldn’t be used because it might endanger the new found wilderness values. ‘No vehicles in a wilderness area!’ Are you ready for this? The toilets were removed by helicopter. Seriously. That’s the crazy we’re fighting against lads, and why we must never drop our guard. Until next report and thanks so much to the good hearted blokes who send in pics and reports
Andrew Hestelow

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