Off the water early on Friday. Here’s why:

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Bad weather wrecking so many fishing plans around Sydney recently. But some keen blokes still finding fish. Here’s SMS correspondence with Mitch last week:

Andy!  getting into it for the first time back tomorrow! So keen. Is it worth hitting the Peak with liveys this time of year?

Yes, and try 100 gram jigs too. North end top of the tide and please let me know how you go?

Yeah for sure. I’ll take some pics. Thanks andy

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Hey andy! Thanks for the advice and the 100g jigs. I caught this 123cm 15kg specimen on your silver jig with a pink yamashita octopus skirt. Also landed it on a 10-20lbs rod paired with a 3k daiwa luvias, that was a fight I wont soon forget.

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Happy memories! Puffin’ away while hooked up, that is. J Fantastic result Mitch, especially on light gear. It’s been a big week for those 100 gram jigs. Greg from Double Island Point Charters:

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A nice AJ today on one of your 100g jigs off Fraser

GOT TO get up there and fish with you, Greg. I’m always in awe of the jewfish experts who have cracked the code. Mitchell Burge being an excellent example:

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Please find attached some pics of my cousin from the weekend. The smaller Jew went 27gs and the larger went 31kgs, both fish were caught on plastics and were tagged and successfully released …

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We grew up fishing together since we were kids and have chased Jew for years. Over the last year Pete has overtaken me and has landed around 15 fish over 10kgs over the past three months alone, again all fish tagged and released along with a 30kg Jew two weeks ago that was next to the boat and broke the trace when being tagged. If it was going to be killed it would have easily been a capture.

Such a top report. Thanks bud, I’m deeply grateful. Just by the way plastics for jew a bit old hat now J Greg writes again from Double Island Point Charters:

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Who said mulloway don’t eat jigs? This one was on your 250g jig behind the angler.

So good! Thanks Greg. Closer to home and the kingies have been mostly hot and cold but a few readers finding some keepers. Lach at the Twelve Mile last week:

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Hi Andrew, headed out to the 12 with my son Hugh.  Landed a couple and dropped a couple all on live yakkas. Pulled hook on something that ate a small Tailor that was proving hard to shift. Great day on the water.  Fish holding Sth East of the mark and spread out, This one 75 cms. Regards Lachlan

Regards to you too my friend and thanks for the report. Murray off Norah Head, same day:

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Andy, got out yesterday with Richard and bergy.  Yakka very hard to find. Got 1 King and a few salmon.  Photo is Richard with his King. Tried all sorts of lures but not successful. At least we were out on the water

Can’t win unless you’re on the field Muzz! Weather forecast for yesterday (Saturday 7 November) was pretty ordinary so I wasn’t surprised to hear few friends were out there. But it turned out to be nowhere near as bad as predicted. Family man Matt Cassar on the water with Number One Son and having a ball. So jealous, Zander:

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Hi Andrew, out for a fish in the Hawkesbury River with Zander and it has been a cracker of a start with this 110cm jewfish

The pic’s had over 2000 views on the Facebook page, Matt! Of which over 1900 are mine. J Keen kingie chaser Richard Jamieson jigging whenever conditions permit. That includes yesterday:

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Hi Andrew – great day out on the water. We had 12 Mile all to ourselves except for a beautiful pair of humpbacks, lots of dolphin and flying fish. Mum and child put on a whale display you would pay some serious money for. Just the one king but it was my pb going at 95cm. Cheers, Richard

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You’re on fire this season Richard! Good job. Craig Marsay out in the rain and doing well as usual. Thanks so much for the reports you send champ, we’re all in your debt:

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Nice arvo session after work. 1 hour produced 5 nice schnapper Wednesday

Always get a buzz hearing from Adam in Nauru. Despite difficult conditions the fishing’s fantastic and he and his three boys always out there doing it. Here’s this week’s report:

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Here is the boy and his gear. Not the first fish on his rod and reel, but the biggest so far (thanks again for the gear andy). light enough to catch bait, with enough grunt to keep up with the bigger boys too J

Not at all my friend and glad to see the gear’s being put to good use. Even gladder that you sent a report about it J To boats, and yours truly up at Shannons earlier this week checking out whether an electric motor has the reach to be installed on the bow of ‘Carolyn Jane.’ The thought being that we can use the anchor lock function to hold us over fish for both deep dropping, and jigging:

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Looks like it will fit. Now just have to figure out how to pay for it. Buzzed to find this Blackfin on Boatpoint, the best boat I’ve ever fished from:

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A true marlin attractor, fish would come within a couple of metres of the transom at times. We thought it was the diesel engine rhythm doing the attracting. One time at the Carpark the weather got worse and worse but we stayed out there on a hot bite. Just us, and a couple of 45 footers. Until we got smacked on the beam by a wave, while turning. ‘Susie M’ rolled so steeply the starboard window was underwater, and I was looking down into the depths like it was a glass bottom boat. But thanks to the brilliant design she righted herself. At that point we decided to bail but owner Andrew Wily insisted on running one lure out. We hooked up another marlin on the way back in. Crazy days they were, here it is on the Web:

These Yamaha YF-23s such an offshore weapon. I’ve always wondered why Yamaha Australia never brought them in. Mercury have done good business with their inflatables so a boat to match the outboards should be a good thing? On Facebook Bashir tells me they’re just over 2.5m beam so maybe its because of trailering issues:

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Here’s a used one with a 150HP 4-stroke, just $39K. Only downside, it’s in Japan: http://item.rakuten.co.jp/yamahafujita/yamaha-yf2315/ Lastly, restarting the folding boat project we ran out of time with, back in 2013. Great bit of gear with the problem being that at 45 kilograms the hull weighs too much for easy loading/unloading onto the car roof rack:

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We need to get the four hull panels reduced weight-wise and the thought is, make those using foam sandwich construction or even the vacuum infused resin method. Can anyone recommend someone doing that kind of work (maybe with surfboards) within 100 km of Sydney? We can take a mould from the existing panels so a backyard guy would be fine. James has a question:

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Hey Andy, Hope you are well. Took my boat out for a run down at jervis bay, testing out the new setup. I feel that the down rigger is too far back when in the rod holder to access the clip etc. Thinking maybe i need a quick release mount further fwd. Have you got any available?

We have a new shipment of those inbound, and due on November 28. $95 for the set of 3-pieces. I have two of those on my boat, they do work very well. P.S: The boat looks fantastic!

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Note that in most cases the rod holder mounting is a pretty good option. Here’s Bradley Chin on Wyangala Dam recently:

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Let’s say you know someone who doesn’t fish much and needs an outfit for the upcoming holidays that will stretch from whiting to jewfish. Or someone who’s got plenty of boat tackle but a bit light in the rock and beach gear. Or just someone who needs a quality outfit with a lot of flexibility which is well balanced and casts really well. We’ve got just the thing, our 8-foot Ugly Stik casting combo:

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Tippy, for long casting, but with plenty of the low down grunt Ugly Stiks are famous for. Versatile, can be used for anything from casting SPs to snapper to dollies at the FADs. Here’s the specs:

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Shakespeare Ugly Stik BWS 1102 rod

Eight feet long, rated to 30-pound line

EVA grips, Fuji reel seat and guides

2-piece so we can mail it to you meaning, cheap delivery

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FE 8000SW spinning reel

8 ball bearings, smooth winding

Carbontex drag washers

4.8:1 gear ratio

EVA ball reel knob

Wide shallow spool, for long casts

Light weight, 540 grams

Spooled with 220m 30-pound CC braid

Combo weight exactly one kilo, light and comfortable. Combo price $195, extra good value. Call or email if you need more pics or details? News Of The Weird and Dan sends a stomach churning pic:

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Erk! Nose hooking meant for live bait not fishos. Greenie fruitcake claims to know what great white sharks terrorising the north coast are thinking. Go for a swim off Clarkes Beach at night Anna and bring back some great white updates for us? Take some bottles of tuna oil with you hon, I’ll loosen the caps:

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Team Downrigger out on Sydney morning with a top crew and motivation to spare. First mission - checking out this ship at the Spit with an unusual name:

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Let’s just say El Chapo’s boat is called ‘Cocaine’ and leave it at that? After scoring some live bait it was up to Mugs Reef to downrig there ahead of the tide change:

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The bait being fresh arrow squid, which Tameen had – in his typically generous way – caught the day before. On the slider rig they looked pretty good:

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But only small amberjack hooking up. Despite a nasty slop and surge we decided to head for Twelve Mile Reef with the thought being that deeper water might produce a change in our fortunes. A big bait ball found which supplied a solid hook up on the first drop:

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Unfortunately that one broke the anglers line. It all came together for Dan next drop with this nice 82:

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I was contributing some prime sport fish to our tally too:

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But just as we were getting into the groove the weather started turning bad fast:

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Out again next week and hopefully we’ll find a few more then.

To politics, and flattered to be invited to Parliament House for the Shooters and Fishers Party twentieth anniversary. They’ve got five MPs now and that’s great news for any fisho worried about the Greens’ war on our sport. Looking a bit the worse for wear after too many adult beverages but what a top night it was:

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Mal writes in:

Hi Andrew.  Great report. I just heard a rumour that witches hats are now banned in Port Stephens. Do you know anything about this? Kind regards, Mal

The short story is that Port Stephens is Ground Zero for professional greenies. The NSW Fisheries office there is stacked with dysfunctional anti fishing lefties who get their kicks from bullying anglers. Example number one: busting fishos catching Watsons bonito for skip baits at the Cabbage Tree Island bait grounds – because bonito aren’t ‘deemed’, to be baitfish. Example number two: executing search warrants on the home of a bloke from Anna Bay associated with the short film about catching sharks off Stockton Beach, with a game chair mounted on a 4WD. They claim he’s been selling shark teeth even though they released every shark. Never underestimate how mean spirited the green bullies can get, cobber. So in the case of witches hats you have got greenie Melinda Anderson (employed by the local council) lobbying greenies at Fisheries (employed by the state government) to ban that fishing method. Bureaucrat talking to bureaucrat, with no one giving a stuff about those – us - their agenda affects. But to be brutally honest, until fishos vote in their own interest at election time nothing’s going to change. Because it’s all about politics, and who’s in power:

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The famous Tangalooma wrecks have brought so much enjoyment to fishos, boaties and their families. Now Queensland Maritime’s destroyed them, without compensation or consultation. Never underestimate how much these parasites enjoy bullying average Aussies using the pretense of keeping us safe:

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Here’s the full story, comments by readers just as disgusted as we are:

Sorry to end this report on a downer note my friends but the war on our fishing and boating freedoms is endless. We need to stay informed. Until the next time and as I always say, deepest gratitude to the blokes who so generously send in the pics and reports we all enjoy. Keep them coming,

Andrew Hestelow

Managing Director