Thursday 14 JUNE 2012
Tackle specials and angling politics
from Downrigger Shop
G’day lads,
Some great stories from our readers this week but firstly I must say how appreciative I am for all the emails our readers send in. We kick off with an amazing story from the Cadoo family, holidaying on Moreton Island:
We as a family a few times a year load up the boat with the tents, genies, tarps, the “wife’s barbie” (just to trick her into thinking she is still at home) and of course a box of coldies and head off across Moreton Bay where we unload the boat on the beach, set up camp, put the barbie in a makeshift kitchen, put the boat on a set mooring and come to shore in a duckie.
One miserable day in between card games and coldies my son decided that he was going to set a shark line off the beach. After telling him that he is wasting his time because my boat was only anchored 50m off the beach so he would have to paddle in the duckie only 30m out because a shark would go straight around my anchor and the water is only 1.5m deep. Because of years of going to the Island and my local knowledge of the area Tim decided not to listen, he caught a small stingray and paddled out the bait and come back to shore where he waited.
Then when we had a look I realized the “shark” was in fact a “cobia tailed shark”, nooooo it was a in fact COBIA. Then all the advice was thrown at poor Tim again, “let him run, he will pull the hooks, he will snap your line bring him in, let him run”. Anyway we finally got him, couldn’t pick him up at first but Tim who is not much under 6 ft got him up for the photo, taken by my wife using this as an excuse to get out of the kitchen to take a photo of our proud son.
So, that’s how you catch a cobia off the beach, just as well they listen to the old man. But on a more serious note, Tim Cadoo is almost 23 and pretty much cleans up on the biggest every time we go for a run, become a very fine fisherman, (trained by the best J). Thanks Glen Cadoo
That’s one of the greatest stories it’s ever been my privilege to publish, thanks so much Glen!
Adam L stopped by for some tackle and has sent in an image of the beautiful Trophy 22 he imported from the USA. He also had some pretty amazing marlin pics to send through, from this years’ season:
Here’s the bloke with another magnificent marlin. Roll on, summer:
Bob Penfold writes in with a recommendation for our reader last week who inquired about quality rod holders:
I have a friend who does great custom aluminium work. He put the aluminium hand rails around my boat. Put on deck rails. Made custom rod holders that are strong and work just great in my boat. He built my new under floor aluminium fuel tanks etc that work exactly as planned with pick up lines, breath tubes etc all custom made to fit the available space. The tanks hold 130 litres so suitable for long range outings with my 80 4 stroke Yamaha
He made a great aluminium roof rack for my Toyota. All work professional and not expensive. He is Greg Johnson from Salt Ash near Newcastle. Telephone number is 0418480088. I highly recommend him for all aluminium boat repairs, custom fittings, custom rod holders.
Thanks Bob, grateful for the recommendation.
Just picked up another gamefishing reel, engraved for a presentation this weekend. My crappy photography doesn’t do it justice, it looks really nice, and this is a great way to make a present for a fisho friend totally memorable:
Warwick Jobe from Eden GFC took a well deserved break and headed north:
Andrew, as discussed, I promised to sent you a report from the Top End so we have just arrived in Darwin after after almost a month chasing the Red Eye Jumping Jewfish !!!
No big wet in the Top End this year meant No run off and therefore a very narrow band of good Barra fishing compared to normal. In March both the Daly River and Roper went off with great fish being caught every day and more than 1400 being tagged in the Barra Classic on the Daly. In total more than 3000 Barra were tagged in these river systems before we arrived, and wouldn't you know it, the water had cooled down and the fish heard we were coming !!! My wife and I and another couple from Eden managed to tag 200 good fish and kept 10 before heading to target a feed of Mud Crabs further north.
Both cherabin and fish were hard to find, and lures only produced 10 out of the 200 fish caught however thanks to my good friends at Reidy's Lures at least I was equipped with the right ones.
The highlight was 3 Barra my wife Irene caught one morning from 81cm to 90cm and I got 1 at 29cm on a 150mm lure !!!! Then came the big one when a friend, Dave Roberts caught the 1M + fish on a lure to take the cake.
Now on the other hand the Mud Crabs were just jumping into the boat with 21 the first day between 2 of us and all over 1kg so had to let 1 go because of possession limits. We had a ball and brought lots home frozen but found that steaming was much better than boiling them. Just steam for 15 mins after cleaning them and add Garlic and Ginger and a little spices, chilli, Basil, white wine in a pan and wow!!! drink the remaining wine and what a meal. Regards from the lovely warm weather!!
Wow! So, not much runoff this season, Warwick? I hadn’t heard of that previously. These numbers are amazing, 1400 tagged in the Classic with you and Irene getting 200. Thanks so much for sending amigo, by jingies I could do with some warm tropical sunshine at the moment!
Craig Scott and his little lad have been chasing snapper on the West Coast. Mission successful:
G’Day Andrew, Geographe Bay is fishing fine at the moment. My little bloke, Douglas, danced around the boat like a pro as he steered this 82cm Snapper into the net. Some very nice squid were caught also. A deeply satisfying evening.
Wow! That’s a big fish for the lad Craig, and the memories you’re building will be unforgettable. Thanks so much for sending.
Here’s my Christopher, back in the day. He’s 19 now:
Dave T from Jervis Bay says local lads took advantage of a brief weather window to get out wide:
The weather has not been very kind lately but there was a break today and the boys on "X-Rated" took advantage of it. After a total of 130 nautical miles round trip they hit gold up near Kiama Canyons with 15 Albacore, 4 stripey Tuna and the icing on the cake, a Yellow Fin, weighing in officially at 33.8kgs. We were all standing around the cleaning tables like sea gulls, only with our little plastic bags. Those who had filleting knives helped out and got the task done quickly as possible to get the fillets on ice......and into our plastic bags!!!! Cheers from Jervis Bay, Dave and Kate
Excellent! Yep, I was supposed to be fishing Brown’s today Dave, but cancelled due to the forecast. JB is just so productive!
Troy sent in a pic of an unusual game reel:
I was told that it was a Shakespeare prototype reel, I have an identical 50 and 30. Apparently Shakespeare had 10 or so made in china as testing prototypes to assess whether they would manufacture a reel for their range to compete with the Penn international and Shimano Tiagra game reels. Obviously never went into production. I have had the 50 fully serviced with new carbontex drags so it should be up to the task. The service guy said it had an unusual ridged fiberglass drag washer which he removed and replaced with the typical Tiagra drag system with the c-tex washers.
Interesting, Troy! I wonder why it never went into full production? Maybe a reader knows the answer. One of the joys of the Wide Wide World of Web is the interesting personalities which operate in its countless corners.
One of those is Jack Murphy, a fishing addict with a very interesting blog, and a quirky, offbeat writing style. Jack loves his fishing and does some pretty amazing photography too, here’s an example:
He’s just been on a trip down to the Murray, and posted an account here:
Click the blog link and hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Phil L ordered some rods and generously sent in some pics of his beautiful rig:
Thanks Andrew, just sent payment by Pay Pal. Couple of pics of my boat attached. Guy in Cardwell did the work on it, built in a casting deck up forward (60 l esky + electric motor battery underneath), 85 l fuel underfloor, gas ride seats, 4200 rpm 27.5 knots with the 90 Etec. Electric can be easily removed for heading offshore. Like I said love my lure and soft plastics down the Hinchinbrook Channel so I think this boat will let me play in both games up here. Can't say I know the Stonor patches but have a few tips on a couple of spots that should get me started. Can't wait to bend the new rods. Just need the SE wind to drop on a weekend! Thanks again Cheers, Phil
She’s a credit to you, Phil
With growing tackle orders from overseas some interesting feedback is arriving from far flung climes. Robert T writes from Canada about an exciting trip:
Greetings Andrew. Enclosed is a pic or two of some fishing last week in 30C weather off of Bronte, Ontario in Lake Ontario, Canada.
The big chinook salmon is about 40 plus inches and we did weigh it while in the net and it topped 32 pounds.(there are a couple of smaller chinooks in the pictures enclosed)
It was caught in about 75 plus feet of water, trolling with a downrigger, using a "Hot spot" flasher- 11 inch in length- 4 or 5 inches wide- Bullfrog colour and cut bait(I think herring) as the tease with the hook.
My son in the yellow jersey and bandana is Stephen Turliuk and he is with the skipper of the boat Bill Jackson(grey shirt and black/blue shorts),
The fish was released in good condition and we plan to have 2 if not 3 full mount replicas made from fibreglass from an American outfit called "Mount this fish"
Wooo. I don’t think I’d have the willpower to put that one back, Rob.
From even further north, Bob P sends in news of his mate in Alaska:
This is my mate in Kodiak Alaska. This is his boat that we fish for kings from. Conditions look pretty clear for Kodiak. It is usually raining, foggy and rougher seas. Maybe go back for another round with the salmon next year with him. They are fantastic on the plate.
Top bloke and gun fisho John Holt - plus his mate Mike Hatch, AKA Fishbones - had the day of a lifetime off Sydney last week. It all started with a rusty hook lure:
Mike hooked up on his eBay reel:
And it all turned out as you’d want:
Here’s Mike at the weigh station, his blue fin went 138.5 kilograms:
Let’s keep in mind that the biggest southern bluefin caught in Australian waters - taken on a longline – and weighed well over 400 kilograms. Mike’s fish is amazing but we can only imagine how many monsters will be seen and hopefully caught, in the seasons to come.
Port Botany boat ramp on Foreshore Drive is undergoing a big revamp, with the concrete on the eastern lane torn up and a diver working off a hookah unit on Wednesday. Here's the pamphlet Ports place under windscreen wipers there:
And for our Sydney readers Peter CC kindly emailed a pic today of the new ramp and pontoon at Roseville:
To politics, and regular readers of this little report will know that, some time ago, I did a story on moored boats in Sydney Harbour.
I’m not affected personally, let me make that clear. But the situation is that many moorings in Sydney Harbour are occupied by boats that not only are never used – they could not be used, due to their condition. Meaning of course that fishos and boaties wanting a mooring are kept for years, on a waiting list. Here’s some examples, these pictures taken in August 2010. Boat 1:
Boat 1:
Boat 2:
Boat 3:
And the last pic was a sailboat which sunk at its mooring
I wrote to Roads & Maritime, asking why the owners of these old hulks aren’t asked to remove them. I received the following dismissive response from Penny Robinson:
The four pictures that are referred to are extremely old. These vessels are either no longer in the condition depicted, or, in the case of the last image, the vessel cannot be located. Where vessels appear not to comply with requirements they should be reported to RMS’ info line on 131256.
You might want to get your facts straight, Penny? Those pics are from August 2010 and here’s the exact same three boats, photographed in June 2012:
Boat 2:
Boat 1:
No change. Boat number 3 has been on that mooring for maybe fifteen years without use. The one that sunk of course cannot be located, but if you’re looking for clunkers it won’t be a challenge. Here’s a couple more, from Cammeray Bay:
Boat 3:
It’s quite uncommon to get such a pompous response to a polite question, but like with the Parkies at the Wahroonga protest, some public servants haven’t got the message that, last year, we voted for change. With Maritime’s endless focus on boater inspections it’s no wonder their other duties are somewhat overlooked. These public moorings are just that – for use, by the public. They are not supposed to be cheap storage for rotting wrecks that haven’t been used in years.
Will keep our readers updated as to a response when one eventuates and if you’ve got an opinion on this issue, please let’s hear it. Hank Van Laar from Warringah Anglers writes:
Once again the local Manly Daily, as GREEN as the grass and once again trying to be relevant, has, on Page 3 of today's (Tuesday 24th. July) edition an article that is Headlined: "Lagoon fishing ban bid" SEABIRD RESCUERS SAY DUMPED HOOKS, LINES KILL WILDLIFE - you can read it at
http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/lagoon-fishing-ban-bid/
It is outlining an attempt to lobby the council to have a ban on fishing across the entirety of Narrabeen Lagoon on the basis of a few cases of birds and pelicans in particular being entangled to various extents and with varying consequences for the birds, in lost fishing tackle. While I can see the truth in some of what the bird fanciers are reporting, we should be cognisant that it is again as a result of an irresponsible minority of anglers, but the punishment is sought to be across the entire fishing community and their kids. Once again, in an attempt to give the Greenies a leg up in numbers and kudos, the MD has a "Have Your Say" question posed at the end of the article - "Should fishing be banned from Narrabeen Lagoon?" You can bet the Greens will have their mob swamping the MD website with "YES".
Could I please ask those of you who can be bothered to spend 1 minute defending our sport and enjoyment and a great open air and safe classroom for teaching your kids how to fish, to go to the Manly Daily website and let them have both barrels "NO"!!!!
Thanks for the heads up, Hank! I note one greenie posted a ridiculously long ‘fishing license number’ in a dishonest attempt at credibility. Good on you for circulating this bulletin to the fraternity, and if any readers have greenies playing up in their backyard let’s hear about it. Thanks to our contributors yet again and as I always say – please keep the great stories coming in. It doesn’t have to be about monster fish (although that’s always welcome), anything from salmon to swordfish is of interest – or, let’s hear about your boat or your take on matters political. Until next week,
Andrew Hestelow
Managing Director
