Homemade telescopic burley scoop

I've been using a pen fishing rod for quite a while and just love it. Now that I discovered Iso fishing, I think of the pen rod as a mini Iso rod. It is similar in the sense that it is all about finesse and light tackle.

I have few spare parts provided by penfishingrods.com in case I brake something which mostly happens by human mistake (stepping on the rod...) and very rarely while fighting the fish.

For my Iso fishing I used a small cooler bag from Coles, it has a hard inside which makes it perfect for a portable burley box that I can put over my shoulder and be very mobile and have my hands free for the rod.

Until now I used a kitchen scoop to throw the burley, having lost my DIY burley scoop during a night session.

I didn't build another burley scoop because I wanted it to be able to be stored in the burley box so I can close the lid and not having an extra accessory.

The problem with the kitchen scoop is it is not great for throwing the burley further than 4 or 5 meters away or the burley will spread around.

So I bought a burley scoop head piece and used pen rod spare parts to build a telescopic scoop that would fit in the box but would also extend for distance casting.

A little fisherman

Just a quick post to share this cute video of my nearly 3 year old boy playing with the Pen Rod Goliath on Neutral Bay beach. The tiny rod looks gigantic when handled by this young fisherman :-D

Using Iso fishing accessories with a Pen Rod Goliath

I recently got into Iso Tsuri, unfortunately the weather conditions were not safe those last couple weeks so I'm still yet to have tried my Iso gears on the rocks. Next Wednesday, the OZIsoFishing forum members are organising a members trip in the Central Coast, I will be joining them and hopefully catch my first legal size Blackfish or Black Drummer!

In the mean time, I've been trying my 5.3 meters Yong Sung Naiad #2.0 rod at the local estuaries and find it quite a sensitive rod even though it is a size 2.0 rod. Even an undersize bream feels good on the rod, I can imagine what fight it would be to get a nice drummer on this.

As everything is about finesse in Iso fishing, the terminal tackle and various accessories are actually very suitable for my pen fishing rod.

Firstly, my favorite add-on is the HDF Hook Keeper, Iso fishing rods are thinner than their rock fishing counterparts. Which makes this hook keeper a match for the Pen Rod Goliath. I can now walk about with the rod extended and not having to hold the rig or have it dangling around and getting tangled.

Iso terminal tackle are pretty cool too. Their #8 swivel is very small and ideal for light lines. Their floats (in various sizes) are pre-weighted, you only need to add the equivalent splitshot sinker to neutralise the float's buoyancy so the fish won't feel anything on the bite.

The triangular yellow accessory you can see in the picture, underneath the float is a rear float cushion stopper. This one is shaped like a v-cushion, making it acts both as a bottom float stopper protecting the float hitting against the swivel, also reducing the lost of floats when the line breaks, as the stopper hold on tightly to the line and keeps the float from sliding out, the V shape helps pulling down the rig when by the use of bottom currents.

Above the float is a plastic stopper bead and a float stopper (pink) thread. Those stopper threads are made of a type of wool and it is very soft and slide through the tiny rod's top guide very easily instead of getting blocked like other plastic/rubber stoppers.

I've been testing this setup, targeting creek mullets and it works a treat using a 4lb flurocarbon leader with no splitshot as I needed the bait to float right under the water surface.

First month in Central Coast

After months of house hunting in the the northern areas of Sydney, my wife and I decided to move to Wyoming near Gosford on the Central Coast as the houses are bigger and cheaper and the life style is just great for rising a child. And on top of that, there are a lot of popular fishing areas :-D

I haven't been personally very lucky for this first month but with some friends we did manage to bring back some nice catches.

On my first session, I went at the discovery of Brisbane Water and fished near MV Lady Kendall II and got a nice bream caught on frozen beach worms.

My family did enjoy walking along Brisbane Water, it's quite a change from Artarmon, so great being able to be near the water.

Some friends then came up and visit us staying the weekend at our place. We then been told by a local fisherman that the railway bridge is an awesome place where people have caught some nice jewies. So we went there at night trying to catch some, but unfortunately we didn't have squids, just frozen pillies, instead of jewfish we caught a lot of breams one of which was over 1 kg. We were using frozen pilchards as bait and the big bream was caught with a whole pilchard on a gang of size 3 hooks!

I now live in Wyoming and Narara Creek is less than 10 minutes drive from home, my first attempt there got me a big eel and four nice breams on my pen fishing rod. I really like this little rod, even if it feels a bit like a toy, which it's probably is if you compare the built quality to normal size rods, it is however a very capable fishing rod that brings you much more fun than regular outfits. It took me 10 minutes to land this eel, half the time to fight it back to the creek's edge and another half to make it enter and stay in the landing net. The pen rod was bending and screaming and at the end of the Berkley Nanofil 4lb line, I could feel every single movement of the beast that tried to swim away on my far left.

One of my rock fishing buddy came along and we headed one morning to Avoca. Alarm clock set to 4am! There we went, I was surprised how large the rock platform was and the view of Avoca beach was just amazing. We stayed until 11:30am and near the end my mate caught one Bonito and two Mack Tuna. I managed to catch a black drummer on his Iso Tsuri fishing rod.

I'm now hooked to Iso fishing! More about this subject very soon.

So overall, living in the Central Coast is really a big change, in a good way. We live near fishable waters, the life peaceful, nice neighbourhood, the house is massive and costs less than a one bedroom unit down in Sydney. The drawback, there is always drawbacks, is the commute time, I still working in Artarmon, so my commute is mainly biking from home to Narara station, then take a one hour train to Artarmon and bike to the office, it usually takes around 1:20 each way. Driving would take a bit over an hour on a good day. But for the moment it is worth the effort.

Fishing the surf with penfishingrods.com

I'm taking a self imposed challenge of catching something decent from a surf beach using a Pen Rod Goliath from penfishingrods.com, unfortunately I will need to try again as this time I caught only undersized fish:

Pen Rod Goliath combos

Just received two pen fishing rods combos from penfishingrods.com, I already own one but wanted a backup combo and a fly combo.

These microlight fishing rods are tougher than you might think. I got decent size breams, trevally and flatheads on them ưith the biggest being a 55cm flattie.

These reels are the Pen Rod Goliath version, they are telescopic and extend to 1.6m long! Once collapsed they can fit in a pocket or anywhere so are always available.

Here is the fly combo once mounted.

There is 8 yards of double 0 float fly line and 4lb leader. Still waiting for my prawn flies then I will head to Narrabeen lakes for some practice.

Yellow Tails

My favorite bait for surf fishing big fish is pilchards. I usually buy them frozen and would keep them for several sessions. Old left over will become stink bait for beach worming.

The problem is they can be expensive in the long run especially in times like these last three weeks when fish seem to be gone on holidays.

The second great bait is yellowtails or yakkas. They are great as live bait but still very good frozen. When too big they can be used filetted on a gang hook. And best of all, you can catch them for free.

Yellowtails are easy to catch, but it can be frustrating if you don't have the proper hook and bait. You can fish right next to another fisherman catching loads of them and catch none.

So what's the secret?

The rod:

Any short rod will do. I love catching yellowtails on my microlight fishing rod the Pen Rod Goliath from penfishingrods.com, they add fun to yakkas catching. Those miniature rods are so sensitive that makes yakkas feel like breams fighting! There are a lot of fishermen catching yakkas on handlines with a lot of success.

The rig(s):

I would go light fluoro 4lb or even 2lb line. A small hook, size 10 is about right, long shank is ideal. A medium to small split shot sinker or if you don't have any and hand you can use a small swivel instead. Some people would even fish yakkas without sinker but I prefer using a small one as it is easier to cast. Sinkerless rigs are more suitable when fishing with a hand line.

Alternatively, you can add a small float above the split shot sinker. With the float you will be able to target yakkas if they hang around a bit further away.

A third rig would be a Sabiki rig. They are dead cheap and very effective.

The bait:

Baits for yellowtails are in order of preference: small cubes of pilchards, minced beef, bread.

Minced beef can be hard to hook and would fall off as it touches the water, but with experience you will manage to roll the minced beef in small ball, then wrapp it around the hook and massage it till it sticks well to it. As the yakkas eat the bait it will shake it off which will act as burley and make other yakkas go wild. You will need to rebait often. But you should hook up often too.

My preference goes to pilchard. With one pilchard I should be able to catch 20 to 30 yellowtails.

For a Sabiki rig, usually you will not need any bait at all. The sabiki hook have small flies on them which will attract the yakkas as you move the rig up and down the water column. But there are days when yakkas are a bit slow, so tipping the Sabiki hooks with a bit of bait will help kicking off.

The location:

My favorite location is Balmoral Jetty at night. Yakkas are there by hundreds.

Alternatively, instead of catching yellowtails you can catch herrings with the same technique. My spot for them used to be Floyd Bay in Lansvale, but since I moved to Artarmon, it is now too far for me.

In Balmoral Jetty, they seem to like days when there is no wind and the water is calm. Fish during a rising or lowering tide about one hour away from high tide.

Yellowtails like to hang around wharves and jetties. So just pick one not too far from your place.

Here is a little video:

My fishing gears

My little family has moved to Australia from the UK just a bit over a year ago as my Skilled VISA application has been approved after 2 years of preparation and 3 years of waiting... On approval we made the move 6 months later and landed in Casula at a friend's place without a job. With a 1 year old kid, you have to be careful with the expenses. I started to have some contracting jobs and was remotely working part-time for my previous employer (FT.com)

I got back into fishing after my cousin Tony took me for a fishing trip to the Saphire Coast (Merimbula, Tathra etc...). As a Christmas gift, he offered me a nice 6'6 Berkley fishing combo. I remember the first fish I caught were Yellowtail, Barracuda. We do eat the Yakkas they are good deep fried.

For a while, I used to fish the Georges River especially Chipping Norton, not knowing how unhealthy fish can be in the lake :-O. In one of my sessions there I met an old man who taugh me how to catch Herrings with a Sabiki rig. Seeing that I was a keen fisho he gave me some of his old gears: a bait net, 9 ft two rods, loads of sinkers and a torch. That was a real kick off for night fishing too. Herrings are also nice deep fried or filletted in Vietnamese style salad.

We then moved from Casula to Cabramatta West where we met Tina our landlady. A short while after, we moved again to Artarmon because I have found a stable job at SBS.

Balmoral Jetty was the closest fishing spot. At the time I also bought a Pen Rod Goliath from penfishingrods.com they are what we can call microlight fishing gears. You have to know how to handle a rod and play with the drag cuz even a yakkas will feel like a bream! Lot of fun really.

After we moved in, Tina, her partner Ron and her brother Chung came to visit us and went fishing at Balmoral and Cronulla. That was when Chung taught me how to catch beach worms to land some lovely Whitings. That was also when I switch from pier fishing to surf fishing!

Some people think that everyone living in North Sydney area are rich. It is true that virtually everything is expensive around here, but people living here do so because they work in the area and also for the life style that North Sydney offers. Rent in Artarmon is quite high and for a single income family it can be just at the limit of being tight. A lot of people we know would have stayed in the West and commute eveyday to workin the City, but I wasn't ready to do 2 hours a trip to/from work per day and my wife had enough of the boring life there. We'd rather tighten our expenses and have a better life style. Now I live 20 mins walk from work, 5 mins drive. That's a lot of hours saved per day to stay with the kid and missus or going fishing! Some weeks I would wake up everyday at 4.15am and head to Dee Why for a sunrise fishing until 7am when I head back home for a family breakfast and jump in the car for work. Some other weeks I would go at night or just take a break. Isn't that a dream life?!

So, being careful with our budget, I just can't justify buying $300 reels, $200 rods, not even half the price. But I needed to upgrade my gears for the surf, so eBay was my destination. In May, I ended up with a Saratoga Mawler Spin 11 ft rod + reel combo for less than $100. All felt good but the reel only lasted few sessions, after falling several times in water and sand, it just gave up on me. I reckon with more care and maintenance it would have lasted longer. But till today I'm still using the rod and it has performed way over my expectation. I replaced the dead Saratoga reel with Shimano entry level surf reel the Aerlex XSA 8000 for $99 from Otto's Tackle World in Drummoyne, these guys are great.

After a fishing session with Tina's family down south near Nowra, my gears got topped up with a 12 ft Shakespeare rod that Chung gave me and two Daiwa Regal 4000 BRi I bought from him for $100.

That is what I now use for all my fishing trips. For big surf fish I would use the Saratoga + Aerlex and Shakespeare + Regal. For whitings I would use the lighter Berkley combo or even the Pen Rod Goliath as most of the times whitings are hanging around just few meters from the shore.

Total expenses (on main equipments):

Berkley combo: $0

Saratoga + Shimano Aerlex: $193

Shakespeare + Regal: $50

Backup Regal: $50

Pen rod: $70

Total: $363

That would be approximately the price of a Shimano Stradic Ci4! And I'd say that the combo Saratoga + Shimano Aerlex 8000 would have been enough and would land very decent fish.

Here are some more photos.

The Berkley combo. The shark in the picture was caught with the Saratoga actually.

The Saratoga + Aerlex:

The Shakespeare (the Regal reel was on the Saratoga on the right of the picture):

The Pen Rod Goliath: