First bream on Iso

Until Tuesday, I will be finishing work at 3pm. That's a great opportunity for me to practice my Iso fishing skills around the Sydney area. Yesterday I went to discover Clifton Gardens, I've heard of this spot several times in the past but never got to visit it until now. I can understand why it is popular, the view is good, there is a nice grass field for family gathering, the beach is small but nice enough and there is a massive jetty where fishing is said to be pretty good at times.

I arrived at around late 3pm and there were already a lot of fishos. But everyone's bucket seemed to be empty, except for a guy who was catching yakkas. There was another Iso fisherman but he to was getting doughnut.

I've anyhow decided to give it a go and stayed till 5.30pm. I saw one other guy trying to catch a yellowtail for bait for Kingfish, as he was using a hook and bait that was way too big, I offered him a size 12 hook, he still didn't catch anything so I helped him by pulling out my handline and caught him a yakka to play with.

After 20 minutes of berleying and getting my bait stolen by pickers, something decent finally pulled my float down fast. Little fight and I pulled out a 26cm bream, the only good fish for the whole session...

I will be coming and try again.

My first legal Blackfish

As I got into Iso fishing, targetting Blackfish (aka Luderick) was to be expected. With a lot of efforts going to various rock fishing locations, I still haven't managed to catch any decent blackfish (caught couple of baby ones when targeting Bream...).

This morning I went to Bradleys Head, a wonderful location if you are looking for a fantastic panoramic view over the Harbour Bridge, for another attempt. I started on the rocky patches on the left of the amphitheatre but the first hours was pure failure, not a single bite, the tide was at the lowest...

I then decided to change spot and went on the jetty right in front of the amphitheatre where a lot of weeds were growing at the base. All went very slowly, caught couple of Pufferfish, little buggers, but then the tide started to raise and I could see a big school of bait fish swimming in. Very soon after that, my float went for a slow dive so I strike and hookup with a mullet.

A nice by-catch to start the excitement.
As my float drifted away, I saw a big Kingfish chasing some of the bait fish at around 6 meters in front of me. He must have been about 1.20 meters! All I could do was to admire this majestic fish swim by.

Then suddenly there were some noise behind me, a couple of crow were trying to get a feed from the bread inside my bag... I chase them away and secure the bait.

Back to my float, it has drifted past the left side of the jetty and above some weed bed, it sank! Strike & hook up again! This time if feels bigger and the rod was bending nicely. That's when I had an experience of the self pulling action of the Iso rod. Those long rods are extremely flexible and because they are trying to regain their original straight shape, they are pulling the fish for you at the same time, all I had to do is holding the base of the rod straight up and the fish was being pulled towards me by the rod. Quite neat. The fish was swirling around in the water and I couldn't recognise this type of movement, until it started to swim straight that's when I knew it was a Blackfish, and a good size one. I haven't brought a net with me and wasn't too sure about lifting it up. Not knowing my new Iso rod well yet, I didn't want to risk breaking it by lifting the fish out so I worked it back to the stairs on the side of the jetty. On the way the Blackfish was trying to dive under the weeds but thanks to the length of the rod (5.3m) it was just a matter of extending my arm in front of me and the fish was pulled out from below the weeds. Awesome! I then just caught the leader and pulled the baby out of the water.

31cm it was, not too bad for a first legal size Blackfish on Iso rod. It was the first time I saw a legal Blackfish in real life, and I find it very a nice fish.

Both the fish were not a match to a size #2 Iso rod that is designed for Drummers, but it still was a nice fight and seeing the rod bending over is quite exciting. As I was away from home to work on a night shift in Sydney, the fish were released to fight another day.

Hopefully, I will catch more of them soon and looking forward to fight a Drummer too!

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.

Homemade berley scoop

Something I rarely do but I should do more regularly is to use burley/berley. Most of the time the water I'm fishing is very wide, so the chance of a good fish finding my bait is little unless I'm lucky to be in a spot where fish are hanging around. The purpose of a burley is to attract the fish in the neighbourhood but not to feed them.

The subject of this post is not the burley itself, but a DIY berley scoop. I'm planning to explore the world of Iso fishing and burley is one important aspect of it. As you are fishing from the rock, the burley need to thrown accurately and sometimes at a distance, that is why Iso fishermen use a berley scoop with a long handle.

A good burley scoop costs around $30 - $40, the cheapest I've seen is around $19. Alright... fishing is an expensive hobby hey!

I've spent enough and need to save to buy an Iso landing net (it's a lightweight, telescopic 5 to 6 meter long landing net), because an Iso rod wouldn't be able to lift a big fish off the water and from the rocks you have no other easy way to land your fish. So this is another opportunity for a DIY project :-)

So I need a scoop and make it long enough. So I went to Coles and see what I could find and saw this:

OK, it's more a spoon than a scoop but it should do the work. To add length to the handle, I've used a piece of wooden stick I've found in the corner of the garage and used a length of soft rope to attach it to the scoop handle using the same knot as you would use to make a float stopper knot which is similar to a Uni knot. I left a length of rope at the end of the handle to be use as a leash to attach the scoop to the bucket, it's probably be a bit short so I might need to extend it a bit in the future.

The spoon is not very deep as opposed to a scoop, but let see how this homemade burley scoop works. Another option is to use an old ice-cream scoop instead.

Total cost: $3