Great end of the week with breams and drummers

I'm on annual leave since Wednesday as I have family members coming to visit us in Wyoming. Yesterday morning I went to catch some fish for our diner tonight. So I went to  to Half Tide Rocks, nearly 40 minutes drive from home! I was hoping it will be worth the effort.

After a walk to the point, I went and choose my fishing spot and started the burley ritual and did few cast right in front of me. At first there were small bites and few misses. But then big breams were coming for the burley! It was really cold, 8 degrees when I arrived. I made it 2 hours and kept 3 breams for diner.

I have recorded about 1h20 of the session but used iMovie to make some time shifts effect to fast forward boring parts.

Here is the intro video:

And this is the full version:

The keepers:

Then I went back home and took my wife and boy for a lunch and then drove the missus back home while father and son went for a ride to three different playgrounds. On the way to the third playground Thien-San, my boy, felt asleep so I drove to Narara Creek where I can park the car just one meter away from the water so I can fish and keep an eye on him.I started burleying in the middle of the creek but then nothing, not a single bite. So I decided to burley closer right in front of the little bush and bang bang bang! 4 more breams to end this awesome day, here are the two legal ones but I released them anyway:

This afternoon, I took the cousins to Terrigal beach, as the kids were playing with my wife on the beach, my cousin, his wife and I went on the tiny rock platform on the right hand side. I didn't think well of the location, but it seemed OK to the view of the weed beds and rocky bottom but we didn't want to go too far away from the kids anyway so we stayed around.

Luckily after the burley took effect, breams and Blackfish were caught one after the other until it was time to go back home as the little one was hungry.

Once back home, I posted a report on OzIsoFishing forum and the more experienced members told me the two fish I thought to be Ludericks were actually Drummers! My first pigs on my Iso setup!

What a wonderful week really! I'm not sure if it's because of the Iso fishing technique, or because Central Coast is just the fishing heaven as most are saying or maybe a bit of both, but this week has been really fun and I learned a lot about this awesome fishing technique.

I gave my wife the rod so she can have some fun fighting a large bream, but unfortunately he spat out the hook right at her feet.

Here are some more pictures of this afternoon taken by my auntie:

And of course, we had a great diner. I cleaned up the fish, my wife cooked them and my auntie did the salad, what a yummy diner:

7 hookups 1 landed

Up until today all the Iso sessions I made were just an intro to Iso fishing. What I meant by this is the fish did not put an awesome fight and I felt it was just like fishing with a regular rod. Yeah the rod did bend and all but it was not spectacular.

Until this afternoon, I went to Terrigal, first time on this platform and it looked awesome. The tide was raising and the swell was safe. Not a fisho out there, the platform was for me so I picked my spot and started burleying.

My first hookup happened 40 minutes after the first cast. Something really big was on the other side. Unfortunately my drag was not at 100% so it pulled under a rock and busted me off.

It carried on like that three times eventhough the line snapped too early to be rocks I think it was a big fish and my 8lb was too light. So I switch to 12lb and landed a nice Blackfish.

As the tide went up and sun went down, the fish went mad over the big rock step on top of which the white water was bubbling. Until 5.20pm I lost 3 other big fish. I finally got to learn how to use the lever drag. At the beginning I got busted cuz I was holding the lever and tension was too high. On next hookups, as soon as I recognised the breaking tension I released the lever and the rod straighten up allowing me to fight for around one minute but I always ended up in the rocks at the end of the rock step.

By 4pm some other fishos have been fishing around me I didn't notice them coming, too focused. The sun went down, I casted my last one but not being able to see the float I decided to hold the rod tip high and pulling the line a bit. I noticed the fish were so aggressive that I didn't need to see the float. And bang another big one and another bust off... :-(

So either the fish snapped the line or the line got stuck to deep rocks far in front of me.

Even with just a single blackie and multiple busted ones. I feel that this session was a real Iso one which I learned a lot from.

I now need to get some 16lb fluoro leader!

More bream on Iso in Sydney

After my first visit to Clifton Gardens the other day, I decided, yesterday, to give it another go but went to the rocky bits on the right side of the beach accessing it through the walk path from the beach.
15 minutes after my first cast, the wind went mad, black clouds were forming and a massive dead branch felt off a tree and landed two meters from my feet. That was it for me, I packed up and went to the jetty. But the wind got even stronger and some fishos left for their cars. So did I.

However, I didn't want to waste an afternoon so decided to find a protected area and remembered of place I read from other forums as being more productive. And from memory it's location should protect me from the wind coming from that direction. So I headed there and walk down the path and hill to access the small rock platforms. I chose a group of four rocks and stand on the first of them. As I stepped on the rock, a blackfish got spooked and swam away... Before deploying my rod, I burleyed in front of me. 20 minutes have past and not a single bite, I became impatient as it was around 5pm and the sky was getting darker. So I casted on my left, nada... I casted on my right, trying to reach as the other set of rocks further back, and as the float settled it went down, bang! Smaller fighter, it was the first of three leather jackets.

An Iso fisher man was standing further up by the point, he was on a good location but it was too far for me and I didn’t have a lot of time so I decided to stay here.

I had enough of leatherjacket and they bit through my 6 lb leader so many time I’ve lost about 5 hooks, so I casted again in front of me in the hope the burley had kicked in. Again as the float settled it went for a dive, I strike and hooked up to something good! Letting the Iso rod do the work for me, the fish finally got to the rock and I lifted up as my platform was very low at near water level, my landing net is still a virgin! It was a nice bream, I estimated it to 28 cm. Second cast, a second bream of the same size, third cast got me an undersize bream that went back to the sea.

It then got quiet again, the sky was now at near zero visibility, I used what’s left of burley and made a last attempt, the float was barely visible, but I managed to see it went under for one more time and got me another good bream. That was exciting!

I called it a day and started packing up when $#&&@~!!!, in my excitements I forgot to check the water and my way back is now under water. Oh dear! Quick lets check Google Maps, it seems to be another exit on the opposite side, so I slowly jumped from rock to rock and got stuck again as a stack of small boats and kayaks were in my way and the rock on the side was too far to make a jump.

After some hesitation, I knew the only way out is to climb that bushy slope in front of me, so I looked around and see a low enough edge and used my landing net pole as a probe. Slowly, I made my way up avoiding fragile roots, branches and other obstacles and finally made it up there…

Behind me:

In front of me:

From the top:

Got home after one and a half hour drive and measured the fish. I released one small bream and two leather jacket. Here are the keepers, the breams were all around 29m.

What an adventure...

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!