Mar-Apr 2013 - South Sydney Amateur Fishing Association

Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
South Sydney Amateur Fishing Association
SSAFA - Newsletter
Steven
Siarakas
Editor:Editor:
Steven
Siarakas
e. [email protected]
e. [email protected]
m. 0431 580 480
m. 0431 580 480
Contacts
PRESIDENT:
Stan Konstantaras
p. 9344 0331
[email protected]
TREASURER:
John Burgess
p. 9311 3200
[email protected]
SECRETARY:
Joe Garufi
p. 0417 491 868
[email protected]
CLUB RECORDER:
Silvestro Severi
p. 0412 252 663
[email protected]
EVENTS ORGANISER:
Tony Steiner
p. 0412 611 778
[email protected]
TAGGING OFFICER:
Matt Manson
p. 0407 825 828
MEMBERSHIP OFFICER:
Pat Ashbury
p. 0409 549 571
Inside this issue:
Calendar
2
Douk’s dish
3
Photo of Bi-month
4
ANSA Nowra
6
Fishing Mocha
18
Mallacoota, Sth Oz
20
ANSA Narooma
22
End of an Era
26
Fish Therapy
30
Fishing
SponsorsReports
32
Members in action
42
SSAFA Boards update
12
16
[email protected]
Message from the Editor
Autumn fishing, is there any better time to be fishing in the Sydney metropolitan waters.
There is an amazing array of fish about, wahoo paid us a visit as did some 15-20kg yellowfin,
frigates and bonnies smashing up in all the water ways, still plenty of kings about, dollies are
hanging around, blue nose bream have entered to spawn. I have noticed the beach has whiting and salmon in the first light, another good marlin season with miles of juveniles through
the summer and some larger specimens being caught of late. This mix of warmer and colder
water will see the trevally coming through in numbers, luderick are also being caught. The
fresh will have fisherman scrambling before the winter closures of bass, EP, trout and cod.
This is prime time and with prime time comes “THE SYDNEY TOURNAMENT” the club has
done well finishing 2nd At Nowra and 2nd at Narooma with well attended conventions.
Time to get strategies together to put in a big showing at this years local comp.
A couple of Australian records to Luke Halim and Jeremy Siarakas were some of the highlight this summer.
The reports from our regulars are always worth studying. Thanks again to the newsletter
team and the contributing members for producing another great read.
Screaming drags - Dr Steve.
SSAFA - Newsletter
SSAFA CALENDAR 2013
Upcoming Events
April
3
Meeting Night
5/6/7
SYDNEY TOURNAMENT
26/27/28
SMD Beach Comp
May
1
Meeting Night
17/18/19
ANSA Lake Lyell
Page 2
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
DOUK’S DISH
Beer Battered Fish & Chips - DOUK KONSTANTARAS
Ingredients:
1 kg fresh flathead fillets
Beer (coopers or similar)
self raising flour (1 cup)
Lemon
Potatoes
Olive Oil
Salt
Cooking Fish:
Cut potatoes into desired chip shape and boil for 10-15mins
Place boiled potatoes onto a wire rack and cool in fridge for 1hr.
Place flour in a bowel and season to taste. Slowly add the beer to the flour whisking until you get runny batter consistency. And
place in fridge.
Take the potatoes from the fridge, and place in pre-heated olive oil (1800C) and cook till golden and crisp.
Take your flathead fillets lightly flour and then dip into batter, fry fish till golden.
A wedge of lemon and enjoy with a very cold beer !!
Bon appétit
Douk
Page 3
SSAFA - Newsletter
PHOTO COMPETITION
PHOTO OF THE BI - MONTH
SELF PORTRAIT - YAKKING !!!
Photo by BERENICE ROWLEY
Page 4
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
RFA NEWS
Page 5
SSAFA - Newsletter
FOCUS REPORT
ANSA NOWRA CONVENTION - Steven Siarakas
This was my first salt water comp out of Sydney for over a
decade. And I wouldn’t have gone except that it was the
birthday present Jeremy really wanted. After relentless
badgering Jeremy won out and we were preparing the little
tinnie for an assault on the rivers of the south coast.
tion complete strategy for the first day of the comp was
in full ernest. Coops and Tim hit the rocks, Josh and
Richard found there feet and had a toss close by, Stan
and Douk fished out of Jervis and Darren and Peter B
went out the Crookhaven Heads.
Darren hired a cabin in the Crookhaven Caravan Tourist
Park and had a spare room which we gladly took off his
hands so we ended up bunking with Darren, Peter B and
Rob about 25 meters away from the Konstantaras clan x5,
Mick Scibbo, Rich Sparta and Josh and we were one cabin
away from Coops and Tim. Perfect proximity to get together in the evenings and enough space to prepare for
our fishing. Scott Maclean also made a guest appearance
and I believe Nathan a new member was there although I
didn’t see him.
Jeremy and I were lucky enough to hitch a ride with
Mick in the Tomahawk so off to the bait grounds we
went just outside the Crookhaven heads. One thing for
sure there was schools and schools of bait.. It didn’t
take long to get yakkas and slimmeys. Jeremy was flicking a small metal lure into the bait schools and getting
bakers to 1.52kg, nice panny snapper, heaps of kilo+
slimeys and mixed odds and ends. Scibbo was working
the plastic and smashing knuckles in the process from
the speed of the strikes. He managed a couple of
reddies and I was on bait duties.
A lot of the boys were there on Thursday morning before
the comp with Josh and myself arriving Thursday evening
and Alex, Jordan and Luke arriving Friday night. RegistraPage 6
Off to the Banks, it was a beautiful flat day and the
banks were alive with fish, at one point we looked over
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
FOCUS REPORT
ANSA NOWRA CONVENTION - Steven Siarakas
Siarakas
tic and jig no good. We saw Nick “Smelly "and Sam Coumbas on the water they had been there for a week with lots
of complaints about small reds and kings. Not very happy
with their weeks effort. Back to the banks for another
crack at those bait schools and we were greeted by
Sammy the seal what a pain, Scibbo’s first plastic smashed
and Sammy was on the job grabbing Scibbo’s kilo+ trevally
and tearing it apart, at least Scibbo got the head back. A
quick move and the plastics were hitting good trevally, Jeremy ended up with a nice 1.34 treva for his troubles. By
that stage it was late and we had one last flick at the bait
grounds before homeward bound. That last session had
Scibbo and Jeremy going head to head on “Mouth Almighty’s” yes red rock cods and while they were trying to
work out who was going to get the biggest one I put down
a floating bait that got smoked, ah well there is always tomorrow.
the gunnel to see hundreds of rat kings, we dropped live
baits and jigs for no fish, we then rigged up the slimmeys
and began a figure 8 troll around the north and south
banks. Within a minute of trolling our spread the rigger
pops and we think we are onto something. No hook-up.
About 30mins later the down rigger pops, again no fish.
About an hour or so later the down rigged is smashed, a
kilo plus slimmey is in the gob of something. Jeremy is
on the Stella and fighting a fish, the fish didn't perform
much, no wonder an undersized kingie came up. Its
amazing what these little fish will eat, a quick pic and we
searched for more bait. We found an underwater canyon that was holding about a kilometre of bait, jigging
began, plastics thrown and a floating bait was sent into
the masses.
Big sweep were caught on the bait, the plasPage 7
Back at the camp and there were the usual fishing stories,
Tim and Coops had board fish, Jeremy had a couple of
board fish and the Konstantaras boys had caught 31 snapper and who knows how many squid. Douk only kept one
of the snapper for the Sat pm BBQ and the squid got the
satay, chilli and salt and pepper treatment. Josh had made a
salivating chicken satay that also went in seconds. Darren
had tangled with some small dollies and everyone had
caught something. BBQs sizzled plenty of food and drink
and plans for day two were made.
SSAFA - Newsletter
FOCUS REPORT
ANSA NOWRA CONVENTION - Steven Siarakas
a great night at the camp BBQ
snapper, steaks, lamb cutlets, salads, lamingtons, ice cream and
camp stories had everyone up late.
But I am sure these are the times
the kids will remember most.
Day 2. I met up with Anthony and Stan in the shark cat
and they helped me with a little running repair. They were
off in search of the mighty reddie. I was in the tinnie with
Jeremy and we explored the Shoalhaven and Crookhaven
River from the heads to the Nowra bridge, what a lifeless
waterway. I understand it gets hit hard by the pros and if
that isn’t a good case for aquaculture I don’t know what is.
In 4 hours of putting around I did not see one bait school.
We were very frustrated and not having turned a reel for
all those hours we finally put together a last ditch effort, xraps along the break wall. It wasn’t long and we had taylor
bouncing lures, then it happened a large screaming run
followed by aerial jumps, a good sambo on 1kg, After a
15min fight a 1.8kg fish is in the bucket, tired and hungry
an early finish had us back at the camp site, fish weighed in
and ready for a swim. The swim was refreshing and all the
boys started coming in, Scibbo had a couple of nice snapper + other fish, El presendente went swimming to save
his squidding Emerelda outfit and lost a pair of $300
sunny’s in the process (hw many loser points!) and the
usual fish stories exchanged. It was
Page 8
Day 3 was a short day with an
11am weigh in finish. Everyone
went out and my alarm was set for
weekday instead of weekend so
we got up a little late. We rushed
to the spot we had success in the
previous afternoon and managed
another salmon, this was the eventual junior winner 2.06kg. Back at
the camp by 10:30am fish weighed
and time to pack up, by then everyone was back, there were the
usual ones that got away stories
but a quick lunch time BBQ and off to hear the results,
nice marlin on 10kg took out blue water, Tim took out
the rocks with Coops third, Jeremy took out 1st, 2nd and
fourth in the juniors and SSAFA
finished second by
a few point to St
George with Ron
weighing a cracking
5+ kg monster
croc.
We all packed up
and were ready to
leave but were
shocked to find no
one in, no one out,
as the main road
was blocked by
fallen power lines.
The boys went
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
FOCUS REPORT
ANSA NOWRA CONVENTION - Steven Siarakas
Siarakas
back to the boat ramp where Stan cleaned some kings
and the others had coffee compliments of Josh’s mobile
gas top while waiting for the road to open up so we
could head home.
I have heard guys calling SSAFA a fresh water club and we
don’t do any salt water fishing together, here is a great
example of where a lot of club members could have
come down and joined the party, I really think this would
be a great convention to attend just 2.5hrs south of Sydney. Something for the diary next year?
Cheers Dr Steve
Page 9
SSAFA - Newsletter
FOCUS REPORT
ANSA NOWRA CONVENTION - Steven Siarakas
Page 10
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
FOCUS REPORT
ANSA NOWRA CONVENTION - Steven Siarakas
Siarakas
Page 11
SSAFA - Newsletter
FOCUS REPORT
ANSA NOWRA CONVENTION - Steven Siarakas
Page 12
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
FOCUS REPORT
ANSA NOWRA CONVENTION - Steven Siarakas
Siarakas
Page 13
SSAFA - Newsletter
TRIP REPORT
ANSA Nowra Convention “The TIM SACKETT Story” - Paul Cooper
Tim and I are back with the news that Tim has won the Rock section of the Convention and that our Club came second. I got 3rd on the rocks. Some photos and narrative follow. There were 115 competitors in this event so Tim has
beaten some very good anglers and got a lot of respect out of this.
On Thursday Tim and I travelled to Nowra early. The actual location where we stayed is called Crookhaven Heads and
it looks like this.
Tim and I had a quick look around at a few spots and had a quick fish in a few locations. Tim lost a good fish Thursday
afternoon. So Friday a.m. we decided to head back to that spot which can be accessed by a long walk or by climbing in.
We walked out there the first time so we could accesses the climb in. Thereafter we climbed in and out. Here are
some photos.
Tim fishing the main wash above.
Page 14
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
TRIP REPORT
ANSA Nowra Convention “The TIM SACKETT Story” - Paul Cooper
The view from this spot with another South Sydney club member in the foreground. We get to go to some nice places!
Josh and Tim fishing another platform with Josh hooked up on a fish.
Page 15
SSAFA - Newsletter
TRIP REPORT
ANSA Nowra Convention “The TIM SACKETT Story” - Paul Cooper
The place we stayed at was more than adequate and we ate on the veranda every day
The scoreboard at the end of day two with Tim’s name on the top
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Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
TRIP REPORT
ANSA Nowra Convention “The TIM SACKETT Story” - Paul Cooper
Tim with his trophy and prize. Winning fish 2.2kg salmon on 1kg line
On the way out we were delayed two hours by a downed tree and power lines. We just drove back 5 KM and went to
the beach for a swim. Some unhappy people here but on the upside no one was injured.
In closing, we had a good weekend away and Tim got to do what he likes best in a crowd and the outcome could not
have been better for him.
Page 17
Kind Regards - Paul
SSAFA - Newsletter
THESPIAN REPORT
DEALING WITH THE FISHING MOCHA’s Part 2
- Max Chater
I received so much positive feed back on my last article
on the Banana and Suit case mocha that I have included
a part 2 on other superstitions. Pay particular attention
to the last superstition. I thought our president was
mad until I saw that one in my research. Here we go.
Never start a trip on a Friday. (Titanic started Friday)
• Some fishermen would not sail if they passed a nun,
rook, or a cat on the way to their vessel.
• Some fishermen would not sail if they saw a rat
come ashore off their vessel – assuming that the rat
knew something they didn’t!
• Never stir tea with a knife or fork.
• Never cross knives on the galley table.
• The teapot must not be emptied after the fishing
had started. To empty it might make the ship turn over
and sink, or result in a poor trip.
• Never lay a broom on top of the nets.
• Fish bones were not burnt.
•
Page 18
Egg shells were broken into tiny pieces (to stop witches
sailing in them).
• Clergy (known to fishermen as “sky-pilots”) were generally not welcomed onto vessels, although there were
some notable exceptions.
• Never cut bread and then turn the loaf upside down.
• They will on no account part with salt, especially at sea,
as to part with salt is to part with luck.
• The salt-pot must not be handed from one crewman to
another – “pass salt, pass sorrow”.
• Upturning a hatch cover or sleeping on the stomach
were actions said to anticipate the boat turning over and
sinking.
• Losing a hat overboard signified a long trip.
• Taking a watch to sea signified bad luck.
• Eat fish from the head to the tail for good luck. If you
start at the tail it will warn the shoals away from the shore
and back into deep water.
• Flat-footed folk are unlucky.
• Set an odd number of nets, such as 101; the extra one
•
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
THESPIAN REPORT
DEALING WITH THE FISHING MOCHA’s Part 2
- Max Chater
is “for luck”.
• Don’t count the number of fish you’ve caught. If you do
you won’t catch any more that day. Count the fish when
you are safely back in port.
• Throw back your first fish as a sign of respect for the
sea and the sea will provide you with many more.
• Don’t use certain words at sea. Don’t mention pigs, fox,
cat, hare, salmon or rabbits, the church, or anything to do
with the land.
• Don’t wash the herring scales from your boots or deck.
It will wash away your luck.
• Don’t go to sea at the start of the fishing season until
you have shed a few drops of blood in a fight or accident.
• Scottish fishermen should throw one of the crew members overboard and then haul him back in. The fish will follow suit.
•
The wives—A woman must not: ‘wash’ clothes otherwise her husband would be
‘washed’ overboard.
Don’t ‘wave’ him good-bye or a
‘wave’ would sweep him away.
• Don’t call out after him once he
sets foot outside the front door.
• Don’t go down on the fish dock to
see him off.
• Don’t whistle, as this would cause
a storm at sea: ‘A whistling woman
and a crowing hen, Bring the Devil
out of his den’
•
•
Finally PAY the fishing GODS,
in ancient times it was
thought bad luck to carry
money onto a fishing boat and
in particular coins, throwing
the coins into the sea appeased the fishing GODS who
in-turn provided a good catch.
Interestingly there are references that go back to apostle
Peter in Biblical times, where
Jesus ordered him to go fishPage 19
ing. Peter caught a fish with a gold coin in its
mouth so that Jesus and Peter could pay
their taxes.
<< So the question is do we have a divine El
Presedente with a lot of gold coins??? >>
Thank you, thank you very much
Max “I’m getting more superstitious” Chater
SSAFA - Newsletter
TRIP REPORT
KINGS of MALLACOOTA - Stan Konstantaras
Ps: and yes the King of Conjola, King of New Zealand
and King of New Caledonia
was there too…
The last of January saw Mitch, James, Marinos and myself hitting the highway for a 9
hour trek to Mallacoota to chase the prehistoric bream that live in the estuary. With
a few trips under our belt we sort of have
the place sussed and this time proved no
different. Big and timid feeding bream in less
than 1 ft of water were the norm, sight
casting with plastics was the only way to
target them and some hooters were landed.
After 4 days of this and heading back up the
highway those 35 cm Botany Bay bream did
not look so appealing anymore…take a
look below.
Page 20
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
TRIP REPORT
SCHOOLING SNAPPER KIDS - Stan Konstantaras
Well I guess the best way to introduce the family to a fun days snapper fishing is to take them
to where the real snapper live….Port
Broughton in South Oz.
Douk – 12 kg, Alex – 11.4 kg, Luke 10.5 kg and
suddenly Sydney snapper look like tadpoles after a trip we all did in January of 2013 with
Snapper Safaris. Hectic, nonstop action, good
food and good weather made for a great trip
they will never forget. Suggest you all try it
once before you die ( or 10 times like me)
Page 21
SSAFA - Newsletter
TRIP REPORT
ANSA NAROOMA - Neil Kemp
We caught a lot of fish, had a lot of fun
and SSAFA came second in the tournament,
Enough said
Neil
Ps, I hate getting sealed !!!!!
Page 22
Scott’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd place + meritorious
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
TRIP REPORT
ANSA NAROOMA - Neil Kemp
Page 23
SSAFA - Newsletter
TRIP REPORT
ANSA NAROOMA - Paul Cooper
Narooma Report
PB Masters for him. It was released after weighing.
I have split this into GENERAL and TECHNICAL.
GENERAL
The fish were thick outside, on the rocks and on the
beach. Day 1 I fished half a day, Tilba Tilba beach at dawn
for a good Bream and a few lost salmon (jumped off) and I
spent an hour on a big ray that ended up just burying itself
in the sand. I took off to Mystery Bay at 9 am and I had no
one to net my fish but still managed 4 Salmon to 1.3KG on
1KG main line. I was using the 0.8 ISO rod and never lost
a rig. It plays the fish to a standstill. Here is a picture of the
rock at Mystery Bay.
Outside the boys killed the Kingfish and one pro boat
using lead lines got 400 KG of Kingfish in one morning I
was told. Our blokes bagged out on Kingfish in 18 minutes (that is 10 all up for two people) and all were about
5-8KG. Further, two marlin got killed and there were
lots of other fish weighed in as well.
As usual there is always time for a beer or 20.
Saturday I went with Joe and Edo to Dalmeny Beach and
we pulled 20KG of fish out of there including 12 Bream
(we let 10 go as well) plus Joe got a 5.77KG Fiddler Ray on
1KG line and a 2.00 KG Salmon on 1KG line. This came
2nd on the Beach while Scott Maclean got 1st, 2nd and 3rd on
the fly in the surf, the best being a 1.85 KG Salmon on
2KG tippet. He also won most meritorious. Edo won largest Salmon being 2.29 KG and Joe got largest Tailor being
0.75KG. The best I could do was a 1.71KG Salmon on 1
KG line. That afternoon Joe and Edo went to the Estuary
and I went to Kianga Beach and got 3 more Salmon to
1.7KG. Here is Joe’s Fiddler Ray, a
Page 24
And the club house with the beautiful Waggonga Princess tied up to the pier makes a fine drinking venue.
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
TRIP REPORT
ANSA NAROOMA - Paul Cooper
the surf the 1.25 clearly out performed everything else in
the minimising bust off department. The rod absorbs
every lunge, quick run and jump from the Salmon (and
anything else for that matter). That said, it is harder to
move the fish and this means you will be at least 10 minutes longer on a good Salmon on light tackle than on a
3145 or a Mag Bream but you will almost never bust off.
I’d prefer this, other the reverse. Further, the fine guides
are an issue as they do not accommodate a joined shock
leader very well. I’m happy with a 1/3rd of a rod leader
and did not have an issue with this while fishing. There is
also a problem with the ISO rod runners if there is that
sticky jelly on the line. I had to strip some line off a few
times on the beach but still would not have preferred a
3145 or a mag bream.
The dining area was none too shabby either.
I was using Ande 1KG main line that is new on the spool
but the spool is 3 years old (1,000M) and it was fine. This
is the best 1KG line I have found. So for the Sydney
Comp I’ll have the fine wire 2/0 hooks, look out Salmon
☺
Cheers
Paul Cooper
Better than working I’d say ☺.
TECHNICAL
During the competition I used a 1.25 and a 0.8 ISO rod.
The 0.8 is a bit soft to throw baits off the beach but is
excellent off the rocks. As I said the rod played the fish
to a standstill like I thought it would. I showed it around
the crew down there and got some interest and those
people have my e-mail. The 0.8 is also no good with 4/0
hooks as it is so soft it can’t set them. I jumped off at
least 10 Salmon due to this. When I went to a 2/0 fine
wire I got every fish I hooked. In
Page 25
SSAFA - Newsletter
QLD CORRESPONDANT REPORT
END of an ERA - Mark Holland
YES !!!
Noooo
Well it looks like my outlook for a cracking January and
February 2013 with lots of South East Queensland Marlin,
Wahoo, Dolphin fish and other pelagic species has not
come to fruition. Instead, the last two months has been
characterised by strong winds, flooding and big surf.
Tough work for any fisherman.
Despite the horrible weather, I have managed to get out
for the odd day here and there over the past two months.
The Sunshine Coast GFC classic was held in early February
2013 and given the flooding a week or two prior, the conditions and fishing was a big unknown. With 15-20+ knots
of southerly blowing, the two largest boats in the fleet
risked the horrible conditions and managed to fish grounds
close to 50 nautical miles offshore and were rewarded
with hot fishing and approximately 25 black marlin between them. Unfortunately due to
Page 26
the weather, the remainder of boats in the comp fished
inshore and the pickings were slim, including for myself.
A couple weeks later and with another window of opportunity with the weather, I jumped onboard one of
the SCGFC game boats and headed out to the area
where fish were caught in the competition a few weeks
earlier. Despite raising a couple of small blacks, these
fish just didn’t want to play the game and we ended up
back at port at 8pm that night with just a Wahoo and
Dolphin Fish on the score board.
Other than that, the only noticeable news since my last
report has been the sale of my V16R Haines Hunter.
Since purchasing it is 2005, it accounted for a number of
species including Marlin at South West Rocks, Bass at
Glenbawn Dam, Bream, Tailor and Flatties in the Bay
and Kingies and Salmon off the front of Maroubra, not
to mention quite a few fish speared from it as well. It
was a great little vessel, thanks largely to the help I was
given by some of the SSAFA guys like Chop Reid
(electrics), Skibbo (engine), Matty Manson (lessons on
changing bearings), Neil (trailer) and Burgo (lessons on
not what to do!).
However,
since
being in Qld, it’s
been just a bit too
small for the type
of fishing I am pursuing these days
and accordingly, it
was time for it to
go. What vessel is
next you ask?
Good question, I’ll
keep my eyes out
and see what happens.
Regards
Holland
-
Mark
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
QLD CORRESPONDANT REPORT
END of an ERA - Mark Holland
Page 27
SSAFA - Newsletter
CLUBCORRESPONDANT REPORT
New ANSA Business Card - Joe Garufi
Here is the sample of the new ANSA Business Card
For those requiring a card hurry up and order before the closing
date.
Ps. You have been warned ANGRY responses for missing deadline
will not be tolerated
By order Joe Garufi
Page 28
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
ANSA
Page 29
SSAFA - Newsletter
REC FISHREPORT
FISH THERAPY for FISH THERAPY
As proprietor of Fish Therapy Bait and
Tackle, there are limited fishing opportunities afforded to me, but like every other
fisho out there I need my dose of therapy
so I don’t go mad with the pressures of
business.
Recently I have been trialling the new hydro-wave Sonar that is reported to keep
bait schools around the boat. My first impressions were that I am still unsure of its
usefulness. I located a bait school of taylor
mixed with yakkas and drifted and
switched the sonar on. From then on
where ever I drifted, my sounder showed
bait under the boat. Was this coincidence I
don’t know future trips determine the real
value of such a product.
On this particular trip I took along a few
Jackall transams, these lures have been out
for a while and have proven themselves
over and over again to slay the Barra, great
mulloway lure and their list of captures is
endless. I really think this is one lure that
should be in every serious mulloways fisherman's bag. I simply worked these lures in
a jigging fashion tirelessly through the bait
schools before work on a Monday morning. Just before it was time to leave
“CRACK” line started peeling off the
Bransino and I was into something good.
After a dogged fight this 6.5kg bronze stinker hit the deck.
I rushed back to open the store to find a few of the club guys waiting for their morning coffee fix. After showing them
the lovely mulloway they were cool with the fact they had to wait for their coffee a little longer that morning.
At least a satisfying part of my job is to try some great products and in this case those Jackall transams never let me
down. Look forward to seeing you in the shop for a coffee and chat on the new gear on offer.
Good fishing everyone - Arty
Page 30
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
2012 ETHNIC CLASSICE BASS REPORT
FISH THERAPY for FISH THERAPY
Page 31
SSAFA - Newsletter
BLUE WATER
Blue Water Report - Chris Anagnostou
Stephens
We timed a visit to fish in close at Port Stephens as some
reports filtered through of a bite in close in some pretty
putrid water. As we were stinging for a fish and we knew
another blow was scheduled a few days later we just
jumped in the car and took our chances. On arrival we
realised the reports were right - the water was rubbish
brown and ugly, and full of flood debris. The only positives
were it was still warm at 23.5 degree's and it was chock
full of bait. I guess all it takes is a food source because as
soon as we deployed the first lure we didn't even get a
chance to get it up in the rigger and we were hooked up
to a feisty 25kg black marlin! 15kg tackle made short work
of it and after some happy snaps and a tag it was released
to fight another day. Over the next few hours we spent
more time removing rubbish like bags, weeds, and chip
packets from out lures than catching fish but we managed
another two little fish for the day. The next day was totally
different. The bait had moved on and taken with it any
Marlin that were on it. We spent 6 hours removing rubbish from our lures but didn't even get a sniff. A nice 30
knot southerly also helped us make up our mind and cut
the trip short.
Unfortunately our season has gone from bad to worse.
After having 9 days of our leave which was booked for
fishing wiped out we were left with our tails between our
legs.
The aftermath left a trail of destruction in the form of
dirty brown flood water which pushed out to sea as far
as 60nm and pretty much shut down the fishery. The only
thing that remained was the odd report of little blacks
making appearances sporadically anywhere from Port
Macquarie to the Banks at Jervis Bay. The other issue was
that the East Australian current refused to back off to
anything below 2.5-3 knots which didn't allow the bait to
build up on any of the offshore structures that regularly
hold striped marlin over summer, such as the Kink down
south, and the Car park at Port
Page 32
Back to Sydney we went with in hope of hearing something better, but it didn't happen. Reports from up and
down the coast were patchy. Fish going off one day and
missing in action the next. With the current still racing out
wide all we could do was wait around and hope for the
best. While doing this another bout of bad weather and
flooding took its toll on the north coast and the water
ended up ruining the inshore fishing once again.
The next trip was out on Goliath. We were bringing the
boat from broken bay to its new home at Clontarf. It was
SOooooOOo good finally having a really big boat under
my feet, and all the room in the world to rig, prep and set
up the fishing gear. We headed wide and trolled two teasers in hope of switching a Blue. We had a fish up on our
short teaser but it lost interest well before we could even
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
BLUE WATER
Blue Water Report - Chris Anagnostou
deploy a bait. We were quietly
confident it was a smaller black,
as we've found their attention
spans to be substantially less that
a stripe and a Blue which are
much easier to switch onto a
natural bait. Most importantly
Goliath is proving to be a great
boat.
The summer has gone and there
may or may not be an opportunity to have another crack at a
marlin, we turn our attention to
the tuna season ahead. Last year
it really was only a two week
chance to get some, with reports
of plenty of small yelowfin about
lets hope some of their bigger
cousins come knocking at our
back door and hopefully some of
those big southern blues pay us a visit.
Good fishing everyone till my next report
Chris
Page 33
SSAFA - Newsletter
BLUE WATER
Blue Water Report - Chris Anagnostou
Page 34
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
BLUE WATER
Blue Water Report - Chris Anagnostou
Page 35
SSAFA - Newsletter
ESTUARY
Estuary Report - Brad Biddleston
pulling any fish I would say has potential. All the strikes
were aggressive on a jerking style retrieve, just keeping the
lure in the zone was the key.
The harbour is fishing well at the moment with water
temps still hovering around twenty three deg. With the
influx of the fresh water from the recent rains the waterways have discoloured and bought the Jews on the bite,
whilst most have been small there are reports of some
larger specimens being caught as well. I tend to fish lures
exclusively and quite a fewer smaller ones have been coming to the boat out of the areas of seven to ten mtrs of
water where there has been a slight current pushing into
the structure. Most have been caught up current of the
structure so target those areas first. Lures like the banana
prawn by berkley from the two inch to three inch version
have been doing well, not to say any appropriately sized
minnow wouldn’t work, just my hookup ratio has been
better with the prawn style lure of late.
The green Bent minnow splashed down cm’s from the
bank and I proceeded with a jerky style retrieve getting
the lure down to just below a foot in the milky rain
stained water. Five meters from the bank 3 Bream of a
decent size of just over thirty cm’s appeared like a flash
behind it fins all up and aggressive, the 2nd largest homed
in the quickest and smashed the lure before my eyes, I
was on and a brief tussle ensued, drag peeled slightly
from the reel as the Bream tried in vain to gain freedom
from the unseen force steadily pulling it from it’s hunting
area.
This was a scene which played out well on several occasions as I had been experimenting with a new style lure,
which upon first impressions some may say is a little large
for Bream at eighty mm, though now I beg to differ as it
pulled fish from mangrove edges and flats that had a nice
steady gradient down to the drop away into the channel
we were fishing. They are a lure which some might baulk
at the price being $35 dollars but I just had to try it and
now will purchase another couple in other colours. Their
retrieve can be varied between jerking on the surface
down to two feet, and a slow roll technique can also be
employed across a flat as well, this slow roll whilst not
Page 36
Also of note the lower area of the Harbour round Sow
and Pigs is holding schools of Bonito, they are very picky
refusing many offerings though a small sinking minnow
around forty mm did bring a couple to the boat. Try a few
different lures to match the small bait they are chasing and
they may fall for the trick
Having a boat and getting out on the beautiful Sydney Har-
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
ESTUARY
Estuary Report - Brad Biddleston
bour is a treat that sometimes maybe I have taken for
granted. Recently I was fortunate enough to take out a good
mate Steve, his daughter Ruby and Steve’s brother Mick. It
was a great day which really just saw me rigging lures and dehooking fish, smiles were present all day with a bit of Harbour touring thrown in for good measure. My mission I had
been advised was to teach Ruby to cast and get her some
fish. Happy to say within a little while she was casting like a
pro and once everyone was a bit more confident and accomplished we moved from an area where the fish had been small
besides a few flathead to a more reliable spot to get some
good Bream.
It wasn’t long before Ruby had come up tight on a good fish
which had her little reel giving line away in a buzz we all love
to hear. A bit of coaching to take her time and keep a bend
in the rod with a steady lift and wind approach to eliminate
slack line, next we knew we were taking a photo of her first
Bream on lure and at thirty four cm’s was a great first capture that hopefully we can better on our next venture.
Squid are abundant at the moment as well taking squid jigs easily, below is a shot of myself with two as when you have
one at the boat his mate is usually in pursuit closely behind so have a second rod ready to go and you can get a nice
feed of calamari, or very fresh jew and kingfish candy.
Tight lines and see you
on the water,
Brad Biddleston.
Page 37
SSAFA - Newsletter
FRESHWATER
Freshwater Report - Jim Siarakas
As I am writing this report, I have one fish on my mind,
trout!!!!! The weather is starting to cool and after a great
season on the surface lures chasing primarily bass the
cold water pink fleshed fish are on my mind.
I didn’t get to do a lot of freshwater fishing this summer
with house renos taking up a lot of time. But the few sessions I put in all produced fish. I chased bass and not
much else. I know Scott had good sessions on the cod, a
few friends of mine got into the redfin at Mudgee, haven’t
heard much from the yellow belly scene.
Centennial park has been firing on the carp and that is
about it.
Page 38
Back to the trout, it is interesting that some people would
like these fish to be put into the noxious category although
for the life of me I don’t know why. The aerial acrobatics,
the oohs and ahs as they follow a lure only to turn away
last minute and the lovely eating qualities makes these fish
a good introduction into Australian Alpine waters to me.
I will be trying some new lures this season and can’t wait
till that first trip. I also have some new rubber to throw at
them.
Short report this week, hopefully a lot more to report in
the next issue
Sweet Fishing - JJim
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
FRESHWATER
Freshwater Report - Jim Siarakas
Page 39
SSAFA - Newsletter
BEACH/ROCKS
Beach & Rocks Report - Josh Joseph
it doesn't eventuate as you reel in your bait with a head
and no tail.
As stated in my previous reports, a double gang hook rig
with a pilchard tail bait will work on these fish and give you
some insurance from a bite off.
The salmon have been a little slow to show up with only
the odd one or two taking baits in the evenings. This also a
time where you will get a few bream as well.
You should still be able to pick up some good sized whiting now. Make the effort and get some live bloodworms as
the fish can be a little fussy, and bloodworms reign supreme in the whiting stakes. Surprisingly, I am finding a few
legal flathead in the bag off the beach as well.
It's been a topsy turvy summer.
A couple of tropical cyclones left their mark on the south
east coast with torrential rain, gale force winds and massive swells.
As quick as they came they were gone but the lasting effect was chocolate brown water, a drop in water temps
and beaches full of kelp washing up on shore.
These post cyclone conditions can make things difficult to
fish, especially the estuaries with the dirty water, and the
beaches with the weed, and the rocks with the swell.
What these conditions do though is flush a lot of food
down to the mouths of estuaries, dislodge food like wed,
cuje and crabs from the rocks and it doesn't take long for
the fishing to improve with a week or two of flushes of
cleaner ocean water.
On the beaches, the tailor have shown up in reasonable
numbers, some of them up to a kilo in weight. They can
be a frustrating fish to hook on the beach, as using whole
pilchards lessens your chance on bream and salmon, and
the smaller chopper tailor usually found on beaches will
make short work of a whole pilchard. You can feel the
"rat a tat tat" of tailor slicing your bait to pieces as you
eagerly wait for the run so you can strike, but most times
Page 40
Off the rocks, the bream have been firing from the cemetery down to Little Bay. With plenty of food stirred up,
there's been some good catches. Pilchard tails, large
peeled prawns and bread in a trail of mashed bread, pellets
and pilchards will see better results. Mixed in with the
bream will be trevally, and if using bread there will be luderick and drummer on offer too.
The next salmon or snapper that sucks in a pilchard tail or
big prawn bait in a berley trail won't be the last at this time
of year so I like to up my line to 13lb Tortue.
If the seas are up, there are some high spots just south of
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
BEACH/ROCKS
Beach & Rocks Report - Josh Joseph
Waverley Cemetary, South Maroubra and also North
Malabar that are productive.
As I am typing this, the water quality has cleared and water
temps are still warm. There have been some bonito caught
from the deeper water points. Using metals, deep diving
Nilsmaster lures has worked well. The bonito seem to be
a better quality fish this year.
After an unsuccessful attempt at squid fishing a couple of
weeks ago ( the water wasn't quite clean enough) I ducked
down to my local rocks for a quick fish before the footy
started and landed 6 good quality squid in around 45 mins
and left it at that. A big score could have been on the
cards but I had enough for a good feed for Easter!
The South Sydney boys at Nowra Convention made some
satay squid one evening and the went down well! Try it as
an alternative to the crumbed variety, except if you have
young kids who will eat anything crumbed and fried.
Well that's the wrap for the start of autumn report. A
good transition period for summer and winter fish. Get
out there and do it!
Budda's these are a few of my favourite things:
Portable knife sharpener - there are numerous ones available on the market and most are less than $10. Why
butcher those sweet whiting fillets after spending your
hard earned buying bloodworms? Even a mediocre quality
knife blade will come up nice after a minute on the sharpener.
"Bag of Bags" - chuck a few press seal bags in various sizes,
freezer bags and shopping bags. They will come in handy
for anything from fish fillets, your wet clothes or rock
plates.
My Snyder Glas 4144 rod - what haven't I caught with this
rod?
See some of you on the water!
Budda
Page 41
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
CLUB NEWS
MARK “CHOP” REID
AKA Mr Furuno
Chop as he is affectionately known to his friends is a club legend,
wiring up electronics, smashing all types of big fish (and his body !)
and known to give plenty of “welcomed” advise has made this
swashbuckling angler our club member of the bi-month.
Good Fishing Chop
Page 42
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
FISHING FUNNIES
Page 43
SSAFA - Newsletter
MEMBERS IN ACTION
Page 44
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
MEMBERS IN ACTION
Page 45
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
NEXT EDITION
WHAT’S COMING UP NEXT ISSUE
Page 46
Issue: Mar/Apr 2013
NEXT EDITION
WHAT’S COMING UP NEXT ISSUE
Page 47