Heya Ham,

Welcome to Fishwrecked. You certainly have asked some questions which could get some answers! Firstly, I'd start off by doing an inventory of what sort of rods you can get your hands on and what sort of reels they have with them. Then I'd do an inspection of what the line is like on them and if they need a bit of maintenance. Whilst its fun going fishing, having equipment which fails when you get that big fish isn't a good feeling.

If you let us know what sort of gear you have to work with then it will be a bit easier in letting you know what to target and where and what gear is required.

Cheers,
Adam

G'Day Ham, welcome to the forums.

I used to fish behind the Belmont racecourse when I was a kid. We used to camp out on the banks next to the carpark that is between the little boat ramp and the racecourse itself. We caught bream and mulloway there quite regularly on river prawns and blood worms.

Unfortunately that was over 30 years ago so its not much advice I'm afraid.

If I was you I would walk the banks of the river and try and find a shady spot away from the madding crowd and have a crack at a few bream. Start with bait then progress to soft plastics.

Have fun.

Gday Ham, Andy has given you a good spot to start there. Ive fished behind that racecource heaps and always got into some good bream and its generaly nice and quiet and relaxing there.Its probably one of the best spots in the river for bream in my opinion. Good luck, Might see you down there.

thanks for all your replies guys, ill try get my hands on some fishing gear today and ill tell you what i have.

Ham

ok, so this morning i popped into the local tackle shop and asked a few questions, he said that if i have a 10kg rod i can go for the tailor up at north mole around sunset. so i get home and my rod is somwthing like 6-10kg so should be fine, its a fairly thick pole. if not i can use the smaller bait for the herring and things like that. and its supposed to be kinda busy up there so the water will have a nice serve of burley. saving me the trouble of setting up a burley rig. any tips for fishing around there? and also this is a dum question but what do i do once i catch the fish, do i put them in a bucket of water? and how do i transport? eski with ice?.

Ham

i generally when i catch taylor i bleed them (put your fingers through the gills and break ther neck and then pull the head back it kills them and also bleeds them, they generally taste better that way, i like to scale my fish down ther and chuck the head and skeliton in the water so i dont take it home for my mummy to chuck a said at me making a mess. then chuck them in the bucket and go home, u can put them in a slurry of ice when u catch them but water is fine.

how do you break their neck?

put your fingers between each gill and pull! That will bleed them. To kill them then tilt the head back till you hear/feel a snap.

I find best way of keepin fish is to knock them out(which kills them) with either a decent set pliers on small fish or using a bat on big fish like macks, and then snipping there gills with scizzors to bleed them. Then straight in an esky with a salt water ice slurry.

Another very important thing Ham, next time you go to your local tackle store is to ask for a fish size sticker to make sure they are size. Its very important that they are over size or Mr fisheries officer won't be too kind on you and slap you with big fines.

There are lots of tailor in the river at the moment. Get yourself a small silver twisty or raider lure and start throwing that around and retrieving at different speeds in the early mornings or late afternoons. That should find you a fish or two, if not, try little whitebait on small ganged hooks.

GOOD advice there Adam last thing you want Ham is to have a days fishing turn to shit because of a couple of undersized fish. Ive still found a great spot on the swan is a jetty in clarmont it runs off Victoria Av on a little rd called Jetty rd(dont know why its called that)I find it great with my kids they usally catch a few good flat head and you can catch some nice mullaway at night there its also got a light on the end at night >my personal favourite lure to flick there(if using lures) is the good old prawn Star always gets a Flattie or other wise use squid prawn or mullie.Your on a great site here to learn a few tricks of the trade .

CHEERS SHAG

last night i went up to north mole just as the sun was goin down and beyond, didn't have a whole lot of success with not even a strong bite. I was using mulies on a 4 gang, i was either unlucky or just doing it wrong. I think I reel in to quickly. any suggestions/tips ?

Where there many other fishos there Ham? Berley is a key ingredient at north mole when chasing tailor/bonito. I think to get yourself the knack of things you should try the jetties around claremont with small whitebait or silver twisties. Lots of people have been having success around those areas at the moment.

"Lots of people have been having success around those areas at the moment."

Go with Adams advice. When you're just starting out, you need to fish where you'll have the best chance of catching fish - even if it's not really what you wanna target. That way, you'll be able to learn some techniques that will help you later on, and it will keep you interested at the same time.

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Jay Burgess
jayburgess_14@hotmail.com

"Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 10:19 am
JamMan
Had a great night last night at the North Mole....heaps of Tailr around when the sun hit the water. Caught my bag limit in 40 minutes."

Heres a report from another forum about north mole last night Ham. Practice makes perfect. :)

i guess it was because i was away from all the other fishers and their precious burly. ah well i found out theres a good fishing spot 5 mins down the road, gould reserve. so i tried out there with no luck, and the guys across the other side of the river had no luck either so, yeh. any tips on fishin the river?

yeh i think i might give nth mole another go tomorow night, i still got a bag of mulies in the freezer. next week my old man comes back so i'll uhh...get daddy to buy me new gear :). Whats a good rod n reel combo to go for preferably under $100

when i was younger i use to get the penn combos from kmart and guese what they are still alive, the good old kmart rod has served me well, but now i have money i been buying mor expensive stuff alot nicer to use ;) but the good old kmart gear is great for the little kidies as i would never let them use some of my more expensive gear. PS DOT BUY BLOODY JAVIS WALKER!

Yeah i can vouch for the penn's.
got a couple of small combo's. a 2000 combo is lots of fun on herring and whiting. Might be time to upgrade now though.
Could definately get better but is a good starting point

You gotta be in it to win it

i find that the abu rods are good cheap rods from tackle stores they are realy durable good casting and many differn sizes. but kinda gone of cheap gear once u use da good shit then u will never go back

well i made my trip to north mole and i caught one fish which i think was a tailor not sure, but it was quite small and needed throwing back. the fish must just hate me lol

Take you're camera next time so we can help identify your fish.

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Jay Burgess
jayburgess_14@hotmail.com

I think you should get yourself a fish ID book Ham, a very important tool if your not sure what you are catching. Like with the size limits, last thing you want is a fisheries officer 'informing or enforcing' you.