Beaches

[Aardvark Hurricane]

I need some advice re fishing the beaches. I understand the basics, gutters and all that but how do you keep a bait in the water. I went out for my first ever tailor session off the beach last night but no matter how much weight I put on my bait kept washing up on the beach 100 meters north of me. Bearing in mind my natural inclination is to fish as little weight as possible.
Before you assume I'm a complete bozo, I've spent all my life as a decent rock fisho (there's not many of us who can land 15+kg kings of the stones) and I do ok out of the boat too, but since moving to the Goldy from Sydney there's a serious shortage of rock platforms so I thought I'd give the beach a shot. After an hour or so I cracked it and went home and opened a bottle of red instead.
Aside from whiting I've never fished the beach before so any help would be well received.
Cheers,Ben.

[Got_Nothing]

Hi AH
My advice is to just find some rock....the GC beaches are fairly baron and I think getting fish is more a matter of luck than anything....unless you are after a few small dart that is.

My best advice is head south and try:
Tallebudgera River Mouth
Currumbin Alley
Snapper Rocks
Tweed Bar
Fingal Head
Kingscliff
Cabarita
Hastings Point
Black Rock (Beach but with rocks)
Brunswick Heads
Skennars Head
Flat Rock

All these places hold fish...some more than others. You just need to get the right conditions to fish each of these places.

In the summer months fish the creeks with live bait for mangrove jacks and flathead and trevalley.

All the best.

[bondy99]

@ Got_Nothing,

Which Black Rock is this one?

Is this the Black Rock on a stretch of beach between Pottsville and Wooyong or is there another Black Rock further south accessible only by 4WD?

One of the owners of Tropical Fruitworld mentioned Black Rock also.

Cheers, Bondy

[chisel]

Size 10 ball sinker will usually hold in most conditions. If not then the sweep is probably just too strong to bother fishing. I assume the big tides are driving the sweep at the moment.

[BLOOEY]

Sounds like you have mastered all the other forms mate. I'm sure you'll have it sussed in no time. Ben

[Got_Nothing]

@ Bondy99

I was referring to the Black Rock between Pottsville and Wooyong.

I have never fished the other Black Rock between Evans Head and Iluka but have heard plenty of good stories about it.

The boys have been talking about making a weekend of it and heading down but its very hard for everyone to get a leave pass at the same time these days.

Have you ever fished it?

[mattooty]

If you're having serious troubles don't negate the old snapper lead with a paternoster rig with one dropper and your gangs off that. Oftentimes just having a lead thats not round helps out as a rolling ball sinker doesn't stop once it's moving whereas a star sinker/snapper lead/anchor sinker will only move as surge pushes it or not at all.

[nezevic99]

Follow your bait up the gutter letting line out and winding in when necessary. When you've gone far enough, wind in, walk back to the start and recast. Repeat.

[bondy99]

@ Bondy99

I was referring to the Black Rock between Pottsville and Wooyong.

I have never fished the other Black Rock between Evans Head and Iluka but have heard plenty of good stories about it.

The boys have been talking about making a weekend of it and heading down but its very hard for everyone to get a leave pass at the same time these days.

Have you ever fished it?

@ Got_Nothing,

Yes Ihave been down to that black rocks many times, there is a rocky outcrop from the beach as well couple of other rocks.

It's always been hit amd miss, gutter tends to move a bit, but with the big tides the gutters will move again.

I was using size 8 sinker on evening and managed one tailor, dart and bream all on gang hooks, dart was caught by the flanks when reeling line back in

Here is a photo of one area of Black Rock, taken on not the best of days.

Cheers, Bondy

[bondy99]

I've also used patternoster rig set up to as Mattooty suggested on days with heavy sweep, instead of size 10 ball I used a grapnel sinker, similar to a snapper sinker except with 4 pieces of steel coming out that you can bent to shape and it will hold bottom. I used a 3 way black swivel for that set up.

Bondy

[Slider]

Should be spinning 'Sliders' through country like that Bondy - doesn't matter what the sweep's doing then. If you're worried about losing such valuable slugs to rocks, just make sure you pull the bail arm over just before the slug lands and begin the retrieve before it has a chance to sink. Should never lose slugs to submerged rocks unless you're doing something wrong. Not much you can do about rocks that come out of the water except stay away from them.

[lbger]

I need some advice re fishing the beaches. I understand the basics, gutters and all that but how do you keep a bait in the water. I went out for my first ever tailor session off the beach last night but no matter how much weight I put on my bait kept washing up on the beach 100 meters north of me. Bearing in mind my natural inclination is to fish as little weight as possible.
Before you assume I'm a complete bozo, I've spent all my life as a decent rock fisho (there's not many of us who can land 15+kg kings of the stones) and I do ok out of the boat too, but since moving to the Goldy from Sydney there's a serious shortage of rock platforms so I thought I'd give the beach a shot. After an hour or so I cracked it and went home and opened a bottle of red instead.
Aside from whiting I've never fished the beach before so any help would be well received.
Cheers,Ben.

An LBG fisherman resorting to tossing pillies off the beach.. You must be hard up mate lol.. there is better fishing to be had than that up here buddy.. Im from the southcoast too if you want a few spots to start with i can help out an exlbger.. but i want a pic of a 15kg king off the stones first

[mattooty]

Aardvark/LBG'er, if either of you guys are keen to hook up next season to chase LT's, barries and mini blacks off the stones we could organize a mini-LBG M&G. I didn't fish to hard this season and still managed a couple of longtails, last season turned up a few good spaniards on spin from the bricks.

[lbger]

Cheers for the invite mate, ive converted all my LBG gear into offshore stuff now.. I just cant bring myself to do the massive missions like a packhorse bucketing water into pools and catching bait etc.. I was lucky to fish a lot of the front ledges of JB before all the closures took place and have many many awesome memories.. Illuka is just to far away And 1770 is too disappointing (catwalk)

[Gordie]

Regarding fishing the gutters, another way I hit it at times is to work the whole gutter with a soft plastic.

I have had success with those heavy SPs with the lead built into them, hook up type.
Cast, move a metre cast again and cover it from on end to the other. Hard work but if there is a big flathead there you will get him.