you answered my problem.


i eat fish a lot - from the fish shop -


in winter i notice that i am only 5'4" but in summer i am almost 6' - it must be the murcury that has accumulated in my system.

thanks for all your help - have got several books from the library and will be practicing catching my own fish from now on.

it is really beautiful and will save us a lot of money

regards

peter

Peter, if you intend to catch fish in order to save money, I suggest you use cooked prawns as bait ................. you can always eat them yourself!
Flathead are my preferred fish, they are good size (average would be around 40 cm I guess), they have plenty of excellent tasting meat, are easy to fillet, and other than the gill spikes, won't hurt you.
I go out on Lake Macquarie (mostly), and I target only flathead.

Some days I'll catch 4 or 5 good sized flathead, as well as bream, snapper, tailor & whiting.
But those days are rare, usually if I get one decent flathead (60 - 65 cm), I'm happy, but there are many days when I get nothing.
I always fish with barbless hooks, I squash the barbs flat with pliers.
I never kill a fish unless I intend to eat it, and by using barbless hooks, I can release the fish with minimal damage to it.

Most of the pleasure from fishing is in the challenge of catching and landing the fish.

Depending on age and circumstance, most states require you to have a fishing licence. "they" DO go around checking in popular locations, don't get caught out!

Regards, Terry

My suggestion is to buy a book such as "Australian Fish Guide" or a similar publication so you don't eat something that will kill you.
If your not sure about a fish, ask a local or simply don't eat it - put it back if you can and dont take undersize fish.
Ask at the local bait shop for the size chart applicable to the area/state your in.

Mercury - I would not worry about - if your fishing off the beach or in estuaries you will not catch enough shark for it to be a problem.

Saving money - I doubt it - add up the cost of your rig and bait and I think you will probably find it cheaper to buy a fish or two.

I think most of us fish to have a quiet relaxing time and If we catch a fish or two that's a bonus - I do anyway.
I use mainly squid as it is a tough bait, you can buy it everywhere, and it will last all day.
When I buy it I dry it off and salt it and it will keep for a week or more this way, unrefrigerated.


Jeff.

Cooked prawns are a surprisingly good bait. I found this out accidently when one of my daughters bought too many and gave the excess to me. They were a bit old to eat, so I tried them as bait. Reef fish in Moreton Bay seemed to prefer old cooked prawns to pilchard or fresh herring!

Mike

Another idea would be to go to the fisheries office and they have a handbook that is free in NSW and it shows the legal size and type of fish that can be caught.
Saves being caught with undersize fish...this can be costly

Cheers
Al and Lou

And another odd thing solo1, if they aren't biting too well, peel the prawns!
That will work more often than not!
Terry

I reckon that the fish I catch work out to cost about $700.00 per kilo !!! By the time I've got ALL the right gear, tackle, bait and lures etc, ( its important to have a very large box full of very attractive and expensive lures ) and then got myself to where the fish are supposed to be, I've already spent a small fortune, and all the other fisher people that are there tell me " you shoulda been here yesterday !!!" Aah well. It's the process, not the product. But there's more: add a boat to the equation, and well, thats another story. That's how I suplement my pension by fishing!!! Cheers All.


Roger B..........

Had a big weekend here- all the brothers-in-laws turned up for the weekend and on Friday night we had a good old whinge about the three "ugly sisters" we married over a beer and a feed of whitebait.

On Saturday I thought Id pop the boat in and catch a feed of flatties- Id have a cookup for all the rellies Sat night. The fish were biting and we had a discussion about how many fish we would need, so when we had about 25 my favourite brother in law put down his rod and began cleaning the fish. (Favourite because hes cleaning the fish).

Well we put the pressure on him by catching two more fish for every fish he was cleaning, although he kept moaning about the blunt knife I gave him to fillet the fish. We stopped fishing altogether and let him catch up. We were a bit surprised how many fillets we had, the shopping bag was full of cleaned boneless fillets. We were back in time for a late breakfast.

Come Saturday night I got out my huge frypan and lit up the wood barbecue. I had a cooking marathon and cooked ALL the fillets. Somehow there were 30 hungry gutted people there eating, rellies and mates and kids mates etc. I cooked for over 3 hours and drank a powerfull lot of beer.

The "ugly sisters" didnt look so ugly by the end of the night......

Dennis always loves to tell this story (true)

just retired (8yrs ago) moved down the coast. most young ones call it (the anti room.)

bought a 16ft runabout, heard that we could go and catch crayfish, crabs
and fish are plentiful.

first day we caught 6 crays 2 ockys, next day 3 crays, then went and put in our ten crab pots,48 crabs per boat, legal in those days
no 1 son brings down some friends to visit and have lunch, we started off with ocky appetizers, chilli crabs entree and of course lobster morney for main.
(that`s what we have to eat here can`t afford to shop now that we are
pensioners next visit can you bring some snags).

cheers Den & Dana we will be flying the yellow ribbon

I forgot to tell you

our cholesterol went sky high, oh but those were the days

Den & Dana