Rock life

[DougieK]

Hi All,

I had some pretty positive feedback and some pm's from a long post I made about rock fishing safety in another thread

( viewtopic.php?p=304136#p304136)

so I thought I'd try and share some pics of some of the rock adventures i've had over the past 4 years of LBG fishing.

In doing this I hope to generate some discussion about Victorian LBG, which is a relatively dead sport, some talk about safety, tactics, gear etc.

Every couple of days i'll post another image from my collection and hopefully inspire a few of you to get out for a Kingie / Shark bash this summer.
I'm going away for a couple of weeks so I hopefully can work imgur and the forum off my phone during that time.

I don't mind providing information for anything other than a select few locaitons, but that goes without saying. A few of these pics peeps will have seen before if you've been reading my reports for years, but hopefully the newer members can get some thing out of it for themselves.

[DougieK]

This is a crazy little spot the relentless CarlG and I decided to climp into. It's the gap in between the big and small knobs at Leonard Point, on Wilsons Prom.

The walk in was 100m vertical straight down through the scrub, after bush bashing in shoulder high (for me, over carl's head) scrub for 30 mins to find a place that was accessable. It probably took us 90 mins to go 800 metres.

It was almost impossible to fish as there was no where suitable to cast without being at risk of getting drowned. We fished inside instead and I think got one KGW and half a dozen **** sharks.

The drag knob fell off my heavy reel on the way in then a series of wind knots on my shitty quality braid basically stuffed my entire days fishing, I probably got half an hour of casting done.

Oh yeah, we found the path on the way back out.

[Texas]

Some of the places you go I'd need an escalator
I reackon I could make it down, but, getting back up is a different story
Best of luck
Gra

[DougieK]

Some of the places you go I'd need an escalator
I reackon I could make it down, but, getting back up is a different story
Best of luck
Gra

I find down much harder to be honest with you. Climbing up something is relatively easy.

[Sebb]

I remember I went to tongue point once, bloody hell it was hard...

What's your best choice of rod and reel, DougieK?
One rod one reel and a backpack?

[DougieK]

I remember I went to tongue point once, bloody hell it was hard...

What's your best choice of rod and reel, DougieK?
One rod one reel and a backpack?

It depends on what you're trying to do. I usually take three. Light spin heavy spin and live bait. In this case a 'light' spin rod is a salmon surfstick 6-10kg 902 or 903 with 12-20lb braid. Heavy spin i'm now using an assasin 8 foot popper or 11 foot stickbait rod, 40-100lb braid depending on the situation. Live bait either the popping rod just mentioned or an AFAW 6 and bait, with a Gossa 25k with 800m of braid and 200m topshot of some kind of mono.

It largely depends on the ledge and how experienced I am fishing it, who I have with me, what the target species is etc. Harder ledges to fish require longer rods, but that also gives a big fish more of a lever to work against you. You can cast further, but it's also much much harder to spin with an 11 than an 8 all day. Some spots i wont' fish anything under 11 because overhangs etc, others you're fine even with a normal game rod.

My gear I often fish with is a mix of the following.

903 Assasin 25-90g cast weight, rated to 25lb. This is the rod I do almost all my 'normal' fishing with, usually paired with a bio5k with 12lb tasline. This thing is an absolute monster, I can flick for squid with it but it also put a 75g busted metal 143 metres (gps metres, not facebook metres) clean across Port Campbell harbour and into the wall on the opposite side.

1102 Assasin 'kob special' 30-50lb. This is my stick bait / general heavy spin rod, doubling as a squid spike stick on ledges where eging is impossible. I also use this as a float rod for kingfish in VIC. Usually paired with a bio 10 with 40lb tasline.

802 80lb assasin popmaster. This is my popping rod. There are many like it but this one is mine. Paied with a gosssa 25k with 80lb tasline, or sometimes a spinfisher 10500V 600metres of 39kg WFT strongline with a topshot of 100lb mono.

AFAW 6 and bait. This is my casting heavy bait rod. Insane amount of power but it's heavy as all F888. Can probably handle any fish that isn't so big it pulls me in with it. Using one of the two reels listed above.

Nitro Surf Messiah 1303 15kg. This was my heavy rod before i bought an AFAW, now it doubles as a second casting rod if i'm snapper fishing or lending it to someone. Also can be used as a long distance spin rod with any of the lighter reels. I really, really like this rod and it's my longest serving piece of gear by probably triple. I landed my first king at 106cm land based on this bad boy, at the time paired with a lethal 100 with 15kg mono.

[Keenfisho]

Hey Dougie, Glad you brought this subject up as I am always craving more info on rock fishing. Long time stalker of your post’s on LBG which have been amazing. Loved the one of your big trip up the coast last year or was it the year before? Always had a good interest in rock fishing growing up as a kid but I really caught the bug probably 2 years ago now. Spent a lot of last summer chasing my first king up the nsw south coast but never tangled with one.I’m from Gippsland and the season we had here maybe I should of stayed home but anyway super keen to try and tackle one this season. Your help for us new fellas has been great thanks :thumbsup:

[StarrangerAU]

Dougie,
I'll be keen to hear your 'Rock Life' recommendations, experience and advice... as one of our more experienced public figures in that space I am sure you have more than a few posts you can share. So yeah, bring it on, it'll be a good read.

For my part when adventuring to the rocks. My rules I abide by are 1) Have an exit plan and check it regularly 2) Avoid trip or fall hazards in the casting/landing zone 3) That the landing zone can actually land the catch safely.

[happyfriggincamper]

Not my thing, but can appreciate why someone would + the dedication and passion you have for it. Look forward to reading

[Bugatti]

Not my thing, but can appreciate why someone would + the dedication and passion you have for it. Look forward to reading

Same here Happy

Happy F Camper.PNG (60.2 KiB) Viewed 3641 times

It almost seems that the sport gets a bad rap and possibly an undesirable perspective, which is probably more about some inexperienced fishos rather than those you know what they are doing.

I used to rock hope in my younger years but prefer planks to skinned shanks , , , , as my years make me exuberantly unstable.

But yeah, would love to hear about the sport from a decent perspective, plus I reckon the photos are going to be awesome

Dougie,
I'll be keen to hear your 'Rock Life' recommendations, experience and advice... as one of our more experienced public figures in that space I am sure you have more than a few posts you can share. So yeah, bring it on, it'll be a good read.

For my part when adventuring to the rocks. My rules I abide by are 1) Have an exit plan and check it regularly 2) Avoid trip or fall hazards in the casting/landing zone 3) That the landing zone can actually land the catch safely.

Star Ranger 1.PNG (54.73 KiB) Viewed 3641 times

I remember Adventure Bound did a lot of Land Based Gamefishing and it was very interesting.

Definitely looking forward to hearing and reading more.


Cheers, Bugs