Beach fishing at Waratah Bay

[The Professor]

Hi all

Sorry, one last question before I head down to WB tomorrow... can you please provide advice for burleying when fishing from the beach. Ie, how to get the burley and the line going in at the same spot... Apologies if this is getting too novice! Keen to get it right...

Thanks
Mark

[azkay]

I surf fish quite often but i don't burley much on the sand to be honest, but i know most will swear by it.. Many years back i was shown a simple technique which I've adopted with some success in the past;
Grab my burley (eg. bottle of tuna oil, put tiny little holes in it (based on how much you'd like to let off)) & tie it to the top of my rod holder, letting the bottle hit the sand. That way every time a wave crashes at the edge and some water runs to the base of my rod holder a bit of oil is let out of the bottle. As for direction, you can cast a light sinker/lure every so often to see which way the currents moving to have a general idea of where your burley trail would be.. Not full proof but have seen it work.
Good Luck

[Mishachief]

speaking of those yabbies...can you just use a spade to dig them up ?? dont have a pump..

and any particular locators u would look for?? like weedy spots in the sand.. or air holes like u do beach worms??

[The Professor]

Hi all

Back from Waratah Bay and giving you a report. My fishing was in between other family stuff so had four sessions, 1 in the evening off Waratah Bay beach and 3 in the morning at Shallow Inlet. All at and just after high tide.

No great success but I had a good time, got the taste back for it, and the place – especially Shallow Inlet at dawn with no-one but Pacific Gulls for company, and the view to the Prom – was beautiful.

Never went fishless and never went more than 5 minutes without something having a go at the bait. However, nothing edible...
• 2 undersized flathead
• 1 undersized silver trevally
• 4 toadfish

Got a bit sick of unhooking toadie volleyballs, and would love any ideas if you think I might've been doing something in particular to atract them! Or maybe there are just a heap of them down there.

I have a feeling most of the bites I was getting were small fish, possibly toadies. On the last day I got some bites from something that felt quite different – slower frequency of pulls on the line, and heavier pulls. Thought I might be onto something but no luck.

Anyway, as I said, no luck in landing a good fish but plenty of fun, started to remember how it was done, and will be planning my next fish, most likely somewhere closer to Melbourne.

Thanks again for all your suggestions and advice...

[Mishachief]

was down there last sunday week... you did better than me and a friend.. we copped head winds all day.. and then as we were getting ready to leave.. the locals turned up and fished where we were... they waded out hip to chest deep, and were pulling in whiting straight away.. pffft.

[barra mick]

At least you had a good day out fishing!

Bm

[The Professor]

Mishachief, do you know what bait they were using to pull in whiting?

[Mishachief]

no i dont know the bait... but them being locals...i suspect it was fresh/live bait.. i was too annoyed to ask..lol