Bread and butter fishing off the rocks

An early morning session south of Sydney while berleying and using peeled prawns resulted in two nice salmon and a couple of bream. The session was over by 9.30am.

by Gary Brown

Not everyone has the opportunity or equipment to go and chase marlin, tuna, kingfish, cobia and other larger fish species off the rocks, but everyone can chase what I class as ‘bread and butter’ fish with the minimum of time, effort and gear.

      Yellowfin bream, trevally, drummer, luderick, tarwhine, salmon, snapper and squid are predominately what I class as bread and butter fish. You don’t need to have a lot of gear, they are usually readily caught in many safe spots off the rocks, they give you a great tussle and they are great on the plate.

      So, you ask what type of gear do you need?

      It can be as simple as a rod and reel, a few small ball sinkers, some hooks and your bait!

      In this article I will endeavour to cover what works for me when I am targeting yellowfin bream, trevally, drummer, luderick, tarwhine, salmon, snapper and squid off the rocks. Covering areas to look out for, gear to use, what type of baits and techniques that have worked for me over the years.

An oldy, but a goodie. Bruce Alvey with a great bag of snapper and a couple of salmon caught while using a variety of Alvey outfits. Photo courtesy of Bruce Alvey.
Try and fish as light as the conditions will allow, berley with stale bread and use either peeled prawns, pilly tails, strips of mullet or tuna, pink nippers and cunje for bait when fishing the rock washes.
The author bleeds both his drummer and trevally, before he scales and guts them. Once they get home he carefully fillets, skins and debones them. This assures that the meat stays in tip-top condition.
Carl Dubois with his biggest ever squid. It measured 35cm just for the hood section and it was caught on a size 3 Fish Inc. squid jig. The 3.6m Okuma Flexi-tip and the Okuma 5500 Azores Blue spooled with 15lb Platypus Super 100 did the job.
Look at how simple it is! A couple of outfits, a few squid jigs, a knife and a bucket.
While the angler in the distance is fishing the deep water off this ledge, the other angler is checking out the conditions before he decides to have a fish.
Look for areas that has cunje, green weed and cabbage that is close to the waters edges. I have seen drummer and luderick come up with the swell and roll of their sides and graze on the weed and cabbage. Bream can’t resist a feed on cunje as well.
These fish were caught while fishing beside a stormwater drain. The same species, plus bream, tarwhine, drummer, trevally and salmon can be caught while fishing those gutters that run right beside the rocks.
The author’s grandsons are too young to go fishing off the rocks yet. So, the next best thing is to take them off a breakwall and teach them about safety, how to cast and berley. While at the same time hopefully catching a couple of fish.
This pigeon pair took a liking to a whole pilchard rigged on a set of 3 x 4/0 ganged hooks and a running No.1 ball sinker.
Depending on the type of terrain that you are fishing, make sure that you wear the correct footwear. Also, there are a number of places that you need to wear a life jacket, so check out the regulations before you go.
First and last light is usually the best time to fish off the rock. Don’t forget to go on those overcast and drizzling days as they too can be very productive.
Tarwhine will often show up when you are targeting drummer, which always make a pleasant bonus. Remember keep the tackle simple.
If you keep it simple when fishing off the rocks you will be able to move from spot to spot easily. All you need is a bucket with some berley, a shoulder bag to put your small tackle box in and some bait.
If you are fishing an area and keep on getting snagged, try using a bobby cork and suspend your bait under it. The 3/8 A-JUST-A BUBBLE with a No.2 running ball sinker and fresh cabbage enticed these drummer out of their caves.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE TIDES

      For me, the tide and the variance in the lows and high are what I concentrate my fishing off the rocks around. In most populated parts of Australia there will be a tide change around every six hours and the difference between the depth of the low and high water will depend on at what stage the 28-day lunar cycle is at.

      For example, you could be fishing Windy Point in Southern Sydney for yellowfin bream, drummer and luderick at the beginning of the month when the moon is in the first quarter and you have a low at 80cm and a high tide of 1.4m. Then come back and fish the same place when there is a new moon and find that you have a low tide or 20cm and high tide of 1.9m.

      What this does is to allow the fish to forage further up onto the rocky areas that they normally won’t be able to get to during the much higher tides and push them further out off the rocks when the tide is near its lowest.

      Anglers need to take note of these different tidal conditions, as it will govern whether you need to change or adjust your rigs to suit the conditions. When chasing luderick, you will need to change the depth of your float; for bream, trevally and drummer it’s just as simple as changing the weight of your running sinker or maybe rigging up a paternoster rig so that you can cast out further onto those sandy patches.

      One thing that is in anglers’ favour is that the tidal movements are very predictable and can be forecast well in advance, making it much easier to plan that next fishing outing. This can be achieved by checking online with BOM, Willy Weather and Sea Breeze. I find them much better than a tide chart from your local tackle shop as you can type in the area that you are going to fish and get an accurate time.

INFLUENCE OF THE WEATHER

      Before any fishing trip that you make to the rocks you will need to pay close attention to the current weather reports, as well as the long-range forecast. This will give you an idea of the sea conditions you can expect at the time that you are planning to go fishing. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Way too many anglers have come unstuck by not doing their research before they go.

      There is a particular spot that I often fish on the south coast of NSW. The rock’s ledge is about a metre off the water and it’s not safe to fish when there is any type of swell about. Having no swell at this spot makes it a hard place to fish, unless you take the time to berley up with plenty of stale bread and allow the current that passes through there to take the berley away and bring the fish to just below your feet. 

      It’s just a matter of fishing very light. Sometimes the weight of the bait is enough to cast it out into the berley trail. These very slight conditions can occur when winds from the west have been blowing for a while. This tends to flatten them out.

      Or you may look at a weather map and see that the isobars are very close together. This type of weather pattern usually means that you are going to experience a lot of high winds for a few days in a row. It could also mean that the seas could rise with the incoming tide.

      Care does need to be taken as many anglers will be led into a false sense of security seeing that the water is flat. What is actually happening is the wind is pushing the swell out to sea and once the blow has eased the swell will come back to the shore. These rather large swells are what we call a ground swell.

TIDES AND THE LUNAR INFLUENCE OFF THE ROCKS

      A few years back I fished a rock ledge with a very small gutter lead into a large and open hole at Fingal Bay for yellowfin bream, drummer, luderick and trevally. It’s a place that the fish can only access when the tide is around 1.8m and the swell is running from the north. The moon had to be two or three days either side of its fullest and still out during the early part of the morning. 

      On that same headland there is another small gutter that can only be fished near the bottom of the tide and there has to be a bit of a southerly swell running and the moon is not on its back.

      To put this article together I had to go and get a few more recent photos. After organizing with a mate of mine to go and chase bream, trevally and some salmon, I needed to do a bit of research into what the weather conditions were going to be like.

      The night (11pm) before, Willy Weather said that the winds were going to be coming from the south. We decided to fish off a small rocky outcrop at Jibbon, due to the fact that they faced north. 

      Getting up in the early hours of the following morning the forecast had changed as a high pressure had come through and now the wind was going to come from the NW and gust up to 30-knots. Change of plans. It was off to the northern end of Coaldale.

      The conditions were prefect. The swell was very low and spaced wide apart, there was enough wash to create some cover for the fish. Arriving at 6.30am was two hours of fishing time before and after the high tide at 8.30am. Perfect.

      This resulted in a couple of salmon and two yellowfin bream. All were caught on peeled Hawkesbury River prawns.

SUGGESTED OUTFITS TO USE

      Initially a rod was supposed to be an extension of your arm, which offered some line control when fighting a fish. The springy or flexible tip would provide a cushioning or act as shock absorbent. This meant that you could use lighter line to fight much bigger fish. 

      Then came the fishing reel which is a cylindrical device attached to a fishing rod used in winding and stowing line. They have fittings aiding in casting, retrieving line, drag systems and bearings for smoothness.

      Sure, everyone knows this. What I would suggest when you are looking at buying a combination of the two that you spend as much as you can afford and not always go for the cheapest or dearest. The cheapest may not last much longer than a few months and if you go for the dearest you might have been able to save some money to spend on more terminal tackle that you will need as the years go on.

      This is a personal choice. I only use a composite rod when fishing off the rocks for the above species. One that will have a solid fiberglass tip embedded inside a hollow fiberglass tube that has graphite or carbon fibre wraps around the bottom third of the rod. This allows me to have the feel, cast lighter baits, while still having plenty of power in the bottom section to handle the lungs of the fish and turn its head to make it come towards you.

      There are many different factors that are taken into the making of a rod, some of which are the length of the rod, the taper, the weight being cast and the species of fish that you are targeting.

      My luderick outfit is Bruce Alvey Special rod that has a soft tip action with minimal number of runners, which supports the line yet offers the least resistance providing better casts. The rod will throw light weights superbly yet has a powerful lower section which makes controlling larger species like bream, tarwhine, squid and trevally with no problem. It’s a 3.6m Superior Hollow Glass 2 piece, with quality FUJI runners and a low winch mount that can be fished with 4-6 kg line.

      I have matched this with an Alvey Beach Classic 625B sidecast reel and spooled with 12lb Platypus Platinum monofilament line.

      Okuma Flexi-tip 1203S Fast to Medium tapered 3.6m, 3 piece, 8-10kg rod mounted with an Okuma 5500 Azores Blue Threadline that has 13-kg of drag and is spooled with 25lb Platypus Super 100 monofilament line. This integrated solid glass at the top section rod gives me the sensitivity and reduced weight for long periods of targeting drummer, salmon and snapper. While at the same time it has stopping power of composite fibreglass and graphite blank.

      What I have done to make this outfit more useable when it comes to bread and butter fishing off the rocks, I have purchased an extra spool and filled it 15lb Platypus Super 100 monofilament line and take it with me just incase the trevally, yellowfin bream and tarwhine come out to play.

      You don’t have to rush out and buy the same outfits that I have. This is just to give you an idea of what works for me. You might like to go for a Wilson or a Shimano or a Silstar or Diawa outfit. This choice is up to you.

TERMINAL TACKLE

      Many other anglers are amazed at how little I have in the way of terminal tackle when it comes to targeting bream, trevally and tarwhine. My small plastic tray with 9 sections has 000, 00, 0, 1 and 2 sized ball sinkers, size 1 and 1/0 Owner bait holder hooks, 1 and 1/0 Mustad 542 hooks.

      The snapper and drummer box is the same as for the bream, trevally, drummer and tarwhine, but it has 0, 1, 2 and 3 sized ball sinkers, size 1/0 and 2/0 Owner bait holder hooks, 2/0 and 3/0 Mustad 542 hooks plus a couple of small bobby corks, beads and plastics stoppers.

      As for the squid tackle box, it’s double-sided and holds 14 squid jigs of various colours and sizes. There are also a few snap clips for easy release for when changing the squid jigs.

      And last but by no means least, I have another small tackle box that has 000, 00, 0, 1 and 2 sized ball sinkers and a number of sets of ganged hooks for when I am going to target salmon and tailor.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR?

      Drummer, luderick, yellowfin bream, snapper and trevally will live in similar water conditions and will eat very similar foods. They prefer surf washed rocks, gutters where the sand meets the rocks, boulders, reefs, ledges and kelp. 

      They can also be found in or near the entrances of river mouths where there is rocky structure, they can also be found schooling around rocky outcrops in the surf zone, for instance like the one that is found out in front of the surf club at Coalcliff Beach just south of Southern Sydney. 

      Squid seem to like kelp beds, rocky boulders and reef areas. While salmon and tailor can pop up just about anywhere off the rocks.

      The seven major items that influence my fishing are as follows:

1. To become successful at catching yellowfin bream, trevally, drummer, luderick, tarwhine, snapper and squid off the rocks you will need to do a fair amount of research and know your targeted fish species:

2. Make a predetermined decision of where and when you are going and always have a plan B.

3. Always keep records of your catch, moon phase, tides, winds, baits your use and the conditions.

4. Don’t just rely on one type of bait. Have a backup. Greed weed and cabbage for luderick and drummer. Peeled prawns, pillie tails and strips of mullet for yellowfin bream, trevally and tarwhine. Whole and half pillies, strips of tuna and slimy mackerel for the snapper and don’t just have one size of squid jig or colour. Mix it up.

5. Get your timing right when fishing and everything else will usually fall into place. Don’t fish a spot if everything that you have worked out previously is not aligned. It’s the same as if the timing is out in your car, you will get poor performance, and poor performance means bad results. 

6. I have a rod and reel outfit for drummer and snapper – one for trevally, squid, bream and tarwhine and another outfit for when I am targeting luderick. Make sure your rod and reel is in tip-top condition and your terminal tackle is organised. Hence why I have a small tackle tray for drummer and snapper, trevally, squid, bream and tarwhine. As well as one for luderick.

7. Be patient. Remember if you strike too soon when that float goes under when targeting luderick, you may miss the hook. Or on the other hand when the bream are very timid, allow for the rod to load up before leaning back and striking.

      The key to any angler’s success is to interlock these seven steps together when chasing the fish that you are targeting. Soon you will be able to put yourself up amongst that 10% of anglers who catch 90% of the fish.

      I can’t get enough of bread and butter fishing for yellowfin bream, trevally, drummer, luderick, tarwhine, salmon, snapper and squid off the rocks. It’s an easy, simple and safe way of bringing home a feed of fish while not having to spend heaps of money on your gear.

      The main thing that you always need to keep in mind is to make sure that you stay safe while fishing off the rocks. No fish is worth your life.

      Hope to see you on the rocks someday.