Striped wonders by Jamie Robley

Blackfish, or luderick, are popular rock-fishing targets and quite abundant in comparison to a lot of other species.

At times they can be easy to catch but, more often than not, you'll need a few tricks up your sleeve to enjoy consistent success with these striped wonders.

Although the traditional method of drifting green weed or cabbage baits under a float is probably the best approach, there are a number of alternatives which will bring good results at times.

The truth is, blackfish eat a lot more than just green marine algae. A large percentage of their diet is made up of various types of brown-coloured weed as well as a number of other marine organisms.

From an angling perspective, they will also scoff down baits such as bread, prawns and pink nippers. Just to prove a point, I recently caught one on a Pascal marshmallow, so they are a fish that's open to suggestion.

Before trying out different techniques or types of bait, it's important to understand what sort of rock spots to look for if blackfish are the target.

Firstly, water depth isn't much of an issue and, overall, these fish tend to prefer depths between 1m and 4m. They'll even venture into water that hardly covers their backs if there's a good chance of grabbing a bite to eat, especially after dark.

Most good blackfish spots have a reasonable degree of green cabbage or weed growth on rocks that are well exposed to the sun at low tide. Weed doesn't flourish without sea water so most good blackfish spots are also low to the water, rather than high and dry ledges.

There are however, exceptions. Some of my favourite blackfish spots on the Central Coast are high, dry and very safe to fish from. Importantly, these ledges are surrounded by lower, wave-lashed rocks that do support healthy weed growth.

Sandy areas that are dotted with patches of reef a bit further out from the main rock ledge are also good for blackfish. A decent pair of polarised sunglasses enables us to see these patches of reef much easier and sometimes it's possible to see blackfish swarming over such reef.

Fishing is generally better with some wave action and whitewash around the rocks but, obviously, safety is important when rock fishing.

THE TRADITION

A light 3m rod matched to a small threadline or Alvey blackfish reel is generally the best type of outfit to use.

Although I've heard of some anglers who prefer to use braid for blackfish, I firmly believe that nylon mono is the best way to go.

In fact there are specialist float-fishing lines available for this style of angling. I use is 5kg Sunline Fine Float line, which is bright yellow so it's easy to see.

This line floats on the water and that makes hooking a fish much easier than if the line were to sink, creating a belly or sag in the water.

The tackle kit consists of a few different floats, rubber float stoppers, small plastic beads, some small black swivels, small ball, bean or barrel sinkers, split shot sinkers, some No 6 and No 8 hooks and a spool of trace line. That may seem a lot, but most of these items are very small and the lot can easily fit into a small tackle box.

Fixed stem floats, running stem floats and small bobby floats all work, although in most cases I like to use a running stem float.

The larger the float, the more sinker weight it will support and regardless of the type of float used, it should be weighted so that it bobs under the surface