▲TopThe "Art" of Estuary Blackfishing

The Blackfish or Luderick]] or nigger(a

term that is quickly losing favour for obvious reasons) is a fish of estuarine waters and ocean rock platforms, occasionally visiting corners of beach where sand and rock meet. It is a fish that at most times of the year has a specific diet of different types of marine weed and occasionally gets an appetite for shrimp, worms, cunjevoi (when rock fishing is involved) and prawns]].

For the purpose of this "how to" I want to concentrate on the more subtle art of estuary Blackfishing, although it certainly has alot in common with targeting them off the rocks there are enough differences to warrant a separate piece.

The Luderick]] can be a frustratingly difficult fish to catch if you don't have the necessary tackle, know how, bait and technique to lure them into thinking that your offering is the real deal.

Firstly I'll talk about tackle. The Reel mostly employed in this type of fishing is of the centrepin variety but one which differs slightly from the traditional alvey type of estuary or surf reel and there are two types of these. Both are designed with the spool very similar to a saltwater flyfishing reel but this reel slides on to a "centre pin" attached to a backing plate, in the same way as the afore mentioned alvey type. The first type is the most traditional type and is still used by a select group of diehards. It must be said that these diehards are probably the best blackfishermen in the land but it is not the reel which makes them standout. More on them later. The reel, which already has attributes of a flyfishing reel and an alvey, also has a bit in common with a baitcaster (confused?). It is not a "sidecast"(like an alvey) but a revolving spool reel (like a baitcaster) and you need to have the same educated thumb (or in this case finger) to slow the spool down as your rig slows and eventually stops. A very unique reel that is in no way essential in catching blackfish but for traditions sake it needed to be mentioned. The second type is pretty much the same in design as the traditional one but it is a sidecast and much more user friendly. The main advantage of using a direct drive reel like this is the ability to wind forward or backwards. Sometimes as the fish takes your float under you need to give a bit of line to avoid it feeling any strain and regecting your bait. In saying this a threadline or eggbeater reel is by no means unusable in Blackfishing, the only real disadvantage being that you can't give line by winding backwards you just have to pull it out with your hand.

Now I will talk rods. again in a traditional sense rods are generally 10-12ft long and quite springy with a medium to slow action or taper. The reason for such a long, springy rod is for two reasons and the first is to cast the somewhat cumbersome rig that is employed while targeting Luderick]]. The second is to absorb the kicking and bucking (blackfish fight quite well) argument of a fish with a pretty soft mouth. In this case the traditional is definately the most appropriate.

Lines
With the advent of near zero stretch gelspun and braided lines the fishing world has gained another great advantage in tackling our piscatorial adversaries but not in this case. In the same way as the long bouncy rod absorbs the shock of the kicking and bucking of a blackfish, The "stretch" of monofilament lines adds a little bit more to the absorbsion. These near zero stretch lines really don't have a place in Blackfishing. Line strenghths should be in the order of three to four kilo as in the estuary Luderick]] are pretty clean fighters and the less turbulent waters, as compared with the rocks, will have anything thicker than four too easily visable.

Terminal tackle. When it comes to all of the tackle so far mentioned this is where it can make or break your success as a Blackfisher. 99% of the time it will be a running float rig that will be the undoing of any numbers of the striped black one. starting closest to the rod tip you need to have a stopper for your float(see diagram hereabouts) tied on with a stopper knot that is tight enough to not move when you cast or when your rig hits the water but loose enough that you can move it if you need to change the depth you are fishing. The stopper can be tied using some sort of thin string or even fishing line as long as it is not too thick as to inhibit casting as it flies through the guides. Next down the line you would have a small bead to stop the stopper knot going through the guide of the float. Next, the float. The type to use is a stem float or a large pencil float (the latter I prefer as I believe it cast's better) with a brightly coloured top section to allow the best possible visability. Another small bead is your next piece of terminal stuff and this is followed by a swivel and while it doesn't matter too much what size it is don't make it too large. After this you need a section of line, a foot or less, in a breaking strain of a few kilos more than your main line, 8-10 kg, which has a sinker or sinkers(the less the better) in a weight to correctly balance your float( a bit more on that later). Now all you need is another swivel and attached to that your trace or leader(in the light 4 kilo range) of about two feet. You can even use a three way swivel in place of this last one and have two traces, one slightly longer than the other. Attached at the end of the trace, or traces, is a small hook about a size 8 or 10.

Now we have to think about the bait. There are several types of weed that are used for Blackfishing. They are all found in the same estuarine environment as the fish that feed on them and are usually available when the blackfish come in from the ocean to take up their estuary haunts. Among the weeds are soft green weed, wire weed, cabbage or lettuce weed (which is similar to the stuff you find on ocean rocks) and brown weed which can be found growing on ribbon weed. All catch estuary Blackfish but depending on what they are feeding on at the time is what weed you should strive to use. In saying this two or three weeds at the same time will catch fish as at these particular times their preference for a particular weed is not so evident. At other times if you don't have the right weed you don't stand a chance. If collecting your own weed seems like a difficult task, most tackle stores in the areas where Luderick]] are caught will sell one or two of the right types. Another bait that can be used quite effectively is shrimp. When the Blackfish go on a carnivorous diet, which I have found is alot more often than most would think, one or two live shrimp per hook is deadly.

Tips and techniques. One thing you will find good Blackfishermen do is to put vaseline on the section of line that will be cast out. This is so the line will float on the water rather than sinking below it. The advantages of this are if it is even slightly windy and/or the tide is pushing along you need to straighten your line as much as possible, picking it up of the water and laying it back down in a straight line to your float although not tight. You could imagine if your line was under the water this could be a difficult task without pulling your float half way in. The other advantage of having your line on top of the water is that when a fish pulls your float under, the line will glide across the top of the water as the fish goes deeper or away horizontally with the bait, giving the fish little or no indication that something is wrong.

As a new person to this style of fishing could assertain puting weed on a hook is going to be a bit more intricate than throwing on a prawn]] and unfortunatley to do it correctly it is a bit but not that difficult. For stringy types of weed, grab a small length of weed(you don't need much) and fold it in half. Hold the bend in the weed between thumb and forfinger along the line just above the hook. Wrap one side of the weed around the hook once then wrap the other side around also but in the opposite direction. Repeat this until you get to the bottom of the hook and finish off the bend in the weed with a half hitch. The half hitch ensures that when a fish starts to chew on your bait it doesn't simply slide down the hook allowing the Blackfish an easy feed. For cabbage or lettuce weed simply put a half hitch around the base of the little plant in a similar fashion to the stringy variety and feed one or two of the leaves on to the point of the hook leaving the rest to waft in the current presenting a very natural bait. This is the same way as you would present cabbage off the rocks.

Balancing your float. The ultimate would be to have just a few centimetres of the top of the float apearing above the surface of the water and in calm conditions with the light facing the right way and 20 20 vision, it is concievable to have this. But in even a slight chop and if you have long distance vision like mine you will need a bit more but the general rule is as little as possible. This is where you have to pick the right sinker or sinkers to achieve this.

You've got a down! Seasoned Blackfishermen call a bite a down and when you get one DON'T strike imeadiatley. You should wait anything from 2-6 seconds before you strike and this depends on the mood of the fish. Sometimes they will try to pull the float straight to hell as fast as possible and this is when you would strike somewhere near the 2 second mark. Other times they will pussy foot around with it and you have to be certain they have the whole bait in their mouth before you strike or all that you will retrieve is a few strands of weed.

The last thing that I would like to advise anyone new to the game of estuary Blackfishing is to learn off those who have learn't before you. There is nothing like someone with experience showing you first hand the tricks of the trade but it won't come easy. You sort of have to earn your way into recieving this info from these guy's but you have to remember, most of THEM had to earn it too.