HOW-TO: Catch Luderick or Blackfish on Long Rods & Centepins

Catching luderick or blackfish in our estuaries on float-suspended weed baits and long, light rods is something of an art, but it's one you can definitely master... and watching this how-to video will fast track your progress up the learning curve. Watch and enjoy!

[@greeenestbasterd6896]

Good to see an Aussie with a float rod and centerpin!!! Great video mate, from a pommy down under.

[@StarloGetsReel]

Thanks for that! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@balandaplaya2393]

Ahhhhhh the good old days catching luds when I was supposed to be at uni. Mum couldn't work out why the freezer was always full of fish and why I flunked out at exam time. those were the days. In my yellow PVC coat on he rocks at the Gong. Thanks for the inciteful narration about this wonderful fish, it really took me back. nice touch with the banjo.

[@StarloGetsReel]

Thanks!

[@marto_sauce9564]

U definalty did inspire me Sarlo, time to get a centrepin setup that looks like a heap of fun

[@StarloGetsReel]

It's SUCH good fun! Can't beat that direct contact...

[@simmoslureslawnsandbrews417]

I meet an old fella down at Greenwell Point NSW and he was well known for catching Blackfish. He noticed that I had a fly rod and told me I could catch them on green coloured wet flies with a long leader. He was right, I caught my first Blackfish on a fly rod. He was a true local legend and I never got to know his name. RIP. Great video Starlo, nice work.

[@StarloGetsReel]

Love catching them on fly! I'll get around to doing a video on that soon, too. Tight Lines!

[@cjod33]

My uncle and aunty live there. He and i used to fish the old slip rails. He's passed on now and aunty Dott is 99 n still lives across the road from the old fishing spot. Great fishing, great memories.

[@cjod33]

​@@StarloGetsReel my pop taught me to fish for blackfish, he was a bit of a purist. I got into fly fishing in the early nineties (partially because of a book on freshwater areas by you) and when I started catching mullet on my bread fly's he told me that blackfish ING came from fly fishing. So I tied a weed like fly n low n behold I landed my first on fly. Ever since then I've used both a fly n weed below my float at the same time. Pop reckoned it was cheating 😅.

[@scubajez]

Thanks Starlo. Great job on the video

[@StarloGetsReel]

Thanks mate!

[@ShroomFishing]

Great video Starlo! I am impressed with the quality of the production! Every bit as good as that prized luderick at the end!

[@StarloGetsReel]

Thanks Shroom! Most ambitious self-shoot-and-edit job I've done to date. Enjoyable, but time consuming, as you know!

[@anthonytaylor7875]

Thanks for taking the time to make these vids Starlo.

[@StarloGetsReel]

You're welcome!

[@michaelbalding3694]

Excellent quality videos, Steve! Information & education with entertainment.

[@StarloGetsReel]

Thanks, Michael! 👍

[@debbiestockton7039]

Thanks for the video tips Starlo. I just bought a centrepin reel so I could use my Dad's old luderick rod. Looking forward to the challenge of learning this style of fishing 🎣 😎.

[@StarloGetsReel]

Good stuff! Sorry I didn’t see this comment earlier. 👍

[@vladimircharous8945]

Love your work Starlo! Keep up the great videos! Information spot on! Thank you.

[@StarloGetsReel]

Thanks mate! I really appreciate your great feedback! 👍

[@timeandattendancesolutions]

I'm old enough to remember what we called these fish before we weren't allowed to any more! That aside, this is the best Luderick presentation I have ever seen. Good work Starlo! I like the format too... just solid information and technique without all the hype. Keep them coming.

[@StarloGetsReel]

Thank you!

[@poundcake3490]

Classy comment Jim.

[@AndrewFishman]

Luderick were one of the first fish Dad taught me to catch down on the South Coast back in the 70s. Using green weed and Cunjevoi under floats... while we had other baits of prawns, squid, octopus, mullet or pillies out on a running sinker for bream or flatties sitting under the floated bait to take the most advantage of the burley. Picked up a lot of Drummer on the luderick baits. Then things could get a bit interesting with light line and a big drummer.

[@StarloGetsReel]

Good stuff!

[@cjod33]

Thanks for the video. Great memories, great sport fish.

[@StarloGetsReel]

Thank YOU for watching!

[@keithprinn720]

I agree takes me back to the mid 70s when I first fished for them in the creeks around Wollongong northern suburbs and within Lake Illawarra first on handlines with worms then traditional weed on floats style. In later years the biggest were caught in Bermagui harbour where they fed on the yellowfin tuna carcasses thrown in to the shallows near the cleaning tables at the harbour boat ramp in the late 80s and early 90s massive luderick and bream feeding on the frames each evening. I still have my dad's English coarse fishing Edgar Sealey float rod that I used back then with old school centre pins I started fishing with as a kid lol sits in the rod rack next to Ian Miller's finest bream rods lol equally valued

[@StarloGetsReel]

Good stuff, Keith!

[@yorkshireteafan]

I love those old Grice & Young reels. I've got a couple that I think were made in the mid 50s that I use to trot worms for trout and grayling in my local river in the UK, and I'm pretty sure they'll outlive me. They're like the Boss pedals of centrepins. No matter how many dings and scrapes they pick up, they just keep on doing exactly what they were made to do.

[@StarloGetsReel]

So true! One of mine is 40 years old and apart from the somewhat battered cosmetics, it has never missed a beat!

[@TazzzieAdventures]

Some great Blackfish Starlo and helpful hint we should all take note of. Here in Tasmania we are catching Luderick right along the the North and NW to Stanley Smithton way and parts of the West Coast now just love fishing for them. ATB Brad.

[@StarloGetsReel]

Good to know! I didn't realise they went that far west!

[@peterm6199]

No Ci4 in that real Starlo, great vid! 👌 👌 👌

[@StarloGetsReel]

Thanks mate! Yes, old school! ;)

[@franksaunders6534]

Great fish and a very well put together vlog. Blast from the past, my old neighbour (an old butcher) used to fish for blackfish at Little Greeny (south Maroubra) and said 'a young Steve Starling' used to bug him and his gun blackfisherman mates for information. His name was Ray and he was rough and tough as nails but a top fisherman who actually caught and showed me photo evidence of a 7 and 3/4 lb bream - from Laurieton NSW on the onion of a mullet gut, using a 12 ft long rod, alvey and 20 lb line along one of the breakwalls there fishing straight through to the hook. Can you still remember those days below the rifle range at south Maroubra? He had a lot of tales but never offered a bum steer.

[@StarloGetsReel]

How cool is that! They played it pretty closr to the chest, those old boys. In the end I learnt more by watching than asking. :)

[@balandaplaya2393]

That wasnt ray togah the rooster was it.

[@franksaunders6534]

@@balandaplaya2393 Ray -"ham bone' - never knew his last name, just his first name, nickname and his reputation around the 'Gong' and Kiama where he did plenty of fishing also. Used to take some cold ones round to his place and have a long yarn also fishing deep sea with him a few times.

[@franksaunders6534]

@@StarloGetsReel Yeah. It's a small world!

[@balandaplaya2393]

That's him theres only one ray. I was his apprentice for years. every time it rained I'd know hed be down there fishing with his fiberglass greenish rod. He was a freek at catching Luds.And a top bloke.

[@YEPIMONFISHING]

That was great

[@StarloGetsReel]

Thanks heaps!

[@ralphblundell9479]

That takes me back. I loved fishing for them as a kid on Georges River where I grew up. About the only thing wrong with WA, no blackfish. 😢

[@StarloGetsReel]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@numismatric]

Good on ya mate and thanks... ;)

[@StarloGetsReel]

No worries! 👍

[@andothemando9695]

I love the Blackfish, I have two of those old Avon Reels given to me by and old Customer of mine....still work great

[@StarloGetsReel]

Aren't they great? Thanks for the feedback.

[@johnklansek8898]

nice blackie there Starlo didn't know you could use cabbage in the estuaries thanks for the tip

[@StarloGetsReel]

No worries!

[@johnlighton7025]

Thanks. What do they taste like? We have a dassie or blacktail here thats a grazer but not much of a table fish. Found in abundance up our west coast. Lots of fun though.

[@Chrismoore-qx3zq]

Thank you Starla most info on blackfish I have seen won’t to take it up

[@Chrismoore-qx3zq]

Sorry typo want

[@StarloGetsReel]

Get into it! It's great fun!

[@barrytribe2097]

Great Vidio, i have been fishing for them since 1964 but the fish had better names.

[@StarloGetsReel]

Cheers! Maybe not better, just different? 😉

[@mun6428]

Great video mate ! Love all the tips, want to get into luderick fishing myself - quick question, does it help to have a line guard on those Centrepin reels ? I’m just starting off so want to learn some basics :)

[@StarloGetsReel]

Thanks! I like the line guard as it helps prevent line spilling off the spool and wrapping around the back of the reel, but a lot of the “purists” fish without them.

[@mun6428]

@@StarloGetsReel yeah i reckon ill do the same then and get myself a line guard haha - so my mates dad gave me one of his avon royal reels (type 3 i believe) but i didnt come with a guard. Where did you get your blue piece from ?

[@LabworksVapes]

Brilliant little session - the second one was a horse

[@StarloGetsReel]

Thanks!

[@TheMickadams]

Hey Starlo was that a Michael Johnson’s Hand made blackfish float that you was using ? 🎣🍻

[@StarloGetsReel]

Sure was!

[@TheMickadams]

They are a great float I use them all so 🍻

[@StarloGetsReel]

@@TheMickadams they are brilliant!

[@ngocpham8129]

Mr starlo. Just wondering if you have use the weed on fly (the actual flies made for blackfish/luderick.... small hook with artificial weed)

[@StarloGetsReel]

Sure have, Ngoc, but only on actual fly gear. They work! I know quite a few anglers now add them to their float rigs as well and I've heard good reports. I need to give it a try.

[@seanharwood974]

Hey Starlo what’s that rod you’re using ? Looks like a graphite rod

[@StarloGetsReel]

It's an old Shimano European match (coarse) fishing rod. 3-piece and about 13 feet! Can't remember where I got it but have had it about 25 years. Yes, graphite composite, I think. Nice and light.

[@alanfiddick1887]

Could you recommend a good rod for Luderick. I am looking at the Alvey 475cp centre pin reel and would like a good quality rod to suit. Thank you

[@StarloGetsReel]

I’ll have to get back to you on that, Alan. I’m a bit out of touch with what’s available these days. All my gear is pretty old! But there are a couple of great Facebook groups that will have heaps of advice for you. I’ll post the links below.

[@StarloGetsReel]

Check out Luderick/Blackfish Fishing on Facebook and join the group. Great bunch!

[@alanfiddick1887]

@@StarloGetsReel thanks for the advice mate

[@pricey.sfishingadventures5478]

doing a bit myself pricey,s fishing adventures on KZbin

[@fishingwith-bl]

What rod do you got ?

[@StarloGetsReel]

That one's a very old Shimano "Match" style coarse fishing rod from Europe.