Lewis

G,day Raiders. Just thought I would share this with you all, as I know you all like to see pickies of other peoples catches. My good mate Ris "aka Lippy" went out on his first game fishing expedition on Saturday 26the Australia Day after getting a late offer to join a crew out of Shellharbour, with members of the Shellharbour Game Fishing Club on the boat "Anticipation" The boys headed out early Saturday as one does when going to do a bit of game fishing, stopped off at the bait grounds to pick up some slimies and yakkas for bait and while doing so they started therir day off quite well as when catching the live bait the schools were quickly smashed by a large school of rat kings to 75cm which they entertained for around 45 minutes. With bait tanks full they headed east with the intention of going to the shelf to chase the first Marlin of the season for the club, but on the way they came across a large bait ball approximately half way there, so the laid out a spread of lures, and it wasnt long before the lures grabbed the attention of a sizeable striped marlin. The boys hook up, and after three huge runs and half an hour the boys tag and release the clubs first marlin of the season. After trolling around for another hour whith no more interest and no reports of any further action the boys opt to turn and head for the Kiama fad, when on the way to the fad they come across two lobster traps that have come adrift and set down another spread to see if there were any dollies hanging around. Well it didnt take long again and they wre onto a very nice stud dollie that was to go 13.1kg, anothe at 10, and then Ric was put on strike and managed to pop his cherry on a very nice cow dollie that went 7.5kg. Well done boys, congratulations to my freind Ric what a day out on the water. Hope you all enjoy the pics, cheers, Lew. Ric with his first Dollie.

G,day Raiders. I went out to that new tackle shop in Fairy Meadow (just outside Wollongong) Saturday 22nd Dec, just to have a peek at what was on offer. Now as I have been contemplating for some time now on buying the prior mentioned reel, I just happened to head straight for the reel cabinet and was stunned to see the price thay had this reel ticketed at, $279. Now thats on an average $60 cheeper than I have seen it any where else, so I bought it, as if I needed another reel anyway!!!!! These reels are just so well made, every thing feels right. It all fits together nicely, very precice, and no play in any of the parts where you would expect in a cheeper reel. Now I will just have to save up for a nice 4 to 8kg stick to put it on! Lokking at spending any where from $100 to $220 on a good stick Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

G,day Raiders. On the subject of prawns in Lake Illawarra, I guess I have to eat my words. I have'nt been down myself yet, but I am hearing a lot of very good reports that the prawns are back, reports of 1 to 3kg and then yesterday I heard abloke at Deans at Windang sprooking about getting 15kg in the we hours of last Monday night. Cheers.

G,day Greenfish. Awsome report and congrats on your first fin, a top effort. The fin were not the only thing that was hooked that day, you will be itching to get out there again! Cheers.

G,day Raiders. We, Hulafish, Lippy, Jumma and myself went down to the Basin on Saturday to chase the bounty of duskies that are on down there at the moment. Hulafish was the angler of the day with a personal hall of 22 duskies ranging from 43cm to 30cm, he also managed 6 keeoers ranging from 43cm to 37cm " good luck at the way in Sunday Hula " I landed 13 duskies ranging from 42cm to 28cm with 2 keepers. We both had numerous bust off's from those rampaging basin taylor, some reports of taylor of 3kg and more, and I had another hook up on what we assume to be another sizeable dusky, but after a short tussle she spat the hook, I came up empty again. Lippy and Jumma had some success with a few duskies and three very nice whiting by Lippy, one of which would have gone over 40cm, a PB for Lippy " well done my freind " All in all another top day at the Basin was had by all and we look forward to heading down there again ASAP. Those of you that are thinking of going down to the Basin, get yourselves down there it is really fireing at the moment and can only get better. Heres Rod with a couple of the duskies we cought.

G,day Moldyform. Mate if you can elaborate on what type/species you would be chasing, it would help, but either of the two breakwalls at port harbour are OK for taylor, salmon, bonito and the odd king. Luderic are also available on the inside waters as well as bream and trevally and school jews. Windang Beach for taylor, Salmon and flathead and Jews, Windang Island for Bream, Taylor, Kings Drummer, groper and the odd snapper Red Point off Hill 60 salmon, taylor, bonito, kings and snapper. Any of the northern beaches will produce salmon, taylor, bream and jews. Take your pick and watch where most of the others are fishing its allways a good sign. Cheers.

G,day Graz. Mate I would be contacting the manufacturers or the suppliers and asking if they still support the product, cause if they dont, it does'nt matter how much warrenty you have, they wont be able to fix or replace it. Cheers

G,day mpreston55. Mate I was down at the lake today 15/10/07, just across the road from Outdoors first on King Street, where I work doing a demo on a Kyak and there seems to be plenty of weed growing on and around the ramps to the left of the long jetty, it may be worth a look there. Cheers.

G,day The Red Herring. Wollongong FAD S 34'27.321' E 151'04.308 Wave Rider or Beacon East. S 34'28.400 E 151'01.310 WGS84 Datum. Cheers

G,day raiders. I dont think that there would be any prawns this year or for a few years to come.If there are any they would probably be few and far between, and as it has already been stated, the powers that be left it alittle too long to save what was left of the lakes prawn population. As the prawns couldnt get out to spawn, and that locals like myself included, and tha few pro prawners continued to harvest the few prawns that were trapped in the lake they did unfortunately perrish in what was almost a stagnant lake. I do believe that if the current tidal flow continues and the powers that be strive to keep the water way open, and we as locals help in any way possible nurture it back to some state of good health, then yes I do beleive that the Lake can return to its former glory. The quality of some of the fish that have been cought lately and the few different species being caught that have not been taken in the lake for some years does suggest that it can bounce back. Fingers crossed. Cheers.

G,day Jewgaffer. I will have to take the camera out with me and take a few piccies and post them for you all that live out of the area, just to show you before making plans to come down, just how good that it is starting to look. And I know that the Government has just labled it as te dirties swimming area in the state, but I do believe that those test must have been carried out before the lake was re-opened. Time to retest me thinks.

G,day raiders. I was indulging in a little trailer maintainace today Thursday 11/08/07, and had to put the boat in the water to refasten the nylon skids that had come loose on the trailer. I put the boat in at Berkeley at around 9.00am and while trying to concentrate on the job at hand I continually found myself looking out across the lake to see if there was any action. after a few minor problems with the rivot gun I finally managed to finish the job at around 10.30am at which time the wind had just about dropped right off and the sun was beating down you know the type of day you wish you were on the water flicking a few SPs around trying to rustle up a few duskies. Well as it was I had another important appointment with the misses back at home at midday "and no it was not the type of appointment you blokes might be thinking of, you know I am a married man of some 16 years now, 2 kids both born in August my birthday falls in November, wife does'nt want any more kids, you do the math, so that thought was out of the question" and I neglected to put at least one rod in the boat,,,,, buuutt you know how it is once you've got the boat on the water it's a shame to waste an opportunity to at least have look. So I jumped in the boat, kicked her over and off across the lake I head, first around Gooseburry Island, then Hooka Island then straight over to Windang to check out the channel. As I approach the entrance to the channel I notice that the drop off is very visible and that it has changed quite a bit since I last fished it. It used to run south, southwest out to Mount Warrigal but I now notice that the tidal flow has carved out a nice deep gutter that runs south, southeast of the portside channel marker, and that I'm sitting in a boat with no fishing gear on the last hour of a run in tide, there are poddies every where, the birds are haveing a field day and theres me with a lolly bag with no lollies in it and no money to buy more. So I move into the channel to try and ease the pain a little, but its not working the water in the channel is perfect, I could be anywhere on the north coast, crystal clear water you know that really nice aqua blue that you see on the post cards. Well I'm not on the north coast I'm at Windang on Lake Illawarra, had to slap myself. I moved further imto the channel down near the bowling club wall and there is this elderly chap in a row boat pulling in a near midday bream, so I sit and watch for a while "you know I'm in to self torture" just to see if it was'nt a fluke, well it was'nt no sooner had he put a new bait out and he's onto another. Enough of this I said, so I went east of the bridge to see where the deep water was to get over to the southern side of the road bridge and have a look at the gutters and there are some goodens there, and they were there just waiting for some one to throw a squidgie into see if there was anyone wanting to play, alas it's now 11.30am and I have 30 minutes to get the boat washed down motor rinsed out and get home before the Minister for Finance and War sends out the mercenaries to bring me in. All I can say is that the lake sure is starting to look good again, and if we can get rid of the last of the Pros that still fish it, it will once again become the pride of the south coast. Cheers.

Gday Raidersers. Just got back from our family holiday down at Myola, such a nice place bay on one side, the river on the other, and the chance to kick back sink a few coldies and just chill out with the kids and misses for a few days, and then theres the fishing. After spending the first day setting up the tent or three, had to help with my brother inlaws tent and then his mate both came down from Sydney. I launched the boat at Calala Bay ramp and headed out with the hope of crossing over to Longnose Point for a chance at some reds, but that idea was soon put to bed when the wind blew up from the north west which made it very choppy across the other side of the bay where Longnose Point is. So we stayed in close around Calala Bay and picked up a couple of flatties along the beach, but had to work very hard for what we got. After watching the footy grand final on Sunday night we got up late Monday and put the boat in at the Myola ramp on the Currumbine river and set out chasing some flatties in the river. Tuesday saw us get up early and hit the water at 5.00am to head out on the bay via the river as it is a shorter trip to longnose from the river than it is from Calala Bay ramp. The conditions were near perfect light 2knt winds and dead flat water saw us head across the bay at 28knts with a full tank and three on board we were there in short time. We motored over near the point and found and marked a very nice drop off from 30' to 80' with fish on the sounder we anchored up and sent out some burley and in short time the first red hit the boat 36cm not huge but a good start, we landed another 4 reds to 42cm before they went off the bite and a school of cowan young moved in with a few pike mixed in so I threw a live pike out on my 15kg gear in the hope of JB king but it was not to be. After approx 3 hours the last hour with no more bites we headed over to middle ground to see if there was anything there, I set the pike back but as it had expiered I butterflied it and sent it back out. We picked up some smallish banded cod and some red rock cod but none with any real size, we picked a couple of under sized reds all the while the pike was just hanging around in the lite current with not mush happening, when the ratchet on the tyrnos slowly came to life. A few clicks hear a few click there, then off she goes zzzzzzzzzz I mtion to pick up the rod when it stops, the line is just twitching in the water. Now Ive got the tyrnos loaded with 40lb braid with a 2mtr 150lb jinkai leader, off she goes again zzzzzzzz I set the hook and its off again zzzzzzzz not to much drag around 8 to 10 kg then approximately 40 to 50 seconds later nothing, I bring the line in only to find almost all of my leader in tact only a little shorter, but my 8/o main hook and the 6/o stinger are gone and not a burr on the end of the 150lb jinkai cut through as clean as a whistle, I was a little peved at first but it was still a buzz while it lasted, not sure what it may hve been, possible a shark but it pulled real hard what ever it was. we stayed there for another hour with no more results then headed off for a troll around Bowen Island and across to Point Perpendicular for another hour or so for no results before calling it a day, a good day when you have fresh snapper for tea, beautifull!!!!!!!! Our next outing was on Thursday when the wind had dropped to reasonable strength, we headed back out to longnose Point in the hope of finding some more reds, we only managed one to 40cm off the bottom, I put the 15kg gear back out ogain had two runs but no hook ups on whole pillies. On the way back in we were entertained by some of the local whales which was awesome in itself, and then tried one of the locals spots about a third of vthe way back across the bay in around 90' af water where we picked up some nice flatties to 45 to 50cm. Friday we were off the water again as the wind was up again and we spent some qlty time with the kids. Saturday I had earlier teed up to meet Ian Phillips a member of another site not to be named, down at St Georges Basin in which I will leave that post for Ian, but will state that Ian is a great bloke with a wealth of information on the Basin and is only to prepared to share this local knowledge with his fellow fishos, thanks for a great day again Ian. CHEERS !!!!! BTW, we got over 20 flatties from 45cm the biggest was Ians monster at 91cm 5.6kg Sunday we headed up the Currumbine River to chase some river flatties again, but again we found them hard to come by in any size, but we did find a school of Trevalley that were keen to play, so we boated 10 trevs to 20cm and two Salmon to 22cm which we took home and fillited them for the smoker, and boy did they come up a treat, I was very suprised at the taste of the Salmon as I have had Salmon before but was less than impressed with the flavour but I will eat smoked Salmon again no problems. Thus leaves us with Monday the 8th second last day and my son Mitchell has been up all night coughing like a dog barking, my wife being a nurse has a look at his throat, it's red raw and the little bugger is in all sorts of pain, so we decide to pack up early and get him off to the doctors for some antibiotics to help with his sore throat before it gets too bad. Not to bother we had a tremendous time away, great company, great holiday park, pleasent wether and some very decent fishing thrown in, what more can I ask for.

G,day Kat. Nice job on the PB lizard, 3 snapper, 3 flatties, 4 flounder and one bream in the weekend comp, the price of a trip up to Lake Maquarie. PB flattie 64cm and 1.8kg and spend the day out with dad. "PRICELESS" Keep up the good work. Cheers

G,day Roylo. GPS units will drop out under certain conditions, the type of antenna used, the two most common used "the patch antenna and the quadra helix antenna the latter being the better of the two, most commonly found in you more expensive units. Other reasons for dropping out the signal will drop out at times when there is something blocking the signals path ( magnetic fields, such as over head power, being inside a building, inside a cave or tunnel and in some circumstances dense tree canopies can affect the signal more often than not with the patch antenna. Gps will depending on the temperature take longer in colder conditions to lock on to the satelites than when it is warm. As for the ammount of satelites the unit can track, the unit will only communicate with three at any given time. So what I meen here is that if a unit is capable of tracking 6,8, 12 or 16 satelites it will log on or track as many of these satelites it can pick up, but still only communicate or send and recieve data from three "noting that not all satelites are in the same hemisphere at the same time" so there for it will track as many as it can, when one drops out it has already locked on to the next satelite available, it will then continue to search for the satelite that has dropped out until it becomes available again, so more is better, but I still say 12 is enough. And GPS is quite easy to use these days. Cheers.