fragmeister

Hi Raiders, It was my first trip since the foot surgery and I didn't want to overdo it so I decided to hit the Blue Spotted Flathead off Rosa Gully, hoping to get a feed in a few hours. The swell and the wind were not as predicted and the combination of the two plus the reflected waves off the shore made it a little bumpy. I started a drift in about 35 meters of water straight off Rosa Gully and I had a lot of small bites for the first part of the drift. I later discovered (by jagging a few by accident) that they were whiting. After a while, I hit a patch of flathead and hooked up two on the paternoster rig. The baits went straight back down and up came another two. I repeated the drift a couple of time more and reached my bag limit. I spent a few hours exploring and went home early. Good to be back on the water!

Great photos Frank. The middle one of the fireworks is a cracker ( if you'll excuse the pun)

Geat post and great fish. The small head of these fish makes me wonder what evolutionary advantage they exploited. Cavernous mouth Murray Cod have their strategy but obviously, Golden Perch have a different one in mind. Cheers Jim

That's the strategy! Pity about the rod. I love the feel and weight of graphite but I am way too clumsy to make them last. Cheers Jim

Nice in depth report - I enjoyed reading it. Cheers Jim

That's a great Gemmie Basil,

I'd be taking the 113 cm measurement Basil! Great fish BTW Cheers Jim

I guess I haven't been paying enough attention! For the best part of 3 years I have been riding the bike track on that section of the river to and from work and never spotted a boil... I am at a loss to explain it... perhaps the ferry traffic kills the activity during the week. Thanks for the replies boys. Cheers Jim

Hi Raiders, I was at the Armory Wharf Cafe on Sunday and I saw a flock of Shags flying in formation heading upriver. There were about 50 of them. I don't recall ever seeing Shags in flocks before or at least none that big. I thought that was very unusual and wondered where they might be going. 5 minutes later they were back drifting on the outgoing tide and feeding on either baitfish or the leftovers of whatever pelagics were creating all the surface activity. My best guess would be a school of tailor or perhaps salmon. Not overly large based on the surface splashes. This was a long way upriver ( arrow on map below) and I have never seen surface action this far up . I have a seen a little action just east of the Gladesville bridge in recent years ( crosses on map) but in hundreds of boat trips from and to the Ermington Boat ramp I have never seen anything in that stretch between Gladesville and Silverwater bridges. Funny thing was the Shags seemed to know about it... not sure how they did that from 2 meters above the water a few kilometres away. Anyway, probably a good sign. Anyone seen any serious activity up the river this time of year? Cheers Jim

Never tired of seeing these reports Jeff. You certainly are the gun snapper man. keep the reports coming. cheers jim

Silly things I have done while tired ... silly things I have done when wide awake... I am not sure which list would be longer!

Good post Toby. Thats a healthy looking fish. Is green the colour of choice or do you get them on other colours? I have taken a few out of the hacking on nipper patterns but certainly they were few and far between. cheers Jim

Whoops! That's going to hard to get out... I guess there is a medical equivalent of the mechanic's Easy-out!

In my younger days , fishing usually with my Father, we primarily targeted bream. We always used baits as in those days there were no SP's and it was then considered by many (wrongly) that catching bream on lures was not an option. Perhaps that was more the case then because the range of lures that could have been used to target bream was relatively limited. These are my observations regarding winter bream fishing ... and they are just that so they can be a little subjective. Winter bream are closer to the river mouths and in deeper water in winter. I think this is probably because there is less food upriver in WInter but more importantly, there is more consistent water temperature in the deeper areas. The water temperature in the Parramatta River in July ranges from 4.5 - 17 Degrees. In Sydney harbour it sits around the 17 degree mark fairly constantly. I would be trying the deeper wharves in Sydney Harbour for example and getting right in amongst the structure. It can be hard to find the right time as many the wharves have ferry traffic but if you can pick a time an hour before sunrise around the top of the tide that is ideal. Late at night when it all quietens down is also an excellent time... if not bloody cold in winter. I would use bait like chicken gut with no sinker and just let it drift in amongst the structure. It is a very underrated bait in my view that has been responsible for some of my best bream. Fish strips are also a great choice. Go down as far as possible in hook size. Use as little lead as possible - none at all preferably. Keep the noise down - I have seen many a good bite go off the boil after a couple of noisy, clumping, laughing blokes can down the wharf for a fish. " How's the fishing mate? ", says them " Bloody good until a couple of minutes ago!" Says I. Fish as light as possible as the water clarity is usually very clear. This is a good application for spooling with flurocarbon but at least use a flouro leader. A slow stream of burley ( a little at a time and often) will increase your chances significantly. Take a thermos of coffee. Bream really like a hot ... oh hang on...that's for you! Cheers Jim

I have the same one Frank. Pulled it out the other day and put batteries in it. Fired it up and checked the fishing for the day and it told me I should have been out on the water and not behind my desk! Cheers Jim

Great work Yowie! Those jackets will make a nice feed and the 10lb flattie great bonus. Cheers Jim

We all knew it was bad but it gets even worse. The spirit and intention of the Murray Darling Plan was to encourage companies to build water saving infrastructure in return for handing back some of their water rights thus improving water flow in the river. So some crafty companies used the funds on offer to develop more marginal land for cotton & nut crops ( very thirsty plants) effectively robbing the system of water. Webster ( a partially foreign-owned company) was given $41 million of tax-payers money to effectively circumvent the system. Maybe now the Murray Darling Plan will get the shakeup it needs. ( We live in hope!) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-08/taxpayers-helping-fund-murray-darling-basin-expansion/11279468

I wondered what they looked like. Now I understand how they got them off the hooks so easily. ThanskWazza. Cheers Jim

Well done mate!

Nice One Baz... It has a Redgum/ Ghost Riders feel to it. Just the right feel for Aussie bushfires. The mix is very well done... was it in a studio? My big 4 old time artists would be Dylan, James Taylor, Cat Stevens and The Beatles and that's mainly because that what my voice can cope with. There's not a lot I don't listen to. All the great guitarist of course....you know who they are! I have an American Strat and a Tommy Emanuel signature series Maton. These days I seem to have very little time for music.... I pick up the guitar every so often and I am as rusty as can be. "Some day everything is gonna be dif'rent" ( that will test your Dylan knowledge!) My brother's daughter put video this together when he passed away. ( I think I may have posted this once before) Its my vocals and guitar but pretty much everything else was my brother ( I think he may even have overdubbed the main guitar without telling me -LOL) From memory we passed files between each other recorded on tascam porta studios as he was O/S at the time. Anyway. It means a lot to his kids and mine. Cheers JIm

Great video!, You did well but as scratchie says, you were always going to get smoked on that gear. Don't you just love the way kings give you half a chance and then kick it up a gear. All round a great video... keep them coming. Cheers Jim

Well done Baz, Doesn't take a genius to see that you've got a bit on your plate at the moment. Takes some courage to talk about difficult things. Didn't know you were a guitarist/vocalist - we have something else aside from fishing in common. What are your musical tastes? Cheers Jim

LOL... only 60 years! you are slipping mate! All good... we'll get Frank to fill in the blanks. Cheers Jim

Great report Plummo, I have spent a few nights up in Bantry Bay myself .. lovely spot. Cheers Jim

The guy is a walking fishing encyclopaedia ... He's a great contributor to the site. Cheers Jim