adamski

Ah yes! There's no greater guarantee of a doughnut than buying a new bit of fish-cooking gear! (Apart from the phrase "Don't worry guys, I'll catch us dinner!")

Hey folks, Hope you're having a good one. It's been relatively slow going in my neck of the woods over the last few months, but I managed to get out the last two Saturdays on the trot. Last weekend I hit the Cooks on the run-out tide and it was one of those days where the the trevs were in the system in plague-like proportions. It seems to happen when the weather heats up and there's been little rain: the river gets a greenish tinge (rather than the usual murky brown) and you literally can't leave a lure on the bottom without it getting hoovered up. The fish were willing to take pretty much any small to medium green/blue/brown plastic. Ended up with around 8 trevally in the 35-45 cm range and some flatties up to about 50 cm. It made for a fun morning. Today the other, better half was away meeting some friends in Manly, so I got a run out to the Spit. I've never fished there before, but there were lots of big whiting about. I didn't really have light enough gear to entice any, so started having a flick round the wharves and after 10 casts or so felt a big heavy weight. Bit of a scrap and some theatrical leaping around (from both the fish and me!) and in comes a decent salmon at 55 cm, a pb for me. I went round the corner to have a few casts at the bridge afterwards, but couldn't pull out anything other than a few grinner. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Cracking fish, never seen one before! Do they always take bananas? 😉

Jings! That's a hell of a fish! Well done!!! 👏

Cheers @Little_Flatty! A landing net's pretty useful, although I have to confess I'm still guilty of occasionally lifting fish by the leader if I can't quite reach them. I was out again today and had a couple more trevs and a whiting. Had to do a double take as I was bringing in the second trev: it was getting harassed by what seemed to be 3-4 of the biggest tailor I'd ever seen. Then I noticed the yellow on the tails. I've never seen rat kings in the Cooks before!!!! Switched up to a bigger lure and fast retrieve, but couldn't entice a bite from them. Went for a flick around a few bridges, but didn't get anything else. Still, it was a nice day to be out by the water.

Hey folks, Hope you're having a good one! It's been a quiet week for me fishing wise and haven't managed to get out as much as I'd like. I did go for a flick late last week with the heavier gear on the Cooks run-in. Mostly stopped at bridges and picked up a mixed bag including a couple of bream, a Trev, a luderick and a flattie. Interestingly, all of the fish were happy to hit a 3" minnow on 14lb leader. I'm finding the blackfish-on-lures thing weird btw: I literally had 2 on soft plastics in 3-4 years of fishing in Sydney before I went back to the UK and since I got back that's now 4 in 2 months on 3 different soft plastics. I've seen guys on YouTube fishing similar stretches and catching them too. Do fish diets change as they get more accustomed to a particular system? I doubt there's much cabbage weed in the Cooks! Might get a chance to try for something bigger in the next day or two, so fingers crossed!

Don't forget chicken marinaded in raw garlic!

Stonker of a fish, well done!

Cracking whiting, well done!

Well done Yowie, good few feeds there!

Cheers @NoMoreDonuts! Yeah it was hard going just after the heavy rain. Conditions are starting to improve, had a few fish again today, including a nice trev.

Cheers folks, @jenno64 and @Little_Flatty, yeah the DPI guys do a great job! Just a wee followup report too: I went out to the eastern suburbs this morning to try and get some fish for a feed. Had a little flatty on the first cast, which went back: Followed by a tiny tarwhine and tailor off the wharf about 30 mins later, but my lures were getting chomped by jackets, so I moved around to a bay nearby. Two casts in and dropped a big whiting as I was trying to get it to the net. Fortunately managed to hook another one a few casts later, which went about 37cm and a flatty too at 40 cm, so I'm heading home to work on my filleting skills. 😉

Hiya folks, Hope you're having a good one! I've been out there fishing a stretch of the Cooks river near me for the last few weeks, probably about 5 or 6 sessions in total. It's been really hard going since the rain about a fortnight ago: the river was like chocolate milk and it seems to take ages for a bit of clarity to return this far up. On the days when it wasn't raining, the wind's been pretty terrible. Safe to say I had a few blanks on the trot. I tried some black coloured lures because I thought they'd stand out against the murk, but only managed one little flathead. The last couple of sessions have been better though as the conditions have improved and I'm starting to find the structure. I bought a wee Sienna 1000 and a net with some birthday vouchers and had the chance to break them in this week. Haven't had any serious fish apart from the usual bread and butter, but it's been nice to get some bites (even managed to break the bloodworm Zman curse with a Daiwa bait junkie!) One thing I did have on one of the sessions was a visit from a couple of inspectors from the DPI. They were very patient with me as I fumbled about to find my license receipt on my phone (I'd left my wallet with the actual license at home) and quite chatty. Goes to show it's always wise to check your pockets before you head out! Planning a trip to the eastern suburbs tomorrow to try and pick up a fish for a feed. Wish me luck!

Cheers mate, me too!

Awesome work bud, well done! Those brownies look gorgeous, the tail on that first fish is enormous!

Probably just tailor then. Might still crack out the bigger gear just on the off chance. There are definitely some deep spots around the area.

Never mind the jewies mate, check out the guts on that trev!!!

Cheers Mike! I'm little further upriver still, but I used to fish the stretch between Tempe and Wardell Rd bridge a fair bit. Tempe was always flathead central from memory!

Cheers Yowie! No, they were all clean through, bar one that was frayed so I guess it could have also just been tailor. It was the fact that they were all on or close to the bottom after I'd been working the lure that makes me wonder though. I'll try with a heavier leader and some bigger lures at some point.

Hiya Raiders, Hope you're having a good one and managing to stay dry! Just moved into a place on the Cooks and I've been hitting the stretch 2 mins away pretty hard this week. The best session was on Wednesday with 7 smaller bream and a decent whiting, but I've had a couple of other species too. It's weird: I fished in Sydney for 3-4 years and only ever caught 2 luderick on lures, yet this week I've had one and dropped another at the bank. Yesterday afternoon I got bitten off 4 times on the bottom too at dead low tide, so I'm wondering if there are some big flatties around (or maybe something even more elusive?!) Might have to crack out the heavier gear at some point. Challenging myself to use a wider variety of lures, but I keep falling back on the old faithful bloodworm Zmanz. Have a good weekend!

I'd second the Cooks using the gear dirvin21 suggested, but look at using smaller lures too like the Zmanz grubz in 2" or some crab/crustacean imitations. A wee tip: pop a dab of super glue to attach the lure to the jighead and that can increase your hook-up rate. Colour-wise I've found darker browns, greens and reds work well. Fishing a river/estuary is really good practice for gauging current and sinking speed and should improve your overall lure game. I've had quite a few fish in the last few days with the lure just trundling along the bottom of the river in the current and a couple of very gentle hops. Good luck! Looking forward to seeing how you get on!

Well done mate! That fried flathead looks delicious! 😋

Hey folks, Was on hol down on the Sapphire Coast last week and had a couple of nights in Merimbula. We were staying just up from Bar Beach (sadly it turns out there's no bar there 😭) and noticed a deep channel that looked good for fishing. I'd only packed the light rod, so I thought I'd nip down for a quick flick to see if there was a flatty or whiting hanging around on the runout tide. As soon as I got down there, a guy fishing a hardbody was onto a decent fish and pulled in a salmon. Five minutes later he had another, then a few mins afterwards it was my turn on the old faithful Zman grub (Christ those things go crazy on light gear!) After a hard fight, I pulled in a fish in the low 50s. A couple fishing just down then had their rods go off too with similar-sized fish. It started to get dark and I couldn't see my line, so I called it quits. I went back the next day at around the same time and things just started to get a wee bit daft: I'd guess there were about 10 people spread out along the beach. You could see fish leaping around in the channel and every few minutes someone's rod would go. The fish seemed to be hitting anything: bait, plastics, hard-bodies, metals, a couple of older guys seemed to be almost heavy duty drop-shotting with feathered jigs... A seal got attracted by all the commotion and spent a good half hour patrolling 2-3 metres off the bank stealing people's fish... A flock of pelicans came in... Madness! I managed 4 more fish but none as big as the first night's and lost a couple of better models in the bay. I've no idea if it's always like that down there, or whether we'd all just fluked the conditions: maybe other Raiders can shed some light? One thing's for sure: I'd definitely like to give it another go when the beach is a bit quieter! Thanks for reading!

Stonker! Well done!

Thanks everyone! @mrsswordfisherman Well spotted! Never go fishing without the lucky FR cap!