dirvin21

head down to Lake Cathie fish the flats near the roadbridge plenty of flatties, bream and whiting

my 3 favorite lures: zman grubz 2.5 inch with or without a jigspinner cultiva mirashad taylor made baby nugget bass aren't fussy any hardbody in the 35mm-60mm with a wide swim action will catch a bass

We headed out to copeton dam for the weekend with the aim to fish, fish and fish some more. I have fished Copeton for 20+ years and it's still one of the few waterways I approach with very little confidance of catching fish. Over the years I've caught lenty of good yellabelly from Copeton but the copeton cod has always eluded me. We arrived just before dark with just enough light to find a campsite by the water on the upper end of the dam (wunnulla bay area) the dam was low at 11.7% but still looked pretty good. We set u in the dark with the aim to get up in the morning and get into the fishing. Didn't take long in the a.m. to get the rods rigged and the kids had baits in the water straight away, and nothing hapened to struggle to lose a worm in copeton to a spangled perch is near unheard of signs were looking bad. Got the kayaks on the water and got into the lure casting Amy wasted no time getting out there We started casting large soft plastics for no result, Amy changed over to a spinnerbait and within no time was hit in some deep timber unfortunetly didn't find the hook, we kept casting and casting trying hardbodies, plastics and spinnerbaits for Amy getting a couple of shortstrikes Atleast the scenery was spectacular as always fished on and off all day into the evening even tried surface for no result Late in the evening the kids managed a small catfish and a couple of spangled perch on worms but otherwise this was a regular copeton trip Basically frustration got the better of me, I'm under the impression I muttered a few curse words about copeton and as usual vowed I'd never return. With Amy away from camp for awhile and me sitting by the fire drowning my sorrows decided to cast a small hardbody on light gear to try and catch a spanglie or anything basically, about 10 casts in it gets nailed by something whatever it was probably a cattie or yellabelly pulled a heap of drag before pulling the hooks, despite the missed fish a bit of confidance resurfaced. With Amy returning I grabbed the baitcaster tied on a chatterbait and started casting again, Amy was just picking up her rod to join It happened so fast, I landed a cast right on a single small tree in the moonlight 2 turns of the handle and it was slammed before I could react line was stripping as I'm deserately trying to turn the fish I'm yelling at Amy to get the torch and lip grips which I immediately thought was premature and I'd just jinxed it, I knew it was a good fish, somehow he steered through the maze of sunken timber and the fish was beached on the edge I could see in the moonlight it was a good fish, once the torchlight hit it i realised it was far bigger than I thought My first copeton cod measuring 92cm I've dreamed about this fish since i was a kid, after a few snaps the fish was carefully placed back in the water and we stood mesmerised watching it swim off into the darkness I stood dumbfounded afterwards trying to get my head around what had happened, copeton messing with my head that was my only fish for the trip but have to say I didn't care Amy spent many hours casting for a few more hits but no fish atleast she's got a true taste of copeton or better still lake misery the next challenge is to crack the metre at copeton cheers for reading Dave

can't tell you much about Noosa specifically but during winter is the time to get small to medium trevs in the estuaries you need to find areas with bait current and some form of structure like channel markers, pylons etc.. I've had most of my success on hardbodies in the 40-70mm range, the zerek tango shad 50mm, jackal squirrel 68mm being a couple of successful lures but anything with a good tight shimmy type action generally works I find the retrieve to be more important trevs like maximum movement lots of twitches/rips during the retrieve often the more erratic the lure moves the more fired up they get

I've tried and given up to log sightings on the mentioned site

Catch them on the mid north coast reliably enough to target them in winter/spring with some very specific local knowledge and technique combined with big-eye trevally and sometimes blue fin trevs the size is up to low 40cm range only juvenile fish and always in the estuary, bigger models are an incidental catch during summer but not a reliable target If you're serious about ticking GTs of the list head north the estuaries in SEQ are supposed to be full of them up to about 60cm during the winter, otherwise you can always go after the brutes out on the reef

Nice fish Neil, don't doubt they hybridise just like EP's and bass

I'm going big-eye although as juveniles they are very similar

The oportunity arose on Friday for a yak session so decided to hit my regular spot at Nambucca fished here early in the week for nothing so confidance wasn't at an all time high. The aim of the morning was casting plastics around the edges and boats, straight out from the launch site started casting along the cruise boat and third cast the zman grub is eaten always good to land a fish early in the session some bait started getting chased around, a cast in the middle of it and on again a tiny tailor to add variety worked around the boat for multiple miss hits, then a proper take and dropped fish only to have a pack of them smash the plastic yak side another bream unfortunetly not the biggest in the school worked my way along the snag lined edges for couple of tiny bream and a dusting to what I assumed was a big bream, a re-tie and working along another take a crescent grunter, haven't caught one in years caught a couple of them along the edges heading back chucked a deep diver around for a bit resulting in a small flathead heading back to the launch site put a final cast at the cruise boat and managed one more fish for the session that concluded the first session Sunday arvo i went out with the kids for a muck around in a small creek, I was chucking a big zerek live shrimp merely practicing some retrieve techniques after nearly 20 minutes in the same spot you couldn't imagine the surprise when it was eaten A good quality flathead not overly long but thick Got out again Monday arvo for another yak session this time on blackbutt creek just out of Macksville, it was a tough start casting hardbodies around the timber with absolutely no interest. couldn't catch a break with luck with snagging and just catching leaves etc.. ready to pack it in, lure gets hit yak side not big but a relief to break the doughnut with some restored confidance kept casting for a couple of ant sized bream heading back worked the opposite side of the creek, halfway through my retrieve sat the rod down to readjust my drift the the paddle pick up the rod again and theres a fish on it and a better quality fish he fought deep and stubborn but after awhile a much better bream came yak side to reveal one prong of the treble lightly pinned on his lip after nerve racking attempts got him safely in the yak again not a monster but a better quality fish and certainly a morale boost after a tough bite that fish concluded the session as the mozzies decided to come out in force cheers for reading Dave

Used to have one a few years back nicel little finesse rod, got it off ebay, alright for bream and excellent for whiting, not very practical for fish like flathead because you can't get a good hook set

Stradic

There was a confirmed one over 6kg in Nambucca about 4 years ago it was weighed in and in the paper

Zman grubz, combined with jigheads it can get costly

Camera.... a lumix

Managed to fit in a pre work session with my mate on his boat. Leading up to this session 2 weeks ago I tried fishing the oyster racks from my kayak long story short the lack of leverage you get from a kayak meant some serious dustings eneded up with 1 bream after 5 dustings in a row. The aim of the boat session was to hit the racks and hopefully find some blue nosed brutes. We hit the water a sunrise and started out casting the some rockwalls for jacks. Just bought a new baitcaster set-up, a shimano curado and samaki archer 5-8kg and was keen to get a bend in it. The fishing started out dead bait was everywhere but nothing chasing it we cast big lures for quite awhile then we spotted some smaller bait getting shredded so out came the small lures with instant success broke the doughnut with some small GT's Continued casting along working a deep rockwall with the jack gear and my lure was nailed had to put the brakes on some brutal runs caught sight of the fish before he managed to straighten the trebles a quality jack atleast I got a bend in the new rod working further along hitting some sunken timber put a cast right along a erfect looking old log and straight away it was nailed and missed before I could even curse a dark shape comes racing out and hits it again, once he was out in open water went easy on him to avid another hook straightening a nice black-spot measuring up at 44cm a new pb We worked our way down towards the racks casting some sandy edges on the way plenty of tiny flathead did manage one decent low 50's flattie we finally hit the oyster racks the session was brutal the fish weren't overly big but fighting like brutes got some on harbodies casting along the rack edges the next cast after this fish this lure was taken by a beast never to be seen again also a few on plastics just casting aginst the rack and letting it sink did hook a much bigger GT that came charging out from under the racks, he even ran away from structure to open water unfortunetly given I was rack fishing my drag was locked up so before I could loosen it the leader had busted probably lucky because we would have been chasing for awhile that finished off the session cheers for reading Dave