dirvin21

Water is very dirty up here at tte moment, a few fish getting around the breakwall

Lake cathie is good for landbased mostly flathead

I would stick to more traditional lures in a dam

In dams the availability of food  makes the cod more fussy

In smaller rivers the senko maybe worth a shot

Generally speaking the higher the number the stronger and heavier the hook

You can buy beginner combos at atleast one of the chain stores

Darwin, there's loads of places you can fish, with heaps of options with or without a boat

sounds like a fun little session, tailor are a great species to help hone your lure skills especially with hardbodies. Prolure have a good 38mm crank, they're way cheaper than chubbies and work really well 

Nice mullet

I've caught 2 on soft plastics and 1 on a hardbody where they've actually eaten the lure,

Definitely pull like trains

10 minutes ago, Mike Sydney said:

 

The other birds nesting, are they apostlebirds? 

Yep, one of my favourites 

First of all I'm definetly not a professional fishing guide.

This story started just over a year ago in the Amazon, whilst over there Amy and I connected with an American father and son, Dan and Shawn aka @BoostedAngler. They were goping to meet some Aussies as turns out Australia was a dream destination, after talking to us murray cod suddenly hit the top of their list. We were really excited when they rrached out after our return home and the planning began.

Their plan chase barra in Gladstone for a week then spend a week chasing cod with us. Solid plans were made but NSW national parks destroyed with achange to their aerial shoot, with only a week out new plans were made. I did a quick recon mission searching for mew areas, all I really found was a weed choked piece of river and a gnarly storm

And 1 small cod

With desperation sinking in my cousin managed to connect me with a land owner, and new plans were made.

With great enthusiasm the boys finally arrived in Port Macquarie, they had a hard week on the barra and very questionable unaustralian treatment from their guide Amy and I were really upset by it so it highlighted I needed to give 110%, as a spirit raiser we took them to a local zoo to feed wallabies and a tour around the port area seeing wildlife and sights

It was definetly a hit 

Then it was packing and off pre dawn on pur cod adventure, there was loads of excitement and the aussie bush turned on the bird chorus, we made a quick stop at a platypus spot I know, a long shot but...

They managed to photograph and film 3 platypus, hell of a start

It was a long 5 hour drive but plenty of wildlife and beautiful Australian landscape kept the boys going, we finally reached our destination the farmer was more than happy for us to camp.

We wasted no time unloading kayaks and hitting the water, and so the grind began, I got belted twice on a soft plastic early on but otherwise nothing, I soon matched the boys lures with my own but the fish just wouldn't comply, finally I had a fish breach the water over a log to eat my lure and surprisingly 

A yellabelly, funnily enough the farmer had only seen 5  in 14 years 

Feeling the guides pressure I called snags for them changed their lures, back at camp dejected Shawn ties on a 8inch surface walker, literally second cast it gets annihilated, unfortunately missed the hooks, while I set up camp the boys cast 

Shawn cast into the dark, multiple surface hits and dropping an absolute monster, tgey only wanted surface.

I was up pre dawn casting for zip hut the local platypus made up for it.

Again Shawn was into the surface luring unfortunately dropping an 80 right at his feet, I near cried, the surfaces hits went on until lunchtime, 

The birds atleast conplied

Then after a bit of a lay down in the swags Dan and I woke to Shawn wandering around except it wasn't 

A monster echidna got amongst our swags after a thorny battle getting him out the boys were lucky enough to get a very rare opportunity 

So everyone is aware the echidnas safety was always my priority, I've been handling wildlife since I could walk

Unfortunately the afternoon bight didn't eventuate, we packed up the next morning and started our journey to Copeton where we wouod meet up with Amy,  the boys were a real novelty amongst the locals, they don't see many foreigners and really showed incredible Aussie friendliness 

With no cod on the board and heading to Copeton I was really feeling the pressure, we swapped the trailer and kayaks for the boat (at my cousins) and Shawn and I were on Copeton, we cast for awhile but aftercdays of hard fishing we switched to trolling

You can't imagine my relief

Shawn's first cod not big but who cares, there was yahooing and plenty of beers after, 

The next morning we were greeted by Copeton at her best

After a quick run up the gorge we had a quick troll to finish off before heading for home and sure enough

A beautifully marked cod

Couldn't resist a "guide photo"

Then it was heading for home stopping at a few sights on the way.

The final day was spent on the Hastings river chasing bream and flathead 

Dan had a particularly good day landing loads of fish

Their final night in Australia soent with plenty of food, tequila and rum.

Although the fishing was hard the boys had a blast apparently my knowledge of wildlife and the Australian bush was what made their trip unforgettable and the first of many, they're already planning on hosting Amy and I in the USA for a similar trip

Guiding these guys was definetly one of the most unique experiences I've had with fishing

Cheers for reading 

Dave

I use insta360 action cam

Simple to use

6 minutes ago, Restyle said:

From the kayak I got a normal single white navigation light that’s on a 70cm tube that folds down when not In use. 
also got a few led button lights to light up the deck space when unhooking a fish and 2 4inch flood lights which help bring in squid and baitfish when gathering bait.

The mullet point is indeed very correct, I’ve had them hit the side of the kayak and even inside of it. Quite startling when you’d be relaxing on the river. Dead quite, no jet skis just crickets then you hear a mighty splash meters away. 

I scored a black eye from one🚀

Night fishing from kayak 

Decent head torch

Lights in kayak? You could use a strip LED  I've got kings ones I use for camping that would adapt ok

Kayaking at night in salt water can be hazardous because of mullet they love to fly out of the dark at lights like slimy stinking missiles 

3 hours ago, spraka said:

Hey Everyone,

I'm so happy I found this place!

I'll be moving permanently from Toronto, Canada to Sydney and have been fishing the Canadian lakes for over 20 years but never fished oceans so this is gonna be a fun challenge to undertake! 

I've purchased 3 different rods, one setup for your light - medium action, another for medium - heavy rock fishing and lastly a light setup for squid.

If anyone has any tips or resources I should be checking out to learn more about how to find spots and techniques please let me know.

Lastly if there are any Ice Hockey fans and wanna grab a beer to watch a game, hit me up!

Welcome 

You'll find plenty of information and people willing to share 

Loads of fishing opportunities in Australia 

There's a small creek on the left hand side heading upriver from the boat ramp good spot for livies especially small pike

Also generally plenty of herring along the rockwall 

Poddies try saltwater creek mouth is near surf club

The weather here has been fantastic, been busy moving house it's nearly done and I'm ready to get fishing 

18 hours ago, dunc333 said:

so if it is just  catch and release with the blue groper thats fine with me.please tell me does anyone eat blue groper.? .or can you be fined for catching one which wouldn't make sense cause you cant tell the groper the baits not for you cause your the state emblem .so its just catch and release for fishos right???? and no shoot or take for the spearos right???.which was always the rule but some idiot didnt know or he just didnt care ? cheers dunc333

You can't target them, they will almost certainly be an incidental bycatch for rick fishos whilst fishing for drummer

As with any protected species if caught must he immediately returned to the water

4 hours ago, noelm said:

I have eaten them, and they are OK, but hardly top shelf (in my opinion) 

Supposedly great sashimi

Keeo going mate, kingies are a tough landbased opponent and masters at bricking you after a long fight

You could try fighting them a bit softer, kingies are a fish that if you go hard they'll go harder

2024 started well for me what killed it was tain causing a sudden drop in water temp dropped by 5 degrees 

The other issue is no time because of moving house 

Some nice fish caught mate

Unfortunately the rain we had before you guys came up really shut everything down

Next time I'm there 👿👿👿

43 minutes ago, faker said:

I am using a osp dunk 48 at the moment for everything 

The dunk may have a bit tighter action for bass, bass will eat pretty much anything but a hardbody with a wide wobble type action definitely work best

For bass my favourite is Taylor made baby nugget

Bream: prolure crank 38mm shallow and strikepro pygmy

Bass will eat most hardbodies they're not particularly fussy

Bream can be painful, light leader is important 8lb max  personally I use a 38mm shallow crank (0.5-1m) slow roll over with the occasional pause and twitch or shake the rod tip usually areas up to 1.5m deep

3 hours ago, jaybez said:

Oh yes, so it is. Maybe I should say wait until the cooler months. The weeks leading up to the closed season are brilliant as the trout are trying to gain conditioning before spawning.

They definitely are, winter is a great time in the lakes as well

12 hours ago, jaybez said:

 Try waiting until winter if you are fishing a natural and undammed stream. 

Unfortunately seasons closed in winter

1 hour ago, Gengar said:

Maybe i just get the 70mm and 95mm then. Curious, would the 95mm be too big for breams and whitings?

What would you recommend for pelagics surface lures? Cheers.

95mm would be ok for bream probably a bit big for whiting, 

I've caught pelagics on small stick baits cranked fast can't remember the brand, as @JustJames said chrome slugs work better than anything on pelagics