floods

Hi everyone - long time lurker reporting in After a long drought over winter, I headed up the coast to the Wangi Wangi centenary event over the weekend to visit my in-laws and to hopefully get a few hours of fishing in. My previous outings in Lake Macquarie have been pretty bare (are there any fish in the lake??) so I was hoping to at least catch something to restore my faith. The first spot I tried was a reasonable rocky landing off Dobell Drive about 300m down from Wangi Point. I had a look from the top of the hill, and it contained a large drop-off about 4 meters off-shore with a reef-looking structure 2 meters before that. I figured it I got into anything decent, it would probably bust me off on the structure, but with the limited time I had it looked like the best place to try. I threw out a few large green prawns, but after about 45mins of zero activity, I reeled them back in and found them completely untouched. The wind was starting to pick-up a fair bit, so I re-rigged with a smaller hook and tried some chicken off-cuts as a last resort before calling it a day. I immediately started getting some hits and it wasn't long before I pulled in a nice sized flounder about the size of a dinner plate (a few of the guys I chatted to said that they are pretty common in the Lake at the moment). Unfortunately it was hooked pretty badly, and without wanting to cause any additional trauma - I cut the line as close to it's mouth as I could and tossed it back in. Got up Sunday morning about 6am and the wind had picked up pretty well overnight. The spot I tried Saturday was completely blown-out, so I looked for a new spot on the northern side of Wangi off Watkins Road. The northern side land-based looked pretty shallow for a fair way out but was sheltered from the wind. I switched to my lighter outfit as I find I can cast further with it, and threw-out some more chicken off-cuts. Wasn't long before I got some decent hook-ups and pulled in some good sized bream. I ended-up dropping at least another three (one of which had my reel screaming) as I'd filed off the barbs on my hooks following the previous days encounter with the flounder. Didn't have my mat with me, so all thrown back to fight another day. All-in-all a really enjoyable trip to the Lake. There are some good fish out-there if you're willing to change your approach and adapt to the conditions quickly. My father in law has a mate with a boat and is also a keen fisho - looking forward to getting out into some deeper water and see else the Lake holds over the xmas break. Cheers and thanks for reading

Hey Martin Nice catch - those jackets can be pretty hard to hook sometimes. I fish down at Kurraba pretty regularly and sounds like I had a pretty similar experience to you. Just before xmas I was fishing off the Neutral Bay end about 5pm with half a green prawn casting diagonally back towards the moorings at Neutral Bay.. Nothing much going, then felt a tiny bite (thought I'd leave it and see what happened).. about 5 seconds later something absolutely smashes the prawn and heads straight under the wharf. Had the drag on pretty tight and it was taking line as soon as it took the bait - eventually the line must have rubbed on the pylon because the line snapped really cleanly. Never found out what it was.. but it put up a great fight, would have loved to even gotten a look at it. Encouraging to know that there a big fish pretty close to the shore. Thanks for the report - might see you down there sometime. Cheers Ryan