jimbu1

In consensus with most people in here, although I generally fish with fresh dead baits, not live baits. I fish with a ball sinker running directly to the hook, as light as required to get it in touch with the bottom. I've fished for jews with circles and J-hooks; J's have a much better hookup rate in my experience. I've tried letting them run in freespool vs. drag set and strike hard as soon as you feel them take it (or sense they have it in their mouth); striking has a much better hookup rate in my experience. Sharp hooks and striking hard are essential imo, as they have a tough bony throat/mouth and you want to ensure that the hook has set well.

I'm with the unweighted crew. Unweighted woollies white sandwich bread. Squeeze it firmly around the hook (don't use too much), leaving just the hook point exposed and a reasonable gap between the hook point and shank. Make sure you leave a fluffy bit of bread at the bottom of the hook, which will make waft more naturally down. Go a size 4 hook or smaller. If you can see them, then it's likely you'll also need to fish extremely light flourocarbon. As kingie chaser mentioned, you need to let free line out. I leave my spool open, and continue hand spooling line off as the bait drifts down. I fish flouro-to-braid, and you want to maintain a big bow of line going straight down from your rod tip, and the line sitting in a fairly straight fashion on-top of the water. This ensures that the bait slowly drifts down with the current, with minimal interference from line drag or your rod tip. It also means that if the fish picks the bait up, it doesn't feel any resistance at all. A bite can be seen in two ways: 1) the point at which the line sinks below the water will move suddenly, 2) the bow in the line from your rod tip will straighten. If the fish takes the bait in it's mouth (which it will, because it won't feel any resistance at all), the line will begin to straighten rapidly. From here, you want to give the fish enough time to ensure the bait is fully in its mouth, but not enough time for it to notice something amiss and spit the bait out; i.e. you want to strike before the line has fully straightened, at which point it will feel resistance from the connection to your rod. In my opinion, this is a consistent way to catch big bream, if they're around and the location/current direction/speed allows for it. Good luck! Note: I believe that white bread is the most underrated bream bait. Presented well, and with minimal or no weight, it has the advantage of floating more naturally through the water column than other baits.

I've only caught 3. Two were towards the end of the run-in (at the same spot), the third was a couple of hours into the run-out (at another spot in the same rough area of the system).

Definitely further up-river in the Georges lately than usual. A mate caught one around Lugarno on the weekend.

Plenty of good fish about in the Georges at the moment. I caught a horse bream (43cm) on Saturday, while a friend landed a rat king! I suspect you had a solid flathead on the line, but we'll never know! Another toothy possibility is tailor. Choosing the right leader is always a tough choice... I've lost several large flathead on 6-8lb, and the 60cm jew I landed the other week did some real damage to the 8lb flouro I was using. I just purchased some 10lb for this very reason. Other than that, you've just got to strike fast and hope you get the perfect hookup at the corner of the mouth!

Just a quick update on my recent luck in the area: Fished Oatley point on Sunday morning; caught a pike on SP in the main channel, then converted a strip of that to a horse bream (37cm) on the western bank on the incoming tide. Fished a friend's pontoon in Lugarno on Sunday afternoon. Caught a 60cm jewfish on SP, surprisingly, as the tide was rushing out quite quickly.

Oatley point produces good size bream around the weed beds at times (the rock is only accessible around low-tide). Try white bread on a small hook, drifted unweighted, or with the smallest sinker you can find. I have caught the odd blackfish here, but I wouldn't call it a blackfish spot by any means. There are also flathead around here at places where there are drop-offs. I've found that the Georges is producing some good size bream at the moment, at various landbased spots from Oatley to Lugarno. All my catches have been with bread.

Nice find! This spot isn't too far from me, although Google street view makes it look like the entrance is a bit overgrown with bushes! According to Navionics, there is a deep hole (7m) on the south-western edge of Jewfish Point, unfortunately not accessible from the reserve. The section adjacent to this reserve appears to be quite gently sloping and shallow. From the satellite map, it looks like it might be a good place to try for some flathead?

Thanks for the kind words, everyone Cheers! They landed there are started singing away, and I had to put the rod down for a quick snap!

Hi All, Having finally replaced my old reel that was seizing up (dropped it in the harbour a year or two ago) with a shiny new Japanese import, I was excited to get out there and break it in! I hadn't gotten out for a fish in a while, but in previous months I'd found the harbour ferry wharves quite productive, particularly on Sunday mornings when the ferries have a late start. I arrived at the reasonable hour of 7am to a beautiful scene and began flicking a plastic around. After an hour with not a single touch, I switched to a small bit of bread on a size 8 blackfish hook, about 2m under a small float. Still no luck, so I decided to abandon the float and switch to a simple rig with a tiny ball sinker to a swivel, with a short leader to the same hook. This time I set the bait much lower, at around 4-5m. The bite suddenly came on, perhaps in part due to the approaching low tide. First up was a small bream that was swiftly released. Shortly afterward, I felt a few gentle tugs before the rod loaded up and the drag began to sing. It was a heavy fish, but didn't seem in a great hurry, as it slowly took off downward and away from the wharf. I began to wonder what I had hooked, too slow for a kingfish, and the tugs prior to hook-up and sluggishness suggested to me that it was possibly a flathead. However, I then began to feel definitive tail-beats, and now suspected it was a solid silver trevally. As I worked it back towards the wharf, I could feel my heart thumping in my chest... would the tiny blackfish hook hold? Would I even be able to land this beast? Soon I could see colour; monster trevally! Several times, it would try to make a dash under the wharf, and I had to put my hand over the spool and drag it back out. Finally, after several attempts, I managed to get the fish in the net! Just shy of half a meter; not bad! I decided to keep that one for a feed, and after humanely dispatching and gutting it, another bit of bread was baited up and set down beside the wharf. Another solid hook-up! This one made a few short, strong runs, and then was worked into the net fairly quickly. A beautiful 39cm Bream specimen. After brief swim in my hands, this horse shot back into the depths to fight another day. Coated some fillets from the trevally with tapioca flour, salt and pepper, and cooked them in the pan with coconut oil. Delicious! I highly recommend you save the wings on these fish (and flathead too), as it's the best part; sweet, juicy and tender. Thanks for reading! James

Loving these reports and vids! Keep them coming, please :)