lastworm

I’ve heard there are bass there and always wanted to try. Seems like a tough trek in/out and not a lot of water so haven’t ever made the effort.

Yep, I remember chatting to an old bloke a few years back who was releasing a bunch of them into the upper Nepean. He had rescued them from his dam that was drying up during the drought. I suspect this on may have found it’s way into the system in a similar fashion.

1 rod, pack as light as possible.. It seems like a great idea taking a heap of gear with you, until you get out on the water and you can’t move or get a fish onboard because you’re surrounded by clutter.

Yeah can honestly say I've converted for good.

I’ve had so many near misses with the water dragons, unfortunately hooked a couple of long necked turtles, man they have tough mouths!

Finally hit my local on Saturday afternoon which was long overdue. We’ve had rain, hot days and perfect conditions since my last fish up there, and whilst Saturday wasn’t “perfect conditions” it was a nice hot sunny afternoon with plenty of insect activity and I had a hall pass to get out. This would be my first trip fishing barbless hooks, although I wasn’t on the Nepean so didn’t have the issue of thousands of tiny bass. This system has fish few and far between but the quality is always better and I know there are some very well sized fish in there. I was fishing an OSP dunk suspending diver as the sun was still high. Hooked my first fish about 20mins in, felt decent but it hung me up on a snag and got off. I was cursing the decision to go barbless, although happy I did when I got my lure of the sunken snag. Fished on and lost another fish right near the kayak, damn barbless hooks! A bit further up a wayward cast hit the bank and a big old angry water dragon came down and snapped up my lure, managed to get him off without too much fuss, thank god I was fishing barbless!! After a few touches on surface I finally boated my first fish of 31cm to the fork on the diver. Not bad and fought way above its size. Managed to land another 26cm forker on the way home after a few bumps but no hookups. Was starting to lose hope and cast into a spot that never produces for me, got a huge hit and solid hookup, after fighting deep for a few seconds I managed to land this football shaped 36cm forker, in mint condition and with an oversized rear dorsal fin and thumping big tail. A proper fight and finally a reward for the days frustrations. And thanks to the barbless hooks, even this was an easy and stress free release for both me and the fish. So good having these fish so close to home, can’t wait to go back!

I think often what happens here is the fish is just sitting under the lure or following it, once it stops they see their opportunity to hit it. I’d hate to think how many times I’ve pulled a surface lure away from a big bass that was just waiting for my lure to pause.

I’m in exactly the same position as you, lived locally on the George’s for years and now drive almost an hour to the Nepean to catch bass as I found land based difficult and getting a kayak in always meant leaving your car in a dodgy area. I’ve spoken to a few guys that say the quality of fish in the George’s is much better overall.

Well done mate, healthy looking fish! I’ve never had much luck in the George’s myself for some reason. Good to see the River is doing well.

Don’t say that! We still have until August 1st and I don’t want to stop fishing for them yet!

I’m going barbless to see how that helps, also had way too many close calls with a finger or the inside of my leg. Failing that I’ll be going to singles

Awesome fish! Did you get a measure on it? Im actually getting sick of the little bass in the Nepean, they are in plague proportions and are so frustrating when using lures with tiny trebles.

Yep looks like a Macquarie perch, I believe they were/are somewhat endangered. Hope it released well.

I had no idea the upper shoalhaven held yellow belly and cod! Beautiful looking spot and some healthy fish!

Heard heaps of complaints about pliers rusting out in salt water, and also issues with aluminum rust proof models not being as strong and breaking. I’ve decided to go with a set of high quality forceps with cutters built in, two tools in one and hopefully theyperform as required.

INOX MX3 spray should keep them in top nick. I’ve found the spring mechanism on mine go before they rust, so I got some of those Rapala magsprings but the magnet isn’t as strong as the old fashion spring type.

I was mostly thinking forceps would be better suited than pliers due to the tiny trebles most of my bass lures have. While pliers have the pulling power, forceps look as though they would make access to trebles a lot easier.

Anyone here using forceps when lure fishing? I’m looking at giving them a go for a few reasons, mostly the additional length to keep hands away from small sharp trebles, also the benefit of having cutters integrated in the one tool.

Things are certainly changing for the better. Maybe we needed these floods after all, shame it couldn’t have happened without all of the impact on human lives

Nice looking fat healthy Bass! That's the type of fish the Nepean used to produce, for so long the Nepean has been full of rat bass, hopefully times are changing!

Nice one! I’ve seen a heap of pics of Hawkesbury bass lately and they are all fat and silver like the ones you caught. Must be good numbers still returning from the salt?

After being a surface addict for so many years, I've recently started getting into fishing with divers for bass - especially in the system I fish where they are prolific and I tend to more smaller fish. Someone told me fish fight a lot harder on sub surface presentations, which I now know to be true based on recent experience. I went down to my local yesterday to sneak in a few hours on the water, started just after 2pm (not peak bite time by any means) and as usual was fishing surface from the get-go. After about an hour and not a single bit of interest I decided to throw on a Daiwa Spike, which has been getting me good results lately in terms of numbers. I was fishing a steep muddy bank covered in root balls and got completely cleaned up by something big, I fought it for about 5 seconds, before tightening the drag and it snapped me clean off in the middle of my leader. Brand new Spike - gone. This convinced me to throw on another and keep fishing. I went all the way to the top of the system and got a smallish fish of around 26 fork length, turned back and started casting near a rocky cave that has never produced a fish, Had a huge take, fish went deep and was doing figure 8's around the Kayak, I thought I'd hooked a big carp. Fight went on for a few minutes before I had a chance to see the fish, nice big bronze bass. It took another few runs before I managed to get it in the net. Fish was in amazing condition and every bit of 36cm to the fork but it was difficult to get a good measure in the yak, the down side to fishing on your own is your photos are always ordinary.... Managed one more around the 30cm fork mark before leaving. Pretty good afternoon overall.

I still struggle to do this knot with 6lb braid to 10lb mono leader. Double uni for me all the way, it's not a big knot and never fails.

Started using braid 20 years ago, never looked back, bait and/or lure. The one time I’ll still use mono is off the beach, no need for braid and generally windy conditions and wash means too many tangles with braid. There are way more cheap braid options these days than back in the day, so doubt expense is the issue. I’d say the fact that your superstore tackleshop has more beginner customers just means less people have been exposed to braid and it’s benefits. It’d be different if you went into a local specialist tackle store I’m sure.

Yeah I’d say perch, protruding lower jaw and larger anal fin is the main give away. Plus the more obvious lateral line is missing that bass usually have.