yakfishing

What a stonker! Well done mate. The pictures never seem to do justice as to how big a bream like that really is.

Thanks for the comments Raiders. Got the heart racing alright I was shaking for 10 minutes afterwards. Yep, it was the cooks river

Hi Roberta. I just heard about Keith, I'm very glad to hear he's on the mend. I get a buzz out of just watching big thumping fish like that. Still, if I've got a rod you can bet I'll be casting at them!

Sorry about the late post, this is from the weekend.... What a fantastic day saturday arvo was. For the middle of winter the conditions could not have been any better for a nice afternoon yak with some of my good buddies. Luderick Luke had told of some monster trevally in Botany Bay that he'd been stirring up on blades, so our mission was set to find some of these thumpers. Myself, Luke, Craigtempo and a visiting friend Lindo met up at the local tackleshop to beef up our arsenal of lures. I would have liked to have beefed up my line class too when I realised I'd only taken my 2 Symetres loaded with 4lb braid. Luke had been smashed up on his 8lb setup a few days previous, so I was expecting the worst and hoping for the best. We set out and I couldn't help throwing some plastics at the moored boats and was onto a bream first cast. As I yelled out to Craig that I was on he yelled back the same! I was feeling confident of a good session. We came across a boat fishing with plastics and I watched wincing as one of their lines peeled off at a blistering rate of knots straight into a bridge pylon. Not the first time it had happened to them either. My confidence kind of wavered as I looked at the silly string coiled around my spool. I flicked the blades around for a bit, but nothing was happening for me yet. Feeling like it would be better time spent flicking for bream, I went back to that. I came across Craig fishing a wall so I joined him and threw some gulps at it but nothing much was happening there either. Luke then came to join us, and in true Luke style first cast into the area we were fishing and he's on, loudly exclaiming his excitement as he pulls up a beeeeea-uty of a bream over the 35 mark. To add insult to injury, a few more casts later he flicked his magical blade along the wall further down and pulls up a BIGGER Bream!! What a big gob! Same with the fish! The plastics were promptly stored away for the duration of the afternoon, and we headed towards another spot were Luke fancied a chance at these big trevs. After about 10 minutes of flicking, Luke's on AGAIN!! "Time for you to go home now mate" I yelled at him as he pulls in a nice example of the target species. Nice, but a far cry from the thumpers we were promised. Shortly after that, it was my turn. Some nice weight was circling under the yak, but it was not to be, as he spat and bolted. Craig and Lindo shortly after, had a double hookup of some absolutely monster whiting. I've never seen them so huge. I was feeling a bit left out, but I eventually got the monkey off my back with a trev around the same size as Lukes and a comp legal breambo. Things got quiet and we decided to move spots with about an hour of sunlight left. Things really fired up at our new location under a bridge. I was almost immediately onto another 2 smaller trevs and it was who else but Luke who bagged the first AND the 2nd thumper of the evening, both around the 50cm mark. We scored a few more as the sun dropped. The secret seemed to be lots of fast little twitches followed by a pause, and the Trevs would even pick up the lure whilst it was sitting on the bottom doing nothing. Things eventually slowed so I tried a faster retrieve going buzz-stop-buzz-stop-buzz-stop etc and the first attempt was slammed hard. I felt some heavy weight, a few tail beats and then vvvzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz now I'm in trouble... I called it for a king, but in hindsight a king probably would have managed to ping me on the pylon, the crafty buggers they are. This thing went hard, but I managed to steer him away from the structure with the help of the waters current and wear him out in safer territory. Trying to net a big angry fish prematurely is a waste of time, but thinking logically with the dose of adrenaline I'd just received was not an easy task. Neither is using a net the same size as the fish. After some more clumsy fumbles with the net, and some more beating and thrashing from the fish he begrudgingly flopped into my grasp. On the lie detector, and whatdyaknow I managed to beat Lukes PB of the day by a MASSIVE 2cm! We didn't find the Big BIG fella that Luke scored last time which was on the 60 mark but I wasnt complaining as you can see from the smile on face. Great end a beautiful day on the water.

Haha nice one. Cheers guys. Bloopin: yeah I've got a pic of a big breambo with the same. I always thought something had taken a bight out of it, but with a lot of injuries in the same spot on other fish it must be as Luke (or Pete) said Roberta: The old story, I've gotta see what the work sitcho is, but I'd like to come along to the blacky challenge. Sunday really fired up my interest again, I got a real kick I haven't felt in a while. Luke: I thought you'd get a giggle from that

Gday all, long time no post. We went out to the Hawkesbury to chase some blackys on sunday and weren't disappointed. Getting fresh cabbage off some local rocks was a bit dicey as there was a little bit of swell around. Dismounting the boat went without incident. Garry at the helm and myself and Dylan jumping off. Got a good tub full, but our departure from the cabbage grounds didn't go without leaving a sizable chunk out of said rocks. Fishing this area was not working for us as we couldn't position the boat in close enough, so we head back up river to calmer waters. I wouldn't say I'm a fantastic luderick angler. It's been a while and I couldn't remember the rig, however after a laborious effort I came up with a laughable concoction.... which then had to be untangled. "Jeez I hate blackfishing" I said to no-one listening. Dylan was on in the first 5 minutes, which lifted my spirits and his. A nice 32cm fish. I finally got my odd arrangement of cork and lead in the water, and I too was onto a similar fish in the first 5. We fished for a couple of hours producing some more as big as 37cm, getting downs and inquisitions on every drift. There were many missed takes, most likely due to our inexperience. One take I did not miss though, but almost did... As Dylan strikes a down and is onto another fish I turn to congratulate him, looking back to find my float completely inconspicuous. I struck to solid run toward the rocks. My Snyder Glass 11' Mag Bream pole did me no wrong and I easily had the muscle to turn him away from the rocks in close proximity, and the flexibility to absorb the thumping tail beats that ensued. After allowing him to exert himself in safe water for a while I led him to the net without much drama, and I could finally start breathing again. He measured a nice fat 39cm. Just short of the 40 mark but still a PB for me. Funny he went a lot harder than the 37. “Jeez I love blackfishing!” I said, I think they heard me that time

Nice work Roberta! Happy new year, you're already off to a great start! You just made me think of it, I got my fist fish of the decade this morning. A 31cm blacky followed by a 33cm. Will put up a report if I get time, but that's what I said about the last few sessions. I'm holidaying in feb sometime, I'm over this work crap!

Awesome job on topwaters mate My PB bream of 44cm was caught about 100m behind you in that 2nd shot.

Left it too long for a report. I got this nice bream a couple of weeks ago around quarantine bay, my second place lure PB. Took a powerbait minnow on 1/16th jighead using a slow pull with lots of tiny flicks and then a pause. Measured 40cm on the dot. Anything over 35 I let go.

Nice work mate! Your lure may need to be tuned, I have a trollcraft lure that craps itsself and swims to the surface and rolls around. Type "tuning hardbodies" in google and you'll probably find something. Other than that I'd say loose the mono and go for braid. If you've been working the squidgy or any other soft plastic with a heavy jighead in the standard agressive double flick action, the constant stretch and contraction of the mono will warp it and turn it pretty ugly. Either way if you're getting into lures just go the braid, you'll never want to use mono again except for backing and leaders. The action you impart on the lure will be so much better, and you will feel every bump when something has a go at it. Nothing wrong with the size of the lure they can chug that down easy. Some days they will go for a bigger lure, sometimes smaller, sometimes shallower, sometimes deeper, sometimes red, sometimes blue.... you get the picture.

Nice one Roberta! I should've gone to the front of the lake the other day. I couldve caught 16 in the time I spent there!

2 fish over 70 - bloody good stuff mate. I'd be stoked with 1 over 60!

Waters very murky in the back of the lake at the moment. I flicked everything but the kitchen sink in there on sunday and couldn't pick up a thing untill last cast not 10 metres from my car a keeper flatty finally found my lure. Gulp 3 inch minnow in p/seed did the trick. Roberta: I finally had a chance to give the surface lures a go in the lake. There were bream smashing stuff off the surface and everything, but I did not get one sideways look at my popper or pencil. I could see bow waves cruising right past them. Maybe if I persited a bit longer. Gotta leave the plastics in the car again!

Couple-a stonkers, gotta be happy with that

2 x 70cm + fish in one day and a good swag of feed! That's an awesome spot you've found there, nice work mate