gregg.michael

Awesome Vid ! Cheers Wacko

Signed and on my Facebook. It is a petition by Environment Tasmania to Federal Fisheries Minister Joe Ludwig.

Hey guys - check out my first foray into the world of fishing videos. Few lovely trout and a great day of beautiful scenery. Hope you enjoy, Mike

Great work - The tiger fish is a magnificent species and you should be very proud of the fine one you caught. Thanks for sharing this great report.

You have to be the most consistant kingy reporter on FR. Always a great read and always quality fish. Congrats on your mastery of the king. Yet again ! Mike

Very nice fish, well done! I bet Cobia is high on a lot of anglers list, certainly mine. So congrats on achieving what I have been dreaming. Great inspiration.

Thanks for all your nice comments Raiders. I'll be sure to pass them onto my bro & dad. I know they will appreciate them as much as me. Especially the ones about achieving it together, I couldn't agree more. Thanks Chewie - the Poly ('Falcor', the white luck dragon) is very dear to my heart and I learnt of these great boats through this website. To answer a couple of questions. Zaki, Juno point is in the lower part of the system. Its east of the bridges but either of the ramps near the two bridges would put you within striking range - or alternatively one in Pittwater. But a word of warning - don't get stuck in the idea that this and only this spot will produce. Jews move through the entire system. Aussie weekender, the squid were caught around Barrenjoey Head just before lunch. Last bit of the run in. We caught 6 and worked reasonably hard for them. We caught two that were almost too big for live baits. But they made a great head/gut bait Barrenjoey was alive and the Gannets were putting on a show bombing us all around the boat some coming within a few meters, an amazing spectacle. About 6 dolphins came by ahead of a sailboat but stopped past to crash the surface apart as they fed on fish. One of those magical fishing days. Which leads me to agree with you Humesy, the Hawkesbury isn't dead by a long shot. Even with trawlers working the system at seemingly every turn during our time on the river we found definite signs that the mighty river, whilst a shadow of its former glory, still has a nice balance. The vast areas of oyster leases seem to create a large network of nursery areas where the smaller fish can escape the nets. Interestingly with one hand commercial fishing industries are putting in what the other hand takes away. That's not to say I wouldn't love to see a buyout of some of the trawler licenses in that system. Given half a chance - the life would explode in biomass. Sadly we saw what appeared to be two guys launching to do some illegal fishing at dusk. Very small recreational boat - very big net piled into the back and a stack of those blue fish crates from the fish markets. If these guys were legit, they were doing a rubbish job of appearing so. But we got their trailer rego and vehicle rego and I absolutely intend on making sure the relevant department is notified. Keeping an undersize fish is bad, but indiscriminate and illegal fishing on a larger scale makes my blood boil. Anyways bit of a tangent, thanks for the comments everyone. Great to hear your reactions. Hamerz84 - I can't stop looking at them either! Thanks again everyone, Mike

Thanks everyone, There are a lot of members on fishraider who I really respect. So your comments are very appreciated. The fish was caught off famous Juno Point, some way out just inside of the fast flowing current. It took a squid head and guts - interesting considering there were two beautiful live squid sitting off either corner of the boat. The fish fought hard and deep and even though time completely stood still for those moments I believe the fight lasted 10 - 15 mins. Weapon of choice was a Shimano Beastmaster rod matched with a Shimano 18000 Saragosa reel. 50lb braided line connected to a 40lb leader. Two hook rig consisting of a 6/0 hook at the top and a 5/0 hook in the longer tentacles. The top hook found it's mark in the corner of the mouth. Silly snell the top hook, half blood at the bottom. Running ball sinker above a swivel to keep it down. Thanks again to everyone for your replies and I hope some info in this will be helpful to anyone targeting/obsessed with Mulloway. Mike

Hey Raiders, Bit of a special post so I may go on a bit. Thought I would share my most recent catch with you. Spent Wednesday and Thursday fishing the Hawkesbury with my brother and father. Conditions were tough on Wednesday with the winds still blowing from the day before. Cut a long story short - the next day was perfect. Mudcrabs in the pots and squid were cooperating, things were looking good for the afternoon run out tide. I didn't know how good they would get. We were just settling in to our second spot for the afternoon when all hell broke loose. The rod set closest to the boat buckled over and I grabbed it, setting the hook. The fish ran upstream into the current and straight under the anchor rope. So within 30 seconds of this fight starting - I was in trouble. My brother was already bringing the anchor up, so with him holding the rope up, I passed the rod under and I was in the clear again with the fish charging into the current and towards the reef. I managed to turn the fish and thankfully it ran wide and then went with the current downstream and towards deeper water. I felt the heavy headshakes of a fish with some serious weight and called it for a Jew. The leader came to surface three times before I got a glimpse of what I was dealing with as it continued to charge for the bottom and away from the boat. But when the murky brown water of the Hawkesbury finally revealed it to me, it dawned on me how important it would be to land this fish properly. A few expletives were uttered at the sheer size of the fish which had finally given up and was heading now towards my brother with gaff in hand. Special thanks to my bro who slipped the gaff into it's gaping jaws and perfectly pinned it through the bottom jaw and lifted it up over the side and onto the deck. Now we could see it in all it's glory. This thing was way bigger than any Jew I had caught previously and definitely the biggest fish I have ever landed. I was hoping for a nice schoolie - when we measured it, it went 140cm. It didn't fit on the brag mat! (please note the tail in this photo is bent up the inside of the cast deck and looks shorter than 20cm beyond the end of the mat - but it was measured properly on flat a surface and it went 140cm) High fives and carrying on attracted the attention of the family fishing next to us who came over for a look. The very young kids couldn't believe their eyes, and it reminded me of being a very young bloke learning of the mighty mulloway that lurked in my local waters and the dream of one day catching a big one. Unfortunately we didn't have scales but even if we did they probably wouldn't have been adequate for a fish of this size. I checked the dpi website and a fish of 140 cm should be 27.7 kgs. It felt every bit of it. I know it will take me a long time to top that fish but the memories will be with me forever. A huge thanks to my father Gary, and my brother James. Without these two I wouldn't go fishing half as much as I do and there is no way I could have landed this fish of a lifetime without them. I have attached one pic with a red bull can in frame for COTM and would like to submit this fish for the fishraider records. Enjoy the pics & thanks for reading. Mike

What a great report. Thanks for sharing this one with us. Sounds like a victorious battle of epic proportions. similarly well done on letting her go. The temptation to keep such a memorable fish is usually pretty strong. So I commend you on doing the right thing. Mike

Great job on the tinny mate. Makes me want to get to work on mine. How much do you think the whole job cost you if you don't mind my asking? Again well done on what looks like and has already proven to be a classy fish catcher. Tight lines, Mike

Amazing report! that kingy on 12 pound blows my mind! Thanks for sharing - have to get over to NZ for my next fishing holiday Mike

Wow - what a Flathead! Thank you so much for sharing your incredible picture! Congrats on the fish and thanks for letting her go. Mike

Hey guys - Had a battle of a weekend session last Saturday that ended with smiles. Sorry about the late report. We went down to the spit the night before and got ourselves some fresh squid - and one cuttlefish that was returned to the water. I just love those guys and couldn't bring myself to hurt one. That might seem strange to some. But cuttlefish seem smarter to me. Hit the water Saturday just before that epic storm in the afternoon. Not a great time to be on the water in a tinny but sometimes life gets in the way. We arrived at our spot near rose bay after traveling from the Lane Cove river and the lightning had caught up with us and so before we had even wet a line - we head to shore to seek shelter in a cave. The run off cut a river through the beach we were on so we had something to watch while we had a sandwich and took in the insanity of the lightning. Once it chilled - we did have thoughts about calling it quits - but I'm glad we didn't. Couple of casts in I came up tight on a nice fish. Pretty solid fight and a token hairy moment at the net but managed to bag my P.B Flathead. 82cm's. I was using a 7inch jerk shad in white. Few pics and plenty of smiles as the rain came down on us before the fish went back to swim another day. My brother switched to the big plastics but couldn't convert as I sat back and caught a couple smaller guys on 3inch plastics. A Trevor and a leather-jacket. Both went back. We were pretty much at dusk by that point so we packed it up - We're getting a new boat soon - so we'll be back with navigation lights so we can stay out after dark! Cheers, Mike

What a report - great stuff Greg. I would love to see a whale shark - let alone give him a pat. Excellent report Mike