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  1. Hi Raiders !, On the morning of February 22nd, 2024, amidst the gentle lapping of waves and the soft glow of the rising sun, I embarked on a fishing adventure that would etch itself into my memory for years to come. Armed with nothing but determination and my trusty fishing gear, I set out with one goal in mind: to practise topwater lure fishing and catch a fish on one. I carefully selected my spot along the serene waters of my local river system, a place known for its abundant fish population at times. With a keen eye for detail, I meticulously rigged my rod, selecting the perfect lure to entice the elusive prey lurking beneath the surface. As I arrived at the location I cast my line only within 30 minutes. I could tell today was gonna be a successful day, I remained steadfast in my pursuit, casting my line with precision and patience. With each gentle tug of the current, I felt a surge of anticipation, knowing that at any moment, my patience could be rewarded with the thrill of a catch. And then, it happened—a sudden jolt coursed through my fishing rod, sending a rush of adrenaline through my veins. With steady hands and unwavering focus, I skilfully reeled in my prize, inch by inch, until finally, breaking through the surface of the water, emerged the magnificent creature I had been waiting for, with the help of Brenden as he netted the fish we knew this fish was something to be completely in shock of. There it was, gleaming in the morning light—a bream of remarkable size, its iridescent scales shimmering in the sunlight. My heart raced with excitement as I carefully cradled the fish in my hands, marvelling at its sheer size and beauty. Measuring an impressive 46 centimetres, it was undoubtedly the biggest bream I have ever caught. With a sense of pride and accomplishment, I gently released the bream back into the water, watching as it disappeared beneath the surface, perhaps to be caught again by another lucky angler. As the day went on I couldn't help but smile, knowing that I had experienced a fishing adventure unlike any other. And though the memory of that epic catch would eventually fade, the thrill of the chase and the joy of reeling in my biggest fish would forever remain etched in my mind. I would like to thank @DerekD again without his knowledge and teachings I would have never plucked this beauty on topwater. Gear used: Rod - Yamaga Blanks Blue Current Stream-Special 77/TZ Nano Reel - 21 Daiwa Luvias Airity LT 2500-XH Line - Varivas Avani Saltwater Finesse PE X8 PE 0.8 Leader - Matsuda Black Stream Plasma #1.5 6lb Lures - Daiwa Infeet Slippery Dog 80F Moebi
  2. Hi Raiders!! Just thought Id put a quick report in on my recent outing at the Hobie fishing competition down at St Georges Basin on the 24-25 February. For those who don't know how the hobie comps are run and down it goes a little something like this: The requirements are for you to catch a bag of 3 bream each day that must be legal + 1 cm from the governing body's legal requirement( in NSW becomes 26 cm) The comps usually run from 7-2pm each day conditions pending. its a weigh in event so all fish are that are used in the competition are to be kept in a livewell and handled carefully ( the Hobie staff, take fish care very seriously) There are various prizes for big bream, monster mover, youth division, masters division, women's division and first timers The big money prizes are handed out from 1st to 5th, with angler of the year point handed out to people who caught fish which is important if you're fishing cumulative points. The person with biggest cumulative bag over the twos days wins. Anyway onto the comp, well almost heres a little preramble about last years event. The comp last year as run in September, the conditions were very hard to fish in with a strong 35 km/h wind blowing north easterly each day. I really struggled to find fish as did a lot of the field with me only weighing in one fish on day 1 . Fast forward to this year and the comps being run in Feb, much more favourable time of year for the fishing. I had the opportunity to go and have a prefish on the Friday. The launch point for the comp is at a place called Basin View ( which is pretty most the most north eastern point on the Basin.) and man was it hot as heck 36 degrees. For those who have never fished or been to the basin its a huge body of water with very little to no man made structure like jetties, pontoons and bridges, there's a truckload of weedflats and shallow dropoffs. My plan for prefish was have a look and fish some of the edges along the eastern side, fishing the shallow edges for a few hours. I ended up at bonito point and turning into that bay, it was boiling alive with bait being hit by bigger fish. I was throwing topwater lures (of course) and got a nice mid 35 cm fish. I then turned back and headed back to launch as a huger storm was predicted to hit. I was pretty lucky to strap the yak on the roof and the stom hit with some thunder, lightning and strong winds blowing trees down. I headed to the accom and later to the local brewery for dinner and beer with some mates. Day 1 We had a big field of 92 anglers in the comp, which makes for an interesting proposition as to where everyone will go. Due to the strong southerly wind forecast the arena was shortened with the front end of the basin off limits, luckily this didn't affect where I was headed- back to the prefish spot My plan was to head back to bonito point and head up the north eastern side of it fishing the shallows and then into the shallow creek and then hit the north western side on the way out. One of my mates also tagged along as he loves to fish the shallows too. I raced my ass off to get there first and luckily it was us and two other competitors and that was it. We proceeded to fish topwaters including bent minnows, suga pens and slippery dogs getting plenty of taps but no commitments ( sounds like a dating story). My mate switched to an unweighted bream prawn and ended up with the 80+cm flathead pictured. I kept on the topwater and ended up with a just legal flat head on the bent minnow. We then proceeded up into the creek with me catching another two flatties on the sugapen ( I swear one of them was a bream.) I even manage a couple of garfish on the suga pen! No more hits in the shallow creek, its at this time my mate decides to leave me and fish another edge closer to launch while I decide to work the eastern side of the bay. By this time I am throwing a shallow crank alternating with topwater. The southerly wind is really starting to blow, I decide to use this wind as casting assistance and send my sugapen flying, whilst working it back it gets smashed by what I am hoping to be a great bream! This fish runs me hard into the cockle weed so much so that I cant make out what kind of fish it is and after clearing out the weed from its face YES its a good bream. The fish is a tad under 35 cm and weighs in at 550 grams, yes a good one to start the bag but this is at 12 o'clock I go to turn the livewell on and its died a quick death, I keep the fish in the water in the net while I try to get my livewell working but it won't. This resulted in me hand bailing the livewell with 21L of sea water from my 500MlL water bottle an exercise in patience. Anyway livewells full and in goes fish No.1. Its at this point that times ticking and its around 12:30 pm , and I really want to get back to the opening point, Bonito point as I just had a feeling about it . It takes me about 30 or so minutes to get there and now theres less than an hour left in the competition with probably a 30 minute pedal back. I begin casting a shallow crank around and literally on the last cast I feel tap tap tap ban and I am on this fish feels like a good one and I pull up a bigger fish going closer to 36 cm and weighing over 650 grams. In the well it goes and its now 1:15 pm, I better pedal my butt back and I am praying that the fish in the well stay alive. Whilst pedalling I periodically stop to put fresh aerated seawater in the well. Luckily I get back to the Launch in time and fish looking healthy, would have been great to have 3, but I am happy with the two I have. Now to the weigh in. The live weigh in process at the Hobie Comps is quite exciting as leaderboards chop and change. Competitors grab a bag put their fish in it and then take it to a bump tub with aerated water and wait for their names to be called up. Well my name came up and my two fish weighed 1.22 KG, this had me in in 30th spot overall. Day 2 My plan for day 2, was to head back to the same bay and fish the outer points and then head further around to jewfish bay. I was fast again off the line and got the bay 1st, however I am struggling to get some hits I did decide to put a bigger bent minnow on to try and elicit some bigger fish. I manage to catch two Tailor and a toad fish but no bream. I am throwing cranks and topwater and getting no substantial hits, its at this time I decide to leave the bay and fish the edges heading to Jewfish bay. I think this proved to be my undoing here as I was trying to get to places instead of fishing the water in front of me, which resulted in me not being able to commit to an area and giving me 🍩 for the day. At the conclusion of day 2 I watched my placing slip from 30th-60th place, some lessons learned and alot of fun had!. It might take me another comp down at the basin before I really understand how to fish it!
  3. Hi all, With shorebased kings being a lot of work for not a lot of joy I’ve switched to and been having a great deal of fun on light topwater this season. Between the usual mentoring and starting casual conversations with other people in the areas I’m fishing I’ve managed to get several other people addicted to this style of fishing. The sound and visual impact of a fish hitting a lure is a buzz each time. For some fishing company yesterday afternoon I reached out to three people I’ve been fishing with recently, @linewetter, @foxyfisher and a new Raider, Ethan (yet to post). They were all tied up with either work or family... Seriously wonder about their priorities at times... I hit the inner west knowing the tide was 44cm at 5pm. I knew some of my spots were not going to be practical to fish but I was using this as a chance to see where the deeper waters were and to see how they were fishing on the low. Drummoyne was not worth the effort but I took the opportunity to get some photos of all the channels and snags. Nield park had potential but was still a little too low. The rowers club wasn’t appealing but Lilyfield had some possibilities. After getting smoked on the weekend and having it cost me about $173 in lures (ok the one I lost was a larger OSP minnow at $35, plus two more replacements of the same bought the total up another $70, then there was the middle sized MMD splash prawn I bought to test, then the new OSP hinged bent minnow I had to try... adds up quickly) I decided to use my light rather than ultralight outfit to surf any fish out of the snags. A missed strike on the small MMD splash prawn early on indicated the area had possibilities. Then a few casts later and I pull up this little beauty in the high 20s. Naturally I took a photo and sent it to the three Raiders mentioned earlier. My petty revenge for them having other priorities. 😀 A few more casts then a swirl, a hit and line peeling off. With all the oysters in the area I kept the rod high for the fight and kept as much pressure on the fish as I could. Only one or two curly moments and then I lifted up this gorgeous bream. Being larger and fighting slightly harder than the previous one I took some time to measure it. 36cm. A photo before releasing and then a text message to my three absent companions. Must give them credit, they were supportive rather than insultingly jealous... I was going to have to work harder on getting under their skin. At this stage it was getting close to dusk so I hit Drummoyne for the third and final bream. In the high twenties so I didn’t bother measuring it. Obligatory snapshot to annoy the others and then released it. I love that we have so many fishable areas so close to each other in Sydney. To be able to consistently pull reasonable fish out of the water shows how good this fishery can be. The more I fish it and learn, the less I am restricted by the tides. I still have to take the tides and the wind into account but I’m getting more and more options each time I head out on a research mission. Regards, Derek
  4. Hi Raiders I thought I'd fill you in on round 2 of the AFT comp at Tunks Park.Grab a coffee, beer or some other beverage and have a read The competition was held on Saturday 20th January. The AFT comps are designed to be shorter and faster events giving you around 6 hours of fishing time (launching at 6 am and back by 12), so you can be back home with the family after lunch. The format is all about catch, photo and release of your 3 longest bream- so its all about the length. At the conclusion of the fishing time allocated everyone submits their photos to the admin who then verify and input it into their spreadsheet. The great thing about this comp is even undersized fish count, and every fish even a tiddler could make a difference. The competition is points based with the top 3 taking out $$ prizes, I think first place took home around $500. The points you earn accrue towards your overall position in the series. My aim is to keep accumulating points in this series as the top 30 will be invited to the grand final at the end of the series The area: Tunks park is a busy little boat ramp situated in Cammeray and a good launching point for all those that fish middle harbour and wanting to venture out past the heads. The area offers an immense amount of structure such as marinas, jetties pontoons, shallow bays and the spit bridge. These are all great opportunities for the up and coming bream angler, sometimes this is the problem as you have so much choice in the area. I had fished the area from Tunks Park a few times previously with what could be described as mixed results, one very good session and one average session. What I needed was a plan as I knew this comp was going to draw a few more anglers and I really like to have my own space to fish. The Plan: I really wanted to get away from the pack and fish my own space in this comp we had 38 anglers competing which isn't a lot when compared to the hobie comps which draw fields of close 100 anglers. So my game plan was to pedal from Tunks Park down past spit bridge and work topwater early as we were just coming off the top of the tide at 6 am and then move to structure fishing some of the marinas, the bridge and pontoons. I had to be mindful of time as I knew its fair pedal down and I wanted to cruise back home and now bust my ass on the way back Comp day? Well as soon as the start signal was waved, I took off with only one other competitor in line with me. We were both moving between 7.5-8 km/h, which doesnt seem that fast but trust me your legs know about it after 30 minutes. Luckily the other competitor, headed left towards Sailors bay and I went right continuing under the bridge. I pulled out my rod already rigged up with a bent minnow and began casting in a shallow bay that had some significant oyster/rock bars still covered in water at this time. On my third cast , I begin working the lure twitching and pausing and then think its got snagged. I then feel this snag run and pull some line hard, I am holding my rod up at an elevated position and away from all sharp boundaries( sometimes very tricky in a kayak). After a few runs, I net this fish and its a horse of a bream, I didn't have my scale but man I reckon this thing would have been 1KG. I line it up on the measure mat , and its just short of the 40 cm mark. I photograph the fish and release it. This is a great start, I have my first fish before 7 am I a thinking I am on here! I then continue to cast the bent around missing a few more fish - dammit!, I decide to leave the area with thoughts of hitting it again in an hour. I move to a nearby marina throwing some soft plastics and a the muss lure with no success. Moving back to my shallow bay it seems the fish have moved deeper but i need to decide to stay in this area or begin my journey back fishing the structure on the way. I decide to fish the spit bridge and see if I can pull a fish off one of the pylons using the muss. Now if you have never seen the spit bridge from the water level, if caked in barnacles, oysters and other sharp things. Its kinda like an add for a razor company if you ever need one. Now casting into that bridge I had 8 lb leader on the muss which wasn't enough as I ended up losing about $40 worth of lures on those pylons without a fish too boot! So after the bridge not working for me, I decide to move to some jetties and pylons. I also realise I have dropped my scissors in the water somewhere- darn it!. Now I have to use my teeth and a rusty old bait knife to cut my lines when changing lures. I switch to a Daiwa flickbait on a 1/20th jig head, this lure has become a favourite of mine and seems to work with how I fish it. On second cast I hook up to a pinky, this happens again a few cast later. I run into another competitor, who said hes not had much luck on the pontoons, I decide to keep at it and get hit hard with a good run, I net this fish and its a healthy 28 cm. My mood lifts as I now have two fish towards my bag and measurement. I keep working my plastic along pontoons and bang I get hit and start winding and working in, I see the fish come to surface and its darting from side to side and then it happens PING! leader snaps down near the lure and bye bye fish number 3. Upon reflection this is my fault as the jetties and pontoons I was throwing into were very much covered in oysters and barnacles. Anyway times a ticking I decide to pedal over the side and hit a few pontoons and jetties but the wind is picking up making it hard to position yourself well in the kayak. I start to cruise back with the occasional flick to no avail. Soon I am back at the ramp, and get the yak out of the water as Tunks Park is a busy place and I don't want to be in boaties or kayakers way. How did it pan out? Well I entered my two fish for a total of 68 cm, this actually got me to 12th place out of 38 competitors, first place went to Ryan Honeybrook with a whopping 117cm 3 fish bag. I guess I'll ponder the what if? with that 3rd fish that would have placed me in the top 3,but thats fishing! The great thing about fishing these competitions is its a very good learning platform and I have some more lessons to apply for next time. Next round is in March at Tuggerah lakes. If anyone is interested in fishing kayak comps or has any questions feel free to ask or message me I am only more than happy to help I Hope you enjoyed the read. Cheers Ben
  5. Was here yesterday (28.06.2014) between 11-1, and it was extremely quiet, even the blokes on the boats had no luck. I took the chance to explore the area and found nice little secluded fishing spots at the end of Grays Point Road, where you can park your car and find little trails down to some ledges. Fish were better there but only hooked onto a bream worth taking home.
  6. Hi all I thought I'd do a write up of a recent comp that I took part in and also to let people know more about this competition series that's being run around Sydney area for kayak fishos. So a couple of Sydney guys have organised a series called the Action Fishing Tournament series around mostly Sydney and central coast areas. The cost of entry is cheap($60), and its a one day 6 hour event ( your wives/partners can thank them later). The event is strictly catch photo & release( this means all sizes are measured) targeting the humble bream; with the total length of 3 bream measurement from head to tip to give you your total score to compete against others. As the events are shorter and numbers are capped at 50 per event its a great way to experience a fishing tournament. The full list of rules and regulations are on their facebook site here. They would love to see a few more anglers so get involved! ( I am also happy to answer any questions) Anyway onto my report! So round 1 is on the glorious Georges river, the launch point is at Holts Point Place Boat ramp at Sylvania waters. Great launch area as it gives you so many options like Wooloware Bay, the canals, towra flats, the bridges, kogarah bay and so on and so forth. The race brief took place at 5:45 am with the competition taking place between 6am-12pm. On Launch we had the dead of the high tide and it wouldn't begin running out until around 7.30-8am. I had two plans in mind and was still quite undecided until the day of the comp on which to execute; Plan 1 was to hit Towra Flats and work the weed beds and sand flats with topwater 🤤, crankbaits and other shallow lure presentations. Plan 2 was to play on one of the bridges for a bit and then head down Kogarah bay. I decided to hit up Plan 2, due to the fact that a strong southerly wind was forecast and it was due to kick in from about 8:30 am, this worked to be a smart decision with many others going to woolooware bay an strugglng in the windy conditions. I first hit up Tom Uglys bridge throwing the muss and cranka crab on a number of pylons but it was very quiet, I thought maybe due to being no current there was not much activity. I earmarked the bridge for a later return ( more on this later). I headed down the western side of Kogarah bay throwing a pro lure crank-shallow up against the rock walls and soon managed my first bream a little 20 cm model. Photo taken and back in the drink. During this time I catch a 3 undersized flatheads too and release them. I throw some different soft plastics under various structure but the only thing taking them is more flathead! damn it. I then lose my crankbait on a reef and change over to the same crankbait but in black. I am now on the eastern side of Kogarah and success another little bream to add to the comp this ones a tad smaller at 18.5 cm, but Ill take it. By this time its about 10.30 am and I have to make a call to either fish the marina or go back and hit the bridge pylons. I choose the Bridge! Over I go to work a couple of sections with the muss lure. Throwing the muss is tricky as you want to get the lure to waft down the water column as close to the structure as you can with out a whole lot of rod movement. This involves lots of casting if you don't get it right. But when you do get it right... Its a big whack!! and thats just what happened, the fish took the lure and pulled me straight toward the pylon and I was fighting him hard. I was determined to bring this fish to the boat. Anyway this fish wasn't coming in easy and I had my rod and reel working hard but finally got the bream in the yak. I swear he felt like a 40 cm model but went 35-36 cm. After that effort it was time to pedal back to the launch for the finish so I decided to troll ( yes you can also troll in these comps) with my black crank bait on the way back. I tell you what I have found a new way to catch flat head as I hooked about 3 more of them on the way back. At the Weigh in/Measure in we all give our phones and photos to the admins running the comp and they enter our numbers into their spreadsheet. To my suprise I managed to jag a 6th spot out of 30 or so anglers. This gives me some good points towards the series and hopefully qualifying for the Grand final where the top 30 anglers are invited to compete. I hope to see some of you at the next round at Tunks Park in January!
  7. Hi Raiders, This is a long read so grab a brew if you want to read it. Just on a year ago I got my Hobie outback and after a session with Jedi Master @DerekD and @AlbertW. I have been out on it lots learning the way of the bream in summer. Anyway being the kind of guy who likes to get into things and get committed I was keen to get into some bream comps on the yak notably the Hobie rounds. To fish the hobie comps you need a kayak (duh) not exclusively a hobie, a live-well ( as its a weigh in comp) and a good working PFD. The comps work on the format of catching 3 x Bream (usually) and they have a requirement of legal length + 1 cm ( so 26 cm in NSW) at the conclusion of the days fishing everyone weighs their fish and the combined weight of the day is the winner, add in day two and then you have the overall winner. There are other awards for biggest bream, monster mover, first timer, masters divisions and womens division. They also have a pre-fish ban two weeks out from the comp, which is usually lifted on the Friday before the comp begins. With the bigger fields there's some reasonable money to be won up the pointy end too, which is always nice. Ill preface this by saying that you learn a vast amount at each competition you do. There's lots to consider and take into account to be successful such as planning,lure selection, efficiency of gear, fitness (pedaling your yak can be tiring especially when you add wind and current in), resilience, casting ability and then good old fashioned luck! I think just by taking part you do improve as an angler as you are forced to think and have a crack. Now it might sound easy to catch 3 x 26 + cm bream to weigh in on each of the two days, which on a normal social fishing day would probably be quite achievable . In a competition you have to add several complexities: You can't pick and choose the tides or conditions, the events on the given day and you fish the conditions no matter what. You don't pick and choose your launch point, everyone starts at the same place so if you have a spot or area you want to head to you must plan the logistics around that. Things tend to get a bit more challenging when you have over 100 of your mates trying to catch the same thing, this is where the really good anglers know what, where and how to do it. If you check the results out on the hobie site there are people who are consistently inside the top 10. Fast forward to this year and I signed up for my first big kayak competition with Hobie at Woy Woy. Woy Woy Comp The Woy Woy round was held on May 14-15 and was the biggest round in their history with over 135 competitors. We all launch from the lions park at Woy Woy, the preset arena is pretty much from Ettalong wharf straight across to Kourung Gourung point, and then all the way into the back reaches of Brisbane waters. So a pretty big arena to fish from, which gives you a lot to think about when planing your day to fish. In the days and week leading into the comp we had a big cold snap which sent the temps plummeting, and with the time of year some fish may be starting to school up deeper in a pre spawn phase. Friday May 13, I headed up for a pre-Fish. I hit some boat hulls and jetties from launch site to green point with some success on the baby vibe. Marked the spots and left them to hopefully bite on the weekend. No luck at other areas, got back and went to the accom to prepare; tie on new leaders, charge batteries, etc. Saturday May 14, Comp day 1. My plan was to hit those boat hulls and jetties to get my 3 fish, unfortunately there was probably about 20 other people with the same idea and I ended up with a donut for the day. I did catch tailor and flatties but no 26 + cm to weigh in. Sunday May 15 Comp day 2. My original plan was to head out for long pedal to Gosford and fish the break wall and rail bridge there, but that had to be changed. On Sunday morning they shortened the arena ( basically putting all of the Gosford open bay area off limits) and shortened the timing to a 12 pm finish due to some bad weather rolling in for everyone's safety. Thank goodness they did, more on this later. So I had to change plan and decided to head up past the rip bridge and fish the front of the system, targeting some deeper moorings and maybe having a crack at some of the oyster racks. The pedal up past the bridge was pretty interesting as the current was running in and can pump fast in past the bridge but I made it. I tried flicking some lightly weighted plastics in among the jetties I had some hits but no hook ups apart from some pesky tailor. I then pedaled up & hit some of the racks with another well known angler already there. There's definitely some skill involved here as I got busted off and watch this other fella pull out a few good fish. It was around this time the wind was really starting to pick up and I decided to head back, it was great to see my kayak handle the rougher conditions well with spray breaking the bow of the yak and hitting me in the head. Made it back safe and sound but with another🍩 So double 🍩 for the comp, but some goals to learn how to fish racks better and needing to learn how to fish deeper. Next comp Georges River Goal: to at least get a fish to weigh in The Georges river round took place on 17th and 18th June. They ended up with 106 competitors fishing the comp. Our launch site was Donnely park, Connells Point and the cut off was made between LaPerouse and the end of Kurnell. I had never fished the Georges River before so went down with a few other guys to launch from Connells Point and see what we could see. I had a great day fishing some of the deeper wharf and jetties to pull 2 x bream that were 30 and 32 cm, I then hit Tom Uglys bridge with the muss lure and pulled a cracker 35 cm bream ( weighed 750 gram). Friday June 16th I headed down for a prefish , I wanted to have a crack at canals around Sylvania Waters Canals and then fish a part of Kogarah Bay. The Canals were dead with the water temp reading around 13.5 degrees. I then headed over to kogarah bay and had some good bites at the entrance there. I then headed home as I wanted to only fish a few hours. Saturday June 17th Comp Day 1 Having had some success on two weeks before I had planned to hit the bridges first up, unfortunately so did a lot of other people. I then headed out the front of captains cook bridge trying to work some boat hulls but probably needed to have a heavier lure on. I then went back into Kogarah bay and some decent hits on some soft plastics but no hook ups. 🍩 for the day. Sunday June 18 Comp Day 2 Having had no success up the front due the amount of people I decided to hit up Oyster bay as an exploration and see if I could at least achieve my goal of getting a fish to weigh in. I changed up what I had rigged up fro day 1 as well, rigging a blade, a crab, a deep diving crank, creature bait on on 1/20th jig head and a grub on a 1/12th. I had bites immediately on the first wharf with a 25.5 cm ( I even tried to stretch his tail) hitting the creature bait. Threw it back. I had a couple of other strong bites but no hook ups. I marked these areas as I knew I could come back and hit them ( only one other person went to the bay with me). I continued to fish the back of the bay with no success. I went back to the earlier spot and threw under the jetty waited waited, little twitch and bang I was on. Got the bream in the net and yes legal just over 26 cm and weighing measily 230 grams, but goal achieved. I then headed down towards Como bridge but the current was running hard, it was almost like riding rapids so no luck there and I slowly floated back to the launch site. It was a cool experience using the bump tubs and weighing in a fish (only 1 fish) . Definitely some learnings here on decision making and really need to practice fishing boat hulls more. So finally if you have a yak, like to catch the wiley bream and want to really have a crack at a comp, just do it! Its not intimidating and its a very steep but fun learning curve. Everyone's quite friendly and helpful and its a heap of fun even if you don't catch fish
  8. Hi, I live a long way inland but going to Murramarang near Bateman's Bay in a few weeks. Plenty of experience with trout, redfin, cod etc in the fresh but have done bugger all salt fishing, so have a few noob questions to get me started: I have a beach rod - what line and leader should I spool it with for fishing the Durras area, and what bait? What rod and reel for estuaries/rivers in this area? I have plenty ranging from small trout spinning rods up to big Murray Cod baitcasters. And again, what bait and lures? Pretty keen on having a crack at Bass. Also considering taking my kayak to try on Durras lake. Thanks!
  9. Hi Raiders I have a gap in my arsenal. I currently have a Shimano raider 6ft, 1-3kg (3-8g lures) and a Pflueger Trion Native Specialist 7ft 3-6kg rods for spinning. The Pflueger is a good rod however is better suited to fishing hardbodies or metal lures. With its medium action and 3-6kg rating it is not a good rod for light lures or soft plastics. I see the future of this rod targeting Mangrove Jacks, Tailor, Salmon or Trevally. The Raider is a great rod, however it is very short (designed for kayaks). I am after a rod that I can: - Target surface whiting and bream - Easily walk the dog stick baits - Can throw slightly heavier lures than the raider (say upwards to 12g or 14g) - 7ft to improve casting distance - 2-4kg range Regards Grant
  10. Hey folks! Just got back to Australia last Friday after a 3-year hiatus, so I've been dusting off the light soft plastics gear (hello Z-man grubz, long time no see!) and just about remembering how to cast. On Tuesday and Friday I hit up Middle Harbour land-based an hour or so before high tide. Three casts in and I got a solid "thunk" on the line and felt that long-lost, pant-wetting excitement you get when a fish takes a decent run and the drag starts singing. After a bit of to and thro, I got a decent Trev to the bank, which promptly decided to spit the hook. Damn! Fortunately, in the next hour before the tide started running out I managed to pull in a few wee bream from around the oysters and, just as I was about to call it quits, got another solid take. This time the trev behaved and I managed to get it up onto the bank for a measure. On Friday I headed back to the same spot, but it was tougher going: a couple of little flatties and a bream were just about all that were willing to take the lures. Then today, my partner was off to meet some friends at Narrabeen so I hopped in the car with her and walked up for a flick around the estuary. I'd never been there before and there was nothing much doing apart from a little flatty to begin with, although there were heaps of bream visible from the bridge. Then I walked a bit further round closer to the ocean and had a cast into the fast run-out water. Two casts in and "ping", I felt a good take. The fish started running into the current so it was difficult to gauge the size, but as I got it to the bank I realised it was a decent whiting. In fact, it ended up being a PB for me by a country mile: just over 40 cm! A shout out to the guy fishing with his son nearby who took a photo. I didn't have a knife or an esky with me, so they took it home for a feed. After a few years of only catching little redfin perch in the UK, it's nice to be back and into a variety of fish. Cheers for reading!
  11. Hiya Raiders, Hope you're having a good one and managing to stay dry! Just moved into a place on the Cooks and I've been hitting the stretch 2 mins away pretty hard this week. The best session was on Wednesday with 7 smaller bream and a decent whiting, but I've had a couple of other species too. It's weird: I fished in Sydney for 3-4 years and only ever caught 2 luderick on lures, yet this week I've had one and dropped another at the bank. Yesterday afternoon I got bitten off 4 times on the bottom too at dead low tide, so I'm wondering if there are some big flatties around (or maybe something even more elusive?!) Might have to crack out the heavier gear at some point. Challenging myself to use a wider variety of lures, but I keep falling back on the old faithful bloodworm Zmanz. Have a good weekend!
  12. Gday raiders I’m heading up to port Stephens just after chrissy I’m staying in Corlette, I’m towards the mouth so I’ll have to go for a little drive to launch my yak since it might be a tad rough around where I’m staying I’m hoping to crack some PBS for a few species while I’m there I’ve heard these some big whiting that get around in the area. I’m hoping to rip into some stonker bass while I’m up that way And was wondering if anyone on here had any ideas on where I could launch and find them in the local systems in the area, I’m not to sure how far down river I’ll have to travel to find the fresh water so any tips are helpful. ive just had a baby so I’ll be on daddy duty till I go away, so I’ll be doing as much research on this system and the surroundings before I head up, feel free to shoot me a message if your up that way and wanna link up for a flick or have any secrets for me about the area 🤫 tight lines 🤙🏽
  13. With fishing for some of us being difficult at the moment I finally built up the courage to hit chippo after driving past it all my life to fish the upper reaches of the George’s or down the coast. After being in lockdown I couldn’t help but sneak out to some saltwater for a flick and what better time to do it then now, It took me awhile to understand that there is fish there and now my fishing journey has finally lead me there. The tide was starting to come in so I launched the yak from the ramp on Henry Lawson at the mouth of the lake at about 6:45 then headed up river and started the drift just before the millperra bridge back towards the mouth of the lake and then back into the lake to fish the slack water and edges since I thought that was a fair game plan after never fishing these waters. After going for a solid paddle I sounded up some good fish but couldn’t get any to bite I wasn’t sure what to throw either after having stint off the water due to lockdown I was abit rusty tbh haha, so it was back to basics and after fishing for an hour or so I picked up a 30cm flatty on a 2.5” zman grub in motor oil, my first fish from chippo, my goal was a EP, bream, or jew but I was on the board and I was happy. As the tide came in I ended up on the opposite side of the lake at a creek mouth which was out of cover, after a few casts I had some bites and i found some fish and next thing I know I was on out comes the net and I was was stoked to see a bream just shy of legal but healthy and thick in the net after a quick hook removal he was off I fished for another 45 minutes or so and decided to call It quits after I got some knots in my spool that my braid picked up from the rubbish in the lake. All in all the session was a success in exploring new grounds and finding some fish. I’m excited to dive into the secrets of the ocean of the west and hopefully figure out the pattern to local water way that I’ve abandoned for so long! I’ll definitely be back chippo! Tight lines, SWFisho 🤙🏽
  14. Hi all, looking to upgrade my Daiwa Laguna 2500 reel to something better, im only using the reel for bream/flatty fishing, my budget is a maximum of around $300. All suggestions would be appreciated, cheers guys
  15. We recently went on an Estuary charter in Port Macquarie over 2 consecutive days. Day 1 was very lean and we were a bit despondent after that first day. The second day was exactly the opposite. The bream came out to play. We used stick baits on 1/6 oz jig-heads bumping along rock walls. There was plenty of bream action with fish up to 39cm. A few good flatties also came out to play with the best going 65cm. Tailor and smaller flatties provided us with a feed. We were impressed with professionalism and hard work Mark put in to get us onto fish. It is just amazing the difference a day makes. We enjoyed ourselves very much and will be back. Many thanks to Mark at Castaway Charters ( admin approved) for a great experience
  16. Gday raiders, hit the upper end of woronora river for the first time on Sunday morning, I initially went out chasing bream and Eps and hopefully a sneaky bass but the tide had started to turn and as a result most of the snags were starting to be exposed so with the tide running out the flattys were turning on. I got a few tips off the hunt for bronze about the area and lucky enough I was onto to some fish in no time, a munroes 2.75” paddle tail in motor oil and zman 2” grub in watermelon red on 1/16th jig head done the damage for the day. I was lucky enough to only lose one fish for the day on 6lb the fish were definitely testing me having to retie my lure on every couple of casts lol. The biggest fish went 52cm with a few in the mid 40s and a handful of smaller tackers, all in all it was a successful morning on the water. All fish were released to fight another day. PS. If anyone fishes the woronora regularly my Dm will be open to any tips or spots 🤫 lol Follow my Instagram to follow my fishing journey footage coming soon, Tight Lines🤙🏽 - @SWFisho
  17. Gday fellow raiders, I’m going to hit chippo lakes or surrounding areas in the coming weeks to chase my first saltwater bass and fingers crossed EP, I’m located in campbelltown and fish the upper George’s regularly and I drive straight past chippo it’s only 25 minutes from home and I’ve heard and seen some good fish pulled out of there, I plan on figuring out the system to hopefully fish it regularly as I don’t get much time on the water. I know the fish are currently spawning up so I’m guessing they’ll be all schooling up towards the end of the system if anyone has any tips or headers I am all ears, I’ll be fishing out of a kayak also so if anyone has any spots to launch from as well that’ll be a pointer in the right direction. SWFisho, Tight lines 🤙🏽
  18. Hey raiders, im after the elusive estuary perch I searched for them in the George’s river last winter as I fish it on the regular but can’t seem to find the any EPs if anyone’s got any pointers on the George’s or anywhere else so I can tick this Aussie battler off my list 🤙🏽 Tight Lines ..
  19. Had a few near donuts recently that made me think I might need to put away the sugapens for a few months. Turns out I was wrong. Got up mega early to be out for sunrise. Walked past a drain on my way to the usual spot - saw a decent size fish hanging around that I thought was a big bream. Cast over him with one of the fake sugapens I've been using and got smashed straight away. Turned out to be my first ever Estuary Perch. Kept walking and casting and was getting loads of hits and the occasional hookup from feisty bream. You just need to cast accurately and keep the lure right near the structure - they're not venturing far from their hiding spots at the moment. Managed 6 bream and the Perch in about 2 1/2 hrs. Smashed a new PB bream as well - 46cm. As you can see I was pretty stoked. Not bad for a morning's work. I'll stop throwing surface when they stop biting. Stocked up on Cranka Crabs and Gulp crabbies yesterday so I'm all ready for winter bream fishing. It gets tough so I can't say I'm looking forward to it. Still haven't quite cracked the winter bite.
  20. Went out with my mate John, fished out of my boat on Friday 30 April. Hawkesbury Park boat ramp at 8.00am and anchored close and south of Captain Cooks Bridge Botany Bay side Day before pumped about 50 nippers at at Sandringham. Tied was last two hours moving to high In the first half hour hooked 4 bream undersized... We only wanted to fish for a couple for hours so did not want to move ... burlyed up more and added a tin of oily sardines, a left over from one of my lunches days before I chucked in the freezer. Next hour I landed 2 bream largest 30cm and a trevally... my mate John landed a trevally about same size. See pics Right on high tied ... no more bites so packed up and went home Not many fish but enjoyed the morning out. BTW... The 2 trevally I made sashimi that night ,so fresh with soy and wasabi . My mum rarely eats sashimi.. but she said she knows its fresh Cheers Mr.T
  21. At this end of the season the Blackfish are starting to get scarce and finicky. With the lower tides they were even more difficult. We struggled to get a few fish and then decided it was just not worth any more effort. The few fish we did get were good fish 38-40 cms. We started to target bream in the same locations where we catch blackfish. They are usually consistent with blades but not this time. We moved to 2.5inch Zman grub in motor oil on a 2 gm jighead. This resulted in a few bream, albeit smaller than normally, and landed several bream in the 20 to 32 size. When I was minding my own business, content on spending the rest of the day chasing a few small to moderate bream, along came some ep’s. These were bigger than I had experienced in this part of the river. Here they were 35 -42 cm and interspersed with the bream. The 42cm was a pleasant surprise to the day and certainly a PB. We moved further upriver and encountered more bream and the more usual size 25 -30cm EP’s. While EP’s can be hard to locate when you do find them there can be lots of them. So we were disappointed the blackfish have shut up shop but pleasantly surprised a new candidate has replaced them for a while.
  22. I had a productive session on the water this afternoon. Fishing from my rowing skiff as well as a bit of wading, I went looking for some bream and flathead with a fat crankbait and a soft plastic grub. Despite covering a fairly wide area of sea-grass, sand flats and channel, I got nothing. As the light faded, something was stirring up the baitfish on the surface. While rowing up the creek in the direction of the disturbance, the first tailor hit the grub I had trailing in the water. This was a bit of unintentional trolling, 1 metre from the boat. This one spat the hook after a brief fight, but I was quickly onto another. I landed the small tailor, which was only significant in that it is my second ever fish on a soft plastic lure. Seeing some frantic surface action, I switched to a 70mm Sugapen. This picked up two tailor in as many casts, before I was bitten off while fighting another. I think a fish other than the one I had hooked must have chomped the line, since I lost the whole leader. Switching to a second rod, I clipped on a 90mm Sugapen and landed a few more. All the tailor were between 30 and 40cm. The action stopped fairly abruptly with the last bit of light. The whole situation was pretty nerve-wracking, since I had only a 6lb leader. Once I was finished with the tailor, the tide had turned and I decided to try some bait fishing. I rowed to the creek mouth and started drifting back in with the first movement of the incoming tide. Some bits of tailor fillet, unweighted, provided me two bream in half an hour. The largest was 30cm. I could see there were plenty more around, but by that point I had plenty of fish. My little family is going to be eating quite a few fishy meals in the next couple of days.
  23. Been fishing hard these couple of months been trying to chase jewies but still no luck landbased. However few days ago did manage to hook up to what I believe was a big kingy I would say easy 80cm plus on my bg6500 . Was fighting for a good few 15 to 20 minutes, so close to landing but ended up cutting me off by the pylons. Did manage to catch a few other kingies though one 65 and one 74cm. Other night caught a few big breams one being 41cm my pb and 38cm tailor. Also caught random eel and blue swimmer by catch.
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