Official Report From Forster

[Guest]

Well what a weekend we have just had up at Forster

The weather Gods smiled on us and the Blackfishermen and woman turned up in force to match wits with this fiesty battler from the estuary.

The fishing was tough ,but that made it even better as we tried all manner of techniques and spots to secure the prized Bronzed Battlers.

We arrived on Friday morning after an event free trip up.

Some of the keener Raiders had arrived days earlier and were primed for a hit at the local Blackfish population.

Roberta took us out to her secret spot on the Tuncurry side and I scored a very reasonable 32 cms Luderick.

The tide races out of the river and it was hard to get a good drift but a few fish were around.

The decision was made to hit the swimming pool in the lake proper as Roosterman (Steve) had scored some smaller models the previous day.

Raiders invaded the wharf and walkways early and the "downs " did come but only small fish ,one of 30 cms and one of 28 cms were all that were measured as legal .Plenty of small fish and Donna dropped a reasonable fish as the hooks pulled

Outdoordan,Roosterman and myself hit the spot at Tuncurry in the arvo again and we scored 12 nice fish with the biggest going 30 cms.

We did not fish on the Sunday but got a call from Roberta that she had a great fish of 36 cms just pipping Verns 33 cm fish caught from the South wall on Saturday arvo.

Roberta had it all going on and had a lucky raffle organised for the members on Friday night with floats and her home made "Scarf Things" on offer to the lucky Raiders.

A bbq and chat ensued about our tactics and off we went.

Saturday Night a few of us went over for tea at the local restraunt aand pigged out on all manner of things .

10 am was the cut off time and Roberta was the very happy winner of the Blackfish reel from Fishfinder Bait and Tackle and the Blackfish Rod from Wattos.

Thanks to 2 of our great sponsors once again.

In a very generous gesture which had a few tears flowing ,Roberta presented her brand new rod to Jill for all her hard work and just being around all the time with friendship and humour.

Thats What Fishraider is all about people and some of us made some new friends for life

The pics will speek for themselves and it was great to meet all the new and not so new Raiders at Forster.

Roberta did a great job organising this and special thanks to Mrsswordie for her tireless efforts once again.

Cheers Stewy

[mrsswordfisherman]

Yes the weekend was fabulous. The weather was indeed spectacular.

On Saturday roosterman, swordfisherman and OutdoorDan decided they would go out to the furthest point on the Tuncurry breakwall to try their luck. I decided to venture back to the park and walked from Tuncurry back to Forster along the foreshore and across the bridge.

Along the way I spoke with many people fishing off wharves and along the banks. I came across two older ladies who were concentrating hard and wielding handlines. They proudly showed me their catches in their bucket and we chatted about fishing. These ladies were born and bred in Forster and spoke of the best spots to catch luderick. I told them about fishraider and asked if they were familiar with computers and they replied affirmatively. Below is a couple of shots I took of Jenny, Fay and Len. These 2 ladies are in their 70's and I enjoyed hearing their tales and told them I would post their pics up.

Roberta gave us a terrific demo of "The Wonderscarf". This is the best thing for fishos out in the cold and when the weather warms up it can be removed in an instant without removing any jacket or shirt.

Here are some of the raiders on the wharf

This social will go down in fishraider history. It was special for me because a woman won the major prize. Roberta is a woman who is a fisho to the core and deserved to catch the largest blackfish. She prepared and fished her heart out and helped everyone. Her true fishraider spirit showed through as she gave her prize to another raider who put in a huge effort without much luck. Jill and Peta were visibly moved when Roberta handed over the rod.

Thank you to everyone who attended. Thanks go to Mallacoota Pete and roosterman who tolied so hard to provide us with weed. Raiders put the weed to very good use all weekend.

Judging by the evaluations, the event was again a success. Here are some snaps of the happy crew.

Cheers mrsswordfisherman

[mrmoshe]

Yes, another great report Stewy of what seemed like another excellent Social...Just p*ssed off I couldn't make it.

What a champion Raider Roberta is to win the social and then donate the prize to another raider...She gets my vote for Raider of the year for that effort alone.

Great thanks too to the Admin organisation (Donna & Stewy), as it takes some doing getting one of these off the ground..

I hope this can become an anual event now as next time, come hell or high water...I'm there!!!!

Can't wait to read more reports from attendees and see the pics.

Bring it on!!

Cheers,

Pete.

[gyropilot]

Fantastic effort by Donna, Stewy and Roberta for the Forster Blackie Social....we had a great time...and Pete, your weed was superb...This social was the first time I have targeted blackies and actually caught them !!! Brilliant weekend....thanks guys....can't wait for next year !!

Geoff & Sandy

[bolan]

Well, home has been quiet for the Stumpy household this weekend, but I must admit, we have had a keen eye on what has been happening up north.

Congradulations are again in order to the Fishraiders that made this happen. I know that I wasn't there, but having been to these socials before, you get a hands on feeling as to what it takes to make these babys happen!(Its a whole heap of work)

Roberta........... you are an Angel! (Actually a Devil that wants to teach my kids how to go worming and subsequently bring them home covered in mud!).

Handing over your covetted prize to another Raider was an act of kindness and generosity that is all too rare in these times.Hooray for you, and congradulations to the reciever of your trophy. I don't know the reciepient yet, but you must be o'kay. Roberta obviously said so!

Sorry the Stumpy clan could not make it, hell and high water didn't stop us......... Kids soccer apparently did!

Well done,

Cheers,

The Stumpy Clan.

Jess , Beck, Cam, Mum, Dad.....and Tigger!

Edited June 3, 2007 by stumpy

[wildfish]

great work peoples! sounds like another great fishraider social!

go roberta!

[arpie]

Hi guys

First up, apologies for not getting this on the site last night! I had it almost finished & then my internet program crashed & I lost the lot!! I was too tired to do it again, so went to bed!!

First up, Many thanks to Donna & Stewy - without their enthusiasm, guidance & encouragement, I am sure the Inaugural Forster Social would not have gone off as well as it did!! Also for Mallacoota Pete for gathering & cleaning so much weed, Coollamon & Roosterman for bringing it up! Well done, lads.

A huge thank you to Wattos & Tony FIshfinder for so generously donating the fantastc prize of a lovely blackie rod & Alvey Blackie reel. I feel really honoured to have won the event, but feel that all who attended were the real winners. I was also able to spread the win with 'the girls', Jill & Peta, who had fished their hearts out since arriving early last week, without landing a fish ..... other than Jill's little bream! They had two good hits, but both fish 'self released' before reaching the boat!

Another huge thanks to my buddies Colin & Lyndie of Tikki who kindly allowed Fishraiders to fish from their boatshed wharves, as they were in Sydney for the week - Raiders were spread out over 5 wharves, no tangles, watching lots of big fish, but there was a lot of water between them!!

The winning fish was caught from the Tikki jetty!!

I fished with Jill & Peta last Wed (see: http://fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.php?showtopic=21316)

and we got 2 nice blackies that they had for dinner that night. I was tied up on Thurs & Fri, meeting & greeting other Raiders, so they went out in their boat both days & fished for hours on their own, only to drop 2 fish before boating them! I was out with them on Sat for some hours & the fishing was hard! No hits at all, really! Saw heaps, but couldn't tempt them onto a hook! Then they joined us Raiders at the Tikki on Sunday (where I got my 'winning' fish) without any luck as well! They deserved a prize for Perseverance alone!!

Wow!! Where to start?? We had a really 'social' social!! Everyone chatting together, getting to know each other better. What a great weekend with a terrific bunch of Fishraiders!! Lots of new faces with two local additions as late as Friday joining the Social!! A Fishraider to Rayven & Jaytee.

Friday morning, Ladslad, Sails & I went over to Tuncurry to fish one of the spots - the jetties by the fishing boats on the lake side of the bridge. There is a hole there you can fish from the shore or jetty that goes deeper than 10ft & I have seen huge blackies caught there,but not cracked the code myself yet. We also saw some huge bream (well over 1kg) mooching around the moorings there. I hooked into a pike, which Ladslad immediately chopped up & tossed back in for bati! Sails checked out the big floating pontoon/jetty & saw huge fish under it but couldn't grab their attention. I caught up with Stewy late Fri afternoon & we checked out my "Spot x" (that only attendees know about ...) and Stewy immediately hooked into a nice 32cm blackie. It tried to get him under the oyster covered rocks (as they do ...) but Stewy guided him (none too gently!) away from the rocks & into the net! A good start to the session! For 'Spot x' you need good-grip shoes & good balance & at least one hand free! Roosterman had some success with a couple of legal ones & stacks of throwbacks along the swimming pool at Little St! Coolamon & Wrongsize were out & about, unfortunately, not getting good hits!

Friday night, we all met up at the BBQ area & compared notes, chatted about where to go, what rig to use - which weed is better .... the bright green, the pale green, the dark green ... so many choices!! I also showed Raiders how I chop up my green weed - I have one of those 'parsley cutters' which is basically a flat bit of stainless steel metal about 25cm x 20cm with a rolled bar at the top for the handle that my busband made for me. I had sharpened the bottom edge & just put the weed on a plastic or wooden surface & chop the hell out of it, in every direction! In a matter of seconds, it is all in little bits! It works better with dryer weed (for burley) not wet weed. Then, just mix it well with damp sand on the beach, put it in your bucket & off you go fishing!

I had brought along some floats & ready rigged leaders, for a 'lucky dip' & Mrs D was really pleased to get the traces, as her eyes had 'lit up' when she had seen them on the table!!! They got a double dose, as Mr D received one as well! Roosterman received the smaller scarf (& was really pleased with that the next morning, early on the jetties ...) and Bart was the lucky recipient of the full length scarf! Hope he keeps warm & snug! Outdoor Dan arrived later & was pleased to get here & raring to go! Jill & Peta wanted to see how blackies were filleted, as they had a bit of difficulty doing the two I had caught on Wed - so I set up an impromptu fish filleting lesson and quickly took care of Stewy's fish! Filleted & skinned & on the BBQ in a matter of minutes!

I had some green weed from Byron Bay that I had 'vacuum packed' over 3 weeks ago & Stewy was most impressed when I 'opened' it - really amazed that it had kept as well as it had! It was a bit 'dread locky' but smelt good & felt good. No slime, really strong. I had enclosed it in some kitchen paper before vaccing & sealing it. It caught the winning fish!!

Offtap unfortunately had been a bit crook on the Friday, so was laying low! I didn't really catch up with them much until Sunday - but the rest of the time, they were out on the water, fishing! Sandy (Gyropilot's wife) kept busy doing craftwork - she made the most gorgeous little purse for her niece - knitted it, then sewed beads onto it to decorate it. Gorgeous!

We cooked our dinners, & chatted into the evening with most stumbling to bed around 9pm ..... some later! With Roosterman's success at the pool, Fishraiders invaded it in numbers early Saturday morning! Anyone would think there was a really hot bite on!! We were hopeful! A couple of keepers came in & lots of throwbacks. It was so frustrating ... you could see so many big ones (and in some cases, they were huge ... we are talking up to 4lb here!) Real thumpers! Some even reverted to actually fishing the pool, as there were some good sized fish cruising the weedy bottom of the pool (this pool is just the edge of the estuary, enclosed with a rope mesh & jetties/boardwalk.)

I tried the Forster wall first up, ever so hopeful - but it wasn't to be. Col & Bart kept me company for a while, but it wasn't going to happen! Also caught up with Sneddo during the week - he has promised to take me out on his boat one day!! Mr & Mrs D were out in their boat & we met up with them on the water when the girls picked me up from the Tikki, but they had no luck either!

Not many locals were out & about, which, I suppose, says something ..... all the more for us!!! Gotta stay positive!! The fish are out there, just have to find them!

Dan, Bart, Vern & Brett

Brett acting as a 'local' according to Stewie ....

Vern's fish - a good 32cm, but he wasn't a Fishraider member!

Sails, Peta, Roberta Jill, Ladslad

Brett/Ladslad concentrating hard at the Tikki

Most of us gave the swimming pool a good go - then I thought of my buddies at Tikki! They were going to Sydney for a week & I rang & asked if we could fish from their jetties. Colin very kindly gave us permission & a group of us headed from the pool to the Tikki.

BIG fish were patrolling the weedbeds - some would be up to 4lb, I reckon. Got a few downs, always hopeful of getting a big one. Jill & Peta arrived before midday & they picked me up from the jetty & we headed back up the channel to where we'd caught fish on Wed. Once again, plenty swimming about, but they weren't in feed mode, so we tried between the markers. Had a few downs, but no hits. We knew we had to be back by 3pm for weigh in, so headed for home.

Seems whilst we were out on the boat, Ladslad had hooked a big fish - OutdoorDan said that his rod really buckled over ..... & as Brett was pulling the fish in, the fish took over & headed for the oyster covered pylons of the jetties & busted him off. Shame. From the description of the battle, it would have been bigger than the eventual winner! Next day, Brett wanted to know if my fish had his hook in it!??

On Saturday, our newest members (just signed up on Friday....) Ray/Rayven & John/Jaytee very kindly offered a seat on their boat to Gyropilot (Geoff) and managed to get him onto his first blackfish! Unfortunately, it wasn't big enough to be in the hunt, and if John wasn't getting any blackies, it was going to be a hard day at the office! John is a local fisho with great knowledge of the lake - much more so than I! Ray is a regular visitor to Forster from Qld, as his daughter & son-in-law owns Tikki!

Many thanks to both of them for taking Geoff out with them - he really enjoyed his time with the boys & I am sure he learnt heaps from these seasoned fishos!

Saturday afternoon, Brett & I returned to the Tikki for one last fling, but no luck there. We returned to camp with some pizzas for dinner & caught up with other Raiders, telling tales of woe ...... very few fish in the hunt at this point! Roosterman had one at 32cm - Bart's mate, Vern, had one too, but as a non-member, it didn't count, unfortunately! Roosterman was in his element!! He seriously enjoys his blackie fishing!!! ANd with a mother-in-law living at Smiths Lake, I am pretty sure we'll be seeing a bit more of him in these parts, now!

The Swordies & other Raiders headed off to a great local restaurant for dinner & then fell into bed for a good sleep!

Sails headed off to a secret location to fish with some worms he had caught in the afternoon ..... I heard tales of monsters in the dark .... but will let him tell that story! I know he came back with some bream!

It was a long day & I (for one) was ready for bed!!!

Cheers for now

Roberta

Day 2 follows shortly

Edited June 4, 2007 by Roberta

[arpie]

...... teach my kids how to go worming and subsequently bring them home covered in mud.....

Hi Stumpy & Stumpettes - hope you won at soccer (or at least kicked a goal!!)

The good news with worming, is that it is done on the beach, so no mud!

You should see the size of the worms we were pulling on Sun afternoon after the Swordies left!! Huge!!

Here are the Fishraider Girls! Go Girls!!!

Is it a coincidence that girls have won the selected social fish on two occassions now - the Entrance & Forster???? I think not!!! We just fish harder!!! (That'll get the guys going!!!!)

See ya here next year!!

Cheers

Roberta

[Mondo Rock]

Sounds like you guys had a blast! Great reports and good on you Roberta for giving away the prizes.

Another successful social under Fishraider's belt . . . .

[Brad Duffell]

if the entrance sociasl was anything to go by then it would have been so awsome still annoyed i couldnt make it but ah well next one for sure

[Mik]

Well as I suspected I am now offically green with envy. Looks like another great Raiders meet & typical Riaders spirit to boot.

I will I will I will make to a social one day.

Congrats to all the attendees & especially the organisers for another rippa.

[Chris 55]

Well done Roberta

Not only are you a good fisho but also

a credit to Raiders for your spirit and

gracious nature as proven by your

generous gesture and the effort put

in for the social

You have a heart as big as Phar Lap

Here's to you Roberta

Chris

[sails]

Hi Guys,

safely home after a great weekend at Forster, and no longer a "newbie", having attended my first Fishraider social. Now I can put faces and personalities to some of the identities I have got to know from the site, and what a nice bunch of people they are.

We (Sails and Ladslad) drove up Thursday afternoon and caught up with Roberta (my younger sister) and her husband Keith for dinner and a warm bed. Off fishing the next morning and moved into the camping ground to be close to all the action. Fishing was quiet as we tried rigs, weed and various fishing sites with Roberta. There were fish aplenty and some very respectable specimens, but they were not at all interested in feeding.

Brett (Ladslad) and I went to Pacific Palms in the afternoon and I caught some good sized beach worms while Brett tried dragging a lure from his surf ski but to no avail. After dinner and meeting some of the fishraider gang, we went and joined some of the locals at one of the well known fishing hot spots, to find that the bream were already on the bite and that a father and son team had all but bagged out and were releasing quite legal sized fish and only keeping the bigger ones. It was a leathal spot on tackle and before the night was out we were delving into the various tackle boxes to find old sinkers and hooks. We only took 4 fish home, with three returned undersized, but it was a good session, fuelled by anticipation. There was a jewie that kept busting through the school of fish, and on one occasion it was right on the surface in the light of the moon and it was quite a sight to see this fish about 4-5 ft long turning on its side as it charged in for a mouth full. We had passed on the site to other Raiders that evening , but due to a faulty memory chip, they ended up at another spot where we heard they had fun spinning up pike. Well done Donna !!

Saturday morning after trying the Forster breakwall we ended up at the pool with the others where we had a lesson in fishing etiquette. The first lesson was when Stewie caught a good sized fish and at least 4 of us moved into his spot while he dispatched the catch. Lesson no. 1, trust no one in a competition when it comes to a good spot for fish, especially if the fish are shy and you have a bunch of newbies around you. !! All was done in good fun and it was a great to see so many people sharing their passion of fishing.

We fished the area hard that day, and after the weigh in time, four of us,Wrongsize, Coolaman, Colbra and Sails headed to Pacific Palms for a bit of relaxation with a bag of stink, pliers and the desire for more worms.It was a lesson session, as well as a catching session, and it was great to have the extra hands to help pull some of the big worms out. Seems all that was there were very small or very big and nothing in between, which must be the ones being taken by the locals, or the pros. Colbra tried a bit of beach fishing with worms to no avail, before heading over to observe the worming action, and his place was taken by another couple of fishermen, one of who promptly pulled a very large flathead out using a ganged pilchard.!!

Once again after dinner; where some of us had pizza, some a BBQ and others went to a restaurant, I returned to the previous nights spot for some more bream action, expecting it to be on again as before. Not so, and after 3 hours I came home with a head cold and one keeper. Next morning after the end of the comp, Offtap and Coolaman collected some of the worms and went off fishing while Ladslad and I went to the secret spot to see if we could catch that elusive luderick which had alluded me all w/e. By 5pm with no success we packed it in and headed to Robertas' for dinner and a chat about how good the w/e had been, before joining Coolaman at the breakwall about 930pm for one more session . We were joined by Jill7779 and Peta, before finally calling it quits around 1130pm with only some small throwbacks for our effort.

Before heading home this afternoon Bret, Roberta and myself headed over to the oyster leases on our kayaks to try some soft plastics and some small bream lures Stewy had given Roberta . She of course caught a bream on her first cast!! and had another to the kayak before it dropped off mid lift. Strange how the good fishermen or women always seem to catch all the fish!! We now know where the really big luderick hide out as one of the leases was holding the biggest number of quality fish I have seen outside of an aquarium!! I'll keep that one in the memory banks for next year!!

I really enjoyed the weekend and I have to say a big thankyou to Sandy, Mrs Gyropilot, who came to my rescue Sunday morning with drugs to help clear up the effects of the head cold I picked up after the Saturday night bream non session.It was cold out there in the evenings!!

Looking forward to next years event , and thanks heaps to all concerned for a great social comp.

Sails

[arpie]

Great report, Cam - really pleased you were able to come up for the comp with Ladslad/Brett! His enthusiasm is only matched by all the other Raiders that attended!! Still amazed at the size of his surfski & his ability to hoon around on it without falling in, with his rod stuck into his shirt or held between his teeth!! I would have loved seeing him troll that lure at Seven Mile! We expect to hear some more reports from both of you - especially those giant blackies lurking in the waters down your way! Just make contact with Mallacoota Pete to show you where they are!!

The only shame was that the targetted fish didn't co-operate as well as they should ... Just hope it doesn't become a pattern ..... I seem to remember the bream being a bit shy at the Entrance, but the salmon on the beach made up for it!

Cheerio for now

Roberta

[roosterman]

Well guys i just got back from Smiths Lake and was great to get together for the inaugural Forster luderick (blackfish) Social.

it was really good to meet fellow fishing nuts like myself and put some faces to names.. we all seemed to have had a great time even though the fish didnt come to the party and seemed to just look at us and cruise about laughing at us (or my rooster floats anyway).. maybe someone let them in on the massive assault that was going to happen so they went on a hunger strike over the weekend ..

well i started fishing the pool area in little st around friday lunchtime for about an hour or so and there was plenty there,water very clear,very shallow and had no trouble getting downs but they were very small and fussy biting.i was skull draggin them across the surface racing the big pelican and after about the third fish just making it back alive(not from the lack of trying from mr percival) he was joined by another friend. this upped the ante and after a couple more lucky blackies made it back another pelican made it three against one so i gave in defeat.. all blackfish were under sized but 3 were prob just legal if i straightened there tails... this would of been seriously the winner on funniest home videos if anyone could of filmed it.. ..

i caught up with Roberta and stewy and outdoordan later on the breakwall and we landed quite a few between us but all but one stewy got went back.. a few were just a mm under 25cm ... was hard fishing there with massive swerling surging currents but fun anyway.

caught up with raiders friday night and was decided to hit the pool area as there was plenty sighted there and good spot to try first.. there was plenty of us there and as reported by others most were little but a couple of nice ones lost. i got one 28cm keeper and stewy(swordfisherman) got a nice one that went 30cm i think.. thanks for that fish mate it tasted great sunday night .. i moved to a couple of other spots for not much action,could see lots but not hungry unfortunately..water toooo clear and shallow...

went back to the breakwall and met up with swordfisherman and outdoordan for the rest of arvo and continued to get into small ones but was fun with trying water conditions...

tried back around the pool sunday morning and moved around to the tiki as roberta scored what was the winning fish but was hard even getting a down.. i watched this luderick about 20cm swim up look at my bait then ever so slowly suck my lovely narrabeen weed in then i set my hook fight was short then quickly released,gee the water was soo clear i had to laugh..seeing them and not having them feed is sooo hard but i suppose it teaches patience and the weather was beautiful all weekend.. thanks roberta for that scarf it was needed that morning brrr.. i can see it getting used on cold jewy and hairtail nights.. ...

and it wasnt me that scared the fish off it was those rooster floats,they wouldnt dare touch a bait with these champions in the water

headed over for the presentations and final gathering around 10am back at the caravan park and roberta showed us how she smokes her fish and it tasted nice..mmmmm...

was a champion effort from Roberta to give that nice rod away to jill and peta .. i tagged along to the local beach where roberta showed a few raiders how to get beachworms an even with the wrong tide with pounding waves roberta came up with the goods,bloody rippas... thanks for those 2 worms roberta but those big bream (plenty of em) under the black boat were not interested in em oh well better luck next time.... all in all it was an awsome weekend and i cannot wait for the next one to come along

heres one of them smiling forster blackfish

and one from breakwall

at least my floats done better than my poor chookies .... steve......

Edited June 6, 2007 by roosterman

[arpie]

Great Report Steve

Will have to give you a yahoo next time I am in Sydney (if you are still living there.......) & hit the water for some blackies, too! It was a pleasure to fish with you and all the Raiders, (even tho you did shoo the fish off!....) Geoff (Mr D) said it first .....

Next time you are visiting the out-laws, give me a yell & we'll hit that 'secret spot' on the last 2hrs of the out & I reckon we'll get some biggies!! That is where I got my 45cm one & been busted off by bigger ones as well!

Cheerio for now & so pleased you enjoyed the weekend!

Roberta

PS LOVE THE FLOATS!!

Edited June 5, 2007 by Roberta

[1975]

Congratulations Roberta, a well deserved win.

Billy

[bart]

HI ROBERTA,

I presented my raffle prize to my BETTER HALF (the WONDER SCARF) on my arrival back in town. She was so thrilled that she wore it to work the next day. Needless to say all reports were very favorable. I think I may get another passout for our next outing. THANKYOU Roberta.

CHEERS BART

[ElwoodBlues]

Sounds like you all had a great social congrats to you all especially Roberta for the biggest fish.

You are a very generous person for giving up your prize to another member.