Good Spots In The Hawkesbury River

[Flatty.Fan686]

Hi everyone.

I am only 14, and this is my first post on fish raider so bare with me. Anyway i was just wondering if anyone knows any good spots around the hawkesbury river and at what times to fish them. Probably not much further down past the vines and no further then maybe Juno Pt (because there is suppose to be 10-15 knot winds) Me and my dad are planning to go there for a 1 and a half day trip , from early Friday morning , to Saturday arvo. We fish there a lot, and the amount & size of the fish we catch most the time is abit disappointing, we catch maybe one Flathead, keeper, of maybe 6cm over legal, or maybe 1 or 2 just pan size bream, that at our best, but nothing to exciting. Anyway, back to the topic of the spots, does anyone know where we could maybe get a few decent flatty's or some good sized bream or maybe even a Jewie over night. For once it would be nice to pull a few decent ones in.

Also, does anyone know some spots for squid around these areas? Might be the fact that every time we go where getting bait from servo and that might be the reason for our badluck. Except for livies, we catch them.

All help, tips, or spots very muchly appreciated.

Cheers.

Edited September 30, 2008 by Flatty.Fan686

[jewgaffer]

Hi everyone.

.....i was just wondering if anyone knows any good spots around the hawkesbury river and at what times to fish them. .....

Me and my dad are planning to go there for a 1 and a half day trip , from early Friday morning , to Saturday arvo. .........

............... does anyone know where we could maybe get a few decent flatty's or some good sized bream or maybe even a Jewie over night...........

Also, does anyone know some spots for squid around these areas?

.........All help, tips, or spots very muchly appreciated.

Cheers.

Hi Flatty.Fan686 Welcome to you and your Dad!! Good to have you on the site and you'll get plenty of help and advice from our members whenever you ask. The advice you'll get on Fishraider will have you both top fishermen in no time!

Tell your Dad he should get live bait in the little bay where the govt wharf is right next to and just east of Juno from three quarters into the run in tide, and you can fish the weed beds on either side of the little bay for your squid. This little bay is a good fishing spot in general and has good shelter for anchoring overnight for a try in close and nevertheless anchor closer to the side where the breeze comes in towards your bow and anchor up should the wind change direction to keep the breeze coming from the bow once the boat has settled. This little bay also has plenty of deepwater only a little farther out from the wharf to set your jewfish rods using large fish baits either live or dead bait. If you use whole dead fish baits, cut off some skin and flesh and have them showing plenty of flesh and blood. Local arrow squid is the top bait for jewfish in the Hawkesbury and while arrow squid often outfishes live bait, having both squid and live bait would be the best way to go.

Your could buy local arrow squid as back up bait but do get hold of a supply of good size fresh Hawkesbury prawns and firm WA pilchards and use whole pilchards and also mitre cuts which will give you two attractive baits per pilchard wavering in the current, i.e. the head and half a side and the whole tail section and half a side, rather than just presenting chunks of square cut fish baits.

Partly peel your prawns to show flesh, and I would use 2/0 baitholder hooks.

A good way for you and your Dad to start off would be drift fishing which is good way to cover a lot of ground and take your baits to where the fish are rather than waiting for the fish to come to your baits.

I would launch at Brooklyn and motor straight over to the centre of the river about 50 metres inside the line of green markers square on to the Broken Bay side of Dangar Island. The green markers have already set the position of the beginning of the drop downs into deeper water. Having slowly motored inside those green markers and watching the depth under your boat, start your session by drift fishing just as the tide starts to run out. You can drift all the way say to the mouth of Cowan and motor back again to where you started. You would need a sea anchor parachute to slow down the boat and a good way to pause your bait is to keep opening the bail arm and let more line out every now and then. When drift fishing it is important to cast well to the sides of the boat rather than straight behind the boat so that fish you are drifting towards won't be spooked by the boat above them before they see your bait, particularly if the drift takes you over the shallows.

If you start drifting from the centre section of the river as mentioned above, the spot at the end your drift close to the particular part of the shoreline where the boat would finish up is a good way to determine where to you drop your anchor. That is the end of the flow direction and the very spot where there are more likely to be a variety of fish holding, with predators such as flathead and jewfish wating behind them for the tide change or coming in behind them at the same time with the dirction of the flow. The Hawkesbury is one of those rivers where 90 percent of the fish are in 10 percent of the water.

Hope this helps and don't forget to take a good size esky and plenty of ice with you.

Cheers

jewgaffer

Edited October 1, 2008 by jewgaffer

[Flatty.Fan686]

Thankyou so much Jewgaffer.

I am only 14 , but i understoood everything you said. I will let my dad know when he gets home of all the wonderful information you have given me.

Do you fish the hawkesbury much?

Cheers.

[brickman]

the gaffer is part off the system part off the wood work you might say

welcome to fish raider all the above advice from gaffer should be taken as gospel and there is no one else more experianced to give it

you a luck lad gary

[blaxland]

Off to the Hawksbury tomorrow looking for squid found this old post good place to start