Hawksbury 28/04/05

[riders]

Well you could not of asked for better weather over the last week up on the hawkesbury in an attempt to catch another one of those big jews.

Armed with fresh squid, yellowtail and a heap of livies off we went to the usual haunts.

It didn't take long and the first hit came with only a short burst zzzzzzzzz then nothing. Reeling it in came with a bit of a shake and low and behold it was a bloody meow meow (catfish).

The next hit was a bit longer and harder but as you are guessing no jew, this time we had caught a eel

The day got worse with eel after eel and meow meow after meow meow, over a dozen of each

The next couple of days was the same result, I think I became the eel & meow moew "KING"

This of course lead to one thing VB

Now that I had drowned my sorrows it was back to fishing

With the long weekend traffic gone it was calm and peaceful out on the water and things looking good.

1st hit on the rod was a nice flatty 50cm

2nd hit was a good bream 35cm

3rd hit........didn't feel a thing but in came a nice whiting while checking the bait.

THEN the rod with the livie went off into overdrive ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ you could see that the line was headed straight for the point and line coming off at a great rate of knots, the first run had stopped and I was getting some line back when off it went for the second run this time headed back out to sea.

At this stage I'm pretty convinced its a good fish as you could feel the fight of the fish as the line slowly came in, with yet another run as it was getting close to the boat I was really getting the heart pumping. With the gaff armed and ready to go it wasn't far from the boat then there it was at least 120cm in length and in prime condition YES YES YES a bloody stingray

Yes the line had wrapped around its tail as well as being hooked so I guess this was the reason for feeling much more fight on the rod. Oh well cut the line and off it went.

A couple more flatties and whiting made for a great day out.

The next day turned out exactly the same as the previous even with another stingray although this time not so much fight and it glued itself to the bottom for a while but on the bright side some more flatties and whiting and 1 precious jew about 30cm long that was returned carefully to the water for a few more years growth. I hope it remembers to look me up in the future.

Now of course in all of this the wife was also fishing on the pontoon of the holiday house too and of course caught more there than out in the boat.

6 flatties, 3 bream, 5 leatherjackets and 2 whiting

My efforts off the pontoon 3 eels, 2 puffer fish and 2 I dont know

NOW In 3 feet of water at 8 o'clock in the night this was a flatty that was caught right off the pontoon. Weighed in at 8.5lbs and caught on chicken gut.

Well all in all a pleasant trip no jews but plenty of others to fill the esky and the weather was great to go with it.

riders

[Trouble]

Good report mate and unlucky on those jews!!

Lizard_1 and i where down there for a 4 or so days targeting jews, just maybe 5-6 jettys up from you we had plenty of runs but half the time we where eating dinner and heard a zzzzz and it was too late..

Run.1. i couldnt do much as it was halfway through its first run and just kept taking line and before i knew it had taken me around the whalf two houses up..

I was quite distraught as it was a big fish but if i wasnt too busy munching down dinner i would of had a better chance !!

At around 6:30pm the next night we had a decent run and where connected to a decent fish but it went north and rapped us around the next door neighbours lines and took a bit of untangeling but we where still onto the fish and it was tiering rapidly and it was matter of seconds before saw the fish but then pop..gooooone...distraught jew fisho no#2..i reckon it was a jew as it had those big distinctive tail thumps..We only had 20lb leader on which was our problem as the line was only a little bit serated but obvisouly enough for it pop with some pressure...

The same night we went out in the boat around 100m off the shoreline from wobby and tried the channel for a big fat 0

But we did here your wife going nuts over the big flathead then around 10pm the next door neighbour had a decent run where he set the hook and the thing just kept going and then when he tried to tighten the drag and it went even harder.. he got spooled but im preety sure he had only 75m line on the reel

During the days we headed out to juno to try a chance of daytime jew but had no luck..Didnt worry us as we had a ball on the huge cowan young on bream gear..Also heaps of flathead where caught

That was all the action that i witnessed and enjoyed

I had to leave the next morning so i will leave the rest of the report to shannon to finish

P.S sorry for stealing your post

oh also there was a 16kg jew caught a few house down from you on the thursday or friday night..

..Rob..

[Guest Jocool]

Nice chunky lizard. Be some good fillets on that baby!

[riders]

P.S sorry for stealing your post

..Rob..

45017[/snapback]

Rob ..... no worries mate, as everyone can see we all had a great time up the hawkesbury and espically along wobby shoreline.

cheers

riders

[Thumperbream]

Nice flattie mate. Pity about not beingt able to latch on to a nice Jewie. Sounds like a great few days anyway with plenty of fish being around. Nice report

[Martin]

Great report Riders

Hey what a top flathead, lucky you had the wife to turn a great time into a fantastic time on the Hawkesbury River.

Better luck next round with those Jewfish.

Cheers

[EVAN]

Good report Riders, Nice lizard did you get a length on it? a shame about the jews but sounds like it was a good week to be on the water!