Great few days on the Hawkesbury

[Daniel Miller]

Great few days on the Hawkesbury

Easter 2011

Hi there Raiders, just wanted to let you guys know about out trip up the Hawkesbury over Easter.

Launched my boat at apple tree bay abound midday and hurried to brooklyn to meet the rest of the gang. and get our house boat to act as the mother ship lol.

The weather was not the best , so we began catching live tailor and yakkas as we were pretty keen on nailing some rather solid jews.

First spot we tried was opposite shark rock point were we have had much luck in the past. This time only a few around the 60-67cm, this was in the early afternoon when the tide was pretty ordinary. Were running low on fresh and live tailor as we seem to be getting sharked quiet a few times when on the bottom trying for jews. the ratio was about 5-6 sharks for every jew. So we decided to travel down the Jerusalem bay as the house boat was getting a little rough.On our way down i noticed a small runabout with an extremely bent rod, as i got closer i could not believe what i saw come up in the net, it was a snapper of about at least 4 kg,s as i approached the very excited angler. He could not believe that such a fish could be taken here (on servo squid). I must say i was very pleased and excited to give these areas a try. It was on a high tide. so we let down a variety of baits including fresh squid, pilchard, and the sneaky live tailor. after bringing up a few barley leagel snapper. the tailor came on strong for about and hour. When they finally went. Mick hooked up to what would have been a 3kg trevor on the smallest bait rod we had mind you. The poor Diawa luvious 2500 didnt know what hit it lol. Needless to say he had some fun on that one. We also decided to put a live tailor out not expecting a great big jew but more likely a shark for some sort of excitement.. But this was no shark run. The fish spat it after about a very fast 5 sec run, I have caught a lot of sharks around these waters and could tell by the run it would have been a quiet a decent jew which was good to know, After we inspected the bait it was in perfect condition which more or less confirmed my theory that we may have lost quiet a decent jew as they are more likely to spit it out as experienced jew fishers will know, unlike small sharks the have a tendency to rip them to bits and take off with your hard made rigs lol.

As the night fell we were able to pull chopper tailor up all night and a few yakkas. as the day turned to night the action didn't stop till around 11pm landing some nice hairtales. also managed to raise a couple of blue swimmer. and by mid night Jerusalem bay was fairly dead till the first early morning tide change where we managed to get a couple of small jewwies which were released instantly. so if any one is interested in giving Jerusalem bay a go. i suggest at least 200m from the entrance of the mouth on the left about 20-30meters from the rocks. we also had a 20cm live tailor taken but lost it at the boat, it looked to me as a large bonito or small mac. we also noticed the place came alive with squid at night. so it may be wise to keep a jig handy.

We also had some luck at Elanor bluffs on the run out. producing a rather large flat head, before heading to the train bridge the next day on a rising tide. managed to get a couple of soapies around the 48cm mark. although i do believe our bait may have been letting us down this time as the squid was getting quiet on the noise.

We didn't get a chance to try Juno or Flint and steel, If any one has any tips for these locations, i would be very appreciative for your input.

Thanks Guys

Edited May 1, 2011 by fearnofish

[johnny doi]

Well done mate.sounds like a great few days on the houseboat,with some nice fish landed.shame about not gettn the intended big silver slab of a jew.mayb next time. Cheers johnny

[Daniel Miller]

Well done mate.sounds like a great few days on the houseboat,with some nice fish landed.shame about not gettn the intended big silver slab of a jew.mayb next time. Cheers johnny

thanks johnny...we will keep at it mate.. I know there down there somewhere

[Singers83]

Hey mate, nice work, good to know the hairtail are around.

Just remember, live baits still need to be legal fish too.... 20 cm tailor don't cut it.

Thanks for the report,

Cheers

[Daniel Miller]

Hey mate, nice work, good to know the hairtail are around.

Just remember, live baits still need to be legal fish too.... 20 cm tailor don't cut it.

Thanks for the report,

Cheers

yeah no worries mate, we only put it out cause it was swimming upside down and knew he wouldn't have made it.

but yeah i have never caught hairtail before. they are a pretty awesome looking fish with some nasty teeth. Do u know if they are there all the time or just or just in certain times of the year??

[Daniel Miller]

Sounds like you had a great easter break with plenty of fishing which the weather did not stop you and got a great feed of seafood well done there:thumbup: . I hear and see it all the time where the jew spits the bait which my mate Jewgaffer sais all the time set your hooks and drag so when the jew takes it....it hits a brick wall:biggrin2: but yet you will find plenty that preffer the jew to run with the bait on loose drag and some of these guys ive heard them saying in the past they never dropped one mmmm. As for taylor....They are a bait fish as well as a good eating fish only fresh and smoked but not to be frozen so you would think even the legals should not be all keeped if not eaten fresh, but as for bait, i can't see why there should not be a rule where 3 to 5 could be keeped as live bait and released if not used but that is only an opinion, rules are rules so i use live yakkas and squid for live bait. As forJuno point, it is a well known spot for jews which some guys avoid thinking it's overfished but yet it still produces. Cheers cg.

yeah thanks for that info cg. I really wanna get on to some big hawkesbury jews, Have spent many days and nights at juno in the past using live yakkas and squid at the right tides. Have heard its the place to get em. just starting to loose faith lol.

wont give up on it. I know it will all be worth it when the big one comes knocking.

[johnny doi]

but yeah i have never caught hairtail before. they are a pretty awesome looking fish with some nasty teeth. Do u know if they are there all the time or just or just in certain times of the year??

hi mate,id love to get into sum jew & hairtial with u.the hairtail r there,but the peak time for hairtail is usually the cooler mths through winter frm wat iv bn led to believe.that means long cold winter nites.u can get em at any level of the water colum,frm deep down to mid & evn 2mtrs frm surface.wat baits did u get em on?good baits for em r livies,yakkas,poddys,but thy also take gangd pillys & fresh slab baits.also id love to chase both hairtail & the big mulloway wif u.hawkesbury is renowed for big jew & 30kg jew r caught every yr.if u can fit me on ur boat for a sesh anytime soon,pm me. Cheerr johnny.