Epic School Holidays Fishing Madness. All of on soft plastics... Some flukes and some bait!

[JamoDamo]

G'day Ladies and Gentlemen of fishraider!

Long time no see! 

Another successful school holidays absolutely choccas full of fishing! I've fished every single day of the school holidays without fail landing a fair few fish every single session with relative ease. The fishing in the georges has been absolutely on fire lately the fish have been all too eager to hop on my lures namely soft plastics absolutely slaying the fish! There's been big whiting, medium sized dusky flathead and a sparse few pickings comprised of bream the occasional flounder and big flathead. Overall its been absolutely on fire!

Today I was rewarded with my pb whiting on plastics coming in at a chunky 41cm, the fight was incredible lots of long powerful runs keeping me absolutely powerless trying to drag the bloody thing in. At first I thought it was a mullet that i'd foul hooked from just because of the incredible fight but hell was I surprised when I saw this absolute tank of a whiting come up to the surface on 8lb leader. It was caught on a colour that I usually for some odd reason don't use ; a motor oil grub in the 2.5" size. All I did in my retrieve was these small little flicky hops back to the bank, the bites were weird it felt like little taps accustomed to a small bream. It finally slurped it down.. I set the hook hard and off the whiting went. Anyways heres the glory photos of my capture ; 

 

 

 

Unfortunately it woofed the lure down far and it was bleeding hard so I hard to dispatch this amazing specimen of a fish but hey she tasted good! Was pretty devastated to see she was full of roe...

My mainstay has been flathead and bream on plastics usually on zmans and old faithful squidgies. My pb fish on plastics was smashed this holidays going from a measly two-three fish to a staggering 7! Slim swimz and grubz 2.5" accounting for most of my catches along with squidgy prawn wrigglers 65mm in bloodworm, cloud 9 and cracked pepper matched with 1/12th size 1 jigheads. I got a stonka 60cm flatty not too long ago on the squidgy prawn bloodworm wriggler 65mm at one of my local spots released as usual. This thing had some major go for a flathead it had me running up and down the bank trying to keep it out of structure and rocks during the fight. I was lucky to get this one in as he had woofed this lure down deep right to the start of his stomach opening. Luckily I was able to do some quick surgery with pliers getting the hook out with no bleeding surprisingly. Couple quick glory shots and she went back in. Here's some photos ;  

 

She swam off back into the drink to go and harass some more poddy mullet.

 

Heres some more flathead and bream pics ; 

 

 

And here were are for hands down the most bizarre thing i've ever seen. Well where do I begin.. I was going for a quick flick at my local when I happened to see a big jewfish hung up in the shark nets by its neck. I was like, well... thats just a tad off. Anyways I run down chuck my gear and rods on the sand next to my mate whilst I wade out into the water with my lip grips to go and see if I can get the thing in for a photo... Well turns out this thing was every bit of 90cm and 7-8kg hung up by its neck in the net. I swiftly begin to entangle the thing out of net (by this point it was long gone by at least a day or so still relatively fresh) I then clip to lip grips into the fishes mouth and try flinging it over the net.. no good its too bloody heavy to heave it over a net towering over me by at least a metre... so I do the extra mile and begin to tow the thing along the net for 60m with water up to my chest. I get it to the other side of the net my feet sliced up by oysters and heave the fish over the net slumping over into the net. I also found a good whiting popper along the net for free (scoreeeee). I carry it down to the other side and man this thing was HEAVY. I took it over to the beach and proceeded to get some glory shots and bragging rights for the camera roll. Heres some photos: 

Well thats all for now guys see ya next report!!! 

Cheers, JamoDamo

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by JamoDamo
Photo rearranging and better textual formatting

[JamoDamo]

Sorry if the formatting is a bit off! I tried my best hahaha

[little fisho]

what a write up!

 did you end up eating that jew? 

[Fun2fish]

Some great fish there mate well done

[Koalaboi]

Well done!

Shame to have to go back to school.

KB

[masterfisho7]

That,s one report well done love the photos

[SquibblyDibbly]

Great report mate, some cracking fish!

On a side note it does show how pathetic shark nets are, think of all the marine life killed in them just because some humans are scared of what lives in the ocean.

[Peakefishing]

Great report and some awesome captures. Those big whiting sure go hard. 

[bessell1955]

Well, done!  A great story and photos.  You have been very busy over the holidays.  

[big Neil]

Excellent post young fella. Great that you can spend your holidays doing what you love. Work hard during the term and go for it during the holidays. Some quality fish there, but more importantly you're out there with your friends making the most of life. Keep it up, bn

[Burger]

Sounds like an excellent school hol JamoDamo! 👍

[hucho hucho]

Excellent report and fantastic pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[Green Hornet]

You're kicking butt there young fella.

Some nice captures and one unlucky jew, that's for sure.

 

[Rey05]

awesome job there fella, good way to spend the holidays. 

[Rebel]

Great report and Super photos. You can't beat School Holidays.

Cheers.

[jenno64]

Awesome post and some amazing tales there...the jew capture is a classic!

[SydneyLad]

Nice one. I know the spots from your pics. Given I don’t think I’ve even got a bite on plastics you’ve inspired me young fella. 
 

 

[Ryder]

Great stuff James. 

[Yowie]

Some nice lure caught fish, good work.

[JamoDamo]

18 hours ago, little fisho said:

what a write up!

 did you end up eating that jew? 

Cheers man! Nah it became crab pot bait... didn't really want to get sick it was fairly old. I gutted it and found prawns, mullet and a handful of silver biddy.

 

15 hours ago, Fun2fish said:

Some great fish there mate well done

Cheers mate! Always good fun getting into a few.. I've been teaching my mates how to fish plastics effectively... got myself a couple apprentices hahaha although @SaltyGreekwill always dominate... the bloke has some incredible skill and luck with plastics... He makes me look like i'm the new kid on the block hahaha.....

13 hours ago, Koalaboi said:

Well done!

Shame to have to go back to school.

KB

Cheers KB!!! Dreading it to say the least but hell i've only got 18 months to go... Looking forward to getting out of the place and getting into the workplace!

13 hours ago, masterfisho7 said:

That,s one report well done love the photos

Cheers mate happy to provide the goods hahaha

 

12 hours ago, SquibblyDibbly said:

Great report mate, some cracking fish!

On a side note it does show how pathetic shark nets are, think of all the marine life killed in them just because some humans are scared of what lives in the ocean.

Yeah... it really does show how elitist human are to pretty much any other species on our planet... especially sharks. In my opinion all nets should be banned we are only making the problem worse especially commercial industrial fishing ie huge trawlers... 

12 hours ago, Peakefishing said:

Great report and some awesome captures. Those big whiting sure go hard. 

They sure do go hard. I got absolutely smoked by the thing.. Awesome catch on a plastic too good!

 

[JamoDamo]

11 hours ago, bessell1955 said:

Well, done!  A great story and photos.  You have been very busy over the holidays.  

Thanks a million! Yeah i've been fishing dawn till dusk.. I'm just a tad keen!!!

 

11 hours ago, big Neil said:

Excellent post young fella. Great that you can spend your holidays doing what you love. Work hard during the term and go for it during the holidays. Some quality fish there, but more importantly you're out there with your friends making the most of life. Keep it up, bn

Couldn't spend it any other way in my opinion. Would rather fish and be outside.. I hate games with a passion hahah

[SaltyGreek]

10 minutes ago, JamoDamo said:

although @SaltyGreekwill always dominate... the bloke has some incredible skill and luck with plastics... He makes me look like i'm the new kid on the block hahaha.....

Just remember I’ve known how to fish plastics for at least 10 years now even though I don’t fish them on a daily basis ahahah. But yeah you’ve had some great catches on plastics and they’ll keep coming! Well done 👍🏽 

[JamoDamo]

19 minutes ago, SaltyGreek said:

Just remember I’ve known how to fish plastics for at least 10 years now even though I don’t fish them on a daily basis ahahah. But yeah you’ve had some great catches on plastics and they’ll keep coming! Well done 👍🏽 

Yeah.. with time i'll get better

[JamoDamo]

11 hours ago, Burger said:

Sounds like an excellent school hol JamoDamo! 👍

it was nothing short of amazing and man a new pb! Couldn't be more stoked! Now time to get ready for winter.. Planning to catch some big blackfish with a setup Royce gave me for free.

 

11 hours ago, hucho hucho said:

Excellent report and fantastic pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks man my pleasure!

6 hours ago, Green Hornet said:

You're kicking butt there young fella.

Some nice captures and one unlucky jew, that's for sure.

Poor bugger would've gone hard on 2-4kg gear on 8lb.. I wish

6 hours ago, Rey05 said:

awesome job there fella, good way to spend the holidays. 

Sure is! Wouldn't have it any other way.

 

4 hours ago, Rebel said:

Great report and Super photos. You can't beat School Holidays.

Cheers.

Cheers man! I had to make this report a good one looks like the effort paid off! Yeah can't beat school holidays

 

4 hours ago, jenno64 said:

Awesome post and some amazing tales there...the jew capture is a classic!

One bizarre incident that will never leave my memory that's for sure! Hopefully next one I get is actually alive..

3 hours ago, SydneyLad said:

Nice one. I know the spots from your pics. Given I don’t think I’ve even got a bite on plastics you’ve inspired me young fella. 

Thats awesome to hear! I'm sure persistence will pay off in the long run! My advise is small flicky hops letting the lure flutter back down. The double hop works well too, if a retrieve doesn't yield results don't be afraid to switch it up a bit.. and watch your line for bites!

2 hours ago, Ryder said:

Great stuff James. 

Cheers Ryder!

35 minutes ago, Yowie said:

Some nice lure caught fish, good work.

Thank you Yowie

[Oscarthebeagle]

Some great fish there, well done. You have certainly come along way since I met you at Como. 

A few years ago in mid winter I swum out and pulled a 7-8kg Jew out of the Como Baths net.

This one was still alive and put up a struggle when i got it out of the net. Took a big bit of skin off my fingers where i grabbed it (fingers in gills/thumb in mouth, dumb idea).

As I was cold, wet and bleeding I decided to keep it, still tasted as good as a caught one and had a story to go with it.

Ash