Another day another PB! Blackfish on lure?! What?! 9th of may 2021

[JamoDamo]

G'day raiders,

Heres another report and god forbid another PB! Went for an early morning fish waking up at the crack of dawn to go for a fish before mothers day celebrations. Met up with @SaltyGreekand walked down to our spot of choice. Man what a cracker of a morning for it I hadn't seen the river this decrepit of wind for a long time so we made good use of it, I couldn't believe the river it looked like a lake! Unfortunately I for some odd reason didn't snap a photo but nonetheless. 

We were fishing squid baits for jew as there are a fair few getting around in the Georges and pretty much all of the major local waterways of Sydney from small pups to some cracking fish. With no hits on the squid we decided to focus on flicking some soft plastics around and fishing some unweighted strip baits and prawn for some bream. We only got some small tiddler bream however we also hooked up to a biggin that smoked us into a snag... @SaltyGreek flicked the bail arm over and let it run off he waits a bit clicks its over sets the hook and all hell breaks loose. This thing is trying its level best to bury him deep into some snags, wrap him arounds pylons and POP! The leader snaps... Pretty devo as it seemed like it had some power, everytime we hook a big bream there its instantly over as they just steam train you into snags and bust you off. Even 10 lb doesn't cut it! 

When we were fishing unweighted baits we managed to snag a live herring to toss out as livebait.. we were stoked this was the fish that could bring in either a big flatty, talior or hell a JEW! Chucked it out on a snell rig live to see whatever big fish out there would be keen to scoff down a 15cm herring. Well we continued on fishing prawns and fish strips unweighted and I see my line go straight.. I set the hook hard and boom! I'm on a 43cm flatty, this fish gave a damn good account of itself for flatty! Runs and headshakes this thing went the whole 9 miles to try and chafe the leader as he had woofed down the hook deadset thought he was a nice bream. Unfortunately for the flatty he ended up in my net and with a hook down deep in his gob.. Old mate started bleeding pretty heavily so I ended up having to just brain spike him and turn him into some more flathead nuggets.

As the tide change changes from running in to running out about 20 minutes after the change I think to myself, ahhh stuff it lets go have a check on the livie. I pull it in and to my horror my livie has been absolutely shredded in half by god knows what! I was spewing! My once chance at a jew and who knows it could have been one! And with all the jew around it probably was! It wasn't a clean bite it was jagged and torn like what a big predator would be accustomed to.. this was no small flathead or picker fish... Well that was our jewie fishing over and done with so we just switched back to the unweighted fishing for just more small picker bream and the occasional undersize whiting so really not much to write home about apart from the 43cm flatty but hell I was happy its a fish! 

@SaltyGreekended up leaving at around 8 leaving me to a solo session and I've got to say it panned out pretty bloody well!

Flicked around a baitfish profile soft plastic on 8lb leader but then said nahhh.. time to try finesse for bream! I pulled out the trusty old 4lb tied a quick albright and chucked on a hidden weight and rigged up the old faithful watermelon red 2.5" zman grub! They will never ever seem to amaze me with the class of fish these things pull in! Well now I was rigged up and ready to go I was off to the races ready for bream! Had probably about 5-6 casts when I feel weight! And lots of it! I strike and boom! It was exhilarating! My rod gets thrashed with headshakes and my reel is having line shredded off it like no tomorrow! The line zigs and zags through the water.. what the hell could this be? A bream? Hell that was my best guess I had no bloody idea what the hell this thing was! I start to finally lift this fish towards the surface and I see colour! Finally! Looked like a bream at first glance but they I saw the profile of a blackfish and those distinctive stripes! Next thing I see if the blackfish tumble! Swerving side to side in the water sort of similar to how a bream would flap around on land I see the grub tucked neatly under its chin. By this point and I absolutely skitzed out like man a blackfish on plastics?! What the hell?! I coax him over around the wharf and towards the beach, I know how easily these fish can pull hooks for I am skull dragging it with a little pressure as humanely possible so to ensure that I don't lose it. On the way in towards the beach the blackie sees and an oyster encrusted rock and dives for it! Nope not today I coax his head towards me with rod pressure and off we are to the beach. I beach him but onto the sand and boom! Blackfish in my hands! Some ooo's and ahh's from nearby bystanders wow what I catch one of them says to me, so stoked! I run back to the wharf blackfish and rod in hand to get a quick little glory shot.. Again no camera man so heres some more selfie shots with my pb 37cm blackfish. I don't know about you but i'm starting to see a trend, go by myself land a stonka and then have to improvise and get a quick selfie shot! 

Was keen to try some blackfish again so a quick brain spike and a sliced throat and there we go i've got myself some prime blackfish to eat. I immediately gut and gill the fish and remove the gut lining after a good and proper bleed out so the flesh is as good as I can get it and there we go, theres a quick little feed! Ended up as a mother's day dinner and as usual dad was keen to dig in and try some blackfish and he absolutely loved it! Even more than flathead! (His favourite eating fish). 

Well thats another report done and dusted. So stoked to finally achieve a blackfish on a plastic and this is giving me a sneaking suspicion that there might be some blackfish coming for a breeding run up the river and i'll be there ready to meet them with my snyder and 475cp stocked with burley and weed ready to give them another crack the traditional way! Its not my best report with all the droning on about the unsuccessful jew fishing but hopefully its good! I just had to post this one its a blackie on plastics and a PB again!!! Stoked, cheers and thanks again hope you all enjoy the report!  

Cheers, JamoDamo

 Heres some photos: 

Edited May 9, 2021 by JamoDamo

[SaltyGreek]

Great session early morning keen to get back out again soon amongst football and school commitments 

[dirvin21]

Nice fish mate, they're always a bit of a surprise catch on a lure

[big Neil]

Very well done on the Blackfish young fella, certainly an unusual catch on a soft plastic. bn

[masterfisho7]

Top report and that's some nice Blackfish love the photos

[Burger]

Good read Jamo!

[Rebel]

Great report. Super photos. Well done.