Jono Hammond

Hi All Went for a fish after work down at the boat ramp i use in middle harbour, was only trying to catch live poddies for tommorrow but ended up catching these 3 thumper bream on white bread. Very nervracking as i was only using 5 pound leader and small hooks as i had to lock up the drag as i got close to the pontoon otherwise they would of wrapped me around the pylons. Biggest went 33 then 32 then 31, biggest was 580 grams gutted and gilled - a very fat fish Sorry about the quality of the pics - took them on my phone. Jono

River is very dirty at the moment so wouldn't bother fishing in past say milson island, in the clearer water there are flathead and bream aplenty. Watch out for the chopper tailer though, they do get annoying. Good luck

Was out at Juno last night with all the other boats, had 2 massive hookups - one on 80 pound and on my saltist 50 overhead and the line was screaming off but both times the hooks pulled. The bites stopped once the moon came out!! Managed one bream though but saw one guy catch a massive flattie.

Hey all Was looking up the bag limit and size of poddy mullet and noted that the size and limit states 'for live bait only'. Does this mean that one cannot take them and kill them to use as bait for later use? Just asking as i don't want to do something illegal in catching mullet or other baits in fact for later use. Any help would be appreciated Jono

Hey Slinky Where would one go to purchase the washers required to upgrade ones reels? Cheers Jono

I always managed to get some squid on the spit side of middle head, just cast your jig as close to the rocks as possible as the squid hole up against the rocks, def. the spit for yakka's and if your going to put down a live squid say at the wedding cakes always make sure you put down a sabiki rig first as that will tell you if there is leatherjacket around or not, there's nothing more heartbreaking than having a squid consumed by some leathery's thats taken you 3 hours to catch.

G'day all Had a break between jobs yesterday so managed to get a quick session in at long bay boat ramp, i was only catching bait as i'm stocking up for next friday when i'm going to target jewfish again. Managed 2 mullet and 1 decent tailor in between the 15 or so undersized bream (all released of course). Tell you what though there are some massive bream that hang around at the ramp there, though they all take off as soon as the rod came out. Sorry no pics this time Jono

Thats awesome, well done Dan. Can't wait for the tournament i'm competing in next month.

Flathead + Light Gear = Gotta love that Nice work

Great to see you got out with all the rain thats about - and pulled in a decent feed for your effort. Well done

Behold .... 3 Very hungry fish Well done the trusty old pilly strikes again

Hey Ifish PM sent, they have a good website. Hey Cut loose Was running 15 pound braid on a Daiwa Sol 3000 spin outfit with about 8 pound leader as i was having trouble i just kept going lighter and lighter, def. not advisable though if you were fishing for the wild Barra. Roberta Hey Roberta I'm still amazed at the size of the hooks i had to use, about the same size that i use to catch Yakka's and Slimies in sydney. Talking with my wife about making another trip to either Queensland or the NT this year so hopefully should get the chance to chase some wild ones. Jono

Didn'n know kayakers were good kingie bait

Once again 'team Bangus' produce the goods! Nice fish boys.

Stop!!! I sense another fishing tackle addict ... don't you just love buying new gear, its only topped by breaking in new gear.

Why am i not surprised - Is there anything you can't catch in Bali?

Don't you love the feeling when you get what you set out to achieve Nice work

Thats awesome, +1 for braving the weather

Part 2 Somehow i managed to convince my wife to let me make 2 more trips to the park over the next couple of days which resulted in much better fish, i realised that the barra only came on the bite as the water warmed up so waited till the afternoon before fishing again and this time used prawns straight from the start as well as the pellets on my other rod. This time i was fishing in the bigger pond as i had already experianced the barra i wanted to go bigger and better . After about an hour my rod with the prawn went off and i immediatly know that this barra was much bigger than the last, in the big pond there is an inlet right at the opposite end which goes round the corner to a little island and every Barra hooked headed straight for this inlet which meant i had to keep chasing them down the shore dodging a few lines on the way, the fish seemed to love giving a show as it jumped about 3 times in the middle of the pond, i could feel everytime that it was going to jump as the line would go dead and then the fish would jump, it was amazing seeing these fish clear their whole body out of the water. Finally after around 7-8 minutes i landed my new PB as it went 77cm and must of weighed about 7kg or so. after this the bite went dead for a while as it seemed the fish were waiting for something and sure enough right on closing time the fish went nuts as i found out this was their feeding time and i managed to get my first fish on a pellet after another 2 missed hookups (the fish would take the pellet but as the hook was imbedded inside not all takes were succesful) and after a relatively short fight 3 mins or so i pulled in posssibly the fattest fish of the trip, it only went 74cm but must of weighed at least 10 kilos. Finally the last day i really wanted to crack a fish over 80cm and when we arrived we went straight to the big pond where i put in the same trusty prawn (i promise they really worked), while waiting i fished in the mixed species pond and hooked an absolute stonker of a bream which i couldn't land because of the bank, meanwhile someone fishing the mixed species pond hooked onto an absolute monster on bream gear and provided us with the entertainment for the day as they were fighting it for about 3 hours before it pulled the hooks - the owner saw it surface and estimated it to be at least 30kg!!! Anyway after about 2 hours of waiting my very waterlogged prawn finally enticed a (extreemly) hungry barra to take it which fought the hardest of all the fish and i knew it was going to go close to 80cm, this fish did not want to play ball at all and fought like an absolute beast surfacing some 4-5 times (we got some great video of it jumping clear out of the water), somehow the little baitholder's hooked and finally after chasing it all the way around the dam i got it to the shore where my worn leader finally broke with the fish half in the water still but without thinking i grabbed the fish and threw it up onto the bank, and then the moment of truth the measure .... i couldn't believe it the fish went 79cm, HA HA HA so ironic i know. Anyway hope you all enjoyed the read half as much as i enjoyed catching and releasing these beautiful fish. Keep fishing Jono

G'day all As i haven't been out fishing lately, i thought i would put up a late report of fishing in Queensland mid last year! The wife and i drove up to Brisbane for a mate's wedding and decided to take the week up there as my wife was pregnant at the time and it was to be our last holiday for a while after the baby was born so we booked a week at a resort in noosa. I booked a charter to fish the reefs but they cancelled at the last minute as it was when they were having all the horrible weather up there, as i had taken a few rods the small bream and moses perch at noosa were only driving me crazy and after hearing reports of a 1m + Barra caught in the noosa river i decided that i had to have a crack at some barra while i was in Queensland. Not having the time or the equipment to get to any of the big dams i opted for a barra impoundment in Bli Bli which i thought (stupidly) that it would be easy for me there to get a few Barra (as i had never caught one before). Day 1 - arrived at the park keen as just before opening time which was around 11 o clock and immediatly set about with lures casting everywhere, there is 3 area's in the place you can fish, one they call barra creek - the barra here are mixed in with the odd cod and they generally reach around 65cm, then there is the big pond where the barra can be anywhere between 10-25 kg and finally the mixed species pond which contained (supposedly) some absolutely massive barra (pushing 30kg+). After getting bored of lures i decided to try the pellets which the owners had given us, it seemed ridiculous putting in the tiniest hook youve ever seen and trying to hide it in a pellet so the barra can't see it - The barra in these impoundments are extreemly smart and can see the hooks in the pellets and therefore ignore anything that looks a bit different. I would throw out a handful of pellets and then cast mine into the middle and watch every pettet get taken except mine which would sit there looking mournfull getting slowly waterlogged. After fishing for about 4 hours i got bored and went to the shop and bought the stinkiest looking packet of prawns and rigged one on the smallest baitholder hook i had and threw that out and just left it to soak. meanwhile i had finally hooked up twice on a pellet only to be cut off twice as the barra turned (barra have 2 sharp points on the side of their heads so when they turn their heads they can cut off your leader) its head and took off. Finally the rod with the prawn took off and knowing it was a bigger hook and slightly heavier leader i had half a chance, i couldn't believe the sheer power of the barra as i was fishing pretty light to ensure that i kept it on, they headed for every snag you could believe - the bridge - an island (which they swim around) so i had to chase it down the shoreline... finally after 5 minutes of having my heart in my mouth i landed my first barramundi. It went 64cm tail to nose and i was absolutely stoked. Obviously prawns been the order of the day i rigged up another and within 5 minutes i was on again this time to what felt like a much bigger barra but it kept stopping and becomming a dead weight and after another 5 minutes i had landed my first Cod (not sure what sort - HELP?) It went about 50 cm. That was all i could manage for the day and i then had to take my wife to the sunshine castle which was just down the road to earn a few brownie points for taking so long. Here's some pics of the Park we were in Part 2 coming in a minute!

To all new sponsors, have to check out some new charters now!!! if i can get it pass the

Site looks great, well done on the to all involved and hope it wasn't to painful.

Far out - I gotta get myself to fiji... second honeymoon maybie

That Tailor's MASSIVE Nice Jewie, can't wait for my next jewie bash. Good stuff

Some nice snapper bait there Ray - well done Great photo's as always