[Yet Another Enjoyable Day Blackfishing]

Hello,

As I am sitting operating another "death by powerpoint" conference I am reflecting on an enjoyable days fishing.

After having the end of last weeks fishing trips cancelled due to late work requests I finally was able to go for a fish on Monday....... bit of a slow day and only managed two keeper blackfish in the upper georges, with the larger of the two being 32cm... Had to work again on Tuesday and spent most of the day formulating the plan of attack for another attempt on Wednesday.

So after a lazy sleep in on Wednesday (plans don't always go to plan........lol) I headed out west at around midday, after collecting some what is now very soft kelso weed from the creek I headed down to lambeth. Upon arrival two guys are cleaning a couple of large blackfish and then as I looked to my left, AHHHHHHHHHHH to my horror I saw about 1kg of kelso weed floating around on top of the weed beds........ At this point I think I went a little red and the inner devil was getting his pitch fork ready ..... But alas I got my blackfish rod and preceded to reel back in all the weed I could gather and scooped the rest I could reach, I didn't get it all, so I said a little quiet goodbye to all the blackfish that were now following the green weed down stream......yay...... The two guys wholeheartedly apologised and went on there merry way.

So I made some burley and sent the float out for its first drift.......Within 30 seconds the float disappears and I'm on......wahooooo..... a nice little blackfish of about 28cm..... He was a little bit small to keep/eat but he had swallowed the hook and he was bleeding pretty bad so I reluctantly kept him . For about the next hour and a half it was a down every drift with a fish every second drift but all fish being caught being well undersize!!!!dammit!!! It was at this point I wished I had a weed fly as the re-baiting was taking longer than anything else....... I might have to take the long trek to Dural.......

So I thought the little bast$%ds have my number at this spot so I thought I would try something a little different and move along the creek a bit.....First drift and the all that's left where my float once was is bubbles....On Again and land a nice 35cm blackie in the keeper net, he was a fiesty little critter and very fat. Next two drifts, same thing with a 33cm and a 34cm blackfish.....and then nothing for about half an hour....

So I went back to the original spot and fished on for a couple of hours catching a scary amount of small blackfish and I caught another two 30cm fish amongst them.

All in all a great day out on the Georges which is making me a little sad that the Blackfish season will soon become quiet.... Oh well back to the stones for me.......

Oh one more thing, a couple of the fish had the beginning of male roe.... Anyone else finding any blackfish gearing up for a spawn? isn't it a bit late for that kind of malarky?

Anyway back to work,

Ben

hi ben, we've been starting to get a few fish off the rocks lately and a few of those are full of milk.

i've chased nigs for about the last 35 years but over the last few years found that they can spawn any old time.

could be october, january, march or whenever. every thing is definetely changing, lets blame it on el nino!

[Tunks Park Boat Ramp]

rickster - saw a couple old guys poling them in at Balmoral the other day - some in the 2kg+ variety. couldn't believe how big they were! run out tidem - overcast conditions

Were these guys fishing the wharf? We actually anchored up just off the naval diving school east of the wharf area but bottom looked very barren of any growth. all i managed was busting on a small king that hit the weed while i was winding in. it's the 3rd time thats happened to me and getting a bit sick of it

[Tunks Park Boat Ramp]

Hi raiders,

just letting those who may not know that work is being done (i think) to the ramp and really only accessible one boat at a time. Will be a problem if not fixed once the better weather arrives. Mate Steve and i headed out in his boat exploring on Saturday to try and find some blackys. Didn't actually get to try spot "x" but certainly tried our best at spots a,b,c,d,e,f,g and h. All the way from right up in Sailors Bay out to Balmoral. Found small fish at a few of the spots and only ended up with 3 keepers. Stangest thing we found was a complete lack of kelp for fish to shelter, no matter where we looked. These areas may be better come the autumn after fish have started moving back in.

[Georges River]

Hello all,

i'm new to this forum so i have a few questions to ask regarding the upper georges river.

i was going to have my first real crack at the river this weekend but didnt know where to start ,i live close to chipping norton lakes and have never fished the area so could anyone give me advice on where to find a fish in the river.

i have fished under the milperra bridge at night mainly targeting jewfish but i soon stopped after loosing most of my gear to rocks (probably trolleys etc).

i have also heard there are a few EP's to be caught around the liverpool weir area, this true? any recommended lures and techniques.

all help appreciated

cheers, blake

Hi Blake,

I've fished a bit in C/N lakes and you might be surprised at what you cen catch. there's a couple of old wharves on the eastern side. try and get some little brown crabs, fish light early morning or late afternoon into the evening and you might jag a couple of decent bream. don't suggest you try other softer baits like chicken fillet or prawns etc unless you like catching eels. possible even try the creek on the golf course side as well. i've managed some nice nigs up there in the warmer months,

Cheers

Rick

[While Fishing For Blackys]

Caught leatheries flatties bream and an EP on weed, I think its the flash of silver and the fact the weed looks like a baitfish!

Oh and I know that wharf in the top pic! I'm watching you!

Hi, you must be good to recognise it. Have to keep looking over my shoulder. thats fine though, we may even catch up one day and have a fish together. bet you can't recognise the rock in the second pic.

Cheers,

Rick

[While Fishing For Blackys]

Hi,

A couple of pics of other species that are silly enough to take green weed. The salmon was caught of the rocks on my blacky gear while winding back in. This was about 3 months ago and the second time this has happened to me. The huge porcupine was caught by my mate Steve a couple of years ago while chasing blackies in the harbour. Over the years we've got bream, the odd flathead and even a trevally once. Be interested to know any other species anybody may have caught that have suprised them.

cheers.

Rickster

[3rd Time Lucky]

Hi all,

see previous poor attempts at sending pics!!!! Fish caugh by me and my mate.

[Trial & Error]

Hi Members,

Only a new member and certainly no computer wizard. Just seeing if i've got a clue as to how to post pictures from my computer. These are some nigs we got in the harbour about 6 months ago before the water got so clear. By the way, they all went back.

Hi Slinky, Whenever i go into MY DOCUMENTS/RICKS PICTURES which currently has 45 photos, and i pick a certain photo - press open etc and "add this attachment" it keeps telling me the file is too large as if i'm try to add all photos.

any hints?

[Trial & Error]

Hi Members,

Only a new member and certainly no computer wizard. Just seeing if i've got a clue as to how to post pictures from my computer. These are some nigs we got in the harbour about 6 months ago before the water got so clear. By the way, they all went back.

[New Guy]

Hi Rickster

Top effort and welcome to Fishraider. I have been looking for blackies in quite a few places down here in the Illawarra. Some days I find them and have quite a good session only to return to the same place a few days later and not even get a bite. Haven't tried them off the ocean rocks as yet except for the breakwall at entrance to Lake Illawarra where I caught a lot of undersize ones. But same old story went back there a week later for nothing.

Finding weed is the main problem down here at the moment. The good old howling westerlies of the last couple of weeks destroyed most of the growth in the lake.

All the best for future trips.

Howard

Hi Howard, Weed is hard to get. suggest you check some of the flatter rock platforms in your area as it does grow on these as well as cabbage. also, never a great fan of lake illawarra weed, find it a bit too stringy and bulk of it floats when you throw in your berley. i know the breakwall that your talking about, if you're getting a lot of smaller fish then maybe persevere just with cabbage as smaller fish don't seem to go for it as much. also try fishing there when the seas have been big as the fish will look for somewhere to shelter.

[New Guy]

Hi all, just joined fishraiders and enjoy the reports. I mainly target the blackies, both rock and harbour. Mate and i ventured to the eastern suburbs on saturday but swell a bit howyagoin so headed further south. we ended up with 7 nigs and i silver drummer so wasn't top bad. were still biting before that "unpredicted" southeaseter got up and spoiled things. anybody else get out and how did you end up?

cheers,

Rickster