nickm469

Hi mate, I regularly fish those wharves only at night. Over 5 years at least once a week. Have not had one single incident, whether by myself or with my mrs. Met a lot of nice people there over the years. Honestly if you're there to fish, then by all means you are entitled to. Advice I can give, use your manners, keep in mind fishing etiquette and you should be sweet. Majority of the people just wanna catch that big one or learn, if you give em a bit of knowledge and advice ( a pic or two never hurt )they'll most likely let you fish with them. Plus its always fun to hear their supposed stories of that 40 kg jew that got away on 100lb line after a 3 hour fight or their 60 cm bream. See you there one day!

I tried this recepie. Caramalised fish with pepper. I don't speak or understand vietnamese, just listen to the guy in the background. He uses enough clear english to get you through. sugar, salt, garlic, red onion, fish sauce and pepper. Used up about 3 kilos of jew and it got devoured by 6 people in no time.

Hey mate I normally don't cast more than 30m. I find they stay closer to the wharf cause that's where all the food is. 90% of the time i will at least get a run if not a hook up.

Got a couple of jewies in the last 2 sessions (finally) after 5 failed attempts. First one was at kissing point last monday. Second cast with a whole californian squid ( only use them while fishing for livies ). Measured 93cm. caught on 50 pound braid,1 metre of 60 pound leader. Snelled circle hooks size 6, on a running star sinker. Drag was set tight ( don't need to strike with circle hooks). Tried to put the mrs on to one with no luck. Second jewie was at meadowbank wharf. Tried kissing point but was packed. Caught about an hour after high tide using butterflied yellowtail. Same hook and line setup but adjusted the sinker to a small ball sinker due to huge amounts of weed caught on other star sinker. This time caught by the mrs YAAAY! Measured 96cm. Again drag was set tight. Reason for using heavier leader was in the past 5 attempts the jews took a dive under the wharves, breaking the leader. With 60 pound you get a chance to muscle them out, Leader was badly frayed the second time as the mrs stands at 5ft tall haha. Somehow she still managed to pull it out from underneath. Now she reckons she can deal with bigger. Think I'll have to get her a PFD for wharf fishing first. Couple of times where she had to correct her balance to stop from getting dragged in. Cheers!

hi paul, we were staying at the lake conjola deepwater resort, you can fish from the shore there or the floating pontoons. most fish were biting from early morning and late afternoon. you could try the beach or the shallows in front of the parking to the beach. I'm not 100% sure but I think the post office also hires out boats if you're interested. Apart from the resort I think the other place you can stay is the lake conjola tourist park. There are some wooden platforms there you can fish off too. hope this helps

hey mate, nah just using peeled hawkesbury prawns on "wide gap or gape hooks" i think they're called.

Hi guys been on annual leave for the past 2 weeks and doing a whole heap of fishing. Started off 2 tuesdays ago at kissing point, fished from 11 pm to 3 am. caught 3 jewies ranging from 49cm to 60cm nothing special. All caught on hawkesbury prawns and on bream gear. Good fun and the missus also pulled up a nice big mud crab. kept the crab and the bigger jew. Lost heaps more jew due to the small size hooks being spat. Went to lake conjola that friday and stayed for 4 days. Fished infront of the deepwater resort most of the time as it was windy most days. Caught tailor most just over legal size on ganged pillies, blackfish all undersize on prawn and bread, and my first fish on soft plastics a flathead of about mid 50cm. Lost majority of the bait to undersize tarwhine. Any large bait was taken by stingrays. Man there's a lot of them. The lake was absolutely full of huge mullet but they would not respond to any baits. Tried to fish the beach a couple of times but too windy. Came back to sydney and thought I'd give chipping norton a go. The jews should be running through there in the day ATM when the herring come through. fished from 10am - 3pm. Plan was to throw the bait jig around to get a few herring as bait but first cast was snagged onto god knows what? fished for a couple of hours with peeled prawns on a rising tide. Found a couple of good sized bream which had scabs on their bodies and a small estuary perch. All were thrown back. Last friday went to Clarkes point reserve. Armed with an assortment of baits prawns, pillies and squid. Fished from midday to 5pm. Managed to get 2 good sized trevally close to 50cm. One took a pillie cube, the other took a whole squid. Rest of the bait was demolished by the local pinkie population. Monday went for a fish @ Fitzpatrick park, Georges river from 10am to about 1pm. Got 1 awesome bream of about 5cm and one huge 5 cm tailor. Called it quits after the tailor and saved the bait for that evening for a session at kissing point. Got there at 6pm and tide was dead low. Only managed 4 herring for bait. Butterflied the first and sent him out. Meanwhile casted out a few unpeeled prawns to see if the jew were still about. Sure enough they were. Managed to land 2 using the bream gear again, both were sent back were about mid 50cm. Saw the rod with the herring getting some interest so sat back and watched it for about 5 minutes. Tap tap tap for 5 minutes, usually means the bream have gotten to your bait and picked the sh#t out of it. So picked up the rod and struck hard anyway. Felt a heavy weight on the end of the line , a couple of winds later, the weight takes a huge run. Big headshakes YES! jewie for sure! After an awesome couple minutes of trying to steer it away from every pylon and from under the wharf up comes the silver flash I've been longing to see. My missus nets it in 1 go (trained well) LOL. 93cm and just under 8kg. Next herring gets butterflied and sent out. About 20 mins later i get a huge run. Kept going and going, couldn't pull the rod out of the holder. Thought I had the jew of a lifetime. After an even longer battle my heart was broken when I saw a massive ray surface. Got 1 more jew on the prawns before I left. Again mid 50cm, was released. So that's all the fishing I have done. Hope to get out a few more times, if weather permits. Good luck to anyone chasing jews ATM seems to be plenty around.

Awesome! Thanks a million. Any information is gold. Never been that way and not a lot of information on the fishing apart from hearing how big the flathead get down there. Maybe just looking in the wrong places. Again thanks! will be putting up a report if I manage to score anything.

Thats cool thanks. knowing they're in there somewhere gives me enough reason to stay up fishing at night!

Hi guys, will be heading to lake conjola for a 5 day stay. Will be staying at the deep water resort fishing landbased off the private pontoons ( opposite the oyster racks? ). Just wondering if there's any chance of landing a jew in the lake? Will be bringing beach gear anyway, Wondering if its a waste of time targeting them in the channel leading into the lake. Water seems deep enough for one. Or should I save my baits for the beach? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. cheers!

Hi guys, went out fishing last night at kissing point. Been pretty quiet there lately couple of school jew seen being caught, the odd bream, whiting and salmon....... yes salmon. About a month ago one of my work neighbours told me they were fishing in the day, off the pontoon next to the boat ramp at kissing point and caught 2 salmon. I called bull$hit and thought nothing more of it. Last night while my girlfriend was fishing for bream ( dropping it straight down next to the pylons ) her rod went ballistic. Called it for a small jew at first but it was traveling too fast. Went around the pylon and she somehow managed to free it. That's when we got the first glimpse as it jumped out of the water. Again not realising what it was, called it for a huge tailor until she got it in close and i couldn't believe my eyes. A SALMON! about 55-60cm roughly. Went to grab the net but I forgot I got the $hits it didn't work and extend properly last week, and snapped it. The guys next to us offered to grab it by the tail. He did, but with a kick it slipped out and so did the hook. Photo would have been nice. spent the next hour tossing a metal lure around for a couple of small tailor nothing else. Did notice In one particular corner, the fish jumping out (usually big mullet) were jumping kind of differently. Usually it's just a big leap out of the water and a big splash back in. These jumps that I heard had a sound like there were a few tail kicks. Could this be a salmon jump or I am I just hoping for too much? Spoke to the work neighbour again today, and he says (apparently) they've been hearing of recent catches of salmon close to chipping norton. Again I don't believe it till I see it myself. I read about a week ago of a rat king being caught at meadowbank also at night. Why are these fish so far up river? Apart from the absence of rain and the water quality probably improving. Is it possible that there is a shortage of bait near the river mouths and they have had to head up river to find a feed? sorry for all the questions just wondering is it worth targeting these species up river a.t.m. Thanks guys

yeah both were caught on live yellowtail. I use two hooks snelled very closely together.

Hi guys, headed of to kissing point last night to battle the crowds and try for a jew. Was packed as. Luckily a guy i know was fishing and had a spot. He gave me a corner so got a couple of yellow tail and sent one out into a dark corner. Tide just started to run in. About 20 mins later my rod goes bonkers. struggled to get my rod out of the holder, so knew it was a decent fish. The Fish took about 3 long runs and was holding his ground under the water refusing to budge. I gave him all the line he wanted and took my time, till i saw the ferry in the distance.Luckily he was dead tired and came into the net quietly... measured 97.5cm and 9.8kg (including the bream & 2 herring in her stomach) I took a nice break after that, legs were soft and was happy with my catch. Had another 2 yellowtail in the bucket, why not toss em out? another 10mins passes and i was shocked to hear my drag go off again. This time much easier fight pulled in a smaller specimen measured 55cm and couldn't be bothered weighing it. The one fish was more than enough so I gave this jew to the bloke who gave me a corner. Other than that there wasn't much else.... all the bait disappeared and the only live squid I got was demolished in about 30 seconds literally.

Thanks alot greatly appreciated

Hi guys was gonna head over to inner harbour break wall ( where the steel works are ) in port kembla, just wondering if you are able to pick up any yakkas off the wall or nearby. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.

cheers nathan, not a problem i only have time to fish on week day nights after 9 due to work,if thats cool. I'll pm you my number.

was fishing at kissing point that night

Hi mate i normally fish kissing point, abbotsford and chiswick wharf. most places in the river will hold jews even in shallower water such as meadowbank or cabarita. Best baits from my experiences are fresh squid ( whole or stripped ) or yellowtail (live, or butterflied ). Dont give up man, took me a long time to land my first jew. Best advice is to watch those that constantly get jew and watch closely what they do i.e rigs and bait type mainly.

Hey mate yeah i do eat the fish from Parra river. I fish there most of the time and do bring them home for consumption. I dont eat fish every day nor every week and even when we do, a fish or 2 is split between 4 - 6 of us. Anyway I dont belive the dioxins are confined to just the river. Dioxins get passed on through bioaccumulation, i.e up the food chain, means eventually the dioxins will end up in fish outside the river systems too. I dont believe the fish on the other side of the harbour bridge are any cleaner or safer to eat, bait fish are gonna cross that magical bridge barrier and get eaten by something, and that something will accumulate the dioxins that the bait fish was carrying. so on and so on. Guess its a personal decision at the end of the day, either way you eat fish from the harbour & adjoining waters your gonna end up with dioxins in your body which can lead to cancer, liver& kidney problems, reproductive problems etc etc. Personally I'm not too bothered, I smoke quite a fair bit, drink and am a huge fan of crap processed foods like pies and sausage rolls. Please don't see this as me bagging you out for making that comment. Its a positive thing to warn people of the potential dangers, in the end i guess its up to them to make the right decision for themselves.

the flattie was 57cm

Hi guys decided to fish tuesday night, not expecting much, armed with re-frozen pilles and two fresh frozen squid caught about 3 days ago hit the parra river. Upon arrival, spot was empty. Sweet as! Bream a plenty. Nearly every cast produced a legal sized bream, pillie cubes, fillets, heads and guts. You name it, they ate it. After the last ferry, cast in my first squid strip. Got nailed within 10 minutes. First jew in the bag 65cm. 2nd squid strip out and got a run almost within the same time frame. slightly smaller 57cm. Hopeful they would be still around cast in again. Heaps of small half hearted runs but no hook ups. about 30 mins later rod bends over but no run. Picked up the rod and struck felt heaps of weight, with very little fight. Pulled up to see a massive clump of seaweed and an a 43cm bream attached to it somehow. Out of squid and couldn't tempt any livies, so just fished for bream the rest of the night for fun. Ran out of bait left em biting at least another 15-20 legal bream released. Fished from around 10:30 - 2:30.

G'day all, havent been fishing in a while, and last weekend mate calls me up out of the blue. "wanna come fishing? I just bought a boat." . Plan was to leave kissing point and head out around cockatoo island for some bream and snapper. left the ramp at 10:30 and headed off towards the city.... on the way we stopped just pass gladesville wharf about 1k and dropped anchor... put out a strip of californian squid and BAM!! not even 1 minute and landed a jew 65 cm. stoked! first cast and a jew on board, anything else was a bonus. Put on another squid strip and kept getting pinched by pickers meanwhile the bream rod dips down and goes for an awesome run. After a minute or 2 next jew on board, a little bigger so didn't bother measuring him. Now im over the moon. never caught more than 1 jew a session. Mate was pissed as he dint get 1 bite so we headed over to cockatoo island. Anchored up in about 10 m of water. Really slow to start off with then every cast was just undersized snapper. Good fun but no keepers except for a couple of bream. Was getting REAL cold at about 3 we decided to call it quits. Down with the last bait, mate pulls up another undersized snapper. Meanwhile I get a tap so i strike, only my fish goes for a mighty run... felling bad right now as I'm sure i got another jew. Number 3 in the boat after a couple of minutes, I could die happy now!!!! an unplanned fishing night turns out to be the best i've had so far..... called it quits after this. Donated a jew to my mate for an awesome night out. went over to my fav wharf on monday night for another crack at the jew... really slow night. forgot my bait jig,so went for bream instead. while breaming i got snagged near the wharf. managed to pull it out, and hallelujah!!!! a bait jig with all its hooks still attached. rigged it up and managed to get only 1 yellowtail. sent it out live... untouched for 2 hours so sent it out again butterflied.. nothing again. Decided to pack up. while packing up, i hear that familiar run. Grabbed the rod and handed it over to the missus as she was having a crappy night. Thought it would be a good laugh, but to my amazement, she handled it like a pro.... in the net, jewie number 4. been an awesome week. Don't let the cold weather stop you, the fish are always around. cheers guys!

nice jew. havent been back in a couple weeks. too packed. btw if your having trouble gettin yellowtail there, noticed that recently the prefer tiny pieces of pillie instead of prawns. made the switch and got a dozen in about 3 mins... hope this helps, not that you guys need it

hi guys went fishing on tuesday at my fav wharf on the river on tuesday after some decent sized jew. got there around 10:30 fishing with some circle hooks for the first time hearing you dont have to strike to hook up. got a couple of yellow tail which were sent out and destroyed by bream in a matter of seconds managed to pull in a few just under 30cm, really fat on 7/0 circle hooks. better than reeling in just the head of your abused bait. around 2 in the morning started to get some better knocks on my rod. been catching a lot of small jew the last 4 weeks around 50-60cm, none of which made a run, I had to manually hook them by feeling them pull your bait gently and countering with a hard strike. so being fed up with having my last 2 yellow tail stolen, decided to use the same approach with a bait donated to me by another bloke on the wharf( thanks heaps). sitting in front of my rod i saw a little bend so picked up the rod and waited for that longer, harder pull. soon as i felt that pull, i pulled the rod up slowly and made the hook up as i was using circle hooks. first 10 seconds i thought i had hooked another bream but then it realised it was hooked and actually made a couple of runs. after a little tussle managed to pull in a 70cm jew. finished the night off 5 bream and 1 jew. Anyone know why the jew are so timid at this time of year or is it just me? usually the rod buckles over and all hell breaks loose even on the smaller models. thanks

g'day all just back from the hawkesbury, finally success!!! couldn't go as far as spencer like i planned so fished a random place that payed off then . fishing opposite to milson island i think its called. first cast down my mate hooks on to what he thought was a fat whiting. turned around to see him pull up a little jewie bout 30 cms. for the next hour or 2 we must have pulled up about 40- 50 juvenile jewies ranging from 15- 50 cm or so.....never seen so many jew in one place... seen below got sick of catching them after a while so we lifted anchor and drifted a couple hundred meters down where we got abused by catfish after catfish lost count after 2,300. we moved back to where we caught the small jews but this time there were some good bream in the mix thank goodness something decent. out of nowhere mate starts screaming like a little girl with a massive bend in his bream gear.after a bit of coaching he pulled in a nice 60cm model to take home to his wife and absolutely stoked to have caught his first decent fish. before we even took the fish out of the net another rod goes nuts and another mate lands a slightly bigger model again screaming like a school girl and reeling like a maniac wouldnt couldnt hear anyone at that time telling him to keep calm, but hey it worked i guess. right after this my rod gets smashed after a getting the fish to the surface realise that the last fish is still tangled in the net tried to keep it up on the surface but it dove down and lost it roughly same size as the other two. after losing this fish it completely died. dunno if its possible but seems like they can communicate danger. ran out of bait soon after so headed back happy as ready for a bbq tonight. all fish were caught on prawns and bream gear ( 8lbs line and size 4 long shank hooks) no joke had live yellowtail out and squid , didnt even get touched on the bigger rods. get out there raiders fish are on in a big way... scream like a little girl and reel in as fast as you can, seems to work well!! cheers