gibodfisho

I hear your pain, they are a frustrating fish and any time I have targetted them with lure or fly I have struggled. Only two I have caught were lucky 1 offs, even had a guy catch one on a jackall chubby from my boat. So no tips from me. Cheers Dave

Nice work, a special first on fly capture. I got my fly rod out on Saturday after a long break, hooked up but kept dropping them from my own stuff ups which kept my neighbour amused. Has got me keen on the fly again though. Cheers Dave

Great report, that style of fishing is what its all about. Good effort on the self portrait photo. Cheers Gibbo

How tempting are all the reports of fast big fish just a few miles off the heads? I had 4 rods rigged covering all bases ranging from an x-rap 30 to a halco roosta and this was to go breamin, just in case something turned up or conditions permitted powering out to sea in my tinnie Did not run into any macks, mahis, wahoo or marlin traveling down the hawkesbury and West Head was rough enough for me so those rods went unused. lol. Did fish some flats in pittwater for bread and butter bream. New areas I was prospecting were a Pike a thon and went through a heap of plastics and lost a couple of blades Returned up river with a couple of new surface lures to try. Fishing was very hit and miss. Lots of good casts drawing no attention, then suddenly a stretch would have fish slapping at the lure. HAd to really finesse them before they would eat it so it was challenging fishing. Ended up with a couple solid fish from flats and a pb surface bream. Better than working for sure. Newish Daiwa legalis I have been using since September last year has a hard to tune drag for light leaders. Any ideas on how to upgrade or improve the drag as besides this I am happy with the value for money of the reel. Also happy with the megabass sigletts, if you like your surface fishing, get some and they look cool too. Mind the price . Cheers Dave

Nice report. Any bag of 5 fish in a comp is a job well done. More so when you have to carry your flathead specialist mate lol.

Sounds like a great session. I am holidaying on the lake for the first time and have been doing it tough, many casts between fish although all fish hooked have been quality specimens. On the crab trap topic, witches hat and dilly nets are legal from memory but definetly dangerous to leave them out overnight. Any tips on catching squid in the lake rather than the Channel. Need some fresh squid rings to round off dinner. Cheers Dave

Without seeing your set up I would say the two biggest factors holding you back in fishing that ares would be the 6pnd fireline and the 1/8 jig head. There are certainly braids that will allow you to cast further i use castaway and berkely crystal in 2pnd, on thoose flats with 3 or 4pnd leader. The better casting and thinner braid will allow u to fish lighter jigheads and get more bites. I recently bought a Trion rod and was impressed, great value. Hope this helps Dave.

Sounds like a top session, very jealous. I went out wed morning could not catch a squid to save myself. Did you catch squid that afternoon or have fresh squid with you already? Thanks Dave

Snuck off from work on Friday afternoon. This was the first time I had been out in my boat for over 2 months. I have gone from Gibbo the fisho and turned into Gibbo the Reno, putting all my free time into renovating my home. It was great to be out on the water even if it was cold windy and the odd shower coming through. The plan was to go looking for some Aussie salmon that I had heard were up in the bays and hopefully get the old fly rod out if they were busting up consistently. This did not happen but found a small school in pittwater and bagged a typical salmon on bream gear. That was it apart from some choppers and a flounder on a blade, but great to be out fishing again. Cheers Gibbo

The tidal flow in most of Berowra is quite small. I can recall another member posting reports of good catches using unweigted crabs for bait, so it is worth a go.

I have caught one on a livie in Middle Harbour, and it even had a chew on a hefty sinker, so they are greedy buggers. Thats priceless coming from you Yowie.

Thats an awesome story, shows how much you respect the ocean and do the Harry Holt for home with no second thoughts. Cheers Gibbo

Ken I did the same style of trip for my honeymoon 9yrs ago. One thing to keep in mind is the big tides and winds can chop up the water a lot in the open areas, my wife was seasick most times we changed locations. The other is most yatchs or cruisers are not designed for active styles of fishing. Catching squid at night should be easy and with your jew experience dropping them back over the side with a big hook should be easy. Take plenty of time to snorkel and get over to Whitehaven if the wind and tides are good.

Lucky bugger Snag, I am jealous!! I had given up looking now I am hooked again Maybe I can rent them for a day or two. Cheers Dave

Jorg the yellow cricket pattern is a good substitute, I have a few of them tucked away. But that mustard colour has been on my list for ages and haven't spotted it anywhere, and thats after looking for 2 years. It had a glow to it in dirty water probably why it worked so well. I bought mine not long after chubbies arrived here locally and did not use it much as I did not like the colour. This changed after a session in the Hawkesbury and it caught a lot of good fish for me and non fishing mates until it was lost. Cheers Dave

Hey Jorg That colour helped me win $$$ at the Manning. A mate stuck it on a oyster rack and it was gone I have been looking for ages for a new one, but have since got other go to colours. U want it for bass or bream or both? Good luck searching Dave

Bad luck on the Longtail. I am going on holidays to Yamba for the first time in September. Hope the river behaves whilst I am there. Cheers Dave ps how much room is there on the wall, does it get crowded?

Had a good day Sunday, fished big section of the river from Palm beach to Berowra. Early morning had a quick troll along West Head and got a small bonito. Next fish was a Watsons Leaping Bonito, which is a first for me, briliant colours and decent set of choppers! Breamin was my main game though so headed over to what Greg Lee recently desribed in a post as the "bream Carpark" on the Palm Beach flats. Even though this is a popular spot I had not fished it before so took a while to find a groove. Luckily the way Rich P and I had fished Botany Bays flats worked here as well. A few sub legal bream and a 27cm fork length came quickly on plastics. But the big bream were not playing. The highlight was hooking 2 big silver trevally 49 and 48cm to tail. They came home and are tonights dinner. Started loosing baits and hooks to Jackets so took off upriver. Bashed the banks flats and racks for a few fish but the flats were a numbers game. I was catching a lot of bream in front of a family in a house boat. Even though all bar 2 of the fish were of small size they motored up the edge of the flat throw out the anchor and baited up there ****** combos with pillies on gang hooks. I left them too it. Got 2 Flatties of 42 and 55cm and they also on the menu. Sorry no pics again but at least I measured them this time. Cheers Gibbo

Have not had the call up as yet Andrew. Rich has sold his boat I have heard as well, so I don't think he is planning on fishin though I could be wrong. Good fishin tomorrow hope you can ride the wave of your good form. Hodgey its also good for pink grubbing but if you catch plenty of bream on poppers, with heavy leader this tactic maybe to delicate for you lol. Cheers Dave

Straight through with the fluro Hodgey. It can be an advantage when breaming. Good for using hardbodies on clear flats as an example and this is the first place I will use it. This is first time I have used 3pnd, normally its 2pnd. The 3pnd will be much more versatile, and worked a treat with the little stick minnow I was using as it helps to keep small hooks from pulling free. You can finnesse fish from tricky spots. Yesterday I placed a cast on to the opposite side of a mooring rope and had a take. By dropping the rod and not winding the fish didn't scream off and I powered over on the electric got a better angle and landed him without any drama. Doesn't always work thow, but fish light to get the bite Have you used it straight thru?

Took off after lunch from work for a quick fish. Rang some mates but no takers so went solo. Fished some poles and pontoons but apart from loosing a brand new atomic crank to a fish, things were a little slow. Changed lures and tackle to 3pnd fluro and had follows from good bream straight away. Caught 2 keepers and a just under before they wised up to what was goin on. Left the flat and headed out into the harbour the noreaster was blowing pretty good but managed a few trevally at Balmoral. Trolled over too North Harbour to get a break from the wind but only had the one strike. Fished boat hulls which can be frustrating way to fish, you get to see so many but if they are spooky or in one of there moods they are . Bream were there but only boats in shallow water had active fish and the new go to lure did the trick. Theese were decent fish between 500 -650 gram and ran hard on 3pnd. It was a heep of fun burying the rod in the water to keep them away from the boat hulls and moorings. . Things slowed down after this and trolled up a bonito at Middle Head before haeding home. Also just a quick tip Tunks ramp really shallows out quickly at the bottom of the tide and may be tricky to retrive deeper drafting boats, since they redeveloped it. Cheers Gibbo

Nice report! Is that a new rod you are sporting? I have not noticed it previously in any of your posts. Cheers Dave

Gday Slinky well done on the cracker Jack. I think your theory on the light line soft plastic approach may have some merrit. Jacks would probably have a couple of different ways of catching prey. Just imagine a prawn or in your case a prong slowly moving with the odd flick along the sandy bottom a foot or two from the junction with the breakwall. This catches the Jacks attention but because its not moving to fast he leaves his favourite bit of cover and glides over to the prawn to have a good look. The jack has all his senses on high alert, a big estuary cod had a swipe at him on the last runout tide, but he is helpless he is mesmerised by the plastic appendages waving in the current. The jack pushes forward even though he is now metres away from his honey hole and closes the gap, he can smell it he is that close. Just then the skillfull angler imparts a double flick like a spooked prawn the jack is sold on the deal slots directly under the prong as at sinks back down then just at the right time shoots out his jaws sucking in a surprising amont of water pushing it out his gills. The prong is sucked back into his mouth where it is probably tried to be killed in a series of quick but suttle bites. This transmits up the braided line and the angler strikes. The fish is confused, its to far to bolt to cover it desperately shakes its head trying to spit out the problem. Or imagine a shool of poddies moving quickly along a rockwall looking for an eddy and some feeding opportunities. A couple of nervous fish on the edge of the shcool scoot forward sending out silver flashes through the water. Our jack sees this and is instantly ready. He can feel the vibration and changes in the current flow even though he has not been able to single one fish out yet. Just then the first fish of the school goes past, the jack is that pumped he lunges forward crashing his jaws down trying to impale and kill on impact the relatively large bait fish and heads for home which is only half a metre away. If we place a hardbody like a bomber being worked by our angler instead of the mullet we can see why even with heavy tackle a big jack may only have to run half a meter to shred our leader, this could happen on rod flex alone. Thats my rant anyways, think I have read to many of Starlo's articles, and its way quiet at work. Cheers Dave Lucky I am booked for a fishing holiday

Good stuff Andrew, awesome bag of fish. All the competitors I heard were happy to see the Iceman come away with the win. The bream were in top condition from the flats, thats probably why you were surprised that they weighed over 5kgs. Congrats again to you and Neil. Cheers Dave