Smitty

Yep, sure was a great day standing on the shores of the harbour Stewy (apart from that bloody westerly wind )...thanks again fellas! Its always great to get some time to fish together mate, even if most of the time is spent watching you pull fish after bloody fish out of the drink haha. Cant wait for blackie fillets for dinner tonight...yum!! Cheers, Smitty

Just a quick heads up to all those who enjoy chasing Blackfish. A couple of recent trips to the upper/middle Georges river have resulted in some nice fish, in amongst a lot of smaller ones though! So its worth having a go in the Georges......if you can get your hands on some weed that is. Smitty...

I'm so sorry to hear of the passing of your mum Donna. My thoughts are with you, Stewy and the girls at this sad time. Please let me know if you need anything. Kindest regards, Chris...

Happy Birthday Stewy....I hope you have a great one mate!! Cheers, Chris..

Congatulations fellas, thats a great mornings effort, well done!!! Those fish look bloody beautiful . Now I'm even more disappointed that I couldn't come along for the trip but I can't wait to get up there and have a crack at 'em myself. Cheers, Smitty...

WOW, it looks and sounds like you all had a fantastic weekend! I'm very disapointed I couldn't make it . Congratulations to all the winners, congratulations to all those members who made it to the entrance and congratulations to the admin team for organising yet another successful Fishraider social event . Cheers, Smitty...

Maaaaate, what can I say.....an absolutely awesome day!!! The fact that we both cracked PBs was just the icing on the cake The only dark cloud of the day was doing laps of those city blocks because of my poor city navigating skills hahaha :....oh yeh, and having to dress all the fish when we got home - me backs still aching. But it was all worth it!!! Thanks again for a great day out chasing Blackies mate.....we'll have to do it all again some time real soon - but I think you might need to earn a few more brownie points first . Cheers, Chris...

Well done Stewy and Donna, what a nice easy spot the have a cast. I couldn't help myself either.....typical bloody fisherman hey?? I headed down to the Weir with Stuball over the weekend and managed one nice bass in the 40ish cm range. Cheers, Smitty...

Top stuff Nathan .... A couple of health wild Bass there mate. Well and truly worth the effort of paddlin the yak up the river. Cheers, Smitty...

What a great victory Stewy ....that little Blood Python/CI4 outfit is capable of anything! Would have loved to see Stephen pulling the bouy over the side of the Plycraft hahaha .....with a fish tied to it....thats GOLD!!! Well done fellas, another great days fishing. Cheers, Smitty...

Happy Birthday Raiders!!! Hey Joe, I tried to PM you but it says you cant get any new messages, maybe you need to empty your message storage.

Oh yeh....what a great day on the water, plenty of fish and plenty of laughs too!!! Thanks heaps guys. Just one more thing......Bird, bird, bird the bird is the word hahahahahaha (you had to be there). Cheers, Smitty

OMG!!!!.....what can I say? Looks like you guys had a fantastic day . Ya lucky buggers, maybe i should change to shiftwork . Cheers, Smitty...

Very nice bag of Blackies there Stewy and Dean.......there were some quality fish amongst them too . I'm spewing I couldn't make it along , but there's always next time. What a great way spend your birthday dean!!! Cheers, Smitty...

This is very sad news . My sincere condolences to Robyn and the rest of Rick’s family. Rick was always only too happy to give tips, time and guidance to any FR member who wanted to learn the art of Blackfishing. I’m sure there are a quite a few who have caught their first Blackfish under Ricks guidance or tuition. He was a great bloke and will be sadly missed. Also, I think the idea of a memorial Blackfish challenge day in Rick’s honour is a fantastic one. Smitty...

Bit of %%%%%ly one haha Closest thing I can find is the Red Swimmer Crab (Nectocarcinus integrifrons). Even this doesn't look exactly the same...what sex was it?

Great stuff guys......and a nice morning to be on the water by the looks of things . Those little kings are good fun on poppers hey Stephen? Top way to blood a new outfit too! Glad youz had a good day. Cheers, Smitty...

Good on ya stillchasing.....nice to see you've turned to the dark side hahahahahahah . As you said, you can learn heaps about blackfishing from this fantastic site. Thats the special thing about Fishraider, there is ALWAYS someone ready to help out and point you in the right direction. And dont listen to what other people say......its not addictive.......I've been chasing blackies since I was a teenager and I can give up anytime I like, I just haven't found the right time yet !!! You've only got to start worrying when you close your eyes in bed at night and you see you float dart under!!!.......or does that only happen to me???? Cheers, Smitty...

It sure was a great day guys, I had a ball!! Three good mates having a ball on the bay, playing with rat kings and schools of bonnies and tailor....what more can you ask for???.....Ummm.....a legal king would have been nice but that'll have to wait till next time. I was stoked to catch a couple of small kings on my very first attempt.........and on poppers at that ......geez the big one must pull bloody hard! I'm sure that first jew is just around the corner too Johnno....I can feel it! Cooked up a feed of tailor and bonnie fillets last night and they went down a treat dipped in hot chilli mayo......yummo. And I might just cook up some bream, trevally and flathead tonight......like stewy said, it was a bit of mixed bag. Once again guys, thanks heaps for a TOP day on the water.....the trophy is a dream to fish out of Johnno .......hope we can do it all again some day real soon. Cheers Smitty...

Well well well, thanks for starting this thread spinman and thanks for the informative reply slinky. My TD SOL 2500 makes a horrible noise when there's line running around the line roller and I was considering pulling it down to work out whick bearing was gone (following the instructions in Slinkys SOL maintenance post of course ). I'll check out the line roller bearing when I get home.....hopefully thats it!!! BTW, can you recommend somewhere to get the aftermarket stainless/ceramic bearing from? Ya gotta love the Fishraider knowledge bank ...amazing!!!

Yep, I've heard these whilst fishing in the Cookes when the planes are landing from the west. They do sound freaky but VERY cool!!!!

I'm so sorry to hear this terrible news Rick and Robyn. My thoughts are with you both. Kindest regards, Smitty...

Congrats on your first ever Bass feistyfish !! Now that you've got some runs on the board I'm sure there'll be plenty more where they came from. Ahhhh......Lake Glenbawn, what a beautiful spot.........I wish I was back there right now!!!! Cheers, Smitty

Hi all, Though you might be interested in a couple of recent photos of the Lake Lyell floating pontoon. I've only been to the lake a couple of times, but I've never seen this pontoon anywhere near the water before.......bloody incredible!!! Hoping to get up there in the very near future myself. Cheers, Smitty...

I've been hanging to hit the water again since I got home from Glenbawn last week, and finally Thursday arvo the weather was ok and the planets were aligned. So myself and Stuball (stew) decided we'd give the Georges river in the Kentlyn area a try. Stuball had never caught Bass before and I hadnt been down to this section of the river since last summer but was confident that we could put him on to his first Aussie Bass. It only took a couple of casts until Stew was onto a healthy LITTLE fish that tryed to eat a lure not much smaller than itself. It was only a small one but Stew was pleased with himself (a Bass is a Bass!!!) The fish weren't really "on" but we managed half a dozen fish ranging from tiny to pretty respectable. Best fish of the arvo was a nice Bass of at least 35cm that gently sipped my river 2 sea cicada from the surface just before dark. I think stew has the bug now...so we'll be back for another try in the near future. Here are a couple of pics. Stews first and second Bass the best of the arvo Cheers, Smitty...