PRED-ATOR

the stradic ci4? If so, i got both a freams and Ci4. What i like better about the shimano: Castability and the fact you dont need to flip the bail arm over, just turn the handle which is good for fishing buzzbaits on top water Freams: Drag smoothness and control, finish and line capacity. Cheers

Thanks Scratchie, hows the fishing down your way going at the moment? no doubt some big winter jew around Thanks Neil, has the water level picked back up in your neck of the woods yet? i gather the cod would be in full swing right now

Bass need salt/brackish water to spawn. In the wild, yes, they would be spawning hence season closures etc. These do not apply to the impoundments (where i was fishing) as the bass do not spawn in them. I guess they carry that schooling behaivour from the wild through - i always thought they did it for warmth lol! Cheers

P.s. i made that bass in the third pic look huge haha but was 42cm

Hi Raiders, Just returned from 2 weeks leave where i decided to hit some of the impoundments in search of a PB Bass and hopefully tick a Saratoga off the northern bucket list. No beans on the Saratoga (yet) but i did manage a PB bass of 40cm in the first week. The week after, i cracked that with a 42cm model and scored about 15 others the same size. In the two trips i made, i caught well over 50 bass, nothing under 37cm. I did notice however; these fish were a lot leaner than they should be for this time of year, perhaps there is a shortage of food in the impoundments.... I also managed a mega eel of over 1 metre which fell to a berkley flicker shad, great fun on light gear. I have been using some new gear of late: Sunline Super Bass (70m) 10lb braid in camo green - this line is excellent as with all sunline products. Really good knot holder and casts like a bullet Daiwa Tournament 8 Snaps - i have always been a skeptic of snaps and thought they would put off bites, certainly not the case with the bass. they are so small that i dont think they would make any difference... they are really fiddly however and dont really make lure changing a 'breeze' but, i dont have to lose any leader cutting or re-tying. Lures i been using have been jackall and sebile tail spinners, berkley flicker shads, beetle spins, rev heads with small plastics and TN60's. Technique; its all about finding the bass right now, which seem to be schooled up. Once located, its about finding out what they want to eat and how they want it presented. I spent ages on a school of fish and didnt get a touch just because my retrieve wasnt right. I woke them up with some more aggressive lifts and i was on straight away. Enjoy the pics!, Stan

Thanks Ian! hope all is well and their still biting for you mate?

thanks for that map, i am definitely going to give this a bash

man i need to work out how to get in there lol.

cool video! and good song choice haha

Thanks Neil, Keep at it you will get them. I am using my samsung phone camera its awesome! Cheers

oooohhh what course was this at?! might have to sneak in with a rod in a caddy bag!

look like fish arrows to me. they go awesome on the bass too

Hi Guys, Some quick pics from a bream sesh i had the other day off the yak and land. Bream were sitting under a thick school of baitfish holding in an eddy behing a mangrove island so worked hard bodies and soft plastics under the school - nothing of size though. Land based, i was fishing pylons, and the flats using poppers, hard bodies, grubs/maggot styled soft plastics and gulp shrimp. Also picked up a moses perch dead sticking a gulp shrimp. Weather is really nice up here at the moment 25 - 28 degree sunny days and the wind has dropped off considerably. Enjoy the pics! Cheers

thanks Cargo, yeah good variety up here and close to home

lucky it wasnt alive, they are scary buggers. Had one smash through a plastic holding tank i had in my larger fish tank.

Mate i reckon your increasing your failure points with all the knots. And you might reduce bites with the thicker leader. All the best mate looking forward to seeing what it is

Sometimes this happens to me when fishing for flathead, its when they shake their head from side to side when you have vertical pressure on them. I found backing the drag off when lifting the fish helped (although i still had leader rub). If its burying you under trees could be big bream or if your up north, small jack maybe? If it were tailor, you might have some damaged plastics which would give it away straight up. im not sure what bite leader is, but if it isnt supple, the movement you impart on your lure will be severely compromised.

yeah mate let me know when your up next. theres a massive golf course up near my way, any chance u were there? (hope island)

fishing the boat ramp past the powered sites at night produces good bass. If you fishing bait, fish near people who have lit fires, your guaranteed a cattie. Yella's are up tight in the timber so you need to be in a strike zone there. As the water cools down the shallows are going to be good in the mornings

thanks guys, awesome fun on the light gear. Cheers

Hi Raiders, The Bream and small GT's have been taking poppers, walk the dog and small hard bodies of late. The last 2 hours of sunlight seems to be doing the trick with a very slight to absent breeze being the most ideal conditions. Also, on the dead of night poppers have been really effective with black and natural colours doing the trick. I stopped taking pics of bream unless they have any decent size to them lol. I also caught this trev last yesterday, any idea on species? P.s. apologies for the rape vibe given off by that bream pic, i didnt realise how creepy i look in the dead of night Gear: Daiwa Gen Black Drunk Monkey Shimano Stradic Ci4 1000 3LB PowerPro Yellow 4LB Sunline FC Rock Berkley Prawn Dog, River2Sea bubble pop, TIEMCO stick minnow Cheers, Stan

thanks all, looking forward to ticking a cobia off the list! Cheers

Thanks Guys, Wouldnt mind ticking a cod off the list either. If anyone is planning a northern NSW trip, hit me up id love to tag along. Scratchie, let me know next time your up, i owe you for the nepean bass tips you gave me a few months back - i ended up with over 20 caught and released each session That treble i had to push through and cut, but looked more painful than what it was. Cheers!

Hi Raiders, Hoping everyone is well, its been a long time since my last confession. Early this year, i took a promotion which led to me moving up to the gold coast. I live in Hope Island now and have canal access - so ive spent many a night chasing the bullshark or putting in a million casts chasing jacks and cod. Ive also had the pleasure of fishing some of the impoundments up here, the freshwater sport fishing up here is excellent...still no toga yet though Here is a quick snap shot of some the stuff i been catching up here: Bream: Most of my bream fishing has been on 3lb, fishing the River2Sea crusty crabs and dragon maggots. Both work really well up here and the key retrieve is a slow but tall lift and drop. Cod/Jacks: Both Cod and Jacks seem to respond to the same lures when fishing sub-surface. I have been focusing my efforts with a 1/2 ounce jig head on Z-mann 4 inch swimmers in white or natural presentations. Slow rolls and deadstick seems to work on the jacks and slow rolls over rock bars coax the cod out pretty easily. With both these species, i found using a baitcaster is a lot better. Both fish will take lures straight back into the pylons or rocks. I had a few cod which i caught on smaller spin outfits buried their head into the rocks and didnt want to deal with life. simply plucking the line like a guitar had them come out very quickly - i see this working with other species aswell so keep this one in the book. Cod have also been taken on small berkley 3B lures in deep divers, mainly in the darker purple colour and atomic minnow styles lures in the suji shrimp equivalent. Long-Tom: My canal is full of them, and they are huge. Almost mistaken for cuda or eels. They cruise up along the surface and hang around near you. They respond really well to berkley prawn dogs and River2Sea bubble pops with feathers on the tail. Constant retrieves work, their mouths are very hard to hook so the constant tension of a retrieve makes it a lot easier. I have tried targeting them on fly but had no luck so far. My biggest is over 70cm but the fight leaves you a bit disappointed. GT: I hooked one and dropped it, but caught another baby one the day on a prawn dog, using a walk the dog styled retrieve. What they lack in size, they make up for in go. Especially on 3lb! Bass: I have only started chasing them up here. They respond well to Betts spins and Sebile Spin Shads - i am yet to crack anything over 40cm Yellowbelly: I caught my PB yella up here a few days ago. Over 3.2kg and taken on 3lb - safe to say i was happy with that, it wouldnt even fit in my net. Tilapia: Are quite prominent in the impoundments. They are a pest species and i was told you must kill it, but you cant take it home to eat. im not sure why i think something about egg's being washed back into the drainage systems. Misc: I had a run-in with a lung fish and almost emptied my spool, these things take lures aimed at other fish. Luckily it spat the lure so i know there was no harm done. There is also a few brown sweet-lip hanging around - they take hard bodies and grubs. When i first got up here (Feb), i spent a lot of nights chasing bullies from the canal - i had 3 separate runs and lost all 3. One of them, i couldnt stop. i reckon there would be some monsters in there, especially if they are matching the size of the rays in here. My next targets are mullet on fly, and Toga on just about any lure i can manage. Gear i been using: Daiwa Alphas 103 with 8lb Samaki Braid on Shimano raider baitcast Shimano Stradic Ci4 1000 with 3lb PowerPro on Samaki Zing 5'10" Daiwa Freams 2000 with 6lb Berkley Fireline (i hate this line), on Daiwa Black Label 7' Nitro Innovator 6WT with Redington Surge, El Cheapo Fly line which i want to throw away Enjoy the pics, again wishing everyone well - keen to know who lives up here and wouldnt mind wetting the line. Stan

thanks mate, i work for one of the big 4 banks (please dont hate me for it) Camo - hit me up when your up there mate, will be keen to tee up a jew or Jack session