Chappo

Well done mate. Nice Fish. Great to see you put the big girls back. I do the same.

Better to eat than fish when cooked right IMO. Well done mate! Chappo

You got to be in it to win it. The more hours at Juno soaking livies, the higher your probability of nailing those big ones!

Well done mate. I have been getting them too using fresh mullet and atlantic salmon frames. Thoughtthey would have gone quiet by now, but obviously still quite a few about. Chappo

Hi sam You are allowed four witches hats per licensed angler. I have about twenty feet of rope on each one tied to a foam ball. They have to have your name, year of birth and post code written on them. Usually use half a mullet or atlantic salmon frame as bait that are tied on with cable ties. We had 7 traps out yesterday and checked them every two hours. Dont fish far from your traps. Some people cant help touching other peoples stuff! Chappo

Very quiet yesterday morning. Amazing what one week difference makes. Same spot near the Hawkesbury road bridge, but this time fished the bottom of the tide about 9am in the morning. Put out the burley trail from hell but no school jews or bream. A nice flathead, crab and tailor and that was it. We moved on and scored another flattie just under 50cm on a Dan McGrath attack hard bodied lure. Checked the traps and between us we scored 8 keeper blue swimmers and called it a day. Perfect weather again! How long can it last? Chappo

Well done mate. Cracking fun on light gear!

Ill try the aniseed next time Pete. Already got the chicken with parmy and tuna oil marinating. Shocking stuff on the fingers though. Its a wash the hands over the side job after each bait. Will be interesting to see whats about at the bottom of tide tomorrow which is about 8.30am. 67cm. Thats getting real close. Actually havent heard of any big boppers being landed by my mates, but there were serious scales jewie scales at the fish table last friday. Might try a night session soon and crack out the heavy gear. We will be fishing with bream gear again tomorrow, so anything bigger thand a catfish will good fun! Chappo

Ill find out tomorrow. Usually prefer the top of the tide but its basically the same principle. When the tide slackens off, the fish are able to be a bit more active. I assume they lazy just like us and sit in cover and holes etc while the tide rips through.

Sounds like a good technique. I didn't have too much trouble with the chicken strip baits holding, until the tide started ripping through. My mate and I are both a bit lazy and were going to give it another 30 minutes but couldn't be bothered going to heaver sinkers to hold the bottom. At this stage looking to head out again on friday but will be fishing the bottom of the tide this time. Thanks for the tip!

Hi mate. Using chicken breast. Had the same feeling about the bait not holding that well and been using long shank hooks and threaded them through a few times and still leave some hanging off the end. The strips i use are about as long as your middle finger. Having said that,cso e of my mates only thred their strips throug the hook once. I also have to admit that i only started using chicken as i have spent all summer chasing other species. Also it seems to be a bait for using on the turn of tides. Not sure if the bream are schooled up at the vines yet. Was waiting to hear from someone. May onwards seems to be about the right time though. Good luck

The jewies took the hawkesbury river prawns (windybanks) and the chicken. I had my chicken pieces mixed with a little tuna oil and some parmesan cheese. At this stage im fishing again on friday (depending on the weather). Taking my neighbour out. So we will be at the mooney boat ramp (just north of the F1 road bridge) around 6.30am. Come and say hello if you can make it and i can explain the spot we fished as it there are a number of land marks to set up off. You cant miss my boat. Its a 5.1 metre tabs territory pro with a learly blue mako eyerwear sponsor wrap wround it. Just used mullet for bait in the witches hats and they were dropped fairly randomly in brtween 8 to 14 feet of water. Remembrr to bring some burley. I just use a frozen loaf of bread with tuna oil and chicken pellets. Alos rig wise, standed bream gear handles them fine at that size. Running sinker to swivel and then about 45cm of 14lb leader onto a long shank 2 o hook or similar. Chappo

I'm heading out again next friday with my brother but the tides wont be as friendly. Just love those early morning or dusk top of the tides. Seems to be when the fishing is at its best in some parts of the Hawkesbury. Good luck

Hi All, Hit the Hawkesbury yesterday morning with my good mate "Lowie" We put some witches hats out each and then set up to fish the top of the tide not too far from the road bridge. Wasn't holding my breath re the crabs as my last two efforts in other areas ended up with zero and thought they had finished for the season. Got the burley going and pretty quiet until the tide started to turn and then things came alive. In the next hour we landed 4 Jewies (all under 70cm and returned but great fun) and three good keeper bream. Bait was Hawkesbury prawns and chicken fillets. The tide started to belt through so we moved around to Mooney and chased some flathead on soft plastics and ZX's. Things were a little quiet but we kept four in the 40's for dinner. To finish the session we surprisingly ended up with 17 blue swimmers between us. More were caught but released as under size or female. All up a great day with beautiful weather and calm flat water. If you can get out this weekend on the Hawkesbury, you should be rewarded with some nice fish. From reports from other mates, there seem to be a lot of jewies about at present! Good luck! Chappo

Good luck. Let us all know how you go!

run your hard bodies a fair way back and fairly slow. The bass are that thick at present that you should see them schooling on the sounder sitting in about the 25 to 35 foot range. Once you get a few hits, keep working that area. Also back off the drag off a little if not near any timber, as we lost quite a few Aggressive strikes with the drag too tight. Good luck. Its an amazing recreational dam.

Dark purple feral cats worked well for me for the bigger fish!

Hello Raiders Fished the first two legs of the Australian Freshwater Masters last weekend. First up was Golden Perch at Lake Windamere. Sheeeesh, it was hell with the dam shutdown and foul weather. What a difference three weeks has made when the perch were on the chew. We went from the Penthouse (winning the Golden Classic) to the sh*#thouse with only 3 fish for 18 hours comp fishing. The other teams (apart from Steve and Jo Starling who got their ten) also struggled. Seems the only way to get a bite, was rolling soft plastic grubs up and down trees. Next leg was two days at Glenbawn Dam for bass. Big thanks to Merv Hughes who led everyone through some Bay 13 warm up stretching at the briefing. Thankfully Glenbawn was alive with bass and all boats scored well with big numbers. Dave and I boated and released over 80 Bass. The biggest caught during the comp was 435mm (measured nose to fork of the tail, not the tip). That is a cracking Bass for that dam. From talking to the other teams, seems everyone was trolling hard bodied lures at some stage and bigger fish were schooled up in about the 30 to 35 foot mark. Highly recommend getting to Glenbawn NOW if you want to get smashed up. The last leg is at Lake Mullwalla in February, cashing Murray cod. Hopefully it wont be a wasted trip! Chappoooooooooooooo P.S. The AFWM is a lure only catch and release comp with all fish measured by other comp boats!

Yes, its catch and release. Your fish have to be measured in this comp by another member of your team and signed off by them on your card. You are fishing as an individual as a well as a team so you are not going to help anyone beat you I suppose. Also, for the biggest catch in this comp, it has to be measured and signed off by another comp boat. Each year I've been in it, people don't bother you to measure a fish unless its over 600mm. Not sure who won it this year, but I remember it was around 609mm. The guy would have had to have that measured by another boat.

It's getting close. When the perch spawn, the males school up around the females (so I am told). Hopefully this will happen in the next few weeks. I'm back up there for the Australian Freshwater Masters in two weeks. Will let everyone know how it is fishing.

Hi All, Fished the Golden Classic at Lake Windamere last weekend and thought I would write up a report. The Golden Classic has become well known as one of the longest running premier freshwater fishing competitions in Australia. This year was no different, with a record field of 68 teams and over 200 invited anglers. This was my third crack at the title and was lucky enough to fish with Dave Shelton, a guru and legend of Windamere, and rookie, Brendan Lee. The first day saw good catches of perch by many of the teams. All of the fish caught were fat and healthy but not quite in spawning mode. The second day saw the bite shut down early and pretty much everyone struggled to hook up. Having said that, there were some great recorded catches with the largest yella measuring in around 609mm and three more over 600mm. We were lucky enough to put together a card of 10 Golden Perch measuring 5660mm, to win the perpetual Steve Starling trophy for Champion Team. Dave also nearly pulled off the clean sweep, narrowly missing out on Champion Angler by millimetres! A great weekend. Special thanks also to Ian "barra" Miller and Pat Morris for organising the event. If you get a chance, get up to Windamere to chase the golden perch this summer. Its an excellent dam near Mudgee and makes for a great weekend camping and fishing! Chappoooooooo

Great work on the catch and release. Kills me every time I see a big girl that size at a fish cleaning table!

JD The best advice so far has been to keep them aerated and in fresh water for a few days. the longest I have left them is a day and a half with regular changing of water and in a dark place and unfortunately still got traces of sand! someone must know the secret!

. Thanks for Pipi advice. will try it!

Thanks all. Yes, should have mentioned it was caught floating a butterflied pilchard with a small amount of lead running all the way down to a 6o gamakatsu hook. Was actually targeting snapper and we were in only 15 metres of water. Used my old faithful shimano bait runner. always a hoot when it goes off!