wolfgang

There have been some awesome Cobia about this week with some at 32kg to 38kg. The last couple of days the bar has been a bit sloppy to get out.

Without Question at Number1 beats everything hands down. 1. Pearl Perch 2. Flathead tails 3. Whiting 4. I still love a feed of trout or Atlantic salmon.

I like that one!!

Top work on the 2 inch newpenny shrimp there Darcy I just love that paticular plastic. That is a good quality breambo there I bet he went like a freight train. Have you tried using the resin heads at all as they seem to drift slowly down and around in the water column and are dynamite on the drop if the bream are about. Well done on the P.B as well.

ditto all the above ... But for the last few months i can't rave enough about the Berkley new penny shrimp 2inch pattern. Absolute dynamite. Smaller jighead to leave a bit of flick in the tail and a slow, twitching, stop, start retrieve. The squidgie 3inch evil minnow still also rates as a fave and gets a swim every trip otherwise anything Berkley works. Flatties being oppurtunists aren't real fussy and if you can put it in front of their nose they'll take just about anything.

Noice flatties there Grant. Those Moses Perch are aggressive little buggers aren't they. I was talking to the girlfriend's old man he was from a pro fishing family up that way and he was saying the Tweed fishes nothing like it used to. It can produce quality fish but it's copped a massive hiding over the years and his opinion is it's paying for it now.

Mondo, Lake Wyangala 3 and a bit hours from Sydney has plenty of trees like that in the upper Abercrombie paticularly since the dam according to my mate back home is still quite low. The Lachlan arm from memeory also has a fair bit of dead wood sticking out in various places. Most of the other central west dams mentioned above also have dead timber as well. My mate caught and released 3 good cod last weekend trolling and got numerous yellow bellies out on Wyangala. Bit of fishing, a bit of photography a few beers = good weekend.

Yeah you can't really chew on a Gulp in the same fashion. Mind you a milk bottle has bugger all action. I'm taking a doubting Thomas down tonight to try the same trick. I lost a massive, massive Flathead on Saturday night out of the same hole I caught the big girl earlier this year. I got two very good looks at her from about 2 metres out and I'd say she's a metre in length and very possibly the same big girl!! I'll take the camera down (just in case) but might try the more conventional market brand plastics if I have a crack at her.

Dan...... tragic mate. I lost a custom built rod in the Lachlan river years ago given to me by an uncle. It was actually my mate who lost it. We were crossing the river way below the spillway chasing trout on fly and celta's when my mate lost his footing in about waist high water. The water runs pretty quick and cold coming from Lake Wyangala above anyway it was the worst feeling seeing him find his footing about 1o metres further down come up with bare hands....(glad he was alright but Jesus the sinking feeling in my stomach seeing him empty handed was hard to take.) GONSKI!! I really thought I'd lost this rod, the reel, can't remember (Daiwa I think) I couldn't give at the time a toss about. The upside was the river used to drop dramatically depending on the outflows so for a few w/ends I'd search the end of the rapid where I thought maybe it may have got wedged amongst the granite boulders. I bloody found it covered in that green slime wedged at the base of some boulders. My mates couldn't believe it and I for one thought i was searching in vain was absolutely stoked to say the least. (it has never ever been entrusted to anybody else since!!) I know there is a massive differance between a tailrace river and the wide open sea Dan but you never know. Anyway I hope your diver mate pulls off a miracle and comes up trumps with your fave weapon.

The last pic (flattie) was caught on a 2inch new penny shrimp. All caught in the Maclaey river around high tide.

bream on a milko. 53 cm flattie on a a half sour worm.....1/16 th jig head.

Howdy Raiders, I've been chatting to Dan from Byron a while back and he made mention of fish being caught on lollies. Since than I've been playing silly buggers. Now before the purists fall off their chairs backwards and so forth it's not a case of swapping your Berkleys, Squidgies for a packet of mixed lollies but for a bit of fun and to get a laugh I've had varying degrees of success. Milko's and Sour Snakes seem to go great guns while Chico's and mint leaves well.......I've had to scoff those down due to no interest. Here's a couple of Pics of this evenings effort. I'll include a sensible pic of a flattie on a 2 inch new penny shrimp. Anybody else had much luck with more unusual lures out there????

Howdy Dave... I fish the shrimp using the smaller resin squidgy resin heads and the tiny Gamatsku jig heads 1/32 ounce or (1/64??). They're pretty small anyway. I use agonisingly slow tweaks, small twitches and lifts...... everything is scaled down to slow,slow motions and tiny movements. Tedious yes but it works. There is bugger all belly in the gelspun and I try to impart these small movements with the rod tip. There is also enough of the tail to create a bit of life and flick like the real Mccoy. I generally fish these in the river at the top of the tide or the bottom or anywhere there are some good eddies or structure breaking the flow. I marched into Mo's the other day to buy another swag of them but they were all sold out They've got the next size up as well as some pretty nifty looking 6 inch versions that I'll give the jewies a whirl on soon. I also forgot.... I scale down my leader size as well for the smaller presentations. Judging by some of the quality flatties on the forum it's going to be a bumper season for the flatties.

ditto all the above. The new Berkley new penny 2 inch shrimp has been my main softie of choice over the last month. It's caught everything from flatties, bream, trevs, whiting, soapies and a heap of Pike in the last few weeks. Still the 3 inch minnows always find their way on at sometime during a session. Here's a pic of my biggest flattie caught and released over the weekend caught on the above new penny 2 inch shrimp pattern. I still have a soft spot for the 3 inch evil minnow pattern as well.

Nice work crystalizer and well done on the release job

Hey Daniel excellent work All you need now is for nice mr jewie to show up and scoff down some of those fine feathered creations of yours.

Hey Mondo, always an entertaining read and love your dogged persistance. I'm sure with jewhunter throwing in his assistance you'll soon have the chrome beauty at your feet. Just don't forget to take a bloody camera so we all get to see it

I'm sure jewhunter you won't regret making the move and heading to the Tweed, well, it won't be long before you're getting stuck into some North Coast jewies as well as all the other abundant species up that way. Best of luck to you.

Nice Tuna and the smile says it all

Howdy Daniel, Surprisingly the water is still pretty clear. While there was a fair amount of rain I don't think there has been much in the upper Macleay as far as runoff goes. I spoke to a bloke yesterday who lives above Kempsey about a possible bass trip this afternoon after work and he was saying the water is only slightly murkey. (Tossing up wether to take the kyak out to chase some bass or go harass some flatties this evening on some plastics.) If I get something worthwhile I'll post it. The two lures one is a River/Sea slimy mack pattern and the other is a rattling "buggeredifIknow butcatchesfish" model that I've had for yonks. Like Mondo man says the jewies really smash the hardbodies compared to the often subtle bump or sharp tap on plastics. How's your dog doin'?

Hey guys been catching a few jewies up this way in the Macleay river. They've been nailing the softies pretty well so decided a slightly different slant using hardbodies. The other night I pinned 2 on the last of the run in tide on plastics (both released) and than on the high water I switched to the hardbodies and with some real savage takes nailed another 2. I brought the camera down this night and here's a couple of pics to go with it.

I've got a couple of Okuma's both epix's. Bought them when they first came a couple of years ago and thought I'd give them ago. Although I don't use them now they were a pretty good looking reel. Having said that as someone above pointed out they don't take much to chip or scratch the surface paint which is bit of a downer. Otherwise their performance were pretty "fair" with no major failures or breakdowns.

Hello Matthead, Had a similair dilemma over these two nice reels. I was comparing the two recently (1000Fb and Sol 2000) I wanted a backup for the Certate and having been lucky enough to try both I went the way of the Sol2000. It's nearly as smooth as my Certate but I've been suitably impressed with it thus far and would give it the nod over the twinpower.

Hello Casanova, I used to fish alot of the central west for trout up until I moved North. There are trout at Ophir as well as the Bell's river nearby. There is a fair bit of fishing pressure there as well. Unfortunately you'd often see people fishing out of season regardless of the numerous signs erected. There are local acclimatisation groups who often undertook restockings yet with the continual severe droughts since the 90's there wouldn't have been much natural spawning taking place. Ophir has a lot of goldfield history to it so you might want to take a gold pan as well as you can always pan up a bit of colour. There used to be some awesome trout creeks on the Southern Canobalas side of Orange but I think they have been swallowed up by the massive Cadia and Newcrest goldmines there.

Nothing wrong with that session. flickin plastics, plenty of action and a bit of exercise to work up a thirst