cruisecraft

Hi Foolforjesus, Better luck next year. I was on the Thredbo river a week earlier(31/5 to 2/6) and with all the rain, the river rose up to the top of the bank on Saturday 1st June. It was fast and the water dirty and it was not possible to fly fish. The next day, the water level dropped but it was still dirty. The rain was light during the day but heavy at night. The schnapps place is a very nice distraction. Regards Kit

Yes, mike rang me just after 6pm all excited and I went over to the RMYC on Woolooware Rd and had a sticky beak at the beast in the boat. The fish was in the boat and it was HUGE!!!!. I took photos with the Iphone and then Mike said he was not so good at uploading pictures, so I went home and got the SLR and went to his house later on and these are the pics. Enjoy the pics and well done Fishbones Mike. Regards Kit

Hi Pat, Welcome back to Fishraider, and congrats again on a top capture. You've found your username(dragemout)finally. Yes, Wild Brumby was a fantastic place to "chill out" after the fishing. If you pm slinkymalinky, you can lay claim to both largest brown(78cm) and atlantic salmon(85cm) on fly records. Regards Kit

Hi Paul, The colours sure looks like a brown but Steve Williamson called Pat's a salmon, when Pat took the fish to Steve's shop for a weigh and measure. Both your mate's and Pat's fish do look very similar, and both were caught at the same spot. Pat got his on Monday 4th June. So Salmon it is as I have to go with the expert opinion(Steve's). Regards Kit

Hi foolforjesus, That spot "under the wires" is a top spot. We saw plenty of fish too but I think it was the overnight rain on the Sunday that turned the fish on. Good luck next year. Regards Kit

Hi Paul(On Strike), I think you could be right. Pat took his fish down to Steve Williamson's shop after the capture, and after they weighed and measured it, Steve called it a Salmon . Me and Pat called it a Brown initially but we are having doubts now. Here's a picture of last year's 73cm and 78cm browns and one more of Pat's 85cm. Regards Kit

Hi Raiders, I went off on my annual fly fishing trip to Jindabyne from 31/5 to 3/6. My fly fishing guru,Pat, met me at the lodge, just outside of Jindabyne on the 31/5 and we fished the next 3-4 days in very cold and overcast conditions. There was even ice on some sections of the river.. There was plenty of trout sighted and I waved the wand many a times, but this year, I could not get the trout to take my lures. Dejected, I left on Sunday 3/6 in light to medium rainfall. Pat decided to stay till Tuesday the 5th June. That was a good call as it turn out. It was quite a day for Pat the next day,Monday 4th. He emailed me the result of his PB,bettering the 78cm of last year's by 7cm. Yes, 85cm of solid brown on fly on a wooly bugger.He was fishing solo and was lucky to land the fish as it went upstream first and then turned downstream towards Pat who promptly netted the monster. It tipped the scales just over 6kg. I'll let his pictures do the talking. Those familiar with the Thredbo river will recognize the spot where this fish was caught. Pat kept this fish as it was his PB. Regards Kit ps Pat is a fishraider( but he seldoms signs on and has forgotten his user name)

Hi Boattart, It is a bit late in the season now, but try(your daughter) fishing around shark island (in Summer) as there is no backwash and the swell is much less there than at the Bommie. From late November till April Kings, tailors, bonitos are plentiful around shark island especially on the northern and eastern side. Pick up live yakkas near the 3 yellow buoys north of the island, then slow troll the livies around shark island and the buoys and the kids should have a great time. Bonitos prefer the pink skirts(Xmas trees) around Shark Island and tailors with skirts off Wanda close to the surf.Otherwise if the kids still get seasick try slow troll livies in front of ET's place(off Shiprock Rd) in the Hacking for kings. Regards Kit

Well done Caddis, very nice Brown there. Regards Kit

Thanks for the reply and advice. Regards Kit

Hi Formosan, Well done on the squids and down rigging them for your catch. Do you down rig with live squid or is fresh caught squid just as good when DRing for kingfish? Many thanks. Regards Kit

HI cruisecraft Sounds like an interesting method to prepare sashimi squid... was rock salt used or the finer table salt? The squid ike jime I have now is made by Yamashita...the broad flat edge of this spike makes it easier to dispatch the squid + it has a squid jig spike straightener...they cost about $15 from most retailers that stock yamashita squid jigs. Great buy I say. Cheers Trung Hi Trung, Thanks for the info re ike jime. Use table salt n rub the squid parts hard(after separating head, wings and tube) to get the slimy feel away. Wash n repeat process 3X. Regards Kit

Hi Trung, I took the Japanese chef from Masa restaurant (at Tom Ugly's bridge, Sylvania) fishing about 18 months ago and he showed me the technique with how to prepare sashimi squid. He rubbed salt over the tentacles and then washed it off. He repeated this procedure 3 times (he also did the same with the "wings" and the tube of the squid). I found the best(tastiest) part was the wings, the tentacles came second. Try squid sashimied this way with wasabi and soy, yummm . BTW, Trung where did you get the ike jime spike from? Regards Kit

Well done Geoff on landing him, what did he measure? My "guesstimate" is ~68-70cm. Regards Kit

Thanks Reggie(Stephen) regards Kit

Does anyone know if Lake Tugerah/The Entrance is open to the sea? If it is, what is the delay(in time) in the tide, as I'm led to believe that the best time to go prawning is on the outgoing tide.Many thanks. Regards Kit

Hi Raiders, I just came back from Shimano at Taren Point, extremely pleased with their service. Over the weekend I noticed that my 5 year old Symetre 1500 had a crack in the bail arm near the line guide,(I probably used it too much and it has cracked from the repeated use) I live and work at Cronulla so I drove over at lunch time and the boys there fixed it on the spot for free.They replaced the cracked bail arm on my 5yo Symetre and when I asked what the damaged was, the fellow said, I owed them nothing, it was free. How good is that. Big plus for Shimano. Regards Kit

Well done Caddis, beautiful scenery and great report. Looking forward to the next installment. Regards Kit

Wow Nanook, great report and fantastic pictures. Felt like "I wuz there" Regards Kit

As the Yanks will say, "You de man bro". Looking forward to your "reports" Regards Kit

Salmon-Hunter, Thanks for the aerial reconnaissance. Any chance this would be a Friday arvo regular feature :biggrin2: Regards Kit ps tentonner Thanks for the report.

Watched it Monday night, and thought it was great entertainment and it opened my eyes to something new. The photography/scenery was excellent and the dialogue well presented. Will watch out for it Monday nights 8.30pm. Regards Kit

Hi Tony, I too, daydream about matters piscatorial, whilst at work. MATE, I thought I had it bad, but it is reassuring to know that there are others out there, just like us, suffering this "affliction". An affliction that can only be alleviated by the holding a rod in the hand and then that feeling of a burst of pure energy at the other end and then the unbridled joy at the holder's end. Sweet dreams, Tony, sweet dreams. Regards Kit

Hi fellow Raiders, The last 3-4 months, whenever I have a slow day at the office and have a 2 hour gap at lunch time(it happens about once every 2-3 weeks),I have been going home and jumping into the Hobie Kayak and having a fish for Bream. It helps that I am self employed and I work 5 mins from home and can drop the kayak into the Hacking from the backyard. I have been using Gamakatsu worm EWG hooks in 4'O' and using either nippers(live or frozen)or peeled prawns with no weight, with an 8lb flouro leader and 6lb mainline, and I have been having pretty consistent success. My best effort was 7 bream at lunch time. The frozen nippers tend to float and will require split lead shots to get it to sink slowly. The technique has been to approach pontoons with stealth and flick the unweighted bait(or with minimal split weights) up current of a pontoon and let the bait sink under the pontoon or if there are mooring poles to flick it close to the front of the pontoon and wait for the line slack to tighten and hang on. I have my line a bit slack and the Gamakatsu is very sharp, so when the bream hits, the line will tighten and I pedal away from the pontoon and hold on. The bream are quite smart and will try to head for structure with oyster growth to cut you off, and frequently I have had to palm the spool to stop the bream from cutting me off and hoping the line holds together. Most of the bream under the pontoons tend to be the bigger ones and high 30's and low 40's cm are quite regular. So for those having trouble getting bream in the Hacking, try this method. The only set back is that once a bream is caught at one pontoon, the rest of his mates scatter and will not return for a while, so I go on to the next pontoon and return much later. I have tried this technique with a few moored boats but the pontoons have been the more productive. This was yesterday's effort with peeled prawns, it went just over 40cm. I kept this one as the wife wanted fresh fish to steam cook for dinner last night.I had to rush back to work at lunch time and so cleaned the fish at 6pm when work was finished. Regards Kit

Thanks John , will do. Regards Kit Here's another pic of the smaller of the blue eye, I can't get over the quality of the pictures on the Iphone.