jdanger

Top session. Did you have any luck on the flats or were all the fish caught deep?

What a lizard! Well done

Talk about making the most of a long weekend! No doubt the brownie point account is now running low...

Have you had much success with the bream? Seems like you have the luderick well and truly sussed Canada Bay area Been fishing here since I picked up a rod & it always amazes me how surprised the locals are that there are fish here. Nothing like a salmon on bream gear to draw a crowd though!

Sure did. What won't they catch?

I wanted to try my luck on luderick and fly in the east, but Nick was on a short leash and desperately needed a quick bend in the rod so we opted for an early start in the inner west in between downpours. What's fishing without mates, eh? Despite a negligible tide and fresh dirty water, it wasn't long before we got stuck into bream, flathead, a thin whiting, a legal tailor (my first from here) and a fat salmon. Definitely felt like winter had arrived, with a few less fish than normal but much better quality (bream to 36, with a healthy late-20s average). The sambo went 52cm and gave Nick the fix he needed. On the tackle side of things, z-mans were once again the go-to. I've also decided that fishing plastics on straight fluro is not as bad as some folks reckon. Yes there's more stretch, but I feel the stealth makes up for the slight reduction in casting distance and sensitivity. Not fiddling with leaders is also nice.

Awesome work as usual!

Nice one, Tysh. A recently retired colleague has been enjoying the blackies up there and trying to lure me up. Your report is making me even more impatient for a day off!

Awesome encounter, good work getting him out of the pylons.

Cracker session, well done. Some good hoods there

Sure is, Regan. Never seen ice like that myself. The mornings were cold but the evenings felt quite mild.

The rivers close this weekend! Finally got around to making a vid from our visit in May. Or if you prefer a thousand words, here's the original report. Tight lines

Good stuff Royce. Had a go off Bondi last week using some admittedly average flies, will go back to the vice an try again. Would love to know more about the rig too

I know you're looking at options other than daiwa gen blacks but I do like the gen black shorehunter. 8.5ft, 4-7kg and a 5piece so great for travel. Cast weight 7-28g. Works fine with smaller metals and even mid sized hardbodies with a pretty stiff tip.

You're 100% right, Roger. Just on the edge of the weedbeds from memory.

Never managed one on a lure personally but I've seen plenty of pics. Was very surprised to hear a mate catch one on a surface walker at narrabeen in march during a hot bream & whiting session though.

Hah! South Bondi? I was there a bit earlier, I think I saw you wearing a red shirt on my way back from walking the dog. Had a chat to those lads and gave em some tips (don't use a sinker), then had a squid take a 20g metal on the drop on my last cast. Would've stayed longer but I didn't bring the jigs.

Awesome looking fish and great shots

Europeans love em. The owners of the wollondilly river station swear by them too. Caught my first carp there and gave it to them since I wasn't keen. Worth noting that the Wollondilly is a sandy/rocky river so very clean, not sure if the same applies to the Wingecarribee too. Good haul & first post. Welcome to the forums. .

That's awesome, good work on untangling the line. Very trusting on the whale's part too

Last year's trip. Managed two fish, dropped 4 more. It's certainly a unique experience, the fact that so many anglers make it an annual pilgrimage makes the place feel like some sort of festival.

Headed to the snowy mountains on Friday with a small group for our annual trout spawning pilgrimage. The lack of rain meant made for tough fishing, with locals claiming everything is running almost a month behind schedule. The removal of 4wd access to everywhere but the mouth meant that there were far fewer anglers than last year. After coming in late on Thursday night, we hit the water on Friday morning at first light for a cold and largely unproductive session. Nick "the trout whisperer" managed two small browns in between defrosting his guides, taken on glo bugs behind a weighted nymph. Besides two other spooked fish, that was it for the morning. We hit the upper river above the treeline that afternoon, coming across plenty of smaller resident fish. Nick managed one on a dry while I remained on my doughnut despite literally kicking a 3-pounder while wading. The next pool held dozens of fish - nick plays the guide while I work the pool with dozens of casts, throwing everything in my fly box for nada. While I pause to change rigs yet again, Nick casually throws his nymph/bug combo to connect immediately, foul hooking another small brown. I can't win! We head back to the cabin to catch up with the other three gents - two suffered doughnuts while the third managed 3 on a streamer pattern whilst polaroiding the lake. After dinner and a few glasses of red, we make our way down to the mouth for our evening session. We came across another group of 5 who seemed to be enjoying success on spin gear, and it wasn't long before we got stuck into a few ourselves. 4 out of 5 of us were fishing black woolly buggers on a tandem rig - one weighted and one unweighted. I finally got one on the board, the success made even sweeter by the fact the fish ate the weighted bugger which I'd tied myself (a first for me). Things died off after an hour, the consensus from the more experienced spawn fishers being that it was an underwhelming session compared to previous years. The Saturday saw a change of tact. G decided to stay at the lake to repeat his polaroiding success of the previous day while the remaining four of us went to check out the Murrumbidgee River below tantangara dam. We dropped J off at one silty stream he wanted to explore (doughnut) while we hit the river. N&R headed upstream, whilst I hung around the lake. It wasn't long before a hit another milestone, catching my first ever rainbow on an unweighted nymph suspended under a dry. 20 minutes later and I was into my second, slightly larger fish from almost the same spot. Using my rod as ruler, both fish were around the 40cm mark and in great condition. The two who went up also had fun, seeing plenty of similarly sized fish rising. N managed two, whilst R was unlucky to drop what would've been his first of the trip. A brief stop at another stream saw me miss a take on my Adams parachute, before we headed back for dinner and more wine. G had a quiet day on the eucumbene, neither seeing nor hooking a thing. That evening was our last session of the trip before the drive back to Sydney the next day. We were surprised to find we had the river to ourselves bar one angler off in the distance on what proved to be one very mild and ultimately quiet Saturday night. I had one hookup on what felt like the best fish of the trip before it fell off. Nick managed a couple, G scored one, and the other two went empty handed. No pics, but I'll post a video when I get back to Sydney (this lucky SoB is currently defrosting in the tropics of Thailand). Not sure how much fishing I'll get done though, seeing as I spent most of my brownie points on the trout? ?? Back to the snowiest: Things should pick up bigtime after a good drop of rain. Tight lines

Gold! Talk about the jellybean effect. Love that such a big fish came with such a small bite. Goes to show how important keeping contact with the lure is.

Beach/rocks Salmon/tailor = 45-80gm slugs (surecatch knights have worked well, anything metal will do) Bream/whiting/flathead = small metal vibes off the beach in low swell Estuary Bream/whiting/flathead = 2.5" zman grubs on jigheads 1/12th-1/32Nd, or atomic crank38s in deep or shallow depending on depth. Atomic shad 50s and Berkeley walking sticks have worked well for me too if you wanna try hardbodies. Two very different forms of fishing, each requiring its own rod/reel combo to fish effectively

Cracker plastics session in anyone's books. All the more impressive if you're new to the game. Hope your next session is just as hot! Edit: what set-up/plastics were you using?