Steve Mc

Thanks everyone. I do love getting out with the family and I am lucky that my wife was brought up fishing. They don't quite have my obsession but they still enjoy it. Tumra, Penguin is right. We fished from my tinnie but pulled in to the beach for lunch.

Haven't been out to Botany Bay for a long time so I went out on Sunday with the wife and kids. Started at hot water outlet but after nothing in 1st 15 minutes we moved on. Found a spot second row back at the oil wharf in about 14m of water. Sent down the berley and within no time we started pulling up trevally. 10 in total with the biggest going 43cm. All caught on nippers and peeled prawns. Top day out.

Great fish and a great read. Well done.

I too love my kayak fishing. Mainly in the fresh but I have done a bit of estuary fishing as well. This one is me in my double. I often fish with my youngest (8) up in front. This is my fishing mate Ross in his single kayak.

Fresh Tailor is beautiful. Not a bad size that one. Did you see any bird activity around the school or was it just down deep waiting for your bait?

I know it can be busy on a Sunday at mol point but on Sunday I had two old blokes park themselves so close we could almost shake hands. They then proceeded to let down an anchor over the side of the tinnie that must have had 50m of chain because the noise just went on and on and on. Once they let out a massive amount of rope, they were then positioned on the other side of me, but this meant their anchor rope completely stopped any cast I wanted to make out the front of my boat. I said to one of them (didn't need to yell because he was so close) "is that your anchor all the way over there?" He replies "yeah, were you fishing there?" I said "I was" and he sits down and starts tossing over berley then drops down his bait. Not being the type to get too upset with things I just had to have a laugh with my mate. I guess I could laugh because we were having no luck anyway. Some people just live in their own little worlds don't they.

There must be plenty because that is all the trout had in them.

Waynie, I love it when the family all catch fish because it increases the chance of going again in the near future . Powerbait was fished on the bottom with a size 8 hook. The edges where we fished from were reasonably solid. Zenman, there is a good chance that I will put some sort of fish in my pool one day when the kids grow up. Wastin Time/Domza, water levels are still very low and I don't expect any change to the boating policy for a while. I am going up in the not too distant future with a mate with our kayaks. We should have the whole lake to ourselves.

G'day all. Had a great mothers day recently with a lovely bag of rainbows taken from lake Lyell. 4 fish were taken on power bait and 1 on worms. As you can see by the photos, conditions were unbelievable for Lithgow. 3 were BBQ'd and 2 smoked in my new smoker.

I can't speaK from experience so I will ask. Do flatties that size actually still taste good. I would have thought not, but feel free to correct me. Steve

I agree. I am tossing up the idea of dropping my subscription. Sure i get it a touch cheaper but when you add up the value of the freebies on the cover that we miss out on it probably isn't worth it.

I use 6lb Fireline on most of my reels for light estuary and river and I would never go back to mono. The biggest fish I have taken on it is an 8lb salmon which it handled fine (with the appropriate drag setting of course) It casts so much better when throwing light lures around. I tested it a long while ago and it always broke well above 6lb even when tied with a fluorocarbon leader using an improved albright knot. Perhaps the strength becomes an issue when you start heading to stronger line classes???

Sounds like a nice little day. How many did you keep? Did you keep the 65cm model? Were the bream and snapper on SP's as well or were they taken on bait?

That is a sensational day out. I am so jealous!

And there is the problem Davy, I haven't been part of any of it Takes a bit of organising for me to get down there, but my question was based on my desire to join in the fun before it stops.

Definitely a fun fish to catch as they jump all over the place but as far as eating goes, they are a fair way down the list, plus their little blue bones are everywhere.

I am heading up to Lake Macquarie next weekend and was wondering if anyone had much experience up there, and if so, would you mind giving me a few pointers on where to go. I am staying down the southern end but if it is worth it I could take the boat up the northern end and launch up there. Any help would be much appreciated.

Reading the posts lately shows how things are pretty hot at the moment in Botany Bay with Kings, Bonnito and similar, appearing in many catches. Now I realise that every year is different, with changing currents, water temps etc but on average, how long would you expect these fish to stay around?

That really is the day of my dreams. Brilliant stuff.

No Jeff, the closest I get to eating them is a quick kiss and back in they go. The last bass I ate would have been 20 years ago. Nothing wrong with the taste as I remember, but the enjoyment of having one of these little power houses smash a surface lure is just too good, so I prefer to have no negative impact on the local numbers. Don't get me wrong, I love a feed of fish as much as the next bloke, but just not wild river bass.

Thanks Stewy. That isn't encouraging though.

Does anyone know what difference the recent rains have made to the water levels at Lake Lyell? I used to check the levels as they were posted fortnightly on the Delata Electricity website but they haven't updated for many months now. has anyone fished there lately?

Went out early for a little bass session with my youngest last Sunday on the Nepean in the kayak. The recent rains have cleared the surface weed completely so paddling was easy and enjoyable. Scott managed his best fish for the season with a 370mm bass taken on the surface just before sunlight. All up we managed 8 good fish in 2 & 1/2 hours. {as you are probably wondering about his glasses, I make him wear safety glasses to protect him from wayward hooks}

Possibly Devlins Lane on the Nepean for a bass fish Sunday morning.

Went for an arvo/night fish in the kayaks up past the narrows on the Nepean. Put in at about 6pm and things started well. Using surface lures we (brother Glenn and mate Ross) got a few hits with no hookups. Then I did hook a nice one that proceeded to wrap me in the weeds and left me there as he took off. Then my luck turned better when I hooked up and landed a nice 35.5cm bass. Not long after I landed a 29cm model. Nice clean fights with no weed to cause a problem. I was using a yellow kokoda cicada imitation and Glenn was using a fluro green jitterbug. He hadn't had a touch so changed to a black one. Not long after he landed a nice 35cm version (yes that is half a cm smaller than mine!) Ross meanwhile had landed a couple of babies and a small herring. It was about this time that darkness came over and it was like a switch had been flicked because it all went quiet. Not a touch between the start of the darkness and 10.30pm.