Hodgey

What a ripper! Landing that fella on medicre tackle is a superb effort... well done!!

Thank you for the kind remarks, folks! Davemmm, the entrance has really been scoured out and there is a decent channel leading to the entrance now. The water was like treacle out the front for quite a while. Some of the boys have been catching good Flatties and Snapper out the front of the entrance, approx 250m from the beach. All signs indicate a great Spring/Summer for the lake! Hodgey

G'day Like a lot of places in NSW we were inundated with a lot of rain end June/early July. The fishing in Tuross River was not an option as the water rose several feet and was the color of Milo. Salinity levels were WAY down. My eldest daughter had flown down for a holiday and she was dead keen to get a fish in before she went back home. I showed her the state of the river the day she arrived and suggested that if we didn't get any more rain for the next week we may get lucky, otherwise we would fish Narooma. The following weekend was very cold but we had not had any rain so down to the river we go. One look at it and I decided we would be driving to Narooma. My daughter suggested we have a quick look 'seeing as we are here, Dad'. "O.K, 5 minutes", I said. "That's all I'll need", she laughed! I aimlessly threw a soft plastic around while she fished with a frozen prawn. I turned my head in response to her call of "Ummm, Dad ... could you lift this outta the water for me please?" 39 cm and 850gms. One delighted young lady and one very sheepish father!

G'Day all Well, what a great weekend just gone. Saturday was spent on the lake whistlin' lures around and Sunday was spent chasing salmon off the beach for an hour. I have long been a believer that the old Flattie was pretty much dormant during the Winter, and the very low water temperature of the lake at the moment would mean the Flatties would indeed be scarce. The morning started as I expected ... no fish for the first 40mins. Finally, my mate Dene boated a small Flattie (37cm) and things definitely stepped up a gear. In the next 4 hours we managed to boat another 8 Flatties, including these two at 51 and 54 cm ... Last cast of the day and I was absolutely smashed on the plastic, and 5 minutes later I managed to lift a very healthy 'lady' of 65cm. Having forgotten my camera AGAIN, the best we could do was measure her and release back into the coffee colored water. All in all it was a great day and put paid to a few misconceptions that I have been working under for a long time. Caught up Dene again on Sunday and was telling him that I had never caught a Salmon. (To be fair, I have not done a great deal of beach fishing either). Dene decided that 40+ years is long enough to wait and we would have a crack at them on the beach that afternoon. Again the fishing started quietly but the tide had only just started to run in so I was still hopeful. The fact that I saw a seal swimming through the waves didn't help my confidence level. 35minutes into the session and it finally happened ... my first Salmon of approximately 1kg! Joking with Dene after the photo session I boldly stated that now I would like to "upgrade" my PB Salmon and sure enough I did! My third Salmon came in at 58 cm and 2.25 kg. Between the pair of us we landed 9 salmon in 40min and had a ball. One of the best weekends fishing I have had in several months and a nice way to christen my new Fishraider Cap!! Hodgey

WooHoo! Tassie fishos must be having a ball The World Today - Wednesday, 13 June , 2007 12:48:00 9,000 Atlantic Salmon have escaped from a fish farm in Macquarie Harbour at Strahan and they're not going anywhere. The fish farm owners have now given up trying to compete with fisherman to retrieve the salmon, and the only way out of Macquarie Harbour is through a narrow entrance called Hell's Gate. As Felicity Ogilvie reports. FELICITY OGILVIE: It's not quite as easy as going fishing in an aquarium, but if you drop a line or net into Macquarie Harbour at Strahan, you're bound to catch Atlantic Salmon. Not just any salmon, but huge five to six kilogram fish that were about to be sold. The West Coast Mayor Darryl Gerrity has been watching the fishermen. DARRYL GERRITY: Macquarie Harbour is virtually land-locked, except for a small entrance into the ocean called Hell's Gates, and they tend to swim around the Harbour and lots of recreational fisherman net them during an escape, and eat very well, and use a lot of salmon recipes. FELICITY OGILVIE: The 9,000 salmon escaped two weeks ago when the company Tassal was towing a pen across the harbour. The fish were about to be harvested but a net got caught on a line and the 9,000 salmon in the pen swam free. Word of the escape spread fast and fishermen from across Tasmania flocked to Strahan. Darryl Gerrity says the locals have caught so many fish they're happy to share. DARRYL GERRITY: What are you going to do with a hundred salmon? Especially 8 kilo fish, you can only store so much in your fridge, so, obviously locals don't go out as frequently as say recreational anglers from all over Tasmania. They come here in droves and net them. The Strahan Police checked more than 300 fishing nets on the long weekend. FELICITY OGILVIE: Is it a situation where it is illegal for people to pick up these salmon that have escaped from the nets, or is it all right for them to be fishing? JONATHAN SUMMERS: No, it is encouraged. Once the salmon have escaped, it is in the interest of the fisheries I think to recover as many as possible. FELICITY OGILVIE: The Tassal group hire a commercial fishermen to recover as many salmon as possible. He caught a thousand fish. Mark Ryan is the Managing Director of the Tassal Group and he doesn't begrudge those making the most of the salmon bonanza. MARK RYAN: At the end of the day, it's just part and parcel. I try not to take it too personally at the end of the day, it's just one of those things that happens with the industry that we are in. FELICITY OGILVIE: Tassal is used to salmon escaping their pens. Often clever seals chew through the nets or crafty salmon use their own teeth to break free. And the bush telegraph is always at work with Tasmanian fishermen flocking to the site. Mark Ryan says while the escape of the 9,000 salmon in Strahan is regrettable, there's plenty more fish in the sea. MARK RYAN: We have about 170 pens, and we have about, at any point in time, we have about 8-million fish in the water. So to lose 9,000 fish out of 8-million gives you some sense of the perspective of it, so it is a very very small percentage. FELICITY OGILVIE: And if any fishermen were feeling guilty about feasting on Tassal's salmon, Mr Ryan says the company turned over $150 million last year, and the fish in this escape were worth $200,000 and they were insured.

Fishing Narooma saturday, Cooking BBQ for my daughter's school Fair on Sunday, and Fishing Tuross on Monday.

Every Saturday I get to stalk the lakes and estuaries with a regular fishin' buddy in his tinny (unless he is in Weipa as he has been for the last 8 days lucky bugger) + Public Holidays and RDOs Summertime = 5 - 6 times a week

Now THAT'S a Kodak moment Great stuff, Waynie! Hodgey

Congrats on a great sesh, mate! There is some nice fish there! Hodgey