Hodgey

Looks like you had a terrific D3, Dave ( 5 for 3.67 ) Congratulations! Cheers Hodgey

fellas! I hope you have a fantastic day! Cheers Hodgey

G'day Cam Aside from an occasional sprinkle of rain, most of the weekend was pretty fishable (in the estuary at least anyway). Had another look around the river system today for a couple of hours with Mark and his Uncle George. A couple of bream and tailor,a few undersized flatties and one keeper 50+ cm for George. At the boat ramp on the way home we bumped into Raider 'Stuball'. Great to meet you mate. Hope you managed to negotiate your way up into the lake! Another long weekend over and it's back to work tomorrow. Cheers Hodgey

Grozzo. Have a terrific day! Cheers Hodgey

G'day all Well, if you can't find your family and friends this weekend, and they own a boat, then there's a good chance they're on our lake! Last weekend I would have been lucky to see 12 boats all weekend, but today they were everywhere. From Riviera Cruisers to Hobies, lone fishos to overloaded tinnies, we had it all. There were some VERY nice hornets/trophies amongst them as well. We had a reasonable day on the water, although the constant buzz of traffic was trying on both nerves and fish numbers. I bumped into a couple of locals on the water, including my nephew Mark. {Tuross Brown} Mark had a good morning, but unfortunately dropped a couple of big fish as well. We managed a couple of very nice mid-50's fish for a feed for Dene and his wife, and released a few that were 40cms or smaller. This little lady was the best fish of the day and was released after a happy snap: The cooler water is making them fairly timid, which leads to a lot more fish being dropped. Tomorrow sees me cooking a BBQ for the local Fair, but weather permitting, I hope to hit the water for another session on Monday. I hope you all have a great long weekend and get into your fair share of fish. Stay safe on our roads and waterways folks! Cheers Hodgey

Two fantastic reports, Chris! I have heard some very good reports coming out of Eucembene for the last couple of weeks, and the Glo bugs seem to be a common success story. It sounds like you had an exceptional trip away mate. A great read and some superb photos! :thumbup: Cheers Hodgey

Interesting report Kurt. The fish appears to be a Silver Biddy ... an unfortunate fish that finds itself on the menu of a lot of predatory estuary fish I have found a lot of success on vibes comes from either 'the drop' or whilst it is lying on the bottom. Regardless of how you catch them, bream on lures is very entertaining, especially in rugged terrain. Cheers Hodgey

Many Happy Returns to all the Raiders celebrating today. Hope you have a great day! Cheers Hodgey

A very to our Raiders celebrating today. I hope you had a top day! Best Wishes Hodgey

Originally we intended to go chase the barra again but after 3 days of 12-14hr days our resaults were pretty average with only 10 landed to 110cm out of 20 bites. Oh you poor buggers! Terrific to read that Jason was able to salvage the trip for you Greg. Some great photos of assorted species there. I look forward to reading the article when it is released. Well done on yet another memorable Lure and Fly report! Cheers Ian

Crackin' breambo John! Those lobbies are very versatile aren't they? The smaller sizes appeal to bream and EP's, and the larger ones to flatties and salmon. Cheers Skip

That pad makes a huge difference, Gaz. Deno has been using one for quite a while now and rates it very highly. I have seen some very flash 'shock absorbing' seats in some of the local fisheries boats. Would you mind posting a couple of photos for us to have a look at Huey? Cheers Hodgey

A top feed of flatties, a couple of bonnies for bait (and perhaps a feed as already suggested) ... you had a top day on the water, Chris. Looks like there is a few sandies around at the moment! Cheers Hodgey

VERY nice feed there Billy Dinner looked first class! Cheers Ian

Thank you for your kind comments. Good luck on the 'fin Gaz! Had another quick fish on Sunday with Dene, for a couple more nice fish. What a difference 24 hours makes:

Dave. I will have a celebratory on your behalf when I get home tonight! Hope you have a great day Cheers Hodgey

Congratulations to Dan T for taking out COTM for May 2011 We will contact you shortly to organise your prize.

A very to those Raiders celebrating today. I hope you have a terrific day! C'Mon Mikey ... what new bling did you get? Cheers Hodgey

G'day Raiders It's been a while since I posted a report (thank you for the reminder, Swordie ) so here goes. The fishing has finally begun to improve down here, as the water temperature steadily falls (13 degrees at the moment). Unlike my fishing mates in Syd, we have been spared 90% of the lousy weather. Today was one of the poorer days and it still looked terrific on the water. In typical cold-water style, the fish are pretty lethargic when taking the lure. It's more of a discovery ("Hmmmm, there appears to be weight on my lure") as opposed to the indicator 'tick' in the line you get in warmer conditions. Lure selection is very important here at the moment. Whilst color really doesn't seem to be too much of an issue, vibration is. 4" Swimming Mullet or 100mm Squidgy Wrigglers have accounted for the majority of the fish. The fish haven't started to congregate together yet and you tend to cover a fair bit of water to get the numbers. The outgoing tide is still my preferred time to target flathead, but the fish we found today were all caught on the incoming tide. The most exciting thing for me at the moment is the amount of undersized fish we're catching. Dozens of flatties between 20-30cm have been caught over the last month, which is indicative of a healthy and thriving system IMO. Rest assured though, there is still a feed to be had and some huge loners spread throughout the system Interestingly, the Fisheries Survey conducted over the last 3 months suggests that the average sized flathead are between 45-52cms. Today we were visited by the Fisheries. Three very pleasant officers pulled up along side us today and enquired if we had caught anything, to which I replied "Yes we have, bream and flathead". "Have you caught any to keep?" "Yes we have" "Really????"(The 'double-take the Officer in question did when I confirmed that we had fish on board nearly warranted whiplash! ) The icing on the cake for me though was when they asked me for my license and Deno for his 'concession card'! Not long after that the wind picked up making it bitterly cold and we called it a day. One bream 35cm and 4 flatties between 44-51cm made it into the esky, with 6 or 7 littlies being returned. Enough fillets to feed my family for dinner tonight. Have a great weekend Raiders! Cheers Hodgey

Wow! There is supposed to be a tournament in July ... I wonder what will happen there? I will make a call to Fisheries mate and see what I can find out for you. Impoundments are exempt from the June-August closure to the best of my knowledge, so maybe it has something to do will an algae bloom or something? Cheers Skip

pigpen. Hope you have a terrific day! Cheers Hodgey

Nicely done mate! At least he'll be able to fish whilst sorting the other issue out. Cheers Hodgey

Awesome bream mate and well done on releasing it! Cheers Hodgey

A blue-ringed octopus That's the last thing you would want to see on your hook. I will definitely think about this post next time I grab for a weed-covered lure! Cheers Hodgey