Hodgey

Hah! He's back! Great report Rob. A top lizard to kick off the session and a tasty feed for the family. Keep the reports coming mate Cheers Ian

Certainly looks the goods, Rob. Hope you account for several new PB's with it! Cheers Ian

Exceptional wild river bass mate You've set the bar very high now .... let the games begin! Cheers Skip

Congratulations Fezza. I hope you enjoy your new role Cheers Hodgey

Great photo! Hodgey

Congrats on your first lure-caught jewie, Ray. Gotta love it when a plan comes together. Great call by Hutcho Terrific to see another successful convert to plastics, so quickly after their introduction A rewarding and productive day on the water Cheers Hodgey

to all the Raiders celebrating today. I hope you have a great day! Cheers Hodgey

Great fish mate. Good photo too! Cheers Hodgey

It came up to 35cm on the lie detector and plans are to take the day off school today and do my best to catch some more! but shhhhh... Don't tell anyone Your secret is safe wth me Good fish mate, from a very handy location too. Good luck today! Cheers Hodgey

Extraordinary fish, mate! Cheers Hodgey

mate. Hope you have a terrific day Cheers Hodgey

Take heart Roberta. You're not the first despondent fishos to leave Monduran and you sure as hell won't be the last. Good to see that you all managed to have a great time amongst yourselves though. New knots, new casting techniques and a veritable smorgasboard of great tucker ... infact everything except the elusive barra. Thanks for the report and photos mate. NEXT time you'll brain 'em Cheers Skip

Thanks for the replies folks pmak: Yep, after reading Mako's reports recently I went out and purchased a couple of popdogs. I'm champing at the bit to get them wet! Jeff: I haven't usued the curl grubs but I'm always keen to give something new a try, especially if it means salvaging an otherwise fishless trip. Thanks for the suggestion Cheers Hodgey

It seems the future of wharf fishing has been cast under a black cloud once again. What is more disturbing is some of the ridiculous and emotive comments left by some of the bloggers. Clean it or lose it Hodgey

G'Day all Many times on this forum we have discussed the plethora of variables that can have an effect on fish activity. Moon phase, tidal movement, lighting, wind velocity and direction, water clarity and availability of bait are just some of the naturally occurring obstacles facing fishos whenever they hit the water. For me though, one of the most crippling is a lack of water temp, particularly when fishing lake or estuary systems. Bait becomes scarce, fish become dormant or reluctant to feed actively, and quite often the majority of the fish concentrate in specific and elusive locations. Our waterway has suffered under cold water constraints for a couple of months now. The usual run of cold water fish such as big bream, tailor and salmon did not venture through the entrance in the numbers or consistency that they have in the past, and the quality and quantity of flathead diminished significantly. Here are a couple of the highlights during that period: My daughter’s boyfriend holding a 70+ cm fish I coaxed out of a rocky ledge whilst fishing the upper river land based. It was the only fish of the day. Two days later and we managed to catch five fish in the lake. This was the best of them Four weeks ago, I took my mate Scott in search of a fish of similar quality. Luck prevailed on the day and Scott landed a new PB of 79cm …. The best of only 2 fish. Three weeks ago we discovered good numbers of tailor had finally arrived in the lake. 12a gold Bombers and Frenzy Poppers accounted for many fish, with some of the better ones measuring in at 60+ cm. The surprise addition was a 62cm flatty taking the briskly retrieved gold bomber. Unfortunately the weather was pretty ordinary during this period and I left my camera at home for fear of it getting wet (I really should look into Wacko’s suggestion for a water-proof camera ) Lately, Dene has returned to the dark side and had a couple of successful sessions on the blackies and the gars. It’s a well known fact that Dene has difficulty in multi-tasking, hence there is no photos from his sessions either! Now the good news ... It seems the bass have decided to announce their presence by brutalising spinnerbaits, soft plastics, flies, hardbodies … basically nothing is safe. Fellow Raider and mate Nick Toozoff has been having bumper sessions on his secluded little waterway (be sure to check out his reports) and Dene and I have had success on the bass and Ep’s as well. Here are a couple of photos of the better fish from Monday: Dene's new Pb of 44cm (Congrats mate ) It appears the fish may be awakening from their slumber. Good activity amongst the leases, a profusion of bait in the shallows and on the sounder, a water temp that has staggered its way to a balmy 17 degrees, prawns running in good numbers, the wind finally abating, and the unmistakable ‘kiss’ of prawns being plucked from the surface are all promising indications for a prosperous Summer.Time now to checks hooks on surface lures, dig out the beetle-spinners and drag ourselves out of bed a bit earlier Best of luck on the water, Raiders Cheers Hodgey

I have had the pleasure of viewing the dvd on a couple of occasions now and the footage still makes my envious. Wahoo of extraordinary proportions and doggies big enough to saddle ... all liberally interspersed amongst some very impressive GT's Congrats on the Magazine cover, mate! Cheers Skip

About bloody time you posted a report ... but where's the photo of the big bass??? Congrats on yet another successful sojourn up the river mate. Good to see you've stopped throwing $20 hard bodies at cranky fish Will catch up with you in the next couple of days Cheers Skip

Agreed Sensational to watch the predators in action. Nice work Morgs Cheers Hodgey

Raiders! Hope you have a great day. Cheers Hodgey

Crackin' report Jorg! Those fish are in superb condition. At that size they pull like bulldozers! Great photos mate Cheers Hodgey

Congrats Waynie Hope all is well and mum and bub are home with you soon Good luck with the pending 'alteration' ... a 2kg bag of frozen peas may just come in handy! Cheers Hodgey

Good work mate. You obviously got some benefir from your seminar Hope there are many more jewies in your future Cheers Hodgey

Great report as always Mako I picked up 2 pop dogs and a couple of other surface lures today in preparation for some hot surface action over the coming months. Keep the reports coming mate! Cheers Hodgey

Another project completed Nick, although you'll probably find it hard throwing XRap 4's with it Catch you next week Cheers Skip

With the crew that's going, one thing's for sure ... there's gonna be a lot of laughs! Good luck to you all! Cheers Skip