Hutcho1

Great result and congrats on the first post. Just got back from Dark corner myself after a short outing with the wife. Got heaps of small flatties with one exceptional keeper. She caught her first salmon after casting up against the rocks, go figure. She handed the rod over after a good five minute fight after her wrist got sore. First tinnie I owned had a six on the back and still reckon this is the best setup for Patonga. I've been using the same lure in `sardine' seems to be the go. Welcome, Hutcho1

Nice Pics and post, I think I may have been the second victim of a big jew the next day around Lion Island. I wish I had read this post first maybe I would have been a bit more patient. There was no doubt I had the fish hooked well but I was underdone with only a nine pound leader fishing for bream. Your post has now got me fired up to have another lash tomorrow. Good luck and great to hear from the Hawkesbury Hunters. See you on the water. Regards, Hutcho1

Hi Raiders, Day 4 of a five week holiday break, yeeehaaa!!!! Woke yesterday morning after making sure the kids school lunchs were packed and the wife was all set for work. I shook off the feelings of sadness (only joking) and as I'm driving to the boat ramp I had this overwhelming feeling of freedom and I was met with absolutely perfect glass conditions. I knew this was going to be a good solo session after RayR had to work. Bad luck mate!!! Motored over to Lion Island and surrounds and immediately found myself in the middle of a huge salmon school. Caught a couple on my 1.8kg bream gear and had a ball with no other boats around. Pound for pound on light gear they are a great fighters. This was all GOOD. After an hour or so of chasing the school I ducked over to Patonga, and threw plastics at the flatties, caught a few small ones, then it was off to the north side of Lion Island. Got the Berley going and caught a few small bream, all released. Then it happened. I was floating a nice hawksbery prawn down the trail when my snapper rod, 14kg braid and 9 pound leader, went off. The fish took an almighty run and for a moment I thought I was going to be spooled. 15mins later and the fish was almost at the boat and bang!!! Gone in one last furious run. Shark, Jew who knows. My appologies to the people at Umina for my bad language. This was all BAD. Fished for another hour and ended up catching the biggest eel I've ever seen. Time to go. This was very very Ugly. All in all a great day and I headed home with a smile on the dial and a feed of fresh fish. You wouldn't be dead for quids. Only four weeks and 3 days to go, you bloody beauty. Regards, Hutcho

Dear Jewgaffer, After my last two fishing outings, with fresh squid, live yakkas, live slimies, 2kg of pre-chopped up pillies all for one lonely snapper I will take the info from your hard work any day. The info you glean will be much appreciated as far as I am concerned. As I don't have heaps of time to wet a line, short target specific fishing expeditions are what I favour and to make them worthwhile pre-planning is essential. Anyway, thanks for your effort and I hope everything becomes clearer when the drugs wear off. Get better soon. Regards, Hutcho

Thanks for the report, I fished off Boulton's reef yesterday and also had a look around West reef with no joy. However I did get tangled with a dolphin believe or not. He swam right up to the rear of the boat and his tail must of got caught around my floater line. Let me tell you 200kg of Dolphin on 14lb braid was something I won't forget in a hurry. There was absolutely nothing I could do about it and I assume he was alright because he started leaping out of the water not far from the boat. It was one of those `one off' fluke situations you get when fishing!!! not intended or foreseen in anyway. Regards, Hutcho.

Well done, I was absolutely sweating on whether you let that big breader go. Now you will be blessed with more good fishing karma forever. Many regards from the Flathead Gods, Hutcho

Hi Tony, The Central Coast as far as the Brisbane Waters is concerned has been hard fishing of late. At least that is my experience. My big mate Ray and I have started to venture outside in the hope of catching a decent red. To date with limited success. I still think live yabbies and a drift for whiting is still probably the best chance. I have always had good success for flatties in the upper reaches on plastics in September, so bring on SPRING. Good luck and let us know how you go. Regards, Hutcho

Hi Mark, Ray and I (don't be scared by his photo, he really is friendly) usually fish out of my boat which is a 480 Quintrex Coastrunner about six months old with a 90 Merc on the back as well. Bloody stoked with the boat and touch wood it has been going like a champion. I have been fishing the Brisbane Waters for about 35 years now and it seems techinques which I used as a kid, just aren't relevant as much anymore. We have much more luck these days using plastics. The trick is finding the fish. Good luck out there and we will keep any eye out for you. Regards, Hutcho

Excellent Post, Great to see the flatties are still attacking the plastics at this time of the year. My mate and I have also caught a couple recently which have been bigger on average than during the summer months, just not in the same numbers. Well done. Hutcho

Well done guys, Great to see another post from Brisbane waters, even though you didn't catch anything substantial it really helps us out when we launch the boat. Some information is better than none. My big mate Ray and I almost exclusively fish the Brisbane Waters and the mouth of the Hawksbury and you really need to target your species to be consistently successfull. At the moment we have been catching some quality whiting around the sandbars at Ettalong and Hardys Bay. The trick is to pump yabbies and keep moving around drifting until you find a patch. Although this can take some time once you get a descent one you will more than likely get a couple in the same area. From my experience winter can be tough going to get a feed. Thanks again and hope to see you out there. Regards, Hutcho

Well done guys, That's a great photo of the bridge in the background, I'd frame that one. I'd love to know what rig you were using and how you hooked up your livey? Regards, Hutcho.

Great Report Luffy, I fish the entrance to brisbane waters almost exclusively, and we have been getting many flatties on plastics over the last couple of months, however last outing indicates they are slowing, although we were still getting plenty of hits. Plastics are the go and we use the berkely jerk shads with 3gm fish resin type heads. These plastics get hit frequently but generally they are too big for the really small fish. It's good to see you are also picking up some bream and my fishing buddy and I are going to target them now the weather is getting colder. I've seen a couple of yaks about, maybe thats you? We are in a new 480 Quintrex Coastrunner, if you see us about give a yell, perhaps we could give you a tow to the top of the tide!!! We are heading out for a live bait session on Saturday, I'll let you know how we go. Regards, Hutcho

Well done, Great to see reports on the Brisbane Waters. It can be a tough place to fish at times but the more info really helps to sort the fish out from the water. Hope to see you out there sometime. We are still getting flatties besides the fact they should be slowing down and there are some big bream around. Try some chopper tailer fillets, berley with chopped pillies (not too many at a time) and hang on. Regards, Hutcho

Excellent Fish Mik I used to go camping at Windang many moons ago, late 60's to the late 70's when I was just a kid. Your post brought back many found memories. I remember catching whiting on the flats and going prawning and I suppose much has changed. Thanks Hutcho

Good one, a reckon that size is pefect for jewie steaks on the barbie. Great result. Regards, Hutcho

Nice salmon, shame they don't taste as good as they fight, although a mate of mine swears by them fresh. Regards, Hutcho

Hi Raiders, After burning rubber up and down the F3 all week it was time to head out to Hardy's Bay in an attempt to solve the mystery from the previous week. After fishing earlier in the day with the kids I checked my browny point account and reckon'd I had just enough for a late night fish with big RayR. After the big fella caught a squid on a plastic? we thought all the moons had aligned. Straight away the fishing action was red hot with a couple of really nice bream in the boat. With a feed already sorted, we let out a couple of whole pilchards and of course out went the squid on the big rod. 15 mintues later, big hit and squid gone, we called it for a jewy. I have no doubt now that is what spat my hook last week. I also caught a rather large taylor on a ganged pilchard and dropped another, this solves the mystery of the bite off. The taylor was not massive but it was unusually big from my experience in the BW. We fished till 10pm and all night we were busier than a `one armed paper hanger' and it was great spending some QT with a great mate. Cheers Hutcho

Good Luck Livo, I was using 30lb leader in the end and this seemed to do the trick, I was flicking around the leases there earlier on in the day and I have never seen so much bait fish in the small channel just at the eastern end of the rip. I was using just enough sinker to reach bottom and a single hook 3/0 to 5/0 should do the trick, the fish started biting quite frequently between 6pm and 7.30pm near the top of the tide I guess in about 22 feet of water. No fish but a heaps of fun, heading off to see the rabbits beat the knights so all the fish for you. Let us know how you go. Regards, Hutcho

Hi Raiders, Hit the Brisbane Waters pretty hard over the last couple of days starting with a plastics session around Half Tide rocks and Ettalong on Friday. There a still quite alot of small flatties around and I released about 8 and kept 2 bigger ones for the pan. I spoke to a guy and his wife bait fishing near the boat ramp at Ettalong and he held up a monster bream. I have seen many of these around lately so I thought I would take kids out yesterday morning to chase a couple. As usual I played deckhand as my 11 daughter, (fanatic rabbitoh supporter, god bless her!!) and sixteen year old son landed three big bream in 30 minutes. However, the fish would only take peeled prawn and turned their nose up to everything else. We headed back in at 10am pretty happy for a short session. My son said he loves Bream better than Macca's!! Although he does work there. Not to be outdone, after mowing the lawns and stocking up the browny points I headed back out at 4pm to have a sunset session. This is where the mystery fish comes in. I have been fishing Brisbane Waters since I was 7 and last night I was stumped!!. Unfortunately I only had servo bait and put out some small squid, a hawksbury prawn and a whole pilchard. I was fishing in a hole over near Hardy's Bay when BANG, the big rod goes off, (whole pilchard) and I'm on and this was a big fish. After a few minutes it's up to the side of the boat and it bites me clean off, ##$$#@@. I'm thinking this could have been a very large taylor but it went straight through a 20 pound leader. I then lost a couple of more pilly's and finally hooked up to something big again, this time the fish picked the bait up very timidly and move off quite slowly, I set the hook and off it went like a steam train. I had my drag set way too light and ended up with a birds nest the size of a football with fish still on. SO rod thrown to floor of boat and I'm handlining faster than a virgin fowl and the fish spits a 5/0 right at me and I'm out of bait, there was noone on my boat so I gave myself an uppercut and headed home, NO FISH. Was it a taylor, was it a jewy, or was it a bream? The fish would only take whole pichards and nothing else got touched, including pilchard tails, prawns etc. My best guess it very big bream by the size of the bite marks in the bait but there's something out there and it doesn't play fair. Hutcho

Hi Raiders, Big RayR and I headed out early this morning in the brand spanking new 480 Coastrunner pushed along by a Merc 90. Flew over (and I mean flew) to Lion Island and got straight into a school of taylor. We were on a mission for some bait but could not find bonnies or frigates anywhere. Caught about 15 smallish taylor but released all of them. Tried for some squid but to no avail so we headed back over to Half Tide Rocks. Flogged the water with gulps and picked up two nice flatties for the esky and headed home. Just a warm up session to break the new baby in. Watch out here we come. Hutcho