pmak

Great effort Stewie and Donna, instructors, helpers and everyone who attended. Would have loved to attend to help out and catch up again but gee, as my boys get older, free time on weekends is all taken up with sports! They're still hoping for another Botany Bay social one day ...

AGP, Sounds like you got your holiday priorities right! Congrats on the bonefish - was it on fly or spinning gear? Must say though that the striped bass are massive!! More like barra fishing bass! Thanks for sharing your fishing trip.

Epic man. Awesome fishing and family time with a friendly comp to spice things up a little. Great looking boat too. Noticed your 'wall of rods' in the pics - ha ha! Can understand the need for a rod locker Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Great fish for a tough session Stewie & Nat. You guys still caught fish even with all the commotion in the river! Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

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Cjchen - we were just Towra . Scratchie & Poddy Trapper - it was the biggest bream I've seen too. Bass catcher - they do grow up quickly. I only hope they'll still want to fish with their old man when they leave the roost one day! I like when you and your son get together for your epic fishing trips. Something I hope I'll be able to do too in the future ... Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Donna, They are growing quickly! They say hi and still ask about the next Botany Bay social! Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

That's a cracking fish and a great report. You've put in the hards yards so enjoy the rewards! Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Happy New Year fellow Raiders. Just coming out of the holiday 'haze' and very slowly getting back to normal routine now. Thought I'd put up a post of some fishing done over the Christmas/New Year break. I had my brother and his family from overseas staying with us over the Christmas holidays and managed to squeeze some fishing time amongst the shopping and sightseeing activities. I was in 'Fishing Charter' mode and had to put my 'clients' onto some fish. We only had one session at Towra/Kurnell fishing lures only. Armed with an assortment of Berkley soft plastics on heavy jigheads, we drifted over the sand and weed in the Kurnell and Towra area. Winds were strong on the day we were fishing and we were on the water on a rising tide so I was not too confident of success. After a quick lesson on the rip rip pause retrieve technique, my elder brother and his son were soon making expert casts in the direction of our drift. It took a while but he came tight on his first ever flathead which gave a good account if itself, avoiding the net with spirited bursts away from the boat each time he brought it close. It came it at 64cm and pips my PB by 1cm! It was caught on a Berkley Powerbait Ripple Shad in purple colour on a 1/8 ounce jighead in 2.8m of water. Monkey off my back! After some time and a change of locations later, his eldest son comes tight on his first ever aussie fish. It too put up a good fight and was caught on shallower water (1.8m) near the top of the tide on a 3" Berkley Power Minnow in pumpkinseed on a 1/12 ounce jighead. The wind picked up further and made conditions uncomfortable so we pulled the plug but we were all happy that everyone caught pretty decent fish. Just before leaving to return to Singapore, my nephew remarked that catching his first flathead was one of the highlights of his holiday. Feeling a little neglected, my two kids were itching for a fish so when everyone had left, we headed out to the bay again. It was a rising tide again (king tide) so we opted for bream and trevally as targets. My eldest son was first to open his account with this trevally. It put up a long fight thanks to an underdone drag! My youngest son was not to be outshone by his brother this time and trumps him with a fish that we called for a salmon by the way it fought. When a thick slab of silver was netted, it was the biggest bream I had ever seen! His new PB bream (trumps mine by 2cm) came in at 45cm. It fell victim to the 3" Berkley Power Minnow in pumpkinseed and was caught in less than 1m of water near the top of the king tide. The cloudy and windy conditions helped I think. I caught fish too - just the usual bream and trevally on both sessions but the glory belonged to my 'customers' Tight lines everyone .... pmak

Great catches there cjchen. Looks like you've been keeping yourself busy over the holidays!

Great session there Stewy. Congrats on the PB - did you manage to work out the make of rod and reel? I once pulled out an old Abu Garcia reel from the beach at Kurnell and managed to make it work enough for my eldest son to catch a flatty on it! It's since been retired to the 'old reels' bin at home ...

Where do I hit the 'Like' button on this post? Looks like really clean water and great wild bass. I'm too scared of snakes and creepy crawlies to do a trip like this methinks ... pmak

Great story and looks like it cooked up a treat . You'll never forget your first one ...

Sounds like a cracker session. Good on you for listening to the young one

Hey great video Bassboy888. There's some full on boat driving close to rocks there man, scary stuff!! You've caught Hank's wild cousin at the Gorge eh?

Congrats on christening your yak with that great looking yellowbelly. You guys down in Canberra must have missed out on the rain we copped here in Sydney over the weekend.

Well done on your catch Thien. I've been giving WIndamere a go too lately and find it highly enjoyable targeting these yellow footballs. The cod in the shallows would have been a real sight!

Congrats on the catch. Hope there's more to come ... Where about is this? Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

Wow! That's some of the chunkiest fish I've seen! Well done man - and the scenery looks just fantastic Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Ving - you should give Yellowbelly a go as a break from your carp fishing though carp probably fight better! Bassboy - my son's fish came as we were about to pull the plug. Let's just say it's restored his faith/confidence/enthusiasm Basscatcher- you know, barometric pressure was down and we had clear nights with a full moon. Either that or we're terrible fishos. You should give the Yellas a go just for something different - I should probably try giving impoundment bass a go too eh? Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Sauce Head, I'm with Paul and would suggest you use the Trion/Exceler setup as a soft plastic setup but go with a lighter line - say 4 or 5lb Power Pro or similar. Casting distance would be enhanced with lighter braid since you've got a 6'6" rod (7' would be ideal, my personal preference any way). Then adjust your leader size to suit your target species, depth, conditions, etc. Your line on the Exceler could still be used on your Catana/Sienna combo as a heavier setup. Welcome to the site and your journey into this fishing obsession. The two combos will start you off but you'll find you will add more rods and reels to your collection as time goes by

Grantmac, Three different species and at a decent size to boot on surface lures - I'd be going back for more too

Great catch there Kel. Sounds like the flatties are starting to fire up

Hey Bassboy, don't know how this report slipped my radar but sounds like the fishing was red hot! You and your dad sure enjoy your bass fishing and these trips away are an awesome way to experience it. I hope someday my son will wake me up early to go fishing too . Boat looks like a fishing weapon.

G'day fellow Raiders, Another Windamere report from me - seem to have caught gold fever!! Made a snap decision last week to fish Lake Windamere before the full heat of summer hits, mainly to get my father in law fishing the Lake again after he lucked out at our last trip. I planned to leave last Friday evening and camp overnight for an early start on Saturday but threats of road closures and the bushfires at Springwood and Lithgow forced me to change plans. Ended up leaving at 3.00am with my FIL and my youngest son for the three hour drive to the Lake to start fishing at first light. There was heavy fog on the water which limited visibility to 20m or so but with my gps tracks from the last trip in my sounder unit, I went forth confidently to the north west shores and started casting as the fog was starting to clear. Fishing was slow with only one fish caught in the morning session. Session 2 was in the afternoon to late evening. After many casts I hooked up to a fish but dropped it soon after. Some smoke from the bushfires reached the lake and made for a dramatic sunset over the lake. There were many boats and anglers on the water - three competitions in the next three weekends apparently and quite a few boats were there doing a prefish and chatter back at the ramp was that the fish were very shut down that day Our final morning session started with my gps unit failing me but thankfully there was little mist on the water so navigation was not a problem. We fished the areas where we caught fish before but all did not produce. We started our journey back to the ramp and stopped at a few random spots to try our luck to no avail. I had started to pack my rod when my youngest son put out a cast to the edge of a point we were approaching and was on! After a short struggle, his pb Yellowbelly was on deck. It went a respectable 55cm and approx 8lbs. What a way to end the trip! My FIL was persistent to the end but was not rewarded with a catch. Fishing was slow when considering reports of double figure captures in the Lake can happen when the fish are on. We were reminded on our drive back that the bushfires were still raging in the mountains but were able to drive through without incident. My thoughts go out to all the people caught in this disaster and still facing danger.