seasponge

A beautiful evening last night was worthy of a relaxing pizza and wine on the local jetty. Not wanting to let the opportunity go to waste, I grabbed the rod and flicked some soft plastics out. Straight away was onto a nice flathead. Luckily I had brought the net down with me, but nothing else. Back up to the house with flattie in net, he was quickly disposed of and put straight into the fridge. Straight back down to the jetty, and I was on to another. Another trip back to the house to get a knife (I clearly hadn’t intended on catching much). In the end, landed 4 flatties. 3 of them keepers, with the largest one going 58cms. Not a bad result for an impromptu lazy dusk session on a superb evening. I was stoked to land something. The jetty is a private jetty 200m from home, I have fished before, but I have never caught anything there, and had never been hopeful (it is a quiet channel that is closed off at one end at the Hawkesbury River rail station). Suffice to say I’ll be down there more frequently in future. Location : Hawkesbury, Sandbrook Inlet, Brooklyn Time : Approx 7:30pm (middle of the run out tide) Gear : Pumpkin seed Gulp SP’s on 6lb braid, 10lb leader This follows on from a few other good sessions in the hawkesbury over the last couple of weeks, which i keep intending to post up.

thanks for the feedback. I've used the Berkley gulp shrimp. I hear a lot of people raving about them, but I am yet to have anything take one. I also find they don't cast as well as other SP's, even other Gulps. I keep persisting based on the constant positive feedback i see on them, but am yet be convinced - pumpkin seed minnows on the other hand are a different story :-)

Just wondering if anyone has had any success with the soft segmented prawn imitation lures (eg savage 3d shrimp)? I had one a few months back which i had no luck with initially. It stayed in my tackle box but when i went to give it another go it had disintegrated. I fish on the Hwakesbury, and fresh prawns seems to outfish any other bait, SP's or blades. The imitation prawn lures are on sale at the moment so was thinking of giving them another go.

Nice catch on the Hawkesbury there Stephanb79. My first outing with plastics was a similar experience. Since then though, it's only been intermittent success on them. I wonder if the strong fast tides on the hawkesbury make fishin with plastics a bit difficult. I always struggle to know the optimum jighead weight to use. On the weekend I ended up getting a nice catch of flathead on the Hawkesbury around Dangar Island. Was flicking plastics but they weren't touching them. Ended up catching all my flathead on prawns that we had out as well. So no luck on the plastics, but still got a good feed.

I'm no expert there, but I picked up a nice 60cm flattie on the weekend near Bar Point and a few weeks ago a nice 40cm bream and flattie near Spencer. Were worthwhile outings for me, but others would call that slim pickings. Am hoping it picks up as the weather gets warmer. And yes, there is a cleaning table at the Mooney Mooney ramp.

My wife and i took the kids out on the boat yesterday. A last minute decision - it was too good a day to miss out on. We dropped in at Deerubbin Boat Ramp and headed up to Spencer. We had a go fishing just downstream of Spencer, but the tide was flowing too quick. We got there about midday, with low tide expected at 3pm. Decided to put a halt on the fishing for a bit and headed to Spencer for a hamburger and milkshakes. After a good stop, we headed back to where we had been fishing just downstream. We anchored up and the 4 of us were fishing using prawns, parmesan chicken thigh and squidgees. Tide was still running fast, but were prepared to wait it out until conditions changed. Eventually it did and we started to get a few. My son got a nice legal bream, which went back in to grow bigger for next time. My daughter got a small yellowtail, and there was a catfish. Then I started reeling in a heavy line. No fight, just a heavy weight. At first I thought it was another catfish, but it was definately too heavy for that. The I started thinking a bigger lazy flathead. Then it came to the surface and it was the biggest bream I've seen! It finally did a couple of runs when it got to the surface. I was only fishing lite so was paranoid of losing him, but my wife did the job with the net and we landed him into the boat. He came in at 40cms! That's a personal best bream for me, and probably will be for a long time. I got him on hawkesbury prawn on a 2-4kg setup. After that the wind started playing havoc with us, so we hauled up anchor and headed back down the river. Stopped just upstream of Bar Point and drifted for a bit more, on what was now a just running in tide. My wife picked up a little bream on the chicken thigh. He went back in, so did the bait, and on the next cast she got a nice 45cm flathead (which i swore i had pictures of ) on the same chicken. I got another legal flathead on the good ol' pumpkin seed squidgee. He went back in to fight another day. After that, kept getting hits on my squidgee but couldn't hook up any more. We finally called it a day, going back home with smiles on our faces, and a nice big hawkesbury river bream and flathead which fed 6 of us for dinner.

Good job. I was there on Saturday drifting along the same channel. Picked up a nice 51cm flattie I got him on pumpkin seed gulps on the run in tide about 3pm (I missed the run out tide). Set the witches hats as well and got a legal blue swimmer, but he was the only one so he went back in. This will be my first summer with a boat, so looking forward to the warmer weather

I think it's been pretty quiet of late going by what's coming in at the boat ramps. I went out last weekend and got a bream up near Spencer, - my first catch on the ol' parmesan chicken!But that was the only bite all day. We fish around the Parramatta wreck, Bar Point and the channel at Triangle Island. Though I'm just learning here so don't let my failures guide you. Keen to hear of anyone else's recent success in the Hawkesbury. Where are those big winter breams in the Hawkesbury??

thanks for the replies. I suspected it may have been covered under the car insurance whilst towing, but was wondering whether anyone's boat insurance covers them for it. My car is a work vehicle and i'd rather not get in a sticky argument over an insurance claim whilst towing a boat. +1 for reading the PDS fineprint. Just went through that with travel insurance!

Hi all, Been looking at insuring a 4.5m aluminium runabout. Clubmarine were expensive and seemed suited to more elaborate vessels than mine. Got a quote from NRMA but when checking the conditions, they do not cover the boat for damage whilst towing on a trailer. I haven't checked other policies, but if it's anything like other insurances, most t&c's are similar regardless who you go with. Is it normal not to cover the boat whilst on the trailer, or anyone know other policies that do cover it? thanks, Nick

Thanks for the reply Steve. Kind of reinforced what I was suspecting. Doesn't make it easy to plan a trip! Are tide predictions (eg Willy weather) based on calculations, or are they based on actual observations? Is it reasonable to rely on them, or is it as reliable as forecasting temperature and rain? If anyone has any tips on Hawkesbury tides, I would love to hear them.

Hi guys, I'm a total newcomer to this fishing caper but dead keen to make the most of it. I mainly fish the Hawkesbury around Brooklyn and am still trying to learn the tricks of what works there. Everyone says to fish the tide changes (with opinions supposedly divided on the outgoing, ingoing, high or low). But my question is how do you accurately predict the tide times? I use the Willy Weather tide webpage, and look up tide times for Hawkesbury River (bridge, Dangar Island, Patonga), and I'll plan my fishing trips around it. But when I get out there, the tide doesn't seem to be moving in accordance with the predictions, and it seems to me the change of tide can be out by an hour or two. So far I haven't been able to find any consistent pattern. Wondering whether I should be getting my tide info from elsewhere, are there peculiarities of the Hawkesbury I should be aware of, or am I just bad at reading the water?! thanks, Nick

I had some luck with flathead drifting along the front of Little Wobby, and have caught some good bream off the south eastern point of Spectacle Island, though i'm only learning myself so can't give you tried and tested tips! I've just started fishing that area, and am hoping to pick up a boat myself shortly. When fishing soft plastics around Brooklyn, what size jigheads do people use? Everyone says to always fish as light as possible, but with the deep waters and fast tides around there, I struggle knowing what size jighead to use. I'm never confident that my lures are actually working the bottom. I always feel as if they're just floating in the current as I retrieve. Would also like to know typically what tides are best to fish in for the Brooklyn area (am targeting bream and flathead).

Hi all, New to this site, and new to fishing, just wanting to introduce myself. I have always had a fascination with fishing - just could never do it! Now I find myself living on the Hawkesbury and think it's about time to learn the art. So I'm pouring through this website, and will probably be asking a whole heap of newbie questions to gather as much info and tips as possible (hence, seasponge!) My outfit is 1-3kg and 2-4kg rods with 2500 reels, targeting bream and flathead on lures/SP's and bait from the Hawkesbury. Am landbased at the moment, but am keeping an eye out for a boat. Please bear with me as I intend to be asking quite a lot of questions :-) Cheers, Nick