fiveflies

That's a beautiful piece of furniture crossfire63

Its Daddy that needs to remain calm!!! Always good to catch a fish early in the session and to have lots of bites, keeps the kids interested. They did really well given the weather conditions.

Thanks welst. They were hesitant at first and luckily it wasn't raining as we launched. That first fish in the boat after 15 minutes got them hooked!

Thanks, we had fun despite getting wet. Had a half canopy on the tinny so a little bit of shelter. Those head shakes when you lift them are deadly on the mono! This one fell into the net nicely so we were lucky. It was pretty wet scratchie. Started off overcast and then got wetter and wetter. Was well worth it as the girls were stoked with their catches. The flattie in particular and it kicked off the session in good style. We hit the water around 10.45 and fished until around 3.00. Most of the afternoon was wet although the showers were intermittent.

Braved the weather today and went for a fish with my twin daughters to target some flatties and bream. We left from Como and headed up the Georges to a hole where I've caught them before. We anchored up and I began to rigg up the rods. The girls cast out with a prawn each and I began rigging the other rods so I could enjoy a little fish as well. No sooner had I opened the tackle box than I hear "Dad, I think I've got a bite!". I ask my daughter to reel in and see if she's been baited or she was just imagining things. As she begins to wind in the rod buckles over and the drag starts to run, slowly. I leap over, tighten the drag as she slowly brings in what is no doubt a big fish on her first cast. Its murky in the water and as we get leader I am peering into the river wondering what the hell it is. All of a sudden I can see colour and a big lizard materialises. Its big and I start to panic as I am sure we'll lose it when it sees the boat and/or its head gets lifted out of the water. I'm scrambling for the net, slipping on the tinny floor, standing on the unrigged rods and trying to provide instructions as the same time. The flattie's head breaks the surface and its starts to go mad, shaking away and I am sure we'll lose it. The girls are screaming with excitement, joy and fear! Finally I manage to get the net to the water and we manage to net the beast and get it in the boat!! Its high fives, knuckles and back slapping all around! This is a beast for my daughter and measures in at 66cm. We take the obligatory photos and then we release her to fight another day and to produce even more flatties for the future. We couldn't believe that we'd snagged this fish on the first cast! After this the bites continued and the girls managed a lot of bream and we kept two of the bigger ones at 29cm and 31cm for a nice feed. So after about four hours in the rain we finally turned for home having had a brilliant afternoon and constant bites and a steady run of fish. No more flatties unfortunately. We were hoping for some smaller ones that we could take home to eat. Ironic that we were hoping to catch smaller fish! Here's to next time we get out and get a bend in their rods.

Congrats Alan, great work and fantastic fishing! Great to see fish like that in our waterways.

Merry Christmas Raiders, I hope everyone had a great day yesterday. Took my youngest out for a quick Christmas Eve fish - his first fishing trip. He's always asking to go out and I've bought him a little rod to use and we had to christen it. Went down to Wally's Wharf where there's plenty of little ones and he managed to snag himself a little leather jacket on bread. Hopefully, I'll have a future fishing companion for years to come!

That's a fantastic fish, well done!

That's gold! Brilliant work and a great day off the rocks. Fantastic to see luderick getting captured still.

Great work. Have fished there a few times and seen the whiting but not managed to snaffle one yet. Caught a few bream and tailor though!

Will have to check out the boat ramp next time. Its so nice on that sand flat wading out and casting into the river though!

Well done and great perseverance. A good day out with your mates.

All the nippers we found, and that was not many, were tiny. Caught a few small whiting and bream that's all. Nice place to fish though!

Hey Allen, I saw you on Thursday at Swallow Rock. I was with two other guys fishing off the sand flats, you came past and flicked a couple of lures and pumped a few nippers. Great vid. Keep it up.

Great story and fantastic ending! Sometimes it works out this way: the last prawn, one more cast, awesome by-catch! With that rig you were so lucky (skilful?) to land them. What a rush.

Great work guys and a fantastic haul of luderick there. Not jealous at all!! So good to see the lake producing and such healthy looking, big fish.

I wish I had your "bad" luck!!

Great work there and a lovely feed of blackies.

Brilliant day out and great fishing. Nothing like the excitement of the bite coming on after a quiet couple of hours!!

Wow, that's a monster bream!! Biggest I've seen from the Hacking. Nice work!

Hi Guys, thanks for the tips and apologies for not having replied sooner. We had a great weekend and managed to get some fish. We ended up going down river and anchoring up over a hole and chasing bream and flatties.

Headed out last night with a mate for a sneaky night fish in Rose Bay. We loaded up with fresh prawns and some garlic chicken and high hopes. Had been told that you weren't allowed to fish off the ferry wharves anymore (not sure if this is true?) but at Rose Bay there is a sign that says fishing is allowed. Its a great spot as there's light, seats and its sheltered. The forecast said it would be really windy, 22kts, but it was still and warm. We set up and waited........and waited! Lots of little nibbles on the chicken that we dropped straight down off the wharf but nothing decent and no hookups. After about 90 minutes my mate finally gets a fish on and its a little snapper, undersize so back in it goes, but its a fish. This fires us up a bit and we cast out with more energy. Another hour goes by for nothing, not a touch. At this stage we have the rods setup and are sitting back on the seats and not holding the rods. All of a sudden my mate's rod leaps up and is heading for the water. He leaps up and luckily the rod gets caught on the chains and sticks. He picks it up and hauls in a beautiful 35cm bream. Very solid and fat. We're high fiving and back slapping and can't believe he didn't lose his rod. Unfortunately this was the end of the fun. A couple more undersize bream and that was it. Packed up at 2.15 and headed for Harry's for a pie.....only to find it was closed. Haven't got a photo as his phone memory was full having just had his first baby a couple of weeks ago!

Thanks. Will be working with bait and SPs and getting into the bays and hopefully get some legal flatties.

Hi Raiders, I'm heading up to the Hawkesbury tomorrow and got three days fishing arranged with a group of mates. We've been up there earlier in the year during Winter and had mixed results. Just wondering if anyone has fished it recently and if there's any tips you can provide. Am looking for somewhere to pump some nippers and also find some weed for the blackies. We'll be operating out of a tinny and staying just upstream of the Berowra Waters ferry. Many thanks in advance, fiveflies

Are you thinking of Britannia Rock which is upstream from the car ferry in Berowra Waters and supposed to be a good spot for blackfishing?