dirvin21

go zmans they last way better than squidgies

If you can get it for $59 do it, thats a good special, even with buying braid on top of that you'll only end up spending just over $100 You can always save your money and upgrade your reel later on, but okuma make a decent reel and should give you plenty of life

You're a lot keener than me

Take an esky or a cooler, I just use a couple of icebricks to keep it cool Kill the fish humanely either by bleeding or brainspike

Awesome mate

Awesome video mate

there's a good population of Eastern cod west of Coffs, they are totally protected and a "no target species" although they are pretty much impossible to avoid when you're bass fishing in the Mann and nymboida, they're seriously aggressive and make the murray cod seem a bit meek in comparison

A good mate of mine was at Ben falls last week and did alright he got 4 fish in 2 days just be prepared to put some serious casts in, I fish other sections of the Severn a few times a year (suss out the freshwater reports section) and the fish are pretty clued into lures my most successful technique is a 5 inch grub style plastic rigged weedless my main baitcast combo for cod is a shimano curado k with 30lb braid on a shimano cod raider 8-12kg

kingys would be my guess

copeton would be your best bet this time of year

there are kings around they like the run in tide in the clean water, saw one today on the inside of the breakwall, they're generally keyed in on small bait so lures around 50-80mm are the go to, 20lb would be more than sufficient they fight pretty clean in the river the end of the carpark, and at the point on the wall thet points south and takes a 90 degree turn and they often sit along that section of wall all the way around to the break occasionally they'll sit around the green channel marker on the inside along wellington drive

awesome videos mate, watched all of them

if there's any left I'll take one Donna, any colours fine

some cracking salmon again Jon, never heard of a dolphin grabbing a hooked fish before bet it was a nasty surprise

welcome to fishraider, loom forward to reading some US reports

plastics should be ok as said by kingie just check they swim, replace your mono preferably with braid if you're looking at getting into soft plastic fishing

With my reports from the last few weeks one of ou younger members sends me a message saying he'll be in the area and asking where he can find a GT, it was a no brainer to take him upriver to try and find a GT even managed to swindle the day off so we had plenty of time. We hit the water on gentlemen's hours the air was still a bit frosty and the water a balmy 14.6 degrees, but with a good run out tide we wasted no time shooting upriver, we started out casting the edges and didn't take long for bream to start coming aboard I got a couple of average bream to get the day moving, James managed to break the doughnut with a nice whiting, always a relief when when the doughnut is broken. Worked our way along to some decent trees where Amy got dusted a couple of weeks ago, James puts a cast in and gets belted with no hook-up he puts another cast straight back in and it's eaten again this time it stays connected, the fish gave him hell and after a good run around James had his GT in the net the high fives and fist pumps were going, a quality GT I reckon I was every bit as pumped as young James. We continued on our drift catching a few smallish bream and flatties, the bite was tough but we kept persisting and James had another solid take called another trev this time it took a good run at high speed and again after a good battle which was fun to watch James had his first big-eye in the net and a cracking 42cm which actually bests my own pb, to restore some dignity I managed a half decent big-eye shortly after we did manage a couple more small bream but the bite was slow so we decided to shoot downriver and cast som,...e bigger lures to hopefully find a decent flathead or cod. Sot locked at one of my new spots i discovered recently casting soft vibe and large plastics around the bait was thick took awhile to get a hit but I finally got a solid take on the soft vibe, the fish went really hard in the current had my fingers crossed for a jewie but wasn't disapointed when a solid flattie came up she measured up 65cm and a beautiful thick set fish I enjoyed watching her swim off, we moved onto the racks to put James onto a locked drag blue lip, the rack bite was incredibly tough we did spot a coule of jacks cruising the trays which was pretty cool, I did manage a couple of average bream and reaching the end of our rack run James loaded u on a bream it gave him a solid fight A nice fish to finish the session, being able to take James out to catch his first GT and see how pumped he was, that's what fishraiders all about cheers for reading Dave

95mm zerek fish trap

With Monday's soft vibe success plagueing all week having to work nights finished my last shift for the run this morning worked out a 3 hour snooze get up and get moving I'll have a 3 hour fiishing window before the kids turn up. it was tough getting up but the thought of a big jewie waiting to be caught got me moving. Again the weather was magnificant, sounded around the old bridge again but no bait so didn't waste much time around there shot back down to the rockbar at the new bridge, again the bait was thick, started casting again with the fish trap but this time I'd gone to a heavy baitcaster to hopefully prevent another cod dusting. Second cast and the lures nailed the fish took off hard with big headshakes dreaming of a jew but instead outcomes a solid flathead went 63cm incredibly heavy and one of the hardest fighting flatties I've caught in ages With that fish the arvo was already worth the sleep deprivation so kept the casts going and 2 casts later on again this one went 55cm and again really thick from happily sitting on a rockbar gorging on herring and whitebait, had a few more hits and misses then decided to move on and try some other areas, managed a very ambitious bream on a deep edge otherwise not much action, with time running out did one last drift down the rockwall where I got the GT on Monday, the sounder lit up with bait after a couple of assumed trevally hits the lure gets monstered, thinking trev I let it run a bit soon realised that was a big mistake as it started steamrolling towards the rocks had to ut some serious hurt on the fish to turn it around but it stubbornly hung deep, all I could think was BIG!!! eventually after one hell of a battle mostly thumbing the spool the beast revealed itself and was in the net a big black spot, it was an assumed similar fish that dusted which is why I thankfully used the heavy baitcaster he went just over 50cm and was in absolute tank condition, biggest I've caught around here by far and second biggest Ive caught period with that time was up on a cracking little session, caught the same species as last time but with a major size upgrade, think I'll be ordering more fish traps cheers for reading Dave

14th, would have been a lot higher up the leader board if those fish had of appeared on comp day

fished a local flathead comp on the weekend and after was chatting to a couple of young fellas who connected up with a big jewie during the comp, hit the river again on Monday and rather than go chase bream and GT's thought I'd try something completly different and try and end my 10 year jewfish drought. Started out only a 2 second run from the ramp around the old Macksville bridge, the sounder lit up with bait started woring the bait schools with a 5 inch plastic for zip, digging through the box ull out a soft vibe my least used of any lure. Never had success with soft vibes only ever seem to snag them, layed around with retrieves and found a slow lift tight line drop to be the most comfortable, didn't take long to get eaten called for a flathead straight up a just under 50, could have used that fish in the comp, as the tide picked up the bait moved on and so did I, sticking with the bridge pylon idea headed to the new highway bridge the pylons themselves were devoid of life on the sounder but by accident found a deep rockbar with bait stacked up all the way to the surface feeding in the stirred up water from the tide spot locked and started casting, took awhile to get a hit but with lenty of casts got the familiar tap on the drop no jewie but another nice flathead absolutely inhaled the soft vibe, given he was deep hooked and thick, came home for a fine feed, a bit more confidance in the retrieve some smaller flathead started coming aboard, kept persisting hoing a better fish would appear, then a proper whack on the drop, this fish felt heavy and went hard had no idea what I'd hooked and to my surprise a quality black-spot certainly not what I was expecting he went 41cm, next cast again the lure got whaced on the drop, the fish casually swam back into the rockbar whilst I desperately tried to stop it, I'm assuming it was a big cod and I certainly never stood a chance on 20lb. My only soft vibe gone, after some choice words headed back for the ramp but on the way decided to drift a rockwall for a last ditch try for a jewie, started casting a 5.5inch paddletail, there were fish everywhere on the sounder had a few miss hits before finally connected the fish went hard from the start with a familiar thump on the line A nice GT to finish the session he went 41cm, the jewie evaded me but I'm gonna keep plugging away till I get one, already ordered some more soft vibes cheers for reading Dave

Some of the best fishing up here is in winter... especially for bream

Amy was a bit jealous of all the success I've been having the last few sessions, so when we had a kid and work free day together the only option was to go and chase some of the plentiful GT'soccupying the river at the moment. We headed a long way upriver with the plan of drifting back down on the run out tide.We started out casting 2.5 inch grubz along the edges. The fish started to come aboard starting out with some small bream and flatties, We kept working along coming to some better snags, spot a solid bream sitting in the timber just beneath the surface, put a cast past and worked it in close and to my amazement the fish casually swam over and ate it, fought hard amonst the sunken branches had to go hard and work him out into the deep before steering him to the net a really good quality bream the sight cast and take was awesome the way it took the plastic without hesitation, With some confidence from a good fish and the tide really starting to run we come to some bigger trees with loads of current, the spot screamed GT and Amy's plastic is nailed caught site of a 45+cm GT that ate her lure just before it took a dive back through the timber and busted her leader. With revenge in mind I quickly pick up the heavier rod running 20lb and a bigger plastic 2 hops and it's eaten a much smaller fish going 32 cm certainly no match on 20lb, With a retie Amy kept the casts going and finally came up tight on a GT a far more managble size for 8lb leader, Amy ended u getting quite a few GT's around the same size and we both got a quite a few small bigeye's (they became a bit of a pest), there was a lot of action along steep muddy banks. We came to a bank I wanted to stop for a late lunch on but right before it is a fallen tree that has made a big hole in shallow water where the roots are like a swimming pool at the edge full of timber, a dropped a nice fish in there previously so I was keen for a rematch, placed a perfect cast up amongst the timber as I closed the bail arm it was already going it was a hell of a fight trying to keep the fish out of the underwater jungle but with quite a bit of luck a cracking bream was in the net definetly the biggest bream I've caught this year apart from some old damage to his dorsal fin, he was in perfect condition, not to be outdone Amy suggests we go back so she can have a cast, she puts a perfect cast on the other side of the rootball and it's also nailed Amy did a hell of a job extracting the fish from some very scary timber but with some skill Amy has her own quality bream After a quick lunch break we keep moving the action started to slow we got a couple of small GT's and a half decent big-eye then we notice some nasty dark clouds sneaking up behind us so with that called it and headed back to the ramp, but couldn't be happier witht the session we had cheers for reading Dave

Happens to me all the time I think it's the pressure build up in the line letting go and the plastic keeps going when the jighead stops hence slides down the hook

They are amazing on the plate have eaten a couple in FNQ, in my local area I spend so much time and frustration trying to catch the damn things that I can't bring myself to kill them The fishing is definitely going off at the moment tye water is beautiful and clear compared to the horrid soup over summer from the drought