dirvin21

Divers are probably matching what they're eating, as the weather cools they'll be less likely to hit surface I've never had success with skirted spinnerbaits for bass but attaching a jigspinner to a grub style plastic doesn't fail me very often

Good stuff mate, i occasinally use lip grips on bigger bass in the kayak if I'm using a lure with trebles, don't forget with bigger fish to support their belly Can't wait to read your report when you hook a 40+ I'm sure it won't be long

A basic bream type set-up, 1-3 kg or 2-4kg rod 1000 or 2500 reel with some 6lb braid Shimano catana rods are decent for the price reel wise you could go a sienna or cazna or if you want a bit better drag quality a nasci isn't bad value for $

Awesome write up mate and cracking fish

Thanks Donna.... bit of a shock

Maccks should still be around but no guarantee, usually pretty good time of year for fishing in general

It may have been condition change, the wind suddenly stopped right around the time I got the first fish, I often find with cod fishing you can put in hours for nothing and all of a sudden start catching fish that seem to disappear as quickly as they came on

If you're traveling from Mudgee it'll be quite a bit more than 13 hours

It's been almost a year since I last went cod fishing been trying hard to get out there the last few weeks finally this week everything aligned bar a fishing buddy in the end I decided to head solo, it's a remote location so I always take a PLB and plenty of first aid gear. After the long drive the national park entry was a welcome sight, never seen it so green the river was a bit lower and dirtier than usual upstream was not fishable from the kayak headed downstream to the bigger section of river long story short I casted for over hours for 1 hit, alternated between a weedless plastic and a spinnerbait, it's funny with cod fishing you start full of confidence and they have a way of teaching humility. My mood was going downhill fast I actually started thinking of alternate places to fish or just packing up and driving home All hope gone tried flicking a rediculous cast into some sticks it went nowhere near it's intended target............ the hit scared me that much I knocked the reel out of gear in a sickening display of fishing skill managed to get some hurt on the fish and finally in the net relief being the understatement of 2020, a nice 60cm cod, a good quality fish for the section of river, with the doughnut avoided deicided to focus my efforts with soft plactics, after 3 1/2 hours for 1 fish, 4 casts later another nice fish from some nasty timber, the hits started to come regulary and got another low 50's that jumped out of the yak before I could get a photo With the light fading and some distance back to camp with some nasty portage started making my way back not before I tied on a surface lure cruising along put a cast about 2m short of it's intended target slowing down to try again, surface lure gets smashed scared the life out of me, the fish missed it, so put another cast in scared me as much the second time but this time came up tight not a big one but my first cod on surface, won't be forgetting that one in a hurry had another fish in the morning walking upriver had a couple of follows but no fish, still went home happy with my cod fix cheers for reading Dave

mate you missed a quality night of constant wake-ups from fighting possums........... gotta love the bush

Be alright for small-med sized cod in smaller rivers chucking 1/2 - 3/4 oz lures I would up mainline to atleast 20lb preferrably 30lb

I know it's last minute and very unlikely but I'm heading out near inverell on thursday for an overnighter chasing cod, my usual fishing buddy can't make it, so offer ooen for anyone who wants to join as i prefer to go with a 2nd person, i have plenty of spare gear including an extra yak Cheers Dave

The SWR bar was looking pretty bad last weekend, on the runout tide, there's a beach ramp at scotts head as an alternative

used them plenty of times, good bream and big whiting bait

caught plenty of bream on crabs as a kid certainly good for avoiding pickers, catch plenty of bream on cranka crabs floating them down structure, they're actually pretty snag resistant with the floating claws

Gotta love bream on lures they can just about make you insane Good luck in the comp, be prepared for the fish to be tough on a whole new level, Make sure you think outside the box and do something different if it looks too ridiculous to cast at then definitely give it a go

March, April around Scotts Head don't have to go out far

Nice JP's mate

Forget the electric motor and sounder when you're starting out they add a lot of extra weight and expense An important point with kayak fishing is remembering wherever you paddle you have to paddle back, it looks and sounds easy but it's very physically demanding

As bad as a bullrout

A few months back Amy won a random draw cash prize in a fishing comp after some discussion around the winnings it was decided we would go back up north and try and settle the score with some of the uncooperative fish, after a bit of discussion with our fishing guide it was a 2 day January Jack trip. Getting off the plane it was hot and humid and also hot really hot apparently all the ingrediants for good jack fishing. Day 1: after waing every hour to check the clock it was finally time to hit the water our first day was fishing the creeks around Cape Upstart, we started out working the mangrove edges with weedless soft plastic poppers (zman pop shadz) waiting for the tide to drop we could hear the jacks smashing stuff deep in the mangroves, we didn't manage to land any on surface but we had plenty of hits and misses right up to beside the boat certainly got the blood pumping, with the tide dropped our guide suggested a change to weedless plastic paddletails slow rolled out of the nasty structure, it didn't take long to get hammered a 41cm satan to start the trip first fish and already bested a pb a few metres along put a cast at some bream on an overhanging tree the bream took off and the rod loaded up in a serious way as soon as the red flash went past my knees nearly buckled managed to steer him out in to the middle of the creek and a solid slab of satan came aboard 48cm and thick, I've wanted a Jack like this for a long time whilst I was beating my chest and doing some weird dance Amy got her first fish for the trip with a nice blac spot Happiness was high, we kept hitting the snags for some more cod, and Amy gets belted on a perfect cast Amy's first Jack Finished with the first creek we moved onto another landing a few cod, a catfish and a couple of smaller jacks and working some really heavy timber got another nice Jack After quite a few cod the novelty had worn off for Amy when hooked onto something different a nice 40cm GT another first for Amy not long after I was belted by a better quality cod he went mid 40's I'm never disappointed with a decent cod after a bit of a slow period with a few hits but no fish my lue gets chased by some small GT's and suddenly a bigger model charges in and nails it leaving a bruise in my ribcage from the rod butt, it was a scary fight on a tight drag in a small creek and what felt like forever a solid estuary GT came aboard he measured up at 59cm gave me a heel of a scra on 20lb With day drawing to an end thought it couldn't get much better despite woring hard in the heat we had caught some awesome fish Then Amy lets out a yell the fish immediately jumps and we realise it's a barra there were nervous moments but finally the smile says it all although we weren't targeting Amy really wanted a barra, it is closed season so the barra was returned to the water really quickly with that day 1 was done Day 2: We fished the Burdekin river and some small creeks attached to it, the day started chasing queenies and GT's with stickbaits resulting a couple of missed hits and a dropped queenie and Amy jagging a stingray, we decided to head into a small creek, didn't take long for me to get smashed by a solid fish before the hooks pulled, the bait was everywhere and after a few more casts another solid jack to get the day going, Amy put some casts into the same snag and came out with a cracking sized pikey bream we worked a few more trees for a flathead and plenty of small to medium sized cod, then I get hit all I could say was "BIG" the fish steamrolled out into the creek, luckily eventually the monster and came boatside an absolute beast of a cod, he went 53cm working the banks for multiple missed hits and Amy get destroyed by an XOS Jack, a barra comes from nowhere and eats my lure no monster but still my first barra and casts later another for the tally heading out of the creek we saw some small GT's busting bait they wouldn't hit our lures so at the guides suggestion I sun it beneath and cameup tight on another fish when it jumped i realised it wasn't a GT a blue salmon, another fish I really wanted to catch with that we did some mud bank casting to fill in time waiting for the tide catching a few flathead and good quality size, when again I load up on a solid fish and to my surprise another solid jack working a muddy edge the arvo bite didn't happen most likey due to the ridiculously high water temps but Amy did managed a nice GT on surface but it self released before I could get a photo That finished the trip, we tallied up over 40 fish for the 2 days with plenty of variety it was the trip I've always dreamed of having anyone thinking of hitting FNQ in summer just be aware of the heat, it's brutal and shouldn't be underestimated cheers for reading Dave

On the reel spend tge most you can afford, if it's only for freshwater use something like a shimano caenan or an abu blackmax they both go for under $200 Otherwise practice with your spin outfit cast at a bucket over and over, baitcasters take a lot of practice to master and with modern spin gear and good quality braid you can get just as good accuracy from spin gear, I use baitcasters for the stopping power for fish like jacks

Some sort of goby

get yourself a cast weight or just an old lure around the size you intend to use and practice practice and practice some more I spent a lot of time flick casting a weight into a bucket, the main challenge is controlling the speed of the spool while casting you need it go fast enough to cast but not to fast and overrun,

I go to carwash on way home $ gives me plenty of time to wash down the trailer