dirvin21

yes, work them the same as you would for bream.

add a glow bead they seem to have a real thing for them

you can ask him if he's aware the fish are undersize, I've had similar situations many times over the years and 90% of the time the person claims to have no idea the fish are undersized a lot of people buy a rod and a fishing license and don't actually know the rules and its up to all of us to help educate them. make sure your polite about it if you approach as if your looking for an argument you will generally find one

headed to Baker's creek on the far upper reaches of the Nambucca River, the water was a bit low but the weather was perfect and we were feeling confidant, unfortunately the fish had other plans after many, many casts from the kayak came up on a decent looking snag and after landing a near perfect cast all I thought was that deserves a fish and sure enough my lure was belted and I was being towed into some nasty territory, with some quick paddling the fish was steered out and came yakside and to my surprise was only low to mid 30's but thick and very spirited and apart from another couple of half hearted hits the bass refused to play the game then heading into some clear shallow water spotted a couple of feeding catfish so out came the flat shad first cast onto a cracker who took a dash for the timber and in a do or die effort I pulled the hooks, next fish and first cast and on this time the hooks stayed in and after some very nervous moments out came a nice mid 40's cattie I think they have a gorgeous face I've managed to crack the catfish on lures technique this summer, if anyone is interested the trick is to sight the fish and land the lure (either a vibe or plastic) away from the fish and wait until it turns towards it and use very, very subtle movements to draw it in and hit it the moment it grabs the lure and hang on they really pack a punch on light gear in shallow water hopefully some rain will come soon and fire the bass back up thanks for reading Dave

gulp turtleback worm in pumpkinseed is a killer for XOS whiting

your gear should be fine for bass as far as bait goes garden worms are the best all round here are some of the lures I use but anything with a decent swim action generally the wider the better and I have caught plenty of fish on the cheaper options (my 47.5cm pb was caught on a $5 austackle) its about finding the right lure to fit your style lures: expensive options >$15, "cultiva mirashad", taylor made "nippy nymph", strikepro bass x ecogear sx40 and sx48, arbogast jitterbug cheaper: kokoda bat, rapala UL crank, austackle sakana XD34, halco RMG most grub style soft plastics and small spinnerbaits (I personally don't use them) hope this helps Dave

its a "grassy sweetlip" Lethrinus laticaudis going off the orange inner mouth

focus on areas that are lit up with baitfish hanging in the lights, I've pulled both jacks and flatties on hardbodies but plastics would work just as well in the lights lighter colours seem to be more effective

the current is an important part of lure fishing, when pulling hardbodies against the current make the fish think its struggling by using big twitches and going the otherway with the current you need to makesure you keep in touch with the lure in really heavy current it doesn't work as well particularly landbased as the lure gets pulled to fast and it knocks the action off, but if you suddenly have results i'll definetly give it a go Dave

My holidays are over so its back to work and my usual fishing. Finished off my annual leave with some family camping at Gumma reserve, anyone visiting the area Gumma provides cheap bush camping on the river only 10 minutes from town. The fishing is still a little slow as it always is towards the end of the school holidays. The first afternoon only gave me a wounded sense of pride when I had to shore the kayak and go cross country to get back to my launch point because of the gale force winds. The next morning seemed far more promising unfortunately all I had to show from the morning session was small whiting and flatties. Starting working the mangrove edges from the kayak with an sx40 at high tide and after a cast landed right at the edge it was nailed on the second twitch, the fish tore off at speed up towards the branches I was thinking jack but after a lengthy tussle out came a solid bream. The next day seemed brighter with the bream monkey off my back the next day seemed brighter, headed up river to an inlet in search of flathead, after many fruitless casts and a couple of miniature fish I twitched an sx40 across a promising piece of broken weed and sand flat, had the classic steady take on the pause and the rod loaded up straight away I knew it was a good fish and I instinctively back the drag off after about 8 solid runs she came up beside the yak the fish only measured 62cm but was bulky, she was sent off unscathed. the leader was cob web after from the flatties teeth. My last session before returning to work was my favorite tree the bream were know where to be seen but the moses perch kept me busy the bigger models have finally come back on the bite. To finish off a tough but fun weeks fishing I stopped for a jack cast at the local bridge on the way to work, I have gone for a bit heavier gear (10lb braid and 15ib leader), and I was rewarded with a nice little low 30's jack it was nice being able to muscle him out of some very nasty structure and a very satisfying way to finish the week. that's it for the Nambucca river for another week thanks for reading Dave

nice work, first fish is a sergeant baker

Here is a few, I have about 90 individual species I have photographed over the years Red-backed fairy-wren Eurasian coot pied oystercatcher striated heron double-barred finch beach stone-curlew

my go to lures are cultiva mirashad and taylor made "nippy nymph" and strikepro "bass x" anything with a wide wobble action in the 40-60mm range should get you bass

have heard some reports of big eyes and GTs plaguing in the lake at Foster

cant help you with spots, I catch a lot of big eye's up here they like a rapid twitching retrieve they are a very aggressive feeder you will see them mis the lure multiple times NEVER pause hit areas with plenty of bait and current as with most trevs no run=no fun good luck I'm guessing they're probably a bit hit and miss if you really want to catch one or one hundred make a trip to the Nambucca River best time winter or sprng there are plagues of them up here hope this helps Dave

fish the ocean half of the wall on your high tide may be a little hit and miss though this time of year on the kayak head upriver across from the RSL the far side of the sandspit there is a small gutter cast poppers and plastics around the weedbeds the river along the roadside of wellington drive can also produce well from a kayak although you will need your A game as the fish are flighty especially over the holiday period best advice if you are able take the kayak out to the highway just past the southern turnoff and launch where the houseboats are moored fishing the sandspit at the mouth of Teague Creek and off the end of Stuart Island (golf club) for flatties, bream and whiting good luck Dave

A very bust start to the year has seen the fishing rods be a little neglected but after a week long cubs camp it was time for some proper camping and fishing. So off it was to chase some trout on a property near Ebor I hadn't been there in close to 2 years. This is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever fished. Enough about the scenery the fishing as always did not disapoint. Third cast and the doughnut was broken with a nice little rainbow he came out on nowhere the seconf the lue hit the water smashed it. The same process went on for quite awhile the hits were coming thick and fast one thing that surpirsed me was the fish were really concentrated in the smaller runs rahter than the big pools. You do end up with a lot of dropped fish in this sort of water but still fun to watch them jump. After many rainbows in the 25-27cm range came up solid on a slightly better fish and after the first jump all i saw was brown it was hard to contain my excitement (there are only a few browns in this stream and are considered very precious by the land owner) he was a nice 29cm specimen. The fish were really savage actually had a trout jump onto a rock out of the water to grab the lure. Ended up walking about 2.5km of stream with 30 fish landed biggest going 31cm and i probably dropped close to that number again. The lure of choice was the Rapala Husky Jerk Tennesse shad. thanks for reading Dave

I would avoid locking up on a metre plus kingie landbased, the harder you pull the harder they pull back try and slow their runs so they come up short of the structure thay usually take 2 good runs, unfortunetly if they want to brick you they will

Cant catch a bream but the big eye trevally and moses perch have kept me entertained The moses perch have been in plagues since spring the 20cm+ models do give a solid tussle Managed to have a cast at Coffs Harbour marina yesterday standing and casting along the rockwall inside the marina and twitching a hardbody back across it Didn't take long for the action to statrt with what I assumed were GT's and after a few casts came up tight on one after a solid tussle to my surprise out came a bluefin trevally havn't seen one for a few years a very nice fish to start the day and I thought it wont get much better kept casting for more hits and misses and then spotted a school of baitfish in some deeper water put a cast in them then rapidly twitched the lure out and whack i was on the fish tore off at a rate of knots and after a while came up in front of me and to my absolute surpirse and excitement a queenfish I have wanted to catch one since i was a kid, not a 1m monster but a very exciting catch this far south I want to thank all you Raiders for 2016 I have enjoyed the reports and posts Have a great Christmas and as a hospital worker I say please stay safe over the holidays Dave

I'd eat tofu over that and thats saying something

saltwater is notoriously difficult to maintain I believe but don't quote me due to the nitrogen and ammonia cycle being different to freshwater requiring a more intense filtration system, I had a similar vision some years ago with mullet which apparently are not unkillable they only lasted about a day

interesting video, I release probably 90% of the fish I catch, I get as much enjoyment out of watching it swim away as catching it, the best example being a mangrove jack a couple of months ago, it took me a month and probably 800 casts to catch that fish and I have seen him terrorizing bait fish multiple times since and I get a buzz each time and I hope some one else will get the same excitement from catching him as I did and I truly hope we will be reunited when he's 50+cm. That's my 2 cents worth on catch and release Dave

300m would be more than enough

never a truer word spoken

nice work the first lure bream is always a memorable one