jgrant666

Thanks mate, do you know how far up the commercial fishos go? I used to fish the vines and bar point regularly when I was a kid to great success, maybe you need to go further up now though... Very mixed results in Cowan I find Sent from my D6653 using Tapatalk

We must have just missed you then, Was probably around 9:30ish we moved out of that area

Yep that would have sucked alright. I would have freaked out having to swim back after that!

Morning Raiders, just wondering if anyone had any luck in the hawkesbury this weekend? I took the kids out saturday launched at appletree but headed down to the basin for a picnic and a swim. Wasn't really a fishing trip but on the way back decided to pull into jerusalem bay as my son's friend had never really fished before. First cast and literally 20 seconds after she's hooked up a nice 28cm bream - I was so jealous as all I've ever caught in there is bloody pinkies! Bream was released safely. Strangest thing though, when we got back to the ramp heaps of boats were also coming back in but there was NO-ONE at the cleaning table and not much evidence of many fish being cleaned that day Went out again Sunday this time for a proper fishing session. Launched at Parsley Bay nice and early around 6pm just on high tide and headed straight for lion island. Spent a good couple of hours drifting next to the island and out to sea a bit but NOTHING, not even a bite. Heaps of other boats & yaks around but I didn't see anyone else even strike at anything, much less land a fish either. Moved on to flint & steel for an hour but nothing doing there and no luck I could see on any other boats. After pulling into Patonga for a swim we headed back round to the eastern shore across from dangar island. My youngest son who hasn't been too enthused by fishing as yet hooked up a nice pan sized flatty, but being inexperienced dropped it on the surface before I could get the landing net ready. That would have been one of the only bites any of us had all day though! Same thing back at the ramp heaps of boats coming back in but no-one at the cleaning table and little evidence of anyone having much success. Even the pelicans were looking hungry and disappointed!

Whoa, we were there on Saturday with the kids. Where did he step on it, on the river side or lagoon side inside the shark net? I didn't even consider the possibility of stingrays round there, now I'm wondering if I should get them some little wetsuit booties as they loved it there and I'm sure we'll be returning many times over the summer now that we've got the boat..... Glad to hear your mate was alright though, you must have been sh!tting yourselves for a while!!!

jealous much.....

Hi Mate, I have a 4.6m glass boat and recently launched and retried it on my own for the first time (thanks tofellow raiders for some tips on that!) It wasn't as bad as I thought but I certainly wouldn't be keen to try driving it on by myself (mine's a half cab so very difficult to get at the trailer post from inside the boat anyway). I launched at tunks but any ramp with a pontoon next to it or in the middle should be ok. (mooney bridge, apple tree, drummoyne etc). As long as you've got a reasonably long mooring rope to the front I found it quite easy to just use a rope from the front and slowly pull it in to the trailer from the pontoon until you could get your winch strap hooked up and winch it on. The feet got a bit wet since I don't have a fancy trailer walkway like Fab (must look into that by the way!) but it was easier than I thought. Just pick your days and your ramp I'd say, I wouldn't be game to try it in high winds or a strong swell/current but I imagine you'd be checking the forecast before heading out anyway..... I've found other boaties to be generally pretty helpful too if you really do get stuck, despite the occasional @$$hole

Thanks Scratchie! Thanks Fab1 - I generally give it a once over anyway and recently checked the tyre pressures, but I think given the amount of K's involved betterto have a professional cast their eye over it Too right! I definitely don't want to e a roadside casualty sitting next to a busted trailer. If nothing else the kids would drive me nuts with boredom while we waited for a tow or whatever, before you even think about safety or potential accident if we had a lowout or suspension failure I'm in ermington, I believe you guys are right down south so could be tough to get down that way before christmas?

Hi Raiders Looking to take the new boat down to merimbula, then up to coffs harbour over our family christmas break, so a lot of K's on the cards! It'll be by far the most we've towed the boat since we bought it a few months ago and the mrs is a bit worried about the long trips. We know the boat is ok but I haven't had much experience with trailers or what to look for (other than the very basics - rust, working lights, tyre pressure) Any tips for a general safety check or can people recommend businesses that would give it a once over? I know a lot of boat places are flat-out this time of year, maybe tyre places or something? Any specific businesses please send via PM as per the site rules thanks in advance!

So after all that I got out this morning, at tunks by 5:30, but for the life of me couldn't get the boat off the trailer! Was about to pack it in when I realised I hadn't taken the tie Downs off the back! Launched very easily after that :@ Headed up to sugarloaf Bay but got plagued by bloody pinkies, largest being almost legal about 25cms. Had what I think was a decent sized flatty on at one point but it threw the hook near the surface. One other decent strike that sent my reel screaming but whatever it was busted me off as soon as I set the hook. To cap it all off too I had a pilly out unweighted that ended up badly snagged and when trying to pull it off I ended up snapping the friggin rod!!!!! So not the best of sessions but it was a beautiful morning and very relaxing being out by myself, plus a great confidence builder handling it all solo for the first time Thanks for the tip stevefish it really was easy at tunks! Sent from my D6653 using Tapatalk

Hehe I hope not! Managed to finish said urgent task and am getting up at the crack of tomorrow to head out. Fingers crossed all goes well launching myself! Sent from my D6653 using Tapatalk

hehe unlikely as he's more of a motorbikes kinda guy and is based in Melbourne, not too many raiders from down that way I don't think!

Ah bugger - of course my boss must have a 6th sense or something as I've just been handed an urgent task to complete.......... Next time I'll have to just go and not think about it in advance

ah ok thanks mate, I might just take you up on that if you're there and I need it! I'll give tunks a go then. I'd probably be trying to launch round 6ish to get the last couple of hours of the run out tide and the nice low winds forecast for that time through till about lunchtime. Any spots you'd recommend round middle harbour? I'm not familiar with the system as I've spent all my time so far in cowan creek & the hawkesbury proper. I'd just be targetting your bread and butter species mostly probably with a pilly on gangs out the back for a tailor or something biger if they're around. I was thinking of anchoring up on the western side of the spit bridge as I believe you can't anchor on the eastern side, or maybe up round sugarloaf point? I've got today to do some searching on these forums anyway for ideas but any tips would be appreciated

Morning Raiders, Very seriously considering taking tomorrow off to go for a fish as the conditions look pretty good compared to the weekend, and since the last couple of weekends have had crap weather I'm itching to get out! The mrs has other plans and none of my mates want to take the day off so it looks like it'll just be me. I'm thinking middle harbour might be a go, as I've not had the boat out by myself yet and figure the harbour proper might be a bit dicey with all the ferries & other traffic everywhere (2nd set of eyes would be good). I know I'd be fine launching at drummoyne since it has that awesome pontoon down the middle of the ramp, but I'm worried it's a fairly long hike from there round to middle harbour - mine's an older boat and not the most fuel efficient craft on the water........... Tunks Park or Rozelle would be closer but I've not been to either of those ramps since I was a little kid so no Idea what they're like to launch from solo, as I figure if you don't have a beach or somewhere to leave the boat while you park the car. Ideally I'd prefer to get into the hawkesbury but I know that parsley bay would be perilous for a solo launch as the pontoon is so far away from the ramp with nothing but a rock wall between them and mooney bridge has too many w@nkers I'd be worried about someone messing with or nicking my trailer! Any tips for launching solo and advise on the ramps mentioned would be appreciated - thanks guys!

Amen to that - anything more than a day or two out has proven to be utterly useless of late! and the BOM just got a new supercomputer too, it must've been running windows 8 or something ;-)

welcome aboard mate

sneaky handline maybe?

Nice work mate, what system were you fishing? Pittwater, the harbour, Botany or the hacking?

thanks mate, it was still fun to get out on the water (and out of mobile range!) for the morning, and some of the little buggers put up a pretty tough fight for their size! Hopefully their bigger cousins will start to come out of hiding when the water warms up a bit more. A week of solid decent weather should do it hopefully......

By all means, please do pop over and say G'Day next time, it'd be nice to start putting some faces to names from this site! I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one getting totally frustrated with the bloody pinkies too (though not glad that you didn't catch anything for the table of course......). I'm thinking I might head back out to the hawkesbury proper next trip though, just to try and get away from all the damned pinkies! Really want to get into some nice good sized bream or a few flatties...... Too true, although they tend to bugger off out to sea from what I've read so they'll keep annoying me in the river then probably won't even get to catch ione once they get to a decent size

Seriously though what is it with the pinkie snapper????? Most predominant fish I've caught by far, must be the time of year or something. Even managed to foul hook one through the belly! No idea how that happened, bet itvwas more embarrassed than I was though ;-) Sent from my D6653 using Tapatalk

Hi raiders, Went out with the Mrs for a session this morning in Cowan Creek. Launched at first light in apple tree Bay and arrived at waratah Bay just on high tide. Got a good burley trail going and soon we were on to qa bunch of pinkie snapper. All were WAY under size except for one that was borderline legal, but I decided to put back to be safe. About 2hrs in and no decent takers so moved on to a spot across from cottage point (near those funny flat rocks jutting up out of the river. Sent down my paternoster rig and just as I'm baiting up my second rod it goes off, and I managed to land a nice 25cm bream. Stayed there for about an hour catching more pinkies till the wind picked up and started us dragging the anchor so time to move again. Headed round to pinto Bay to get out of the wind, again got our burley on but all we could catch was, you guessed it, more pinkies! (seriously we must have caught at least 30 of the little buggers throughout the morning.....) I did manage a small squid though which I'll save for a nice bait next time. Still it was a lovely morning out without the kids and I'll enjoy a nice bream fillet for dinner! Pretty much everything caught on chicken gut, very little interest in squid prawns or pilly, I assume due to all the rain recently. Downsized to a size 4 longshank in the hope of picking up a couple of leatherjackets but no luck there The Mrs took this from the boat and the perspective is a bit weird and makes both me and Mr bream look smaller than we are..... Sent from my D6653 using Tapatalk

Shame you can't keep it since it's from West of the bridge :-) Sent from my D6653 using Tapatalk

Great report and good to see a couple of nice feeds for the family. My wife is from Coffs and has family up there so we're up there semi regularly. I'd be interested too if you could Pm me a couple of spots where you had luck as I'll definitely be taking the boat up next trip probably over Easter Sent from my D6653 using Tapatalk