bobthelob2341

Plumb bobbing is just another name for using a paternoster in deep water. There’s a tool called a plumb bob which looks like a sinker on a line hence the name.

Thanks mate, it’s a good way to get a feed but nothing beats catching them in ankle deep water on lures. Going to keep this trick up my sleeve.

Thanks, it made for many meals between our families. Caught squid with the intention of downrigging them for kingfish but they didn’t seem to be on the chew so they came home for calamari rings. It was a good day filling the freezer a nice break from my recent donut sessions.

Always read about people targeting blue spot flathead with bottom bashing techniques and decided to give it a go since I’ve only ever fished for duskies up the river. Headed out of Port Hacking and spent some time collecting bait in front of Jibbon and headed south to some random ground in 60m of water. First couple drops got some mid 40s fish but after awhile the nursery came through. We decided to push further south towards Bellambi in 40m of water and caught some nice flathead over the course of 2 hours. With 20 fish between the 3 of us we called it a day and headed home. We also found some redspot whiting lurking around the same areas. Always a good day fishing when you find new ground and figure out new techniques.

Beautiful fish and must be awesome catching it on a lure you made yourself!

Prospect creek is a decent spot for bream and bass, you can use top water cicadas or lightly weighted soft plastics, just fish the tide changes as the current can rage through there.

With the fishing offshore being quiet, I’ve decided to finally give bass fishing a go. After scouting around on google maps I found a couple of likely spots where I could have a flick for my first bass. I pull up to a local creek in Chipping Norton and flicked a cicada lure along a weed line, with a couple of steady winds a bass boofs the lure at my feet and out comes my first ever bass. It was a healthy fish considering in came from the dingy feeder creeks to Chipping Norton lake. Fast forwards a couple days and I have become addicted to topwater bass, purchased 3 new cicada lures and every creek or pond I drive by I think about what could be under the surface. This time I fished further up stream from Chipping Norton in some more dodgy looking water, with a few bottles and shopping trolleys in the water but nevertheless still held bass willing to hit my cicada. Unfortunately I didn’t get to measure this fish but I’m sure I won’t be catching another bass the same size for a while.

Some nice squid there. I’ve noticed that the Hacking generally holds bigger squid in the shallows than Botany Bay or Jervis Bay.

Yeah there’s been a few around recently, last month I got a samson fish off merries reef on a jig. I’d feel bad using big squid for bait just for it to be picked apart by rats, so I vacuumed sealed and froze the smaller ones ready for kingies.

100% is mate in the last 2 years all the fishing I’ve done has been offshore for kingfish and deep dropping, and I don’t remember the last time I went for a fish up the river. Certainly feels rewarding after spending many days bobbing around waiting for marlin. Thanks mate!

I believe you are correct @Blackfish it was a juvinile amberjack, when it first came to the boat it had its signature stripe across the eye and the golden stripe as you say. Its the second one I've caught from the Hacking, have also caught samsons on the edges of shallow reefs here too.

Over the last 2 fishing sessions me and the old man have been chasing bonito from Port Hacking. The first trip was not successful on the bonito front however we found some success on the squid just in front of Cronulla, after trolling the headlands a few passes we headed into the river to chase bust ups. It was quiet at first and on the bay back to the ramp I spotted birds working right at the back of a small bay, we raced in and saw the most insane surface action i’ve ever witnessed, There were hundreds of large tailor, salmon, trevally, and kingfish working up white bait in 70cm of water smashing them right up at people’s backyards. Flicking some small metals resulted in some tasty fish captures. Second trip started off the same with some squid being caught of Cronulla, so we chucked the lures in and trolled around Jibbon and picked up some smaller bonito. The seas were not too pleasant so trolling did get a bit lumpy, we spotlocked on a shallow reef and feed down strips of bonito on light sinkers. It results in multiple double hookups on rat kingfish as well as large bonito and the amberjack which gave a good account of itself. A pretty successful few trips going back to basics after multiple donut days chasing marlin.

Red head and full white in rattle are cracker colours for Jervis Bay in the clear water

Interesting to read, here I was thinking I was getting some pretty good readings. Cheers for the advice I will tinker some more with the settings and see if I can get any better readings.

Awesome fish mate, you're living the dream.