Clarkie

Nice one Rick And nice to meet you at the social.

Very nice fish. Little sx40 hanging off it's lip?? Shame about the lid though.

Those fish go nuts as soon as something hits the water. It's the same as the marina around in Smiths creek. Drop a bit of bread in there and all of a sudden the water is boiling with bream.

Lovely part of the world. Only been down that way once, but it's high on the list to get back there. We actually started from Kangaroo valley itself (bridge), when the river level was pretty high and paddled to the dam wall over 2 days. Took tents with us and camped next to the river. The fish weren't huge, but avg was over 30cm at least. Those Jackels certianly look the goods, but as you say deckie, close to $30 is a hefty price to pay for a snag finder. Has anyone had any luck with the Berkley copies? At about $4 a go, certainly easier on the pocket. They seem to be slightly larger and a bit cruder. It may be worth a topic on it's own I guess. Cheers, Steve.

Nice work boys. Looks like you had a lot more fun than the rest of working mugs had

Well done Spooled. Sounds like a great day. Good luck Joe, hope you get amoungst them so we can read about it tomorrow.

As you say a great way preparing for work, and heaps better than sitting in traffic. for getting out there.

I'd planned to fish Cockle Creek (Bobbin Head) Saturday morning in a mates kayak, but unfortunately when I went to pick it up on Friday night the roof racks didn't fit mine, so thankfully Dave was able to drop it round for me on Sat arvo. Worked out ok, because I think I would have fried being on the water Sat morning. So woke up Sunday morning to the sound of rain and thought bugger it, may as well go as I'll probably get wet anyway. Loaded everything up, and was on the water by about 10am. Not raining at this point, so things were looking good. That was until I tipped it over getting in it. Now I was soaked. First real fishing session in a kayak, so it was pretty much a research trip, just exploring and getting my set-up's right. Paddled up as far as I could. A section of mainly boulders and rocks stopped any further progress. Was getting a lot bites on a 3" watermellon bm, but couldn't see what they were. Water was quite muddy after all the rain. One log seemed to be attracting most of the bites, so perservered here a bit longer and finally managed a nice little Bream. Probably just under legal, but still nice to have something in the boat so to speak. Very little current so was basically just drifting in the breeze. Very pleasant. Managed to boat another bream a tad bigger, but then things went quiet, so time to start back. Tide was pretty much dead low at this stage, so had to drag a couple of times. Saw heaps of what I'm pretty sure small choppers chasing small bait schools around. Again plenty of bites, but no hookups. Switched to a 2" version to see if I could convert this bites. Managed 2 choppers about 20cm, and a whiting about the 25cm mark. Once I got back to the ramp, thought I'd have one last cast before I packed up the gear, and landed another bream just under legal. Funny old day weather wise. What looked like was going to be a washout, and I end up getting sun burnt. No pics as I didn't want to risk dunking the camera Steve.

Thanks for the good words guys. Definately the fresh section. Had a session down in the salty section a week or 2 ago, and it would have to be one of my worst Bream days on the water. Picked up a good sized bream on bait in the first 10 mins, then nothing for the next 4 hours, until I dropped a little flatty on a plastic. Then lost a sx40 on a snag that I'd bumped it over a dozen times. It looked much better than those results. I don't think the tide was right though. Would have been about midway from memory, so I won't right it off just yet. Cheers, Steve.

Had Friday arvo off last week, so thought I'd duck down my local stretch of alledged Bass water for a flick. I've flogged this stretch a few times for nothing. Plenty of carp though. Grabbed 2 rods, my net (had to break-off a 60cm carp the week before because I hadn't brought a net) and the tackle bag and off I went. Wish I'd taken shoes, as thongs really weren't cutting it. So after falling on my arse twice I was beginning to wonder if it was such a good idea. 2nd cast had me snagged on a submerged log, and there goes the leader. Bugger. Out comes the second rod, and away we go again. I've usually hammered this stretch with hb's, so I thought I'd try only plastics today. Started with a 3" BM in bloodworm. I'd cast out in an arch about a dozen times, mainly concentrating in the deeper sections for nothing, so feeling confident, I cast along the edge a few times, and for a change stayed out of the trees. 3rd cast come up tight. Another snag I thought at first, but then the snag pulled back and started taking line. Wahoo, we're on. Thankfully it went straight for the middle rather than the trees, and after a short battle, and some work to keep it away from the submerged pipe I finally had my first Sydney Bass in the landing net. Went a touch over 15", or 38cm. Not a great photo but you get the idea. Not an overly productive bit of water, one fish from about a dozen attempts, but 10 mins from home.

For anyone in the city, Gowings are closing their fishing dept at the Wynard store. They currently have 20-30% off everything. Not sure for how much longer, but I'd say it should run for a few more weeks yet. Still a fair bit of gear, including quite a few nice bream sticks. Cheers, Steve.

Looks really good Lizard. Whats the weight like now with all the extra gear?

It's no pipedream Joe. They are there all right. I'm trying to get back out there myself now.

Great work Joe. Good to meet you & Pedro. She was a tough day on the squid front. The owner of the boat I was on managed one rat King just on 60cm which went back and got busted off by one that was a heap bigger. Both on live squid. Mate of mine went out Sunday. The squid were in abundance, and he boated a 10kg 110cm Kingy from Nth Head. Bastard. Probably read about it on the other site. Steve.

I was thinking the same thing. Great fish. The couple of times I've been down to BH recently it's been so crowded, that I've either headed further up the Cowen, or gone over to ATC, and followed the path along for a while. Still only results in 20cm Bream though. Steve.

Hi guys. Actually it's Lane Cove, and it's only a little water pipe. I've looked at the upper Cowen, but haven't ventured that far yet. It's also on my list of places to check out. Off to Brisbane now for 2 weeks, so hopefully I'll get a chance to check out some really new Bream & Bass spots on the drive up. Cheers, Steve.

Hi Jocool, I've actually been considering a yak ever since we did a 2 day canoe trip down the south coast few months ago. It'd certainly make getting around this stretch of water much easier. It'd also be great for the Cowen. Apparently a mate of a mate has one that doesn't get used, so I think we're going to try and talk him into lending it to us for a while. If it's something I'm still keen on after a few more test runs, then we might have to invest later in the new year. Cheers, Steve.

I'd been meaning to explore my local river for a while now, so Saturday morning I pulled my finger out, grabbed the bream rod, some bass lures and headed out. Didn't really know what to expect, other than there was a walking track on the map, and it looked as if it cut along the river about a k in. Some of the scenery was amazing. There were quite a few amazing caves and rock formations, one creating this huge natural ampitheatre, with a little feeder creek running right beside it. Well the track eventually got to within about 10-15 meters of the water, but the bush was so thick that even when I did try and make it to the water, the trees on the edge were so thick that there was no chance of even throwing a lure out there, letalone casting one. Kept walking, more amazing scenery, and about 40 minutes in, came to a nice strech were the track was right on the edge of the water, and the trees were starting to thin out. I thought seeing I'd already gone this far, I might as well check out the whole section. So another 20 mins and I came to a clearing and grassy banks. Couldn't go any further anyway, so the first lure hit the water a bit after 8am. Wasn't any surface activity, and I couldn't see any in a few of the snags I was looking in, so just cast at every snag, over hanging tree, or open water within a stretch of about 100m. Firstly with a little popper, then a crawdad, followed by an SX40. Unfortunately nothing came to the party. Did see a very big carp swim by, then what I'm pretty sure were mullet? After about 1.5 hours decided that I'd try a few of the spots I'd walked past earlier for the same result. Again, no surface activity, but the Sun was pretty high up at this stage, so the final spot, which was about 30-40 meters off the path, where an above ground water pipe had been cut through the scrub, allowing pretty reasonable access to the water. Again saw a huge carp feeding on the surface, and am pretty sure I saw a good sized bass swim out of a snag while I was getting my lure out of a tree. (Geez I caught a lot of branches) But couldn't get a bite. It looks like a good spot though, so I think I'll have to get up a bit earlier and give it a proper go. As I didn't catch anything Sat, thought I'd better rectify that, so after getting approval for no more than 3 hours ducked up to Apple Tree Bay with some leftover squid bait. Caught the usual small snappers. So tried a few of the little crabs that were on the rocks, and immediately the little snappers turned into little bream. Also caught a 30cm taylor on a metal slug when a small baitschool broke the surface just in front of me. Nothing exciting caught, but a good weekend anyway. Steve.

Found a similar sized Muddy (had only just died) on some rocks at the back of Bobbin Head a few weeks ago. Can't say I've seen a lot of them though. Tried breaking it up for bait, but had started to turn, so had to throw it out. Steve.

I can't give you a scientific explanation, but from what I've read on a couple of performance car sites is that all modern un-leaded fuel octane levels deteriorate over time to a point where it should become quite noticable after a month. You can add fuel stabilisers which lengthen the life of the fuel, but old fuels should be discarded as they can damage heads & pistons because of this octane decrease. Steve.

Yea, yea yea. OK next time I'll write it out properly Thanks Snag. I was actually mainly in Appletree. Walked right along the track, and back (have to take less gear next time ) Then finished up the back of Bobbin. I've also found that it fishes much more consistantly than Bobbin itself, and has a lot more options for a land lubber like me. Usually a pretty quiet place as well, but this time there must have been at least 6 groups of families with young kids on the track. The sun must have brought everyone out. Steve.

Didn't realise there was another head starting with B. It's actually Bobbin, which is basically my local.

After both my planned trips on the water for Sunday fell through on Sat night I decided just to go down to B'head and fish from the bank. Got down there just before daybreak, and after a bit of a trek, got to the section I'd been wanting to try out for a while. A nice large section of sand flats that I thought would be teaming with Flatties. Thanks to the weatherman I'd overdressed for the occasion and it was starting to get a bit steamy. After 2 hours of flicking all sections of the flats with a few different plastics I finally came to the conclusion that maybe there weren't any there. No probs, plenty of other spots around, so trecked back to a couple of other spots to give the bait a crack as well. Only a couple of little snappers and 1 small bream. Did manage to hook a nice flattie, but dropped him just as I got him to the edge. Before I left, thought I'd give one last tidal flat a try with the plastics. Almost down to dead low at this point, so not the best time, but worth a try anyway I thought. Nothing to show for it though. Got one hit, but nothing else for the morning. Not a great result, but better than mowing lawns. Steve.

Now that I've gone back to the books and compared them side by side, it looks more like a Salmon. The side fins give it away I think. Unusual catch for that time of year. Probably why I though Taylor at the time. Steve.

Thanks for the welcomes fella's. Lost the site for a while, untill I remembered it was moving. tyrone07, mate you could be right. I hadn't caught either before, but when I checked my books at the time, it looked like it was a Taylor. The colour in the photo didn't quite come out right. And from memory, it tasted pretty decent compared to the Salmon. Have since picked up a 38cm Bream at Bobbin Head. I really must get a digi camera.