Jethro

It is a tough one... worst thing is I had that fish and another in the live well ... had I know it would have been easy enough to check... I have caught quite a few bream in the creek over the last few years and caught them up as far as the weir... but I have never seen one that black... Just means I will have to go back and catch the little bugger again

Awesome game!!!!! It was edge of the seat stuff.... I dont understand how any one can call it boring..... Aussie Guus has done a great job with the team.... but why in the world would you change goal keepers in the middle of a tournament???? Anyway we are through to the final 16... who would have thought.... and its not beyond us to give Italy a good shake..... bring on Tuesday

No good at all Mick.... There are some little low lifes out there... I will keep an eye out for it... My Mum's car was knocked off a while ago. She left the keys in it while she stood across the road (in full sight of the car) and talked to here sister... She heard the car start and turned to see it tearing off up the street.... They are game little Sh*#@.... It turned up a couple of days later in the car park at Toukley Bowlo.. She losy her phone, handbag, etc but at least she got the car back.. Probably not important but did you get any fish??

Thanks guys.... Looks like I have chalked up a new species Ant - Shore based in the creek can be pretty hit and miss but I will shoot you a PM ... Grant - Glad to hear she is up and running... cant wait to have a look..

G'day Grant - Hows the new tub going?? It was nice relaxing day on the creek. It was great out of that wind. We had planned to go for a run up to Budgewoi but she was a bit blowy out on the lake It does sound a bit pretensious doesn't it... Let the truth be-known my PB is 41cm and I have probably only caught a dozen or so fish over 36cm Thanks for the info on the scale count but Im not quite that keen.... Info from another site suggests that the YF bream has a bit more of a rounded head and the black are a little bit pointer... which looks like it in the photos..

I managed to catch up with a mate on Saturday that I hadn't seen in a while.... and what better way than to wet a line.. We decided to stay local and the weather was looking a bit dodgy so we headed down to the creek. I wasn't holding high hopes after the bit of rain we had but when we arrived we found the creek a little dicoloured but still worth a flick. We tried SPs early for a couple of small fish. Even managed to get my mate his 1st bream on a lure. As the day wore on I and there was a lot more water between fish changed to the old faithful SF40, and on the 3rd cast came up tight. We ended up landing another 12 or so fish for the afternoon. One thing we did notice was that all fish we caught deep in fallen trees. Nothing off boats wharves or rock bars which usually produce. The high light of the day was this fella. He only went 39cm but he could well be a black bream which would be a 1st for me Can anyone tell me what the difference is between a black bream and a YF bream. All the other fish we caught were their usual silver colour These 2 fish were caught within 20m of each other. You can see the definate colour difference

Nice EP Mick... shame about the blackfish.... oh hang on ........ Blackfish I was planning to go and give them a shot on the weekend from the boat Any tips on where you are getting your weed???

Its a great looking piece of water.. We fished it for the first time last summer... The fishing was average at best but we picked up a few good fish on surface lures which is always a bonus.. But its stilll great to be out expolring new water

How about Dora Creek????

Good luck... hope you guys slay em... I will be intersted to hear how the split grip performs. Just watch out for the F1 boats up there this week end .... they will take a bit of stopping on 6lb

.... Good call I couple of teh boys mentioned its worth taking a spare in case you snap a blade or loose it...

G'day Kingpin Thanks for all your help so far.. I spoke with Neil Winters at the gorge yesterday... very nice bloke and really helpful. Neither of us own canoes that are suitable for the trip. So we will be hiring them.. Probably from the Nymboida Canoe centre... Not sure what size they are but will be calling them later today. At this stage we are heading up late October or early November... depends on work. The plan is to spend a couple of days at the gorge and do a couple of day trips up river and explore the gorge a bit... After that we will spend 5 days down to Copmanhurst..... If you are keen you are more than welcome to come along... I will let you know when we have some firm dates Thanks again

Thanks guys... thats the stuff... The trip will be about 45-50km of fairly easy paddling. We plan on doing it over 5 days. I figure 10km a day with plenty of fishing should make for fairly easy going... does that sound about right?? Flattieman - Great list. There are a couple of things there I hadn't thought of.. We are going around October / November so hopefully it wont be to cold up there.. George - the banjo is packed ... along with the iron undies.. so hopefully we wont get to much trouble off the locals Clutch - after fishing gear camer will be the 1st thing packed... I just bought myself one of the Olympus water / shock proof ones. So there will be plenty of photos. Allen - We picked up the toppos this week, just to get an idea what we are in for. My mate is pretty good at reading them but I will have to have a crash course between now and then I have my 1st Aid certificate and we will be borrowing a mates EPIRB just to be safe. One other question - When you guys do an extended trip like this do you share a canoe of have 1 each.... Its a fairly easy stretch of river with only 2 or 3 small rapids.. These can get a bit tricky if the river is up a bit but still easy enough for a novice... so I have been told

With a bit of research it looks like we have nailed down our trip on the Clarence.. For our first trip we will be giving the rough stuff a miss. We will start at the bottom of the gorge and head down to Copmanhurst.... All going well we will be heading off late October / Early November. This being our first ever real canoe trip (should take around 5 days) I am after some tips from people that have done this type of trip before.... I'm after anything you would usually take on a trip like this... no matter how obvious it may seem... Also what are some of the pitt falls you have come across.. Alll help is appreciated

Thanks mate.... I might just take you up on that.. I have ordered the maps and they should be here later this week..... then we can decide on which stretch we are going to fish.. The fish under Wyong bridge was my first EP.... Have done a fair bit of bass fishing on the river but usually above the weir

After talking with a few people I think we will give the Gorge propper a miss...... it sounds like it's pretty tough going with rapids and a couple of good waterfalls to keep you on your toes.. So we are looking at starting from a property at the base of the Gorge Web SITE HERE and fishing down to Copmanhurst... SO any info on this stretch of river would be appreciated.

Mods - I have just noticed this is in the wrong forum.. ... can we moved it to General Chat... EDIT: Moved topic to Fishing Chat.

Thanks Charlie - I have had a look at Wave Hill.. it might be a good starting point.. Kingpin- No firm dates at this stage... We were thinking around November but it depends when teh best fishing would be.... Any help you can offer would be appreciated..

I was watching the Wild River Bass DVD on the weekend for the 1st time and it was awesome...... One of the best fishing DVD’s I have seen... Needless to say it got the old casting arm twitching and plenty of talk of a canoe trip away. We have talked about doing the Clarence River Gorge a few times and this DVD was all the motivation we needed. So we have decided we are going to do the trip towards the end of this year or early next year... depending on the best time of year to go. I have fished the Clarence up as far as Copmanhurst but anything beyond that is a mystery to us... At this stage we are in research mode and I am after any information on the Gorge trip. Where to put in, how long is the trip, best time of year, what can we expect in the way of rapids... etc Surely there are a few people here that have done the trip before.... (Kingpin??) Any information would be appreciated.... PM me if you dont want it made public. Thanks in advance

Thanks Kingpin I have tried spinning for jew in the Harbour a few times but never done any good...... Actually never had any luck on a Jew anywhere......... I will keep plugging away and Im sure my time will come....... hopefully, maybe... one day

You dont need to tell me...... I have basically given up trying to catch bream up there..... Are the few reefs in?? I would be dead keen to try some deep jigging on them..... I am flat out with work this month and trips away but we will have to get out for a fish again Thanks Martin... it was a cracker All the fish were released..... Which was probably my favourite part of the day.... Having photos taken back at the ramp which drew a bit of a crowd.... Then the looks on peoples faces when you carefully put back a few good bream ...... priceless

Thanks all for the kind words........... I just hope it wasn't a fluke and we can do it next time.. Ocean side of the bridge... northern shore... thats about as specific as I am going to get Yeah we fished them whole. We nip off about 5mm just so they sit better on the jighead. G'day Mitch - If we can get fish like that during the Pro Bream I will be a very happy man. Fingers crossed they stick around G'day Grant - Believe me its been a loooong time coming. (again just hope it wasn't a fluke). I cant say enough good things about the gulps. I have been down the creek the last few weekends and it has been tough. Still only getting a few fish but the size has been a bit better. I almost forgot... Grant - Hiow goes the new tub??

Thanks guys. The lure that did the damage was the 4" turtleback in pumpkinseed. Warwick - Thats the spot. We just found a bit of broken bottom and there was plenty of fish there. Looking forward to the Harbor Pro Bream in June

Well it finally happened........ For a while now I have been reading reports where different people have had a cracker of a day on the bream. This seems to happen more to some than the rest of us...... but on Sunday it was our turn..... We hit Newcastle harbor in the early hours of Sunday morning. Now we have fished the harbor a few times without much success so we decided to try a few new locations and tactics. The theme for the day was ... go deep. Without going into to much detail we found a patch near the Stockton bridge that looked the goods. After about 20mins I was 3 - 0 down to deckie and it looked like I was in for a pasting. So a change of lure was in order... to the ever reliable Gulp. After another 10mins or so I came up solid on a better fish. After a brief tussle and a singing drag a new PB for me hit the deck. She was just on 40 but really broad across the shoulders The next fish to come aboard was another for me at 38. Then deckie hit his straps landing another good fish at 43 and very fat (anybody want to guess the weight?) Anyway to cut a long story short we ended up boating about 25 fish for day with the majority of the fish well over 30cm. We even managed a break for lunch at the Brewery on the change of tide. Had a lovely rump steak washed down with a couple of Coopers..... life is tough... Then back to it for the arvo session This gave me my best ever bag of 5 fish by far... I really need to get myself a set of scales My 40... Deckies 43..... My best 2... A day like this is going to take some beating but it has given me a bit cofidence back after the last few fishless sessions

G'day again Saga I take your point on the 2pc rods..... Maybe I still have my mind set on the 2pc rods I used as a kid.... I would be very interested to have a look at one when they are available. More answers.. 1) I prefer up locking real seats. As marlin_dc said it keeps the reel in the same position. Also I find there is less of a tendency for the reel seat to work its way loose as your hand is on the fixed hood 2) I am happy with the current sork I am using. I have bought in a bit A grade cork in from the USA and it does the job. A few imperfections gives it a bit of charater 3) I have played a bit with burl cork. But for full grip on UL rods it will add a fair bit of weight. I mainly use it for but caps