James Clain

Thank you, I was actually surprised at how stable they are. Even at 3 metres my mate and I could stand up and cast lures no problem. Even having the two of us leaning over the side was no problem.

Cheers BN, here is a photo of the boat

As a few of you raiders already know, I recently bought a boat. It is a Polycraft 3m tuff tender with a few accessories to go along with it. For its first voyage (in my hands) my friend Trent and I decided to take it out on the Hawkesbury from Wisemans ferry and try and target some Jewfish. We fished throughout the tide change and jumped around to a couple different spots. We managed to get on, about an hour after the tide change. These fell victim to Hawkesbury prawns on running sinker rigs, no takers on the soft plastics or vibes today.

Another awesome day out on the water, Thank you Bob! Another one off the list, will just have to chase a legal one now which is now on its way.

Fantastic report bn, nice to see you got a silver perch in a new area!

Exactly right, win some loose most in that sort of area.

I was full expecting you to say "go to shelly beach they are everywhere" Its funny because australian musem and fishes of australia list their habitat range as even further south than GT. They must be just a super rare fish where ever you go.

Hey Raiders, My first post on fishraider was this same question asking about Giant Trevally and their habitat range, That led to me heading out and getting some smaller ones at Nambucca with @dirvin21 where they are still considered exotic. (most comments said don't bother south of QLD) My next target species looks like it's going to be a Permit. Any of you guys have any experience as to where these guys are found. Sounds like I am going to head a little further north this time?

Very True, uni holidays are the go haha

Very true BN, they just hit too hard. I through the same even with 30lb under the bridge there but I was wrong about that very quickly. All the best for your shot at them soon, probably on slightly stronger line 😂

Thank you, No haha too much respect for the species. Maybe in Queensland I would eat one but in NSW or at-lest more than a couple hours south of the border I don't think i could do that.

Thanks Dave, i'm looking forward to it!

Hey, looks as though there is no record for mangrove jack on bait so here is my application. Mine is not huge by any means but I felt as though I may add. Exact size. 45.5cm Caught in the Nambucca river at Macksville on a live herring. 50lb leader.

Ever since I saw @dirvin21 (Dave) get a Mangrove Jack with me back in October 2020 and also watching him loose one in the same session I have had my heart set on getting a Jack myself, especially one in NSW. Since I am heading back to Uni as of today I wanted to spend my last week and a half off up at Nambucca Heads, targeting jacks every day until I got one. This turned out to be no easy feat: - first session in Macksville 0 - second session on the Nambucca breakwall lost 3 (badly smoked even on 130lb) - 3rd session on the boat with Dave and @Pickles (lost 1) - 4th session on the breakwall again lost 3 This kept occurring, I lost 14 in total. You may ask why I lost so many and we're also so sure what they were without seeing them. I urge you to go Jack Fishing and find out for yourself then get back to me. - 3rd last night probably 10th session and lost 6. Then Finally on my second last night (after loading up on live herring): On the run in tide just before sunset I finally managed to 'get one up' and land it, only barely hooked. These fish hit so hard and fast that even at this size 46cm they put up an amazing fight which is putting them at number 1 on my list now for best fighting fish, definitely not for stamina though. If you would like to see more, please check out this video, tight lines -

Back home as of today and on the computer to check out this report, fantastic session guys. I will be writing up my own jack report very soon. Thank you Dave and Bob for great day out on the water.

Fantastic stuff

G'day Raiders, What a fantastic day out on the water with @Picklesand Trent. A total of 44 bass between us all and we were off the water around 11pm. Fishing around the Colo River in the Hawkesbury River, we were on the water by 6am. Started quite slow with little to no action off the top but It wasn't long before Bob scored an awesome 44cm bass on the diver. So, we all switched tactics and started trolling the feral cat divers around the river until we narrowed in on the school. Didn't take us long to reach our total of 44 bass (which were unfazed by the bananas) after a few trolling passes which included multiple double and triple hookups - thank you Jesus. Also met up with Stewie (swordie) and another fellow raider on his boat. Nice to meet you guys! Unfortunately no flathead today. All in all a fantastic day on the water with Bob. If you would like to see more of the action take a look at my youtube video! Cheers - James

Interestingly the 42 out up a great fight. However, the 45 didn't pull a click of drag.

Trauma causes the white film to appear on their eyes, red spots sounds like red spot disease. Epizootic ulcerative disease (caused by a fungus). Most common in warmer water as well. I'd say this is what's happening to the population. Maybe they are at the mouth to try and escape the waterway and get into more salty water to help clear it up (just a theory). Maybe some other raiders will have more to add.

This one went 45cm. Both took a daiwa bait junkie 2.5 curly grub. We will be back.

A good friend of mine has a dam on his property, we had always joked that we would go fishing in there one day. We forgot about this.... Until his younger brother actually decided to do it and ended up catching a good sized bass. So with there actually bass being confirmed to be in there we decided to fish it properly. Here are the results. This one is 42 centimetres and it managed to wrap me around the structure, we almost sent out the kayak to try and help pull it out from above but luckily it swam out.

fantastic session, 61 bass. Is that a record?

Trying not to reveal the spot too much but it was about a 30 minute walk. If you've been there before you'll know for sure now.

Thank, yes that is grafitti. we were not remote at all. Thanks @Rebel

Thanks Donna. Yes just before trout season close. However were we are (western sydney) the trout closure doesn't apply as these aren't trout streams.