Bennyg78

just buy the replacement claws they are $5 for a pair.

Yep I think its a good day out, Love checking the boats out and theres usually a few deals on fishing gear to be had!

yeah its exxie, if you're going by yourself but I don't think its too bad, $25 for me and my two kids to go with me

Kids under 12 are free

Nice work, EP's fight so well

That’s awesome what a great result and change of focus . Track racing always impressed me as well as the ladies that were in the track 😉 I never got on the track but loved getting to dunc gray to watch the uci world cups. I had a few mates who would race the Friday nights out there and back up with a long ride Saturday Bridie herself was a handy triathlete once upon a time, she was engaged to a very handy pro way back when. I love most of the aspects of triathlon (although the rising cost of entering an Ironman wasn’t one).

Hey mate 9:58 at port Mac, as for a fave I loved cairns but the old Forster course just for the sentimental value of being the first in Australia

Ex competitive ironman Triathlete here, spent so much money on bikes I should have shares in a certain bike shop in Penrith. Yes definitely a shimano man, when it came to gearing and Hello Di2 (electronic shifting)! I do love the distinct marketing and feel of different cycling brands like the french brands, italian and other labels, hello Corima, zipp and Campagnolo!. Theres definitely a real feel, vibe and culture about the brand names. After 23 years in the sport I am no longer racing tris due to some knee issues and my kids getting busier with sport. So fishing is the main passion along with combat sports! Sold my last triathlon bike over a year ago which was an emotional departure! Still have a pretty basic dual suspension mountainbike I take out a little bit. Still love to watch all things endurance sports and talk shop!

Heaps of prey species about. There are lots of bait fish moving through the system, you won't see them push to the surface as they are seeking the stable temps( similar to the predators). For instance your good bream are going to be sitting deep feeding on whatever comes through, as they want a stable temp and they also have a better chance to feed on whatever comes through. Work that drop off all along Clontarf from the baths along the shoreline, I caught squid there last weekend on a small flutter jig( Ill probably take my daughter there for squid fishing this sunday). Fishing in winter is definitely tougher, but wait a few months and you'll be killing it. Thats when my top water addiction kicks in.

Nice fish and nice dog @Pickles Love the retrieving trials, I started training my dog to have a start ( he’s a brittany), but got sidetracked. Well done your retrieving achievements that’s a great result, you might know Peter Betteridge who’s a lab breeder and trainer

Just a big drop to clamber down from, give it a crack

yeah thats definitely the case. And in summer throw an ecogear aquaprawn under them not cause it looks like a prawn but cormorant poo! Amazing what Bream will eat

You can walk there from the marina, there is a bit of hopping and jumping to be done. I haven't fished that side a lot maybe three times in total, its worth exploring.

I had decided to meet up with a couple of mates to further practice the winter bream bite on Sunday. We decided to launch from Kissing Point Boat ramp (just down the road from @Little_Flattyneck of the woods) and fish the Parramatta river working the bays and hopefully hitting the marina at Cabarita. First little bay to our right (Kissing Point Bay) and we looked to work some boat hulls, with me catching a few tailor, a big flounder and one of the guys catching decent sized salmon that made him work for it's release. On the last boat of that bay I pulled a nice 29 cm bream on baby vibe. We get around to the next bay (Morrison Bay and there is a very crusty old looking boat with mussels covering the keel, I miss a very good fish on this boat and mark it to come back to later using the muss lure. I decide to switch tact here and throw a creature bait soft plastic on a lightly jighead against some of the deeper jetties and pontoons. In this situation I was using the pro lure live yabbie, which does a great job of imitating the real deal, this was fitted on a 1/20th size 2 jig head. The idea is to flick it as far into the structure ( in this case jetties,pontoons, mooring blocks, boats) and let it settle to the bottom. Then some little slow hops working out of the structure. On the third pontoon, which had a boat attached to it I strike what must be close to Bream gold, and have a good fight with a big bream. He/She measures 39.7cm ( not quite 40) and weighs 870 grams. I put this one in the livewell for a photo back at the ramp, as its my PB. Photos below A few casts later, I get another 27 cm model working a pontoon. We decide to go to the next bay, which is Glades bay. Now this bay is pretty shallow all around so I stick with my shallow presentation creature bait. I didn't get any bream, but I did haul in about 5 flatties all under boats. All were between 40-50 cm, and some were chasing down the lure quite aggressively, I watched one follow it up from the bottom in 2 metres of water to take the lure almost at the yak. At was at this stage that we decided to head back as the weather was looking ominous ( lucky we did as it bucketed down). So I was a little bummed not to get to the Marina. I did go back to that mussel encrusted boat and threw the muss lure with some good taps but no hook ups. We worked a few boats on the way back but no bites. Luckily I had just packed up when the rain hit hard and gave my kayak a free clean. Looking forward to the next session

Pretty much, @dirvin21 is on the money. Also a reaction bite is different depending on what you are chasing and the time of year. A reaction bite for a bream is going to be very different than that of a pelagic fish

Theres lots of fish to catch along that stretch.

jump on you tube, you'll see plenty of examples when you start searching

yes

They are all good and depends how you want to fish them as to which one you want to use. I have seen the prolure clone prawns rigged backwards.

Its no secret that as that water temp starts to climb I love the top water bite, whether its bass, bream, tailor, salmon or flat head its a rush. I am hoping the El nino winter we have will pump the water temp up earlier this year

Yeah definitely Steve Morgan makes it look easy but you only get there with practice, the pelicans also know the bream are being released 😉

Hi Raiders, This is a long read so grab a brew if you want to read it. Just on a year ago I got my Hobie outback and after a session with Jedi Master @DerekD and @AlbertW. I have been out on it lots learning the way of the bream in summer. Anyway being the kind of guy who likes to get into things and get committed I was keen to get into some bream comps on the yak notably the Hobie rounds. To fish the hobie comps you need a kayak (duh) not exclusively a hobie, a live-well ( as its a weigh in comp) and a good working PFD. The comps work on the format of catching 3 x Bream (usually) and they have a requirement of legal length + 1 cm ( so 26 cm in NSW) at the conclusion of the days fishing everyone weighs their fish and the combined weight of the day is the winner, add in day two and then you have the overall winner. There are other awards for biggest bream, monster mover, first timer, masters divisions and womens division. They also have a pre-fish ban two weeks out from the comp, which is usually lifted on the Friday before the comp begins. With the bigger fields there's some reasonable money to be won up the pointy end too, which is always nice. Ill preface this by saying that you learn a vast amount at each competition you do. There's lots to consider and take into account to be successful such as planning,lure selection, efficiency of gear, fitness (pedaling your yak can be tiring especially when you add wind and current in), resilience, casting ability and then good old fashioned luck! I think just by taking part you do improve as an angler as you are forced to think and have a crack. Now it might sound easy to catch 3 x 26 + cm bream to weigh in on each of the two days, which on a normal social fishing day would probably be quite achievable . In a competition you have to add several complexities: You can't pick and choose the tides or conditions, the events on the given day and you fish the conditions no matter what. You don't pick and choose your launch point, everyone starts at the same place so if you have a spot or area you want to head to you must plan the logistics around that. Things tend to get a bit more challenging when you have over 100 of your mates trying to catch the same thing, this is where the really good anglers know what, where and how to do it. If you check the results out on the hobie site there are people who are consistently inside the top 10. Fast forward to this year and I signed up for my first big kayak competition with Hobie at Woy Woy. Woy Woy Comp The Woy Woy round was held on May 14-15 and was the biggest round in their history with over 135 competitors. We all launch from the lions park at Woy Woy, the preset arena is pretty much from Ettalong wharf straight across to Kourung Gourung point, and then all the way into the back reaches of Brisbane waters. So a pretty big arena to fish from, which gives you a lot to think about when planing your day to fish. In the days and week leading into the comp we had a big cold snap which sent the temps plummeting, and with the time of year some fish may be starting to school up deeper in a pre spawn phase. Friday May 13, I headed up for a pre-Fish. I hit some boat hulls and jetties from launch site to green point with some success on the baby vibe. Marked the spots and left them to hopefully bite on the weekend. No luck at other areas, got back and went to the accom to prepare; tie on new leaders, charge batteries, etc. Saturday May 14, Comp day 1. My plan was to hit those boat hulls and jetties to get my 3 fish, unfortunately there was probably about 20 other people with the same idea and I ended up with a donut for the day. I did catch tailor and flatties but no 26 + cm to weigh in. Sunday May 15 Comp day 2. My original plan was to head out for long pedal to Gosford and fish the break wall and rail bridge there, but that had to be changed. On Sunday morning they shortened the arena ( basically putting all of the Gosford open bay area off limits) and shortened the timing to a 12 pm finish due to some bad weather rolling in for everyone's safety. Thank goodness they did, more on this later. So I had to change plan and decided to head up past the rip bridge and fish the front of the system, targeting some deeper moorings and maybe having a crack at some of the oyster racks. The pedal up past the bridge was pretty interesting as the current was running in and can pump fast in past the bridge but I made it. I tried flicking some lightly weighted plastics in among the jetties I had some hits but no hook ups apart from some pesky tailor. I then pedaled up & hit some of the racks with another well known angler already there. There's definitely some skill involved here as I got busted off and watch this other fella pull out a few good fish. It was around this time the wind was really starting to pick up and I decided to head back, it was great to see my kayak handle the rougher conditions well with spray breaking the bow of the yak and hitting me in the head. Made it back safe and sound but with another🍩 So double 🍩 for the comp, but some goals to learn how to fish racks better and needing to learn how to fish deeper. Next comp Georges River Goal: to at least get a fish to weigh in The Georges river round took place on 17th and 18th June. They ended up with 106 competitors fishing the comp. Our launch site was Donnely park, Connells Point and the cut off was made between LaPerouse and the end of Kurnell. I had never fished the Georges River before so went down with a few other guys to launch from Connells Point and see what we could see. I had a great day fishing some of the deeper wharf and jetties to pull 2 x bream that were 30 and 32 cm, I then hit Tom Uglys bridge with the muss lure and pulled a cracker 35 cm bream ( weighed 750 gram). Friday June 16th I headed down for a prefish , I wanted to have a crack at canals around Sylvania Waters Canals and then fish a part of Kogarah Bay. The Canals were dead with the water temp reading around 13.5 degrees. I then headed over to kogarah bay and had some good bites at the entrance there. I then headed home as I wanted to only fish a few hours. Saturday June 17th Comp Day 1 Having had some success on two weeks before I had planned to hit the bridges first up, unfortunately so did a lot of other people. I then headed out the front of captains cook bridge trying to work some boat hulls but probably needed to have a heavier lure on. I then went back into Kogarah bay and some decent hits on some soft plastics but no hook ups. 🍩 for the day. Sunday June 18 Comp Day 2 Having had no success up the front due the amount of people I decided to hit up Oyster bay as an exploration and see if I could at least achieve my goal of getting a fish to weigh in. I changed up what I had rigged up fro day 1 as well, rigging a blade, a crab, a deep diving crank, creature bait on on 1/20th jig head and a grub on a 1/12th. I had bites immediately on the first wharf with a 25.5 cm ( I even tried to stretch his tail) hitting the creature bait. Threw it back. I had a couple of other strong bites but no hook ups. I marked these areas as I knew I could come back and hit them ( only one other person went to the bay with me). I continued to fish the back of the bay with no success. I went back to the earlier spot and threw under the jetty waited waited, little twitch and bang I was on. Got the bream in the net and yes legal just over 26 cm and weighing measily 230 grams, but goal achieved. I then headed down towards Como bridge but the current was running hard, it was almost like riding rapids so no luck there and I slowly floated back to the launch site. It was a cool experience using the bump tubs and weighing in a fish (only 1 fish) . Definitely some learnings here on decision making and really need to practice fishing boat hulls more. So finally if you have a yak, like to catch the wiley bream and want to really have a crack at a comp, just do it! Its not intimidating and its a very steep but fun learning curve. Everyone's quite friendly and helpful and its a heap of fun even if you don't catch fish

I’m happy to be that guardian just means you have to hang out with me all day

PS. If you want to learn more theres a great podcast called the Bream Fishing Project, have a listen!

i double dooughnutted at Woy Woy, but was a big field with a cold snap that sent the water temperature down. I am putting a post together to talk about my comp experiences thus far. Next year isn't far away, Hobie usually release the calendar around October/Nov for the following year, I'd definitely suggest a yak hunter comp in the meantime and they are a great entry to comp fishing and a bit more casual too