ireallylovefishies22

Headed out to the harbour today with @44jeff, @eaglesilk5 and 2 other friends from school. We headed out to a place near circular quay, where we had landed a few good luds on the last session. Jeff arrived about an hour earlier than the rest of us, and he managed 1 fish in the fist few minutes before it went dead. When we arrived around 9:30, we burleyed up and began trying other parts of the wharf in case the fish weren't in Jeffs particular area. After about half an hour, I had a down and I managed to land a small luderick, around 30cm. As I was unhooking my fish, Eagle managed to hook another and we landed 2 fish in quick succession, both around the same size. After trying the same areas for another half hour for no results, i decided to move to the area off the small beach, where i had seen some fish earlier. The sun was quite high in the sky now, and my skin was feeling quite hot. As I put my rod down to put on some sunscreen, I see my float shoot under, and i'm on! After a good fight, I landed the biggest fish of the day, going 38cm. This would've been a good fish to catch in the upcoming pirtek fishing comp! After grabbing some lunch, we headed over to the same wharf where we had tangled with some kings last week. When we arrived, the rain started pouring down, so heavy that you could barely see the other side of the river. It was absolute mayhem for a couple of minutes, but as quickly as the rain came, it disappeared, and the sun came out and it turned into a total glass off. Classic australian weather 😂. The water was substantially browner now, and it was hard to catch yakkas. When we eventually managed to find a few, there were no kings following them up, which was strange as we had kings harass almost every fish we brought up last time. We gave up on this plan, so instead we decided to chuck out yakka fillets into the channel. This resulted in 3 nice bream, around 30cm, and the usual small pinky snapper. As we caught a few more smaller sized yakkas, i decided to chuck out a livie out far on my 30lb rod, trying for a larger fish. After an hour or so of the livie sitting out without any action, i decided to check it, and the yakka had been completely destroyed. I reckon it was a crab, but if anyone has any other suggestions, let me know. With the yakkas slowing down and the day coming to an end, Jeff and the others dedcided to head home, so it was just Eagle and I still fishing. We decided to try another spot close to the wharf, leaving our livies and cut bait still out. After catching a few big yakkas, we had run out of bait, so i headed back to our main spot to grab some. As i left with a few more chunks of chicken, I see eagle's livie rod bend over and start screaming. I run over, but i'm not fast enough, as the fish has already spat the hook. I head back over to the spot, and tell Eagle what has happened. After fishing for about 15 minutes, eagle goes back to begin packing up, as it is getting dark. As he reaches the wharf, I hear him yell out my name, and as i rush back, i see my rod is bent. The fish felt like a heavy weight, so i called it for a large flathead. However as it surfaces, i see a flash of silver. Its a jew! The adrenaline is really pumping now, and with the ferry moving in, i need to land it quick. I bend down, and try to grab the fish, but instead i get a faceful of salt water. After multiple attempts, I manage to get my hand around the fish and i fling him up onto the wharf. The onlookers congratulate me, and i cant remember the last time i felt so happy with catching a fish. Eagle manages a nice bream too while this is happening, again around the 30cm mark. 65cm jewy, crushes my previous biggest! also my first ever fish on a live yakka. Since it was really starting to get dark, we pack in in for the day, but eagle's rod goes off in the last few moments. A 27cm bream to end off a cracker day, cant complain with that. Ended with 4 landed luderick, 5 nice bream, and the nice jewie.

Eagle's bream, flathead and nice bass:

Headed out to the Parra today with @44jeff, @eaglesilk5 and another one of our friends from school. We arrived at around 9am, and had a scout around too see if we could find any carp. This is when we saw a pretty unusual sight - around 10 large carp, just cruising around in the salt water section of the parra! Guessing the flood must have washed them out, but still strange nonetheless. We dropped pieces of bread and corn in front of their faces, but they weren't too interested, probably that saltwater stressing them out. While Eagle stayed there trying to catch the saltwater carp, the rest of us moved back to the freshwater. I managed 1 nice hookup on worms, (prob a good bass) but it managed to snag me on the lily pads, and Jeff also managed a hookup on a big carp for it to snap the line too. However, Eagle managed the first fish, which I believe was a goldfish as it did not have the usual whiskers of a common carp. Caught in the saltwater, which is pretty neat. After spotting a group of good sized carp of the opposite bank hiding away in the lilies, I decided to put a piece of bread on my luderick setup so the bait would stay near the surface. I casted out well behind the fish, then slowly dragged the bait into the school. A few seconds later, my float went under, and I was onto a nice carp! Luckily, the carp decided to swim into the open water as opposed to the lily pads. After a fun fight, I landed a nice carp, going around 65cm. The action of this carp seemed to spook the others in the group, as for the next couple hours we did not see any other fish at this particular spot. After capturing a small mullet, we decided to fillet it as bait to try and catch an eel. Again, Eagle decided to fish the saltwater side, as you never really know what could be in there. The mullet was getting plenty of action in the fresh, with lots of takes and hookups with eels. Their abrasive teeth made it hard to land them, as our leader wasn't strong enough to hold them on. Despite this, Eagle surprisingly managed to catch a nice bream and flatty in the salt, going 26cm and 40cm. Catching a carp, bream and flathead out of the same body of water has got to be a pretty rare occurrence. After grabbing some lunch, we headed down to Lennox bridge as the fish were slowing down in our area. I had a down on my float almost immediately, but I missed the hookset. I headed around the the other side of the bridge, on the high wall, as i had spotted some monster carp there in a previous outing. After a bit of waiting, I managed to land almost a pigeon pair of bass on bread, going 27cm and 26cm. I recasted in the same spot, and i'm on again, except this time the fish is screaming drag and going nuts. Its a big carp for sure! However, the 2-3 high wall im on proves to be a big pain, as im on 6 pound leader and i have no hope of dragging a 3 kilo carp up. I try to walk the along the wall to the beach, but there are several bushes along the wall. One by one, i manage to overcome the bushes, until i'm at the last one. This one extends really far out into the water, and I try to get my line around it...but it gets caught! After around 10 minutes of trying to untangle it, the line snaps, and i lose my rig along with my favourite luderick float. However, Jeff manages to find my float a while later, washed up on a small beach. Eagle managed a very nice bass on his eel bait after that, going 34cm, his new PB! As we were packing up during twilight, his eel rod goes off once again, and this time we manage to land the slippery thing. Packed up after that because it was now dark. Overall, a very fun day fishing the upper parramatta river. We managed 6 species, or 7 if you count the goldfish as separate to the carp. Will definitely be back!

mate that is a huge trevally well done 👍

With the school holidays beginning, I headed out with @44jeff, @eaglesilk5 and 3 other friends from school. Our plan was to fish the man o war steps in front of the opera house for luderick, then move to a wharf elsewhere to catch other stuff, no specific target. Jeff arrived at the wharf at around 8, and began burleying up as he waited for the rest of us, managing 1 fish around the 33cm mark. The rest of us arrived around 9, and we fished for about 2 hours managing about 8 hookups, 4 fish landed and a couple other missed downs. The others in our group had frozen yakka and pillies out far on their heavier setups, which resulted in some small pinkies and a nice flounder. I'm definitely no luderick master, so us managing a few fish made my day. Jeff's fish Double hookup on the flounder and luderick After some fun on the blackfish, we decided to head over to a different wharf to target other species. We used small chicken baits to catch some small yakkas that we could use as bait. As one of our friends (who had only ever been fishing twice) was brining up a yakka, I saw a green torpedo shoot out of the pylons and grab the yakka. ITS A #&*% KING!!! Everyone was yelling and screaming, but on the light setup, we all knew there was no chance of landing the fish, especially given the heavy structure. He did a decent job of fighting this fish for a beginner, as he somehow 'survived' the first run, before getting snagged when the fish went for another. Seeing that the kings were around, we loaded up of yakkas and started fishing them live unweighted near the poles. The kingies returned, this time it was a pair of fish which looked around 85cm that came up and chased our livies for a bit before disappearing. This continued for the next hour and a half, where the kings would appear periodically and harrass our baits before swimming away. We managed another hookup, but this one was on for only a few seconds before the line was snapped. After this, they seemed to have vanished as we did not see them again. After the excitement of the kingfish, we decided to throw out some yakka fillets while we fish larger pieces of unweighted chicken for bream. However, the regular appearance of boats made it much harder to fish, as we would have to wind in every few minutes. Still, I managed to bag a nice flatty, around 39cm. While fishing with chicken, I hook up to a fish that is so heavy I can barely move it. Just as I am beginning to wonder if it is a ray of some kind, it goes on a blistering run and snaps my line within fractions of a second, another king lost. We also managed to bring up a large blue swimmer crab, but it let go of the bait as soon as it reached the surface. We headed home after that, as it was getting dark. Overall, a very fun day out on the Harbour targeting different species. I found luderick fishing very enjoyable, so I will definitely be back! If anyone has tips to hopefully catch the kings, they would be greatly appreciated.

Some very nice fish, congrats to your grandson and daughter for outfishing the host! Never thought franks would be such good bait. I guess you learn something everyday.

This isn't unheard of, I've seen and caught lots of poddy mullet on small surface stickbaits. I think the surface lures would resemble more closely what they eat than the plastics, like maybe a small prawn or bug splashing around on the surface 👍

yeah im spewing about that lost pot, ive had it for quite some time and was keen to get my first crab with it. this was the only spot ive every tried that actually looked good for crabs, the other spots didn't really look ideal.

Some other pics that would not fit into the post

Friday Arrived at about 1:30pm at Harrington. After dropping our luggage off at the holiday resort, we were off for a fish! First stop was Harrington lagoon, where we tried to look around the edges for some yabbies as bait, but only managing a few. Realising we wouldn't have enough, we went off to buy a few prawns as bait if we were to run out. Starting off at the breakwall, the first cast with a live yabby yielded a small pinky snapper, about the size of my palm. Not a good sign. Over the next two hours we continued to get plagued by the small bream, snapper and tarwhine, which would tear apart the bait as soon as they hit the bottom. I decided to explore further along the breakwall, which proved to be a very good decision as I discovered a nice flat full of yabby holes. We decided to move there instead, and after filling up our bucket with some more nippers, we began to fish on the sand flat. The small bream and whiting were still going nuts, but some were a bit bigger, approaching legal size. After getting fish after fish, we left for dinner as it was getting dark. Saturday Woke up nice and early and headed to Harrington Lagoon for a fish, recommended to us by the cleaner at the resort. Arrived around 8am to swarms of solider crabs scurrying about the flats. It was really cool to watch the thousands of crabs all scurrying in synchrony, and we stopped to take some pics. On our way to the spot, we found an octopus that somehow stranded itself on the sand when the tide went out. I thought they were meant to be smart😂? Anyway when we got to the water edge I sent out a rod right away with a live yabby. Not a minute later, the rod loaded up in the holder and I was onto a fish! In came a nice flounder, around 32cm. Over the next hour or so, we continued pulling up quality fish, with bream being the main culprits. As the sun rose higher into the sky, however, the fish in our particular vicinity began to slow down. I wandered over to a sandy area that extended further out to the lagoon, unlike the steep drop offs we were fishing earlier. On the way out, I spooked a nice flatty, guessing around high fifties. I was pretty mad at myself for forgetting to have a cast before I walked into the water, but I casted out anyways. After a little while of the rod sitting in the holder, I saw the tip bend over slightly before the rod went completely berserk. After a quick fight, I pulled in a new PB flathead, going 58cm🥳! After dispatching the flatty, I rushed back over to the same spot, walking about 30m into the water before having a cast. This time, I decided against walking back to shore and setting my rod in the holder, so I stayed put. After a few minutes without a bite I was considering walking back again, when I got a nice tug at the end of my line. I struck hard, and the speed and power of the first run had my heart racing. After a decent fight, I beached the fish. It was a new PB bream, going 38cm! I must say getting 2 PBs in 2 casts is not something I do every day. Ended the morning with 1 nice flatty, 5 legal bream and 2 big flounder for a feed. On the way back to the holiday resort, I put in a mud crab pot near a mangrove creek. After the success of the morning, I decided to hit up Crowdy Beach to try and learn to catch beach worms. I've tried it once before, but the conditions weren't ideal and I was getting smashed by big waves every few seconds. However, Crowdy Beach had big, flat areas of sand, with small waves washing very far up the beach. It looked like the ideal spot. This was definitely the case, as the first wave with my hand bait drew up a worm! Despite this, my excitement of finding a worm so early on led to me rushing the capture, allowing the worm to escape. Over the next half hour, I refined my technique, even grabbing a worm at one point to have it slip through my fingers. But, after I became more consistent, I began to be more successful in grabbing the worms. My biggest issue was having them break on me; often I would grab them, have them tense up in the sand, and having to dig them out. I was applying constant pressure, but after I started making progress on pulling them out, they always break. If anyone has tips to prevent this it would be greatly appreciated. After gathering a handful of worm pieces, I decided to put a rod out with a piece of worm for the last 10 minutes. This resulted in a nice legal whiting and a shovelnose shark, both were firsts for me off the beach. Sunday Headed off to Crowdy beach again after the success the day before. However, no fish were landed in the next 2 hours. Before leaving, I decided to grab a few more worms for later in the day. After a bit of sightseeing and lunch at the lighthouse, we were headed off to the breakwall at a second attempt to get some fish. Again, on the way, I checked my crab pot, which yielded nothing but a small bream. I moved it slightly upstream before dropping it down again. Some of our friends took the long walk over to the very end of the breakwall the day before, and had caught some nice tarwhine and luderick. This time, we joined them, and after a long trek we arrived towards the end of the wall without another person in sight. It was very snaggy here, and we were constantly losing our rigs and fishing line. However, it would be worth it as in total, we managed 4 legal bream, 4 legal tarwhine, and a big butter bream to try for the first time. Monday Woke up early to pick up our crab pot, only to find it had been nicked! We looked around the area, to find that the other pots around the same place were also missing...coincidence? I think not! Left Harrington at 10am with heavy hearts. Took over 6 hours to get back to Sydney, (almost double the time it took from syd to Harrington) the traffic was crazy!

Yup trying to crack the 40 too. Have hooked a few around that size, but they always get the better of me on light line.

Wow a 37cm bream! That's a good one in anyone's books, good to see that your persistence has paid off.

Freshwater Parramatta can be very productive at times, lost of bass and carp there. I was using relatively large pieces of bread, around 4cm X 4cm. I like to hook the bread though once, and smoosh only a small part around the hook, that way it fluffs up in the water. U can also just thread the hook thought the bread for a floating bait, which can be very effective at times. Always leave a small bit of hook exposed 👍

Headed down to the freshwater reaches of the Parra for the first time today with @44jeff once again, using worms and bread for bait. We arrived around 9, and we could already see schools of baby mullet and bubbles rising from around the lily pads. Within the first 5 minutes, Jeff's rod went off, and he was onto a carp! The fish went up and down the bank, and after a few minutes of coaxing the fish away from the lily pads, Jeff had caught his first carp! Guessing around the mid to high fifties mark, but very fat. After the excitement of a fist within the first few minutes, we really looking forward to the session. However, the mullet had moved in, and were picking apart the bread before it sank to the bottom, and not a fish was caught over the next two hours. We decided to move around 50m upriver, where I saw some carp on the surface. After around half an hour, Jeff's float went down and he was onto a carp once again, however this time the carp managed to get the better of him by snagging him in the lily pads. We persisted, hooking a few more carp but losing them all to lily pads. We even managed a double hookup for both the fish to spit the hooks. We then met some nice guys that fished next to us for a while, and I gave them a few worms so he could catch some mullet. While this was happening, saw some line from my own rod slowly creep out. I gave some time for the fish to consume the bait (worms), then I set the hook. I initially thought this fish was a carp, but after realising the fish was nowhere as strong or heavy as one I began to wonder what it was. Turns out it was a big bass, and the people next to us helped me land it. Coming at 38.5cm, it crushed my previous pb of around 10cm. I couldn't be more happy with this catch! 🥳 After catching the nice bass, things became quiet once again. We continued to move upriver, this time stopping at Lennox Bridge. After throwing some bread crusts into the water, we saw some big boofs and splashes on the surface, and the carp began halfheartedly feeding. There would be around a splash every 30 seconds, so the carp certainly weren't in a frenzy. We even saw a big koi at our feet, but he wouldn't touch our bread baits. We decided to continue to around Marsden Street weir, but after passing the other side of a bridge I saw a monster 70cm+ koi feeding near the surface. I rushed over and dropped my bait in, and carp came over and nosed it...before casually swimming away! Over the next 15 minutes, we keptgetting teased by this massive fish and a few other carp, none of which would actually take the baits. Realising we wouldn't be able to tempt these fish, we continued moving until we reached Marsden Street Weir. The wind had picked up slightly, so I tied a small ball sinker onto my slightly heavier 12 pound rod. Not 10 seconds after the bait hit the water, the reel exploded in my hands and I almost dropped the rod in shock. I loosened the drag slightly as I thought the fish was on the edge of snapping the line. After a fun but stressful fight, Jeff managed to grab the carp and haul it up the bank. Having not caught a carp in over 10 years, I had forgotten how hard they could go! The fish went 66cm, and it is one of if not the largest fish I have ever caught. Overall, we only landed 3 fish in the day, but all were PB's for both me and Jeff. Very fun day out, and I look forward to the next time I get to go down!

Yup they taste good, but the foul stench of their guts can be really off putting.

Hi all, I went down to a wharf near Circular Quay for a flick with @44jeff, hoping to catch something decent for a bit of fun. Since I would arrive about 15 minutes early, the original plan was for me to catch a squid for bait. After seeing the huge surgeonfish and bream feeding on the pylons that plan was quickly abandoned 😂 , so I squished some bread onto the hook and sent it down. The bream came up to my bait and nosed it before bolting, as did the surgeon. I continued to fish with the bread, and pretty soon I raised a school of black trevally, or rabbitfish, from the depths. They picked and nibbled at my bait, before one finally swallowed it down and I set the hook. The fight did not last very long, as the frayed line from the last session caused me to snap off as soon as the fish went for a run. Lesson learned 😥 While I was rerigging, my friend arrived and we began to fish together with some chicken that he had brought down. However, the fishing was quite slow, and nothing was caught for the next 1.5 hours. After a bit of burleying though, we managed to tempt the rabbitfish out and I managed to catch one. It put on a crazy fight for only being a 25cm fish, with long runs towards the poles and strong headshakes. Knowing how painful the spikes could be, after I brain spiked it I cut off all its nasty appendages. After the rabbit was caught, its friends seemed to have spooked and the school had disappeared. This is when me and jeff decided to move to the other side of the wharf, and seeing the big bream that were lurking there, we began to burley up with small pieces of bread. Pretty soon, we had them turned on and they began slurping off pieces off the top. Again, I put on some bread and dropped it down, and they were on it almost immediately. The second largest of the group (around mid-high thirties) came up to my bait and circled it for a bit, before finally swallowing it down and promptly snapping me off on a pylon 😡. Hands shaking, I rerigged, hoping for a second chance. However, we had run out of bread! I ran around a kilometre and back to the nearest woolworths to secure more of the stuff. After burleying again, the bream were back. This time, a smaller model (around 25-27cm) took my bait, and after a hectic fight around the pylons I was able to land it. After landing the fish the ferry came, and its wash caused our burley drift away from the wharf consequently taking the group of bream with it 😭. After the excitement of the bream, the wharf went quiet. Other than seeing a juvenile pennant fish, nothing exciting happened. We moved around a bit, going off the wharf and onto the boardwalks. Using the same strategy as before, we burleyed up with small chunks of bread soon we had attracted another school. This group was very shy though, and we only managed one hookup. We decided to move back to the wharf, where jeff's luderick rod went off while his back was turned and his rod was almost pulled in. Unfortunately, the fish wasn't landed. We called the day on that note. Fun day out, but i'm still spewing at that bream that I lost, wouldv'e been a PB for sure. Also if your'e wondering why the post says i was dusted 5 times, its because i got snapped off by some other rabbitfish, they just go too hard!

There is still a lot in the harbour! If you get a few they make quite good food and are yummy. They need to be over 25cm tho to be worth your while

Well done on the PB!

Well done of the quality fish! And congrats to your mate for that monster flatty 💪

Nice feed of fish there! I've found the same thing fishing at the entrance, most of the quality fish I catch are at dusk.

Yeah just keep persisting you'll get some nice bream. Catching the little guys is definitely fun, up to you if you want to change hook size! As Little_Flatty has said, I find fishing with a slack line more effective that keeping constant tension. Also burley really helps, I find that with a bit of burley the mullet and luderick come in and actually turns them on.

Yeah you do tend to get lots of pickers with bread, lots of small fish you must wade through to get to the quality. What rig are you using? I used an unweighted rig with a small semi-long shanked hook about 3cm long. Hope this helps!

Can't wait for the handlining reports! Never had much luck with it myself

Thanks mate! Was a dirty fighter for sure... leader came out shredded

Was feeling bored at home so I decided to bring some old mouldy bread and head down to Meadowbank. A short 15 minutes drive later, and I was at the ferry wharf. To start things off, I decided to tie on a 3 inch paddle tail and cast around the bridge. Was hoping for a Jew or flatty, but no hits and lots of snags. With no results on the placcy, I pulled out the bread and moved to the ferry wharf, fishing with 6 pound without a swivel or sinker. Dropper the bread down near the pylons, and left the bail open so the fish could run with it. A few seconds later, the line began coming off the reel at a considerable speed, so I tightened up and stuck. Up came a small bream, around 20cm. No monster but still great fun of the light gear 😀 Baited up again and dropped it back down. Almost instantly, I got another bite and this time the line was peeling at a much faster rate. This was a larger fish, making strong lunges and runs towards the poles, and even bricked me at one point. Luckily, it came out and I was able to beach it. A good sized bream, about 30cm. The ride was at its lowest point now, and the fish were also slowing down. In the next hour, all I managed were micro bream and toads which kept picking apart the baits. With the bream slowing down, I tied on a squidtrex and resumed my mission of a Jewish of flathead. However, this was short lasted as I struck a snag and lost the lure. Called the session on that note .