bjneville

Another great report Hodgey, and very informative. I'm heading up to port Maquarie tomorrow for a weeks fishing, and salivating at the prospect. The weather looks good, and if you're getting them in those water temps, PMac should really turn it on. I'll send in a report as the week progresses. Tight lines!

Seabreeze are very accurate. Haven't let me down yet.

Haven't seen the guzzlers Hodgey. I'll have to be on the lookout for them. A bit like Slinky (or most of us?), I can't walk past a tackle store without buying something.

I'll be moving to a brighter coloured line shortly - probably pink or yellow. I find I'm losing visibility on the finer smoke coloured lines whenever there's any wind chop on the water, and I'm consequently missing some of the more subtle hits. It's also harder to work the lure at it's most effective level, becasue I can only tell when I have slack or not by feel, not sight. I think the others are right: The leader is for the fish, the mainline is for the fisherman. I don;t need to see the leader, and if it's long enough, they wont see my Wham fluoro mainline

Thanks fellas. Ray - I did pull a 54 cm model out of empire bay in early August in 14 degree water, but it was a verrrrrryyy slow day, and she fought like a wet sock. Should start hotting up for you now thought

Went out yesterday morning to have a flick around the pylons and pontoons for bream. Motored along the foreshore of Powder Hulk Bay working SX40s in around the structure for nothing - the breambos were silent. Didn't even see a fish . Although I did have a great roller coaster ride courtesy of the floating gin palaces. Sheesh! One sunny day, and they're all out there. Got to the back of the bay and thought "the water temp's getting up (17.5), let's see if the flatties are awake". So I pick up the second rod and flick out an atomic prong (Nuke chicken). 5 casts along the drop off when WHAM! - I get smacked by something sizable. This feels good! I've only got 6lb fluoro on the leader (for the breambos) and she's peeling off line against the drag like there's no tomorrow. I got so worried about a bust off, I dialled up the leccie and followed her around the bay for a good five minutes . What a wuss. Once I finally tired her out and gently lifted her into the boat, I found out I shouldn't have worried so much. She hadn't inhaled the prong, although at 59cm she could have easily, but was neatly and firmly pinned in the corner of the jaw She was is fantastic condition; fat and sleek. Then she promptly vomited breakfast all over my deck. At least I know that MH flatties are eating glassies and whitebait Much to the disgust of the old fella watching from the sailing club, I gave her a swim and let her go. I figure being 1cm off my 60cm release rule was close enough.... And it was! On the way home I pulled into the bay under Northbridge golf club for a quick flick. The same prong landed a fat 51cm model. Two 50+ flatties on the same day out of MH? Priceless. This one went into the live well, and will be dinner this week some time. Oh, and when I cleaned him, a quick check of the 'nads revealed he wasn't a breeding female. See you all out there, Qwyjibo

Nice one Roosterman. Looks like Clonnie baths is going off?

I saw Priests for sale at ### Castle Hill on the weekend. The look on my eight year old daughter's face when I was trying to explain its use was priceless

My God! You guys are human! There's still hope for us mere mortals. Don't worry though Hodgey, after your awesome run on the winter flatties you're allowed one quiet day.

Has anyone ever seen a 70cm Bream?!?

You guys are on fire!

2nd one is a Killalure. Top little bream and bass lure, and the flatties love them in pink or chartreuse. Isn't the first one a Jackal Chubby?

26 in winter conditions - sheesh!! I don't even want to know what summer will bring down that way. You guys are just too good

Hmm. There might be hope yet for topwater bream fishing mid winter! Thanks for the tip Slinky

I tried keeping some baby bream in a salt tank, butI couldnlt get the buggers to eat any of the commercial foods. The only things they would eat were live nippers and black crabs, and collecting them from Sydney Harbour foreshores is illegal. ended up letting them go again. Maybe I'll meet them in a few years..............

Just one small problem - how do you consistently fish slow when you're working an area with strong tidal flow? A couple of examples: In St Georges Basin tidal flow drops off an I can fish as slow as I like but, In Sussex Inlet, the tide can move me along pretty quick. If I let the placcie sit too long it gets swept around on the line and pivots out of the zone. I need to have it in close to the weed edge to nail the lizards - it's doing no good out in the middle of the sandy desert!

Top post again Hodgey. Agree 100% on the need to fish slow with winter flatties. I don't think it's any different down your way to the NSW north coast - the points you described are universal. I haven't tried the curly tail/vibrating thing though. I was getting pretty good catches last year at Nambucca in June using drop shot minnows - I wonder what my catch rate would have been with a plastic with more action??? I'll give it a try in and around Sydney soon. Thanks again, and keep them coming!

No wonder he's so good.... You're not related to Kaj Busch are you Hodgey?? I mean, with that mo and all.......

I picked up the clear one at Fishoutawater in the city lasr week. Itching to give it a try!

Sounds to me like north harbour is ok from the description. I think you're right to go. Lucky enough to live in the right place

Here's the reference from DPI: http://www.fisheries.nsw.gov.au/marine_pro...ney_harbour.htm Sydney Harbour Intertidal Protected Area The whole of the foreshores of Sydney Harbour, including the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers is an IPA and collecting intertidal animals is prohibited (excluding the foreshores of North Harbour, from Manly Point around to the western end of Forty Baskets Beach). Nippers live in that zone

I got a sneaky suspicion it's illegal to gather bait anywhere from the harbour foreshore

I have to agree with the temp theory, but I'd add that it's a relative thing. The water can still be cool (winter) and you can still catch flatties. I was fishing Worrell Ck & Nambucca River last June. The average water temp was hovering around 16 deg for the two weeks I was there. But if you cruised around you could find pockets of water up to 18 - 18.5. Similarly, there were areas down to 15 deg. Guess which ones produced the goods? Yep - the warmer spots. I managed double figures most days (only kept one or two - was there by myself) by taking the time to cruise around taking readings from the sounder. The areas with interspersed weed banks were warmer than bare sand - the darker colour retains heat better. Shallow sand banks would find flatties sunning themselves in the mornings, although the takes were slow to the point of lazy. I really had to be sure to set the hooks hard each time, or they'd simply spit the placcies back at me every time they saw the boat. The other thing I found was a contradiction - normally flatties fish better on a falling tide as they wait for bait aggregations. These two weeks the incoming tide was pushing warmer water in from the sea. The water up-river was at least 2 deg cooler, and I was finding a dropping tide was time to go home. On the flood I was nailing loads of flatties. The bonus for the holiday - not only did I learn more about flatties, but it was bream spawning time and they were thumping the flattie lures every time I drifted past one of the massive schools. What a choice............. Qwyj

At least the Stella stayed on the boat

Byron, I, like so many other others on this site, avidly read each post you put up. From the long missives that you must take hours to pen (when you're really fired about something ) to the short comments in response to another lead - we read all of them carefully. We all read them because no matter what the subject, there's always some gem of intelligence in there that will improve our own skills a little. I reckon that if you could put the contents of that amazing fishing brain of yours down on paper, you'd be the author of a new Australian Fishing Bible. Seriously mate, I reckon most Raiders would sign up for a copy after you'd written the first paragraph, let alone published the final result. And imagine that massive untapped market out there that doesn't yet know you! ......then again, maybe we should jealously guard the treasure that is Jewgaffer. : I've just read two of your posts this afternoon concerning the piscatorial effects of barometric pressure changes, and understood instantly what you're talking about. I usually find that sort of scientific stuff inpenetrable. I think what we all enjoy here on FR is the casual conversational style that manages to share detailed information so easily, without confusing or complicating what could be very detailed subjects. Anyway, just a thought. But from me, and I'm sure from many of my peers here on FR, thank you for what you've contributed so far, and for what your likely to bring in the future. We really appreciate it. Qwyjibo (Ben)