mpreston55

Finally found a bit of weed so took the father-in-law for a quick fish to Windang. Quite a few people there mostly fishing for blackfish. Fished the run-out tide from about 9:00am to 11:15am. The fish were already on the bite when we got there. Got a down on just about every cast. Didn't even need to burley them. Had a great time catching just undersized fish. Probably caught 25 to 30 fish between us - all of which went back to grow a bit bigger.

Hi Matt, When the trout season opens again for streams the Fish River and Duckmaloi River look like they should be good. Had a look at both while I was up there and they are both in very good shape at the moment. Saw a couple of small trout in the Fish River from the road bridge. Don't know about Oberon Dam. I think you would need to know one of the locals to find out how it is going. It certainly doesn't look very good at the moment. Howard

I grew up in the Lithgow area but haven't fished there for about 40 years. Decided that after all of the good reports from Thompson's Creek Dam I would have to take the father in law for a visit and try all of the dams in the area. First day we went to TCD in the afternoon. There were 5 other fisherman there trying various parts of the lake. Weather was great - fine and just a gentle breeze. Tried flies, Tassie Devils, Squidgies, Celtas and Baltic Minnows for one strike that I couldn't hook properly. Left just on dark with no fish landed. Spoke to the other 5 fishos there and only one had landed a little rainbow on fly. Next day we went to Oberon to fish the dam where I had caught many trout years ago. The dam is in terrible shape with about 12% capacity. Saw one trout eating insects off the surface but couldn't get him, or any other fish, interested in taking any of the flies or lures that we threw at them. Left at lunchtime and called into the Royal Hotel Oberon for a feed and a beer. Got talking to one of the locals who said fishing has been very poor lately. No one else was fishing the dam on that day (should have been a good indication on how well the fish have been biting). That afternoon we decided to give Lake Wallace (Wallerawang) a go. Once again used flies and all sorts of lures for a nil return. Packed up and went back to caravan park at about 7pm. Great weather all day. We planned to fish Lake Lyell on Wednesday morning but when we woke up in the morning it was raining pretty heavily so we decided to give it a miss and headed home to Wollongong. No fish but it was great to get back to my old stomping grounds for a while. Will do it again later in the year and hope that the fish are a little more co-operative. Howard

Welcome to the site Fezza, You must be a real fishing tragic to go out in last night's weather. Looks like it was worth the effort though. Look forward to hearing about many other successful fishing trips in all kinds of weather. Howard

Excellent first post. Great fish which I'm sure will taste terrific. I'll bet it won't be another 20 years before you go fishing again! All the best - Howard

Great effort. Isn't it good when the tourists go home!

Hi Little Noah, That's the Northern breakwall he is on. The car park has a pile of coal around the entry road. One thing to take note of though is that cars parked there quite often get broken into. Lots of people I know have had there car windows smashed and things taken out of them. Howard

G'day Windon. Great session and judging by the bass your son is holding you don't have to teach him too much more. Great to see the young kids getting involved in fishing. Howard

What a great trip in an absolutely beautiful part of Australia. Congratulations on all of those trout however it is a bit worrying when you see 4 redfin turning up in the catch.

Fantastic effort there Brad. I have some surf poppers but never tried them. Results like yours will have people out on beaches at night all over the state. Well done. Howard

"KILIMANYOKA, Congo (AP) — Rebels vowing to take Congo's eastern provincial capital advanced toward Goma Tuesday, sending tens of thousands fleeing. Chaos gripped a separate front as government soldiers fired on civilians and aid workers trying to escape, the top U.N. envoy said." And we think its tough because the USA and the greedy have dragged down the world economy and affected our superannuation funds and the fish aren't biting etc etc etc. Gee we really need to get a real perspective on life don't we.

Good sized mullet there Chopper. I think that they are one of the hardest fighting fish to catch. Hope you took it home for a feed. Filleted and put in the smoker they are just delightful . Howard

Hi Moldyform, Yeah both of those beaches are good as is Port Kembla Beach which is the Northern end of Windang Beach. There seem to be a few whiting around at the moment if you fish a rising tide using worms or pippis for bait. Might even be able to collect the pippis from the beach. The breakwalls at the mouth of Lake Illawarra in Windang should also be OK for a fish. Good luck, hope you have a great weekend. The weather looks as though it is going to improve greatly on todays terrible conditions. Regards Howard

Don't worry Juzza. As they say "we learn by our mistakes" and the best way to learn is by having a go at it. Good looking combo that will catch you a lot of fish in the near future. Keep at it. Howard

Decided to go and eat lunch by the lake (Lake Illawarra) and take the dog for a walk. While eating lunch I noticed a little bit of green weed growing on the rocks near the water. Picked a few handfuls and went back to the car where I always have a rod in the boot already set up for blackfishing. Only an 8 foot 6 inch lighweight rod with 4kg braid and a 4kg mono leader. Threw in a little burley and cast in. A couple of little downs so threw in a little more berley (didn't have much) and next cast landed a nice little blackfish of just on 27cm . Stayed fishing for another 45 minutes and caught another 2 blackfish of 29cm . Let all of them go. Great fun especially as I wasn't expecting to go fishing. Here are photos of two of them. Howard

Great effort there Seacow. I always use braid for blackfishing with about a metre and a half of mono on as a trace that has the lead weights attached. A lot of people say that braid doesn't have enough stretch in it for blackfishing but I find with a light rod and the mono trace it has enough. I'm sure you will stick with it now that you have had a great tussle with some bruisers. Keep up the good work. Howard

Not around Mullet Creek but I have got it from there before so there may be some in that area. The other side of the lake around Primbee is where I got the weed from. Happy hunting; Howard That's interesting Braidbuster. Maybe they are just starting their spawning activity. Hopefully they will get it over and done with and then go looking for a good feed because they are hungry again. I did notice that the last lot of blackfish I caught were coming into the lake with huge numbers of mullet. Last time I went there weren't any mullet coming into the lake. Maybe they are tied together some way. Lots of research to do. All the best; Howard

Hi Roberta, Thanks for that. They were on early last week but seem to have moved on again. As I said to Industry I will have to go exploring in the boat after the long weekend. Not going out on the long weekend because we will be crowded out . Now that I have retired it's much more relaxing to wait until midweek and go out in the peace and quiet . Good luck up there in Forster. Regards; Howard

G'day Industry, Got the weed near the jetty at Primbee. It is starting to go off in places so you might have to do a bit of walking along the shoreline. Hope this helps. By the way went out on Friday last week and only caught one. Will have to do a bit of looking around in the boat to see if I can find them again. All the best; Howard

Hi Ben, Excellent work. Sure beats a day at work any time. Great looking spot - ya gotta love getting away from everyone and catching a few fish as well. Howard

I hope this works it's the first time I have tried to download any pictures. These are the blackies that we brought home today from Lake Illawarra. Howard

Thanks to Ceph a Lopod's information I tried Lake Illawarra today a bit earlier in the run out tide. Started off pretty slowly with a few downs in the first hour and hooked up to a couple of under 30cm fish that I always put back. Kept the burley going in fairly regularly and eventually they started to come around in numbers. Next fish was a really nice 38cm bronze beauty . In the next hour and a half Dad and I brought in another 12 fish between us that were all over the 30cm keeper mark. There were 3 other fishermen there also fishing for blackies and they did at least as well as we did. Have photos on my mobile phone but haven't got them downloaded as yet. Some good weed starting to grow around the back of the lake and the blackies on the bite so things are looking good. Regards; Howard

Thanks for that info Ceph a Lopod. I was thinking of giving it a go on Thursday earlier in the run out tide. I have noticed quite often that you get to a certain spot and the bites are coming thick and fast then all of a sudden everything just shuts down. Strange little critters these blackfish but trying to work them out is half the fun. Howard

After weeks of searching I finally found some weed in the Illawarra that was decent. It's a bit soft and slimy but good enough to use. Decided to go down to Windang and have a fish from the shore late in the run-out tide today. Dad caught a good one of 33cm on his very first cast and I got a good down but missed it. Next cast I also caught one of 26cm so he, of course, went back. In the next half hour I landed 3 more undersized fish and had numerous bites. Dad also caught and released another 2 fish. There was a group of fishermen just down from us who got there before we did and they were going home with about 15 good sized fish. All of a sudden the bite stopped. We tried for another half hour without a bite so we packed up and went home. Great to see that the fish are still there and hoping to get out again on Thursday for another go. Will use the boat next time so we can move around a bit and visit some of our favourite spots in the Lake.