Richard Warren

Congratulations on 7 th place finish. Great report as usual with some beautiful photos. I use to go to Dunbogan for my annual holidays when I was a kid. It really is a pretty spot. I look forward now to the blackfish reports from Forster. The blackies were probably just starting to feel safe again after a Roberta free summer and now they will be shaking in their fins. Regards Richard

Nice catch. Good to hear Berowra is still supplying some good quality fish. Regards Richard

Its surprizing the damage a kangaroo can do. I ran into one in my car a few years back. It hopped away without noticing and I was left with a huge dent in my grill. At least you caught a couple and you will have a fishing partner keen to go fishing with you for a while. (although you will probably be hearing about her flathead for a while as well.) Regards Richard

A friend of mine had a similar problem but he did drink at least half a dozen beers a night. The bream wasn't caught near a brewery was it? Nice catch anyway.

Roberta, Thanks again for taking me out and showing me the ropes. I really enjoyed the morning. It is a very addictive style of fishing. I went out again on the Friday and tried around the padocks area as I had caught 6 bream (26 to 30 cm) the evening before on bait so I figured there would be some around. Unfortunatly I didn't have the same success as the session with you. It was a bit windy which made it hard to see the lure so I went back into Breakeneck channel which was out of the wind. I got one follow from a squid and a couple of swirls near the lure but no hook ups. I think the bigger boat made it harder to get into the shallow water effectively but it is amazing to think I was out there for four hours. Didn't catch anything but the time flew by so quick. I'm back at work now but I'll definatly be giving it a go down here. The method just opens up so many areas I would have looked at as unfishable. A big THANKYOU again and I might see you next time I'm up that way. Regards Richard

Congratulations on christening the tinny. Hopefully there will be more to come.

hmmmm hey is there anyway I can change my nick to at least somesquid now? Congratulations on a successful session on the squid. Trouble with changing your name now is that in a few months you may have to change it again to too many squid.

Roberta, I will be staying at Forster over Easter this year. (2nd April till 9 th April.) If you are available I would love to take you up on your kind offer. I usually use bait but am always keen to try new techniques. I would need to borrow a kayak but have the gear you sugested and will get some lures you advised. Hoping for a favourable response. Regards Richard

Great fish there Andrew. There is a place in Parramatta called Lee Engineering that carry a fairly big range of nuts and bolts. It may be worth a look there for the nut. Regards Rich

Just when you think you have it all worked mother nature decides to change everthing. At least you had a better day than me. I was stuck at work. Good luke next time. Regards Rich

Dicko, That would be handy for noesing around the oyster leases but you would probably need a good electric to keep it quiet. Regards Richard

I find that if I get a lot of line twist I let the line back out with nothing attached and within 5 minutes dragging in the water the line usually untwists itself. Good luke with the new toy. It looks very nice. Regards Richard

Definitly need some more fishing gear. Can never seem to have enough.

Thanks Ray. I am impressed that you get up at 3.51 just to wish us a happy birthday. I think that there might be something wrong with your files because I'm sure i'm only 39 again. (Not 51 - Where did all those years go?)

Sounds like you had a much better day than me. Snowed under at work at the moment. Have to try and get out there soon. Cograts on the bream.

Got back from a week sailing around the Vava'u group of islands in Tonga a couple of weeks ago. I have been struggling to catch up at work and this is the first opportunity I have had to do a report. Tonga is a beautiful place and even has some nice fish around as well. While I didn't catch anything huge by Tongan standards I still managed to get a few fish. Most of the time I just had a couple of lures out the back as we sailed from Island to island. I caught a few green job fish doing this & lost a few others monsters where the hooks straitened. I guess that is one of the lessons I learnt while there. You can't get away with using cheap lures. They are just not up to the job when a big fish hits. Also caught a variety of reef fish while we were anchored for the night. I had no idea what they were so they all went back. Later found out some were coral cod which you can eat but we had plenty of food anyway. Most of these were caught on soft plastics. I have only ever caught one flathead with soft plastics before and that was with another fisherman who told me where to cast and what to do so I was pretty happy catching something on plastics on my own. Also caught a few trevally and mackerel while trolling lures around coral bommies with our inflatable tender. Overall it was a memorable trip. I would recommend it to anyone. The people were friendly and water was crystal clear and even I was able to catch a few fish. I'll have to start saving up to go again. Thanks for the info on resizing photos in the tutorial area. I would not have got the photos up without your help.

Nice Fewie. The big ones that get away just wet the appetite for next time.

Probably a good thing you didn't get any fish. After paddeling for 15 ks and a million casts if you had to wind a fish in as well you might not have had the energy to get back. Have a good holiday and look forward to hearing about it.

Thanks for the tip Roberta. Makes sense. I'll remember to try the deeper water as well next time.

After reading on Fish Raider about all the luderick that were being caught recently I decided to give this form of fishing a go myself. Well I read through the "Best ever tips for Blackfish" in the Fishing Chat area. Then studied my old map book that proclaimed spot X was the best place in Cowan to catch these fish. Collected some silky weed and some cabbage. Looked up the tide chart and decided to fish the out going tide on Saturday afternoon. I arrived at Brooklyn a little latter than I was planning for but still had quite a bit of the out going tide left. Launched the boat and proceeded to spot X. Anchored up parallel to the shoreline and started drifting the weed baits along the face of the rocky shore. I looked away from the float for a second to grab a handful of berley and when I looked back I couldn't see my float. I wound up the slack line to try and locate the float and all of a sudden I realised I had a down. I struck but came up empty. At least it looked like there could be a few around. Next drift I was a lot more vigilant. Sure enough another down but this time I was ready. I lifted the rod and I was on. I landed the fish. It was a luderick. It was only 150 mm long but it was the type of fish I was targeting so I was pretty happy. I continued getting fish for the next 2 hours and while most of them were 150 to 250mm I did get a 2 that were 28 and 29 cm which I kept for a feed. Sorry no pictures as the camera battery went flat. Even though I didn't get any of the monsters that are in some of the other reports I was pretty happy. One of the things I enjoy most about fishing is the preparation. Formulating an idea in my head of how to go about targeting a certain fish and when it comes off with a bit of success I find that very satisfying. I don't know if I have been converted over to the dark side yet but I can see the attraction. You don't have to pay a lot for bait. You don’t have to wake up before the sun. They are reasonably plentiful through winter when some of the more fancied species are slowing down. Even the small ones I caught give a good account for themselves. And on top of all that they taste pretty good. Maybe I just need to latch onto some of those 38 to 40cm models and then there is no going back.

Theres some impressive fish in that lot. Sounds like you would have forgotten about the cold as soon as you started getting quality fish like that.

Congratulations. Looks like you had a great day out.

Congratulations. You are one keen angler. I supose the good thing about fishing on a day like that is that you don't have to battle with the crowds.

Did you get the coffees with bait or lures? Sounds like a nice day on the water even without much to show.

Congratulations. Nice fish.