Thumperbream

Thanks TrapperTom Generally I sit near drop offs or need weed banks in estuaries and anchor up and flick plastics around rather than drift. Thanks for the tip concerning Lak Mac. My brother in law lives in Cardiff and when we have gone to Lake Mac, it has been disappointing so we have generally gone over to Stockton and fished successfully in Newcastle Harbour. Ill give the berley a go when I have my next feed of prawns. Yes I was wondering that a lot of other fish might get in the way of the flatties when berlying as you have described. Regards Ryan

Just Wondering whether anyone out there uses Berley when fishing with Soft Plastics. In addition does anyone Berley when fishing for flathead, my thoughts were that Flathead sit on the bottom and so too low in the water coloum for berlying to be effective so I have not bothered when targeting Flathead. Any experience or thoughts appreciated.

Very nice feed of fish there. Im interested in giving black fishing a crack. Are they about in the colder weather seeing that Winter is coming or are they more a summer fish. Ryan

Fantastic fish, let the memories live on. I've never had the chance to fish for jewies, makes me want to now. Well Done

Raiders I went for a morning session today with my dad as we both had the day off from work. Fished in Cowan creek as we launched at Apple Tree Bay. Didnt get out there till 9am just as the water was at dead low. My dad had his first session on soft plastics whilst I used a mixture of plastics and local prawns. We tried quite a few of the different bays along the creek. First hour Dad picked up two flathead, one legal and one undersize while all I could manage was a small bream and a stingray that I foul hooked. With my plastics all I kept getting was my tail bitten off, Im thinking it was leatherjackets. . We moved spots to a place we had not tried before and I switched over to the humble old prawn. Within 10mins I had a heavy line and thought it was another ray but we could see in about 12 feet of water the streamlined body of a flattie. Managed to land it within a minute or so. Measured 55cm which was a PB for me (not big in the scheme of things but Im used to fishing in small estuaries so I was really happy. It died down after that and so we tried one last spot for twenty minutes or so where I landed a legal bream but threw that one back and Dad landed another undersize flattie. Saw heaps of large whiting swimming in the shallows but none where interested in taking my bait. . All in all a 3 hour session got us a 55cm and 38cm flathead for the BBQ. . Highlight of the day apart from the fish was seeing a bloke dive into the water from his boat after a unattended rod got pulled overboard by a fish. The bloke managed to retrieve his rod make it back to the boat with the rod still bending. However by the time he hauled himself back aboard the fish had gone. He yelled out to us saying it was a monster flattie. I was ready to applaud him for managing to retrieve his rod unharmed but just yelled back well done. . Not sure if it was a fellow Raider or not, I didnt ask. Maybe they might read this report and let us know how they ended up going. . I was going to post a pic of fish but I only took the photo on my Smartphone and cant find the cord to download to the computer at the moment.

Didnt try under the bridge today. Saw a few boats there. Have you had much success under the bridge. When Im in my boat next time I'll anchor up somewhere under there.

Went out this morning to the Entrance channel with a mate of mine. Were on the northern shoreline closest to the ocean from Dunleith's caravan park. Got there about 8:15am and water appeared to be still coming in which contradicted 6:45am high tide but not sure how much difference Tuggerah lake is compared with Sydney. First hour did no good and moved to another spot for no result, plenty of weed on the bottom at the wharf just inland from the entrance bridge. We decided to go back to the northern shoreline hoping that the water movement had stopped. I was using soft plastics and my mate used bait (prawn and worms). First cast on the retrieve and BANG I was on, pulled in a nice 40cm flathead to kick start our day. I was hoping for a quick session of a few more but it wasn't to be. The water flow picked up again with the tide going out and I couldn't match it with my light gear. I moved across to bait as well with a heavier sinker. My mate hooked a nice legal whiting, before I pulled in a smaller whiting and a just undersize flathead. My mate pulled in a few more smaller whiting and we both foul hooked a small toad fish which blew up with his spikes showing, nasty if you got stuck by one. All in all a bit disappointing as I had high hopes on the way down there this morning. Next time Im going to go out in my small tinny and explore a few more spots via boat (any suggestions). In saying that it was a great day by the lake, great weather, little wind and warm water and a couple of legal fish that my mate will be cooking up tonight.

If you are talking about near the public wharf on the left hand side as you cross the entrance bridge, I have fished there before too, not a bad spot, was trying to broaden my horizons with another few spots. Thanks Testlab

Anyone out there fished the Entrance channel or in front of Dunleigh's caravan park lately in Tuggerah Lake. I havent been up there for a while, My dad saw fishos pulling out some nice flathead in the channel last weekend. Im going up there tommorrow morning for the run out tide and was thinking of fishing on sandbank on northern side of the channel in front of caravan park. Going to use soft plastics with 1/16 jighead and prob 65mm Silver Fox coloured plastic. Wondered if anyone has had recent success over there in picking up some flathead. Run out tide starts around 6:45am till 1:00pm

Only last week one of my mates was trolling between Bobbin Head and Apple Tree Bay and landed a 93cm Kingie!. I was very surprised at that sort of fish being so far up Cowan. As anyone else ever landed a kingfish up in Bobbin Head before. Ryan

Hi Fellow Fishos Been digging around the old fishing photo archives and came across one that might interest some people. My Dad took a fishing trip to WA in 1996. During this time they caught a heap of fish (released), plus this sailfish (also released). He tells me that it is a good size for that particular fish. Wondering whether anyone out there could verify this claim that it is a good catch or not, he is always bragging about it. My Dad is the one on the left. Sorry that I couldn't get the whole picture in but I scanned it from an already blown up photograph. Ryan

Absolute WHOPPER Great fish mate, great story too. Ryan

That's some SWEET BREAMING Nice catch Joe what a way to start the day. Im sure when you get home tonight you'll be tucking into some of those bream and a few . Love those bream Thumper (aka, Ryan)

I have no real problem with people keeping large lizards, and I have mates who have kept flatties which have been over the 90cm mark. However I agree with Ken, lizards of that size taste . I assume that most people who have caught them of this sort of size havn't tasted one because if they had im sure they would have second thoughts about keeping them for the table. I would be suprised if anyone could honestly tell me that they enjoyed the taste of a flathead over 80cm long. Fish of between 40-70cm are best. Anyhow I would never bag anyone for keeping them and would be the first one to congratulate them on their catch. Keep on Ryan

nice work, ill be getting down to the vines soon as well

Not sure what that thing is But its one of the ugliest fish i have ever seen. Nice lizard though Sounds like u had a good time out on the water

Nice flattie mate. Pity about not beingt able to latch on to a nice Jewie. Sounds like a great few days anyway with plenty of fish being around. Nice report

Sounds like a pretty good day for Gary 3 nice lizards there. Hard luck for you though, we all know how you feel when your mates pulling in fish and your not even getting a bite. Better to be fishing than working I say PS. Nice Pic

Sounds like a nice flattie, sounds like ill have to try out the old creek.

Hey coast bloke Ive been fishing many atimes in Bobbo, if your just looking to throw a line in then either side of the bridge as you get doen to bobbin head is alright, ive caught the odd fish there. If you are really interested in catching some fish then go around to apple tree bay and take the track which goes up river. Fish close to the shore as the further out you go the bottom is only mud and all that lurks there is stingrays and a few sharks. Happy fishing.

Looks like that thing will develop lock jaw.

Hey guys, first post for me. My brother and mate went fishing in Tuggerah lake on Sat 16th April and bagged 4 keepers for their trouble. Largest measured 35cm. They fished about 200m inland of the Entrance bridge in about the middle of the channel at the start of the run out tide about 1am. They used chicken gut to catch their haul. My brother and I went back out on Tuesday the 19th April and ba gged 3 keepable, mostly near the north end of the entrance bridge near Terilbah island on chicken gut again. Largest fish 32cm. The next night my brother went out again with his mate and caught 14 fish with 6 being keepable. All just over legal size, once again on chicken gut. On the lull between high and low tide and also once the tide started to move back out. The bream that was caught each night was hooked on gamakatsu 2/0 long shank hooks with about a 50cm trace with a 2/0 sinker. Times that were fished were however late between 9:00pm and 5:00am, best being the run out tide and the in between tides. Happy fishing in Tuggerah lake. Next time Ill post some pics.