musty

Optimax or Verado?. Musty

Where abouts is "local"??? Musty

This could turn out to be a great thread! LOL musty

There is a pontoon right beisde the little ramp at Windang. Dont even attempt to cross the bar and head outside if your inexperienced. Head up through the channel and fish the drop offs for flathead or anchor up and burley. I fished it over the easter long weekend and got a stackload of huge sea mullet doing their annual run but they were very timid. Not sure if they will still be in the main channel or probably outside being netted in the thousands by the pro's. A word of warning, when heading through the main channel stick to the red markers on ur left as the sand bar intrudes in past the line of green markers quite considerably and its not hard to bottom out!!! Just be very carefull and look out for the markers they are spaced out quite far and its easy to be stuck over shallow weed beds! If you see flocks of swans steer clear of that direction!! As you can tell I learnt the hard way ha ha ha Other than that its a nice little spot for a relaxing day with family, especially having a fish and chips shop walking distance from the ramp and bait/tackle supplies nearby. Goodluck! PS: DONT FORGET THE BUNG BRO! Musty

They are a MYTH... they dont exist! Many raiders spend hundreds of hours combined each winter for ZILCH reports on these buggers. Stay home and keep warm mate. But seriously, good luck. Anyone who puts in the effort and actually lands a couple deserves it 110% If your land based the retaining wall at Illawong bay just before Akuna Bay marina/boat ramp in the Kuringai Chase National Park is probably your best option. Make sure u employ a glow stick down near ur ganged pilchard, red seems to work well for sum reason. Good luck! Musty

1100MM OR UNDER- in cardboard tubing u can get away with australia post and its very reasonably priced. Recently i sent down rods AND reels to batemens bay for $40 and that was registered with signature. Over 1100mm and u will have to look into a courier but that all depends on timing and urgency. Pick a company who travels that way often and wait till its on the route it will work out to not much at all. Good luck Musty

NSW Maritime. Best. Musty

Flatties will take just about anything u throw at them mate. I very much doubt that 1 lure will clean up on flatties while another wont get touched. If they are there and ur in the strike zone they will engulf ANYTHING u throw at them! Musty

Here's a tip for ya'll baito's... If your catching catfish after catfish, move to shallower water. Your fishing too deep. Its catch-22 I know, your after jew so your sitting in the deep channel, but like Gazza said, the northside 2-3rd pylons arn't nearly as deep and you will still get decent fish from time to time minus, 178 catfish. What's interesting is how the Hawkesbury is as full as a butchers dog with them and no other waterway seems to have them, more wierd is that the commercial trawlers seem to have ZERO impact on catfish stocks! They truly are the cockroaches of the Hawkesbury! Musty

It could be a tagged fish from the UNSW Mulloway stocking/tracking program of the last decade or so. Many thousands of fingerlings were realased into my local waterway over many years and also up around port stephens from memory. There was also a tracking program along with this where mulloway were line caught, tagged and then released to be tracked via some sort of receiver. Its only my speculation although I would expect the tagged fish to be of a much larger size by now. Not sure if the program is in full swing as it was many years ago however I was given a jewfish sampling kit by UNSW for sending in information and samples of fin clippings or carcasses. I agree, a cable tie through a gaping hole carrying a large cylindrical object sounds very wrong and I'd be very dissapointed to find out a legitimate research group has gone about things in this way. Musty

past the breakers? I dare say u have picked a dud spot off the beach if your needing to do that. Musty

see you there champ! Musty

This bloke knows what he is talking about. If your motor is being used constantly you wont have many issues if any, ever. The longer u dont use it for the more u will find issues arise, its got nothing to do with the motor, brand, fuel, or system u use to flush it. Sitting idle does more damage than salt water alone could ever do. Keep that in mind and happy boating! Musty

Its not just about weight. There is alot more to consider. I wouldnt reccommend going too far over what the manufacturer has suggested as a maximum. It affects insurance, if your involved in an acco maritime will bend you over, and think about having a big 50hp bolted to the back transom of a tinny rated to 30hp max, when the boat pounds into a wave at a high speed the weight of that 50 will want to continue going forward while the boats going to want to slow, This can crack your transom and cause all sorts of drama. If there was no issues i would have put a 40 onto the back of my 3.95 tinny ages ago instead of the maximum 25 Musty

Hey mate i run a 55lb bowmount off an 80 amp hr Delkor deep cycle and have done since 2006, the same battery mind you, its gets used about twice a week. It does 2 sessions about 5hrs each (not constant use though) before it shows a low reading but i generally charge it up after every session. I think thats the key to long life too, keep them fully charged as often as possible, especially when its cold temps. Having it hooked up to alternator is good for small charging when underway too. If your wiling to charge it after each use a 75amp hour will be fine. Musty

And dont forget your 120lb anchor and 25m of chain to hold bottom. Those tides will be TEARIN' through Goodluck Musty

Why you thanking Mako for it was Hodgey that helped you out? Cheers Musty

I must admit, big fat, well conditioned bream from the georges river are VERY tasty. I reckon bream overall as an eating fish is over rated but the decent ones from the river are sumthing else. If you ever catch one which is very fat and healthy, sumtimes with black mussell shells on their way out the other end, u cant go wrong have a feed of them especially with the layer of fat they have in their lining. I havnt caught a bad flathead yet although i have seen some dodgey whiting, not sure if its from lurking in muddy weed beds or whatever but i wasnt willing to take them home, ive also seen the odd jew come up with red spot which i wouldnt touch but then again ive seen that in port hacking too, arguably one of our cleanest/ clearest waterways. Like Chris said have a look at your catch and make an imformed choice. Personally i wouldnt worry. Musty

Yes mate, Just make sure you follow all the navigation markers, particularly from the Deepwater Motorboat Club through to Kelso beach as there is shallow water with dangerous rockey reefs either side out the from there. Also mind the speed restrictions as Maritime may be out on patrol. I may be launching there or nearby too at some stage over the weekend Musty

yeah mate thats correct. Ive hooked them a couple of times while fishing plastics but i think it maye have been accidental. They look like a dopey sting ray with the tail chopped off dont they? I actually saw a guy take one home for a feed, mind you that particular guy wasnt letting anything go, he caught some great fish though, Balmoral warf many moons ago. Musty

Crossed forearms= BIG FISH! Well done Gents, i hope i can get blackies of that quality this winter! I may need to upgrade my rod Musty

Mate its only my opinion, but that 3 times rule has always seemed like a crock of you know what to me... If im sitting in a channel 40m wide, and 10 m deep, which isnt uncommon is the Georges River or Hawkesbury system, that means i let out 30m of rope, Im swinging all over the shop with the wind. I reckon in calm water all you need to do is hold bottom and let another 3-4m of rope out maximum. Maybe in rough seas that rule may work but who wants to anchor in rough seas? and there are shock cords for that. Maybe im missing something but I have Never let out 30-40m of rope to anchor in 10m of water. 10lb isnt very heavy, No harm in going larger i wouldnt have thought. Also, consider the boat in question. An open tinnie 5m wont require as much as a 5m cuddy cab, the more surface area to catch the wind the bigger the anchor, plus the current. What i use in port hacking will not work in my tinnie at the rail bridge of hawkesbury river for example. Its not complicated however i dont believe there is a set rule for every boat in terms of anchor and chain length. Then again im no anchoring expert as my anchoring days are long gone, its all bowmount leccy work nowadays the anchor is merely the legal requirement. Cheers Musty

Duct Tape! Is there anything it cant fix?? Have you thought about getting the cracked area reinforced with additional steel + welding? Might be a fraction of the cost of a whole new trailer plus save all the rego/weighbridge carry on. Musty

Why would you go 20lb and only 14lb leader? The leader is what will be closest to the fish, its jaws, its fins, rocks and submerged objects. I'd go 20lb with 30-40lb leader for livebaiting jew if i were you. Also 6lb for livebaiting is pointless in my opinion. You have every chance at hooking a 1m plus flathead, a 20kg jew, a shark or even a big ray... 6lb will be like a spiderweb to a large fish which is what you will be targetting and most likely get while live baiting. Good luck anyway, Hope you do get a big one! Musty

You know what you should have done dont ya mate... Sliding snell straight through the back of that stinkey pike and flicked him right back out with a ball sinker above a long trace.. ITS JEWTIME! Musty