jewgaffer

You and Ray have certainly got the jewfish figured out Marcel It would be worthwhile baiting up a rod with a couple of pilchards as pilchards could be just the bait to bring jewfish on when the general bite goes off especially if lots of pilchard pieces are included in the bottom berley mix... Cheers jewgaffer

Congraulations on reaching 1000 posts Peter ! Keep them coming mate.. your fishing exploits with Syd are always informative and humourous... your photos are very professional and generally include a tub full of fish Cheers jewgaffer

Well done Cut loose and company...Congratulations on catching your personal best flathead and 91 cms too 91cms is a pretty big flathead in anyone's language...good effort taking time out to catch herring for your flathead baits! Cheers jewgaffer

Hi Tumra there's some very good advice in the post from Rzep. It's better to get used to fishing the general area around the particular boat ramp/s during the day time before venturing too far away from the boat ramp at night Check your pms... I can give you several spots over the phone where you'll be able to fish in the Hacking without worrying about running into the shallows or getting lost in the dark on the way back... These spots are specific deepwater spots where you'll find it basically easy to get back to the particular boat ramp where you have launched from on the night. You'll be able to anchor into depths such as 15 feet, 20 feet, 40 feet and 70 feet without going out into the main river. When fishing on into the night in the cooler weather it's all about fishing down deep.. Although the main river can fish well as far as prime times in the tides are concerned, the best results in the Hacking during the night as far as consistency goes have generally come out of the bays closest to the mouth of the river, especially when the wind changes to a southerly direction in the late afternoon and pushes the run in tide thru the swell at the mouth directly into the northern side of the river.. A good time to fish at night in general would be when the wind has changed to an easterly direction having allowed sufficient time for the run in tide to pick up and bring schools of fish in with it.. The golden rule for best results during a southerly or a south easterly change is to fish on the north side as the run in tide will be flowing into the bays and fish coming into the bays will be coming in in the direction of the flow..... During a northerly or a north easterly change fish on the opposite side, the south side - i.e. the Mainbar side,and fish into the natural flow into the western side of South West Arm and the run going into the main river along towards Warragul where the depths vary on that side particularly on the National park side downriver from the bare sand island opposite Lili pili... the water gets deep along the northern side from lily pili thru to the mouth of Dolans making that section a good spot to fish the run in tide from the start of a change to a gusty southerly... Upriver from Gray's Pt to Audley for example would be a run in tide propostion not long after a wind change to an easterly direction and again for optimum results on flathead for instance it would be a run out tide proposition during a wind coming from a westerly direction.. The two bays closest to the mouth fish best when an incoming tide has had enough time to push new water into the swell at the entrance where you usually have a bumpy ride if your're anchored out in the open at the mouth of the river as the incoming swell pushes the new water towards the entrance of Gunnamatta Bay- especially with a wind behind the swell coming in from a south easterly direction... The best time to start fishing the bay/s closest to the mouth during the evening is after an hour and a half or so into a run in tide as it gives the fish time to come in... it's better to keep on fishing until about three quarters of the way down the run out tide particularly on nights when the bottom of the tide is due to occur an hour or two after sunrise. Cheers jewgaffer

Hi Defyet, I'm really glad you managed to find a safe way back in the dark and sorry to hear that your boat received a few scratches. Southerly blow ups can be very risky in Botany Bay especially if the wind hit hard on a day when the swell was up in the first place...if there's a strong southerly forecast it would pay to launch at Tom Ugly's and at least you can come back in along the Towra side.. if you were keen on fishing on in the river, you could anchor in the deepwater in behind the cruisers just back from Tom Ugly's marina Thanks for posting up these links fishingrod It would definately pay anyone planning on going out at night to check the wind forecast and the swell height too as Botany Bay can turn nasty very quickly. Cheers jewgaffer

Nice effort on the jewfish Marcel for fine tuning purposes only, Ray and yourself should dress up in black and use fluoro from the boat to the hooks, Ray's beanie appears to be hi viz Cheers jewgaffer

Hi drag2sunset Without confusing fluorocarbon line with fluorocarbon leader material, it would be worthwhile taking a look at the low stretch quality and the good prices available these days in buying bulk spools of patented fluorocarbon line. Using fluoro line to fluoro leader would be an excellent way to go and if you look around you'll find you'll be able to buy it at a surprisingly inexpensive price for what it is. I intend going all fluoro when I re spool my alveys and I intend spooling a Daiwa 600 overhead with fluorocarbon line as well.... Rather than paying so much mony for braid, you could consider the benefit and the merit in buying a bulk spool of say 600 metres of low stretch fluorocarbon line for your TLD25's and just add a length of anti abrasive fluoro leader material from the swivel down. I think going all fluoro would be well worth considering and you could run high stretch 60lb shock leader further up in the water column if you wish... In this case using fluoro leader material itself would be a necessity and, athough fluorocarbon line has good anti abrasives qualities, fluoro carbon leader material is much harder and generally comes in 25m and 50m lengths and would naturally be much more expensive to buy. Cheers jewgaffer

Clem when we do get around to doing that Hawkesbury session with your mate Rads and, whilst not saying anything about jewfish, if you don't take home kingfish and flathead at least in the singular form you get your money back for your share of the bait that Peter and I catch Cheers jewgaffer

Top effort Dogtooth after talking about that unrelated matter I could tell there'd be no mucking around when you got down there on Monday, good to see you get onto them ... it would be funny if the schools hit Pittwater later too Cheers jewgaffer

Hi Raiders This is a report of a landbased session in the main river in the Hacking that I was meant to take part in on Saturday night, however but due to a bout of severe back pain I finished up not being able to go with my best friend George aka Cungee George and a mutual friend of ours Leonidas to have a night session after the family get together for the Greek Easter. Long story short, although there's been a lot of small fish in general around late at night in the Hacking, most of the run in tide hadn't been fishing well at all for the larger bream that come in and school up in autumn as they do in places like the Vines in the Hawkesbury opposite the wharf at Milson Island where the breeding size schools are renowned to congregate in good numbers over quite a few months depending on what has appeared to be the niceness of the autumn and the mildness of the finer winters... the presence or lack of presence of the larger bream coming in and schooling up to breed usually denotes what the general fishing over autumn is going to be like in a particular year. It's quite interesting and although both bream and jewfish are multi seasonal in their breeding habits depending on conditions in the particular area, when the bream fishermen did well at the vines the jew fishermen also did well especially as the run in tide first starts to pick up in the upriver sections and the downriver sections fish well over both tides and you'd be likely to strike a school or a breakaway pack marking time over the sand as the tides pick up, particularly where the rocks meet the sand, behind reefs and hovering behind both bridges in accordance with the direction and the sweep of the tide. Anyway George had fished quite a few run in tide nights in the Hacking recently, and had bream rods out into water that tapered into depth and fished with nippers a short distance away from his jewfish rods, but apart from catching a variety of undersize fish George had had little success on either bream or jewfish after fishing most of the run in tide and an hour or so into the run out tide even though the evenings looked quite good. Anyway it was decided that starting off late and fishing all the way thru the run out tide might be a better option this time. Photo courtesy of my good friend Steve aka Roosterman. Thanks Steve! The bream ranged from 27cms to 38cms Leon had taken a fair few bream home earlier that were around 30cms or so. Cheers jewgaffer

Hi AquaO2 As you can see by the replies there are several reasons why beads are as close as it gets to a must have in you tackle supply. Here's another worthwhile use for beads for you to consider over using crimped wire or the coated traces etc when you're fishing for toothy critters....You can use a series of beads directly above the hook as a trace rig and also for the purpose of having a little bit of weight particularly above the nose of a livie or for adding that little extra weight at the top of a bait where you need to fish deeper when lightly weighted baits might have a tendency to rise on the day or in conjunction with adding lead to the nose for when your live baits swim too close to the surface etc.... To make a trace rig out of hard beads:- Buy some bean shaped ceramic beads from a craft shop and seal them together by gluing them end to end with araldite to make a single unit and thread the leader line into a group of four to six bean shaped beads- provided they can't slip back up the line, each series of well sealed beads does prevent leader abrasion and break offs, particularly from the side to side saw action by head shaking fish such as flathead . Force the bottom bead over an upside down blood knot going up the leader line above the hook not around the hook shank and have a soft green lumo bead hard up against the top ceramic bead but have the hole in the bottom fluoro bead large enough to slip over the eye of the hook and stay there to prevent the serious of beads from slipping up the line. Here is a you tube link to tying an upside down blood knot to slip the lower end of the series of beads over, the upside down blood knot is an old knot that used to be used for tying hooks on to cord lines and joining cord lines together, you can lock the knot if you wish but by the nature of the loop and the line fed backwards and back in under itself thru the same hole it came out of, you'll find that this knot will not slip on monofilament line either. Cheers jewgaffer

Winter- Pros: Getting sunburnt in a northerly while catching fish at midday in the Hawkesbury in June Winter- Cons: Getting sunburnt one day later and catching no fish whatsoever during the same northerly in the Hawkesbury in June Cheers jewgaffer

Hi aqua02 you can use green fluoro beads on the leader line just above the bait and if you light up the fluoro beads under a head light for a few minutes there's a good chance that your night time bites will increase. Cheers jewgaffer

I hope you had a Happy Birthday Robbie and also you Pete Tide'n'knots congratulations on helping a fellow member out and gaining mentor status, which based on your experience is well deserved indeed Cheers jewgaffer

Hi Crashlee, I did a fair amount of camping and fishing with my sons in the seventies and eighties and wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Hawkesbury river section anywhere along the ferry road between Wiseman's and Gunderman which is an easy place to fish and drive home from especially at holiday time i.e you only have to go back on the ferry and drive along Baulkam Hills Road and head home from there... You can either set up at the waters edge and keep moving along Wiseman's ferry road if necessary or drive in behind the restaurant shop at Gunderman and talk to the owner and if you decide to pitch a tent there for convenience, you'll find quite a few good landbased spots where you should be able to catch bait, jewfish, bream and flathead. Cheers jewgaffer

Hi fellas commisserations just bad luck I suppose...all those barrumundi breaks offs which would be particularly annoying especially with poor man's jewfish that taste like chaff, I think I'd be rigging up the alveys with steel cable and piano wire Cheers jewgaffer

Keep the videos coming Gorms I watched your road trip video several times having noticed we both have the same high sided Savage Hull except my Savage is the 4.6 side console version which I've also fitted out with a Motorguide, an 82lb which I'm yet to learn how to use. I also enjoyed the trick shot on the pool table in your other video. Brings back a bit of nostaglia for me as back in the early nineties I was in the game and played in pro am snooker tournaments in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and must say I often played many a trick shot hoping to get out of trouble especially in practice at the Australia professional championships at the Bentleigh Club in Melbourne 15 years ago now against a 17 year old visitor from Scotland by the name of John Higgins who must have picked up something from my failed trick shots as John Higgins not only beat the master, the Englishman pot black winner Willy Thorne in the final of the Australian championships but he also finished up winning the world snooker championships at the Crucible in England several times since and is still the current world champion. Not sure if you are into snooker mate, but those years were the good years and being in the game, I got to know the overseas players well even night clubbed all night in Melbourne with Willy Thorne who now a commentator at the Crucible and I hope to catch up with him again one day. Cheers jewgaffer By the way Gorms if you're ever interested in fishing Awonga for burrumundi, a relative of mine has a six bedroom place in Hervey Bay and happened to call me the other night and gave me the ok to bring a couple of good types of blokes up there with me whenever my back problems allow and as far as fishing Awonga is concerned my brother in laws mate next door would be as good as having a pro with you

Awesome size bass Grant and Dan, the smiles tell it all Cheers jewgaffer

Good effort catching live bait first up Lala and then going into speculation mode and striking a jewfish pack coming in for a look just before first light and so late in the run out tide too and catching metre plus jewfish and I'd say much to the horror of the onlookers One can't help but notice the large numbers of general species that have been coming into Sydney over the last eighteen months or so since the big freeze during the autumn winter period of 2008 which led to the mass migration of general species out of Sydney as some might remember..The extreme shortage of estuary fish was then followed by a massive influx of fish into the Sydney area as we've seen and noticed by the consistency of catches by our members alone over the last eighteen months or so. Still most of the jewfish caught during this important "revival phase for Sydney" one could say have been typically around the 3 to 5 kilo size and noticably in the Hawkesbury and the Georges. These results of yours are certainly a good indication that the jewfish schools coming into our estuaries this year are going to be around that typical 7-12 kilos size as have been the breeding size schools in the past. Over this autumn and winter I think we might see a big improvement in the number of jewfish schools of these sizes going well up into the rivers as well as schooling up in places like Middle Harbour and Port Hacking on an incoming regular bases over these important breeding months for a change. Lala you might have to come up to my place soon, just bring a mate along and help me out with the boat and we can do an overdue Hawksebury session. Cheers jewgaffer

Hi Clem 1. Buy some nippers from the shop on your left on the main road off the highway on the outskirts into Port Macquarie. Head straight down and turn left at the bottom and then turn right and park near the fishing co-op. There's a nice little metal jetty right in behind the co-op building itself which is next to the cruise boats and the pro boats... run your nippers directly down under the pylons... don't cast out anywhere as there are too many rays straight out in front of the jetty... Use 30lb fluro and fish in the late afternoon and you'll find for the sport part of a bream session you'll be able to just reef your first lot of bream meals straight up in the air, over your shoulder and into a bucket. 2. a:- Night jewfish session... drive down to the turn off to Settlement Pt and turn left at waters edge and park in the first cutting on your right and use beach rods in rod holders...bait up with squid or fish baits...i.e. don't turn right past the houses on your right on the same road that goes to the ferry which has a shop next to it and ther's also a quiet family cafe opposite the ferry b:- Night jewfish session... drive down alongside the caravan park on the same road as the co-op, after you drive up past the cruise boats etc until you reach the start of the rocks burley up there for live bait and squid where the rocks meet the sand just along from the end of the caravan park... fish for jewfish 250 paces from the start of the rocks walking towards the east. c:- late afternoon flathead session and night jewfish session drive over the bridge on the highway to Telegraph Point..take the first turn right over the bridge and drive alongside the river towards the Maria river..Drive just under 2 kilometres down the road alongside and start fishing. Hope this helps Cheers jewgaffer

Happy birthday to all those members celebrating their birthday today and a very special happy birthday to my grandson and best mate Little Jewgaffer who turns 13 today. Happy birthday Byron from nanna and pa. Cheers jewgaffer

Congratulations on reaching 2000 posts Ray Nice photography mate! I noticed the topic and I wasn't sure whether Big Yella Fellow was going to be a yellowfin tuna or an amber traffic light somewhere. Cheers jewgaffer

Nice work Croydon, well deserve mate Cheers jewgaffer

I think you've managed to get hold of an emperor Clem. Good effort mate Cheers jewgaffer

Happy Birthday Ray I hope you get plenty of nice presents for reaching the next even number in the 50's and I trust you'll happen to pick up a Fin Nor 9500 for yourself spooled up with 600 yards of 80lb Power Pro plus a Daiwa Sealine 600H spooled with 600 yards of 50lb fluoro Cheers:thumbup: jewgaffer