jewgaffer

Mercer007 that was one helluva good result and an interesting and modest read as well..Congratulations on receiving your Mentor status Peter, that's a great effort for a mature aged chap like yourself who has only been in the game for a year and a half Peter, we know there are a mile of fish around but it's that hot bite period we are waiting for, I know you have time constraints so I'm including the following information for you- *fishing is normally at it's best during rising barometric pressure and for the first hour or two of falling pressure. *Sudden changes in pressure usually see fish in feeding mode. *Fishing is generally always poor during ongoing days of low ptressure or constant days of steady barometric pressure - it's that day of change you are looking for mate. Peter, the info below is about it in a nutshell :- **Steady rise continuing = best **Rapid rate of rise or rapid rate of fall = good until pressure steadies and bite starts to slow,- this gives you are chance to get your take homes and stay on for the anti socials shall I say, i.e. the jew. **Ongoing steady pressure = poor fishing in general - these can be great boating days particulary those ongoing fine days in summer staying around 1030 milibars and windless - one might ask why would the jew want to use energy when they can't get to their quarry, they've already binged up on their food.... **Falling pressure continuing = good at first and then changing to poor, again the 2nd last of the pecking order are likely to come on along with the scavengers followed by the sharks who often come out of the murk so to speak and may even attack swimmers on the gloomiest of days.. In planning yor sessions why not be guided by the barometer and then see for yourself if you do any better......Try and coincide your sessions with wind changes and especially winds forecast to change to an opposite direction and only then look at tides according to species to find the optimum bite periods, record the day and remember the depths for the species i.e. deep, middling, and shallow........ Move upriver to get the same still water periods due to the tide delay and when you arrive at a good performing spot fish the early changes in either tide direction and move again when the bite slows but stay on the same side as the water flow where you got the results..... Peter laminate a copy of this and carry it your wallet and staple a $10.00 note to it for luck Cheers jewgaffer

Cheers jewgaffer

That's a helluva good idea Mick long overdue and much appreciated mate I hope you and musty can cop a good laugh tho.. I need as much help with launch and retrieve as I can as my hips are badly seized up now and I can hardly put weight on my legs but somehow can manage to forget about the aches and pains when I'm out there...I'm waiting for a new 60hp motor to be fitted and will be thumbing a ride for a little while yet.. just got to keep on plodding on for now and I'll probably finish up at Brown's in a big stessl with a life jacket on when my Greek mate gets back from Darwin anyway.. I have a BFR centrepin reel and a 7w Fenwick fly spin rod that will do a pretty job on the blackfish anyway I reckon and I always take along a couple of 9 and 10 foot rods in the side console anyway...it's hard to find a rack rod that's right on the bone these days which is most important with these soft tipped rods. Cheers mate jewgaffer

Congratulations on taking out the bream tournament Dan & Mick As a matter of interest Dan what did that 1.4kilo bream go on the tape measure mate? Cheers jewgaffer

Brilliant session Roberta and quite an educational read as usual ...there's a great little tip here from Grant that's pure gold and giving the others a wide birth if you can will make all the difference to your results the very next time you fish in a tournament... Cheers jewgaffer

Awesome snapper for Middle Harbour Zenman well deserved Mike and that banquet size dinner for eight certainly makes up for fattening up all those pinkies over the years. Cheers jewgaffer

+1 to what Bloopin said bigpat not that I'm into blackfish rods.... Thanks for the thumbs up on the Agility Mick What lengths do they come in mate? I have a couple of good centre pin reels that I've had for years and have had Shakespeare Agilty rods recommended to me quite a few times before when I was looking for a softer all purpose rod... Roberta recommended the Agilitys too from memory.. I wouldn't mind fishing back in close for blackfish now and then with deep water behind me and have a couple of jew rods out at the same time.. Cheers jewgaffer

Hi Raiders, After having a Hawkesbury session with Geoff in my Savage side console last week, my friend Jim Bowers and I were invited to have a session in Geoff's big Webster Tri Hull for a change before Jim goes back home to Ballina... The location was either to be off Cronulla or along the National Park cliffs, however it was agreed that the timing of the session was to coincide with a change day after a cycle of long periods of southerly influence .... When we got back to Geoff's on Thursday after dropping my boat off at Huett Marine to have my 35hp motor upgraded to 60hp, Geoff put a barbecue on and when the subject came up, it didn't take long for Geoff to go inside and come back out with a complete colour print out of the weather and the conditions for the following week... we all agreed with enthusiasm on going out very early on Monday morning as it was obvious from a consensus of forecasts that the wind was going to change back to a north westlerly direction around mid morning on Monday and we also had the benefit of a steady barometer reading which managed to fall back nicely into the high area just above 1016 millibars with a low front on the way, the arrival of which has now brought the barometer right down to 1006mb and the pressure still falling as I write.. Thus there was a good chance that the fish would liven right up ahead of the low front and a consequentual shut down which no doubt you have all experienced at some stage or other as far as coastal and estuary species are concerned, once a low front has established itself and settles in.. Report:- Jim and I met up with Geoff at Swallow Rock boat ramp just as the first signs of day break began to lighten up the sky... We had a nice run out into Bate Bay with Geoff strategically navigating around the markers until we reached Cronulla and then gave the Yamaha a bit of throttle until we arrived at Shark Island bait grounds.. We dropped quite a lot of burley on the north western side of Shark Island but found no bait fish there whatsoever and then decided to head towards Osbourne Shoals and stay in that area for a while rather than chuck a u turn and fish along the National Park Cliffs as far as say Stanwell hang gliders... Jim had a look around on the way and decided to see if he could remember an old line up for a spot in Bate Bay where he used to fish for snapper quite a few years back and, with the benefit of Geoff's sounder and Jim's approximate line ups we managed to find the actual spot. From the moment we anchored and dispersed our first lot of burley we had kingfish feeding everwhere around the back of the boat, and our first five hook ups were undersize versions.. in no time we had thrown back around twenty kingfish some of which were double and tripple hook ups until I hooked up a take home at 70cms, followed by a legal from Geoff and another legal from Jim this time using a 5" storm shad cast wide of the pack after having lots of hits on gulps but several without hook up and over ten good size fish were lost during the action.... I stuck to using my two hook 4/0 rigs on breakneck drag and left the rods alone rod and preferred to roll a cigarette during all the rod bending that was going on and must admit that I didn't manage to lose a decent run of any description... Total fish caught on the day = 49 ...the action thruought the session can only be descibed as fast and furious in that the bite never stopped and despite the number of non hook ups due to striking too early which is definately not necessary by any means when using bait, the kingfish remained at the back of the boat thruought a whole session at this particular reef which reminds me of a reef off Maroubra where kingfish can be caught 24/7 in a good year regardless of season. Take home size fish caught:- = Kingfish Amberjack Bonito + Watson's Leaping Bonito Sweep Snapper Tarwhine Butchers Pr wrasse Beach bream (yellow fin) Sydney trevally Plus a couple of Black Northern Trevally of which one was around 35cms and the other black was a good 40cms and this speaks highly of the standard of fishing in Sydney at the moment and in fact over the last eighteen months or so which I believe is the result of a good turn around in conditions in our part of the Pacific.. The water temperature remained steady at a good 22 degrees at best in Bate Bay and due to the north westerly influence held at 21 degrees in the river when we got back to Gray's Point which was around four o'clock in the afternoon... The good thing Raiders there was not a single sign of a leather jacket anywere near this particular reef which is a great little reef that Jimmy got hold of years ago and I can't wait to do a night session there, that's for sure EDIT - Another little thing I should mention Raiders is that when I got off at Swallow Rock Wharf while Geoff and Jim retrieved the Webster, a nice style of chap in his late forties I'd say who is new to fishing arrived to practice casting flies using a 9W saltwater fly fishing outfit and an expensive one too made by Rods N' Reels.. Apparently he has a friend who's right into fly fishing and he practices regularly after work. Anyway when we were tidying up the boat in the middle of the river between the wharf and the mangroves in about ten foot of water which incidently was so clean that we could see all the way to the bottom the only thing around the bait we were discarding were trevally fry, and apart from the trevally fry the river in that section was noticably devoid of fish...While he was talking to me a small red bream surfaced out of nowhere and grabbed hold of the fly a good 30 seconds or so after he paused the fly to talk....So raiders don't be afraid to plonk a fly in the water as anything natural like that doesn't really go unnoticed and I think saltwater fly fishing will really take off over here in the future... A big thank you from Jim and myself to my good friend Geoff for his hospitality, good company and natural friendliness and Raiders if you're ever looking for a good outside boat that handles our estuaries in a breeze take a look at these Webster Twin Fishers.. Bye for now from myself, Geoff, and Jim aka the "Grumpy Old men" lol as seen in the eyes of Outfisher in his reply to our Hawkesbury session Cheers jewgaffer Here are some photos of our takes homes and a few other pics that were taken during what can only be referred back to as an extremely lively session in general which sorrowfully from my point of view had to end around 3pm.

Hi Raiders Sydney Harbour is fishing very well at the moment Raiders and, according to my friend Jim Bowers who is down from Ballina and staying with Shirl and myself for a while, the water in Sydney Harbour is presently in prestine condition. Jim came down from Ballina to do some catching up in Sydney among other things and get in as much fishing as possible with me at the same time.. Jim and I have been close friends since the eighties and at one stage Jim worked for me for quite a few years; I always call into Ballina on my way back to stay with Jim and his Mum and quite often for weeks on end, whenever I travel north to fish with my Queensland relatives and friends.. Report:- Conditions:- Ist calm day after Saturday's turbulence plus heavy afternoon rain Bite period:- last half of the run in tide Barometer:- sharp fall of 3 points to 1021mb after showing 1024mb and steady at 9am Water temperature:- Water temp was 21 degrees in that part of the Harbour around 2pm according to Jim. Wind:- A complete and noticable change of wind direction from the previous days of ongoing Southerlys to a light North Westerly direction which commenced around midday.. Jim was delighted to be able to go out and have a fish today with his 7 year old Grandson Estevan and his daughter Jessica... and accordingly, Jim made arrangements to go out and have a session this afternoon knowing that the Harbour was still around 21 degrees in temperature and Jim commented that at 21 degrees it was still like fishing during April which is the prime time in Sydney for a vast species of leather jackets... In fact Jim's primary target today was leather jackets would you believe as both Shirl and Jim like eating leather jackets fried in butter most of all among other recipes of theirs. From the moment they arrived it was obvious to Jim that the fish were going to be very active at that point in the tide and Jim subsequently used the words, it was like "feeding time at the zoo" when describing the action they had in the harbour this afternoon.. The first point of call was Milson's Point where Jim had originally planned to fish around the Jeffery Street area but unfortunately the noise from the pile drivers working on the re-development of Jeffrey Street wharf would have been enough to spook any fish in the vicinty... it was starting to rain heavily at the time, and it was interesting to see that no one else was fishing anywhere around Jeffrey Streat wharf.. Jim then decided to go over and have a look around the railngs along the foreshore near McMahon's Point.. I find leather jackets to be a nice tasting fish for a change of tempo tho I find them to be a little on the bland side if eaten for too many days in a row... Still Shirl and I were very pleased to see the variety that Jim brought home as the different cooking styles of Jim and Shirley will make all the difference to me as I must admit that I prefer eating flathead for my next fish meal after more than a day or so of eating leather jackets. The variety of leather jackets that Jim, Jessica and young Estevan caught included fan bellies, six spine, yellows and the common harbour rough skin jackets which Jim regards as the nicest tasting of the species. At this point of time I'll bring in the fact that I put a timer on Jim from when he started to prepare and clean the leather jackets...being a former commercial fisherman it only took Jim 4 minutes to clean 12 leather jackets, and put them in our freezer bags.. Final Tally:- 12 take home leather jackets destined for my place plus some for Jessica and young Estevan, half a dozen jackets were released along with Groper, parrot fish, bream. sweep and a dozen or so undersize red bream which kept young Estevan extremely occupied and a very happy little fisherman at the same time... Jim hooked up a couple of fish that unfortunately were of the unstoppable variety for the light gear they were using and finally resulted in bust offs. I must say, young Estevan is a very keen little fisherman for his age, happy to be catching his share of fish and only too willing to learn all about fishing with soft plastics and he really enjoyed fishing with his Mum and his Grandpa today which to my mind is not only the most important part of a young child's day out but a large part of his growing up and future relaxation in what is fast becoming a very busy world in general. I didn't realise it was so late, Jim's already asleep and we'll be meeting up with old Geoff at Grays Point at 5am or so and we'll be going outside the Hacking for a fish in Geoff's big Webster tri-hull as my side console boat is presently up at Huey's having the 35hp Evinrude replaced with a 60hp Mercury Bigfoot at a very good changover price too which I couldn't be any happier about by the way... With a bit of luck tomorrow we might be able to add a few more varieties of fish in general to our refrigerator supplies.. Nite, nite Raiders, hopefully Jim, Geoff and myself might be able to do well enough tomorrow to report a decent sort of a catch back to you and at the same time provide some general information on the present fishing situation outside the Hacking. Tomorrow morning we'll either be fishing outside along the National park cliffs or the Boat Harbour side but I'm not sure which side at this stage...first stop will probably be Gymea Bay for our livies, might even poke our nose into South West Arm and then it'll be Mainbar for our nipper supply, rather than having to spend too much time fishing for our live bait supply along the National Park cliffs or the bait grounds at Shark island either..still we'll talk about that when we get there as old Geoff knows the area backwards and Geoff is a quiet achiever and has been fishing outside the Hacking for years.. Cheers jewgaffer

Nice effort on the beach jew stryker Jewfish and especially squid seem to thrive on the lousiest of fishing conditions and moreso during the most miserable of southerlies... The pecking order is generally nothing and then more of the same, then the jewfish come in and in turn are usually followed by the toothy scavengers such as the whalers and the hammerheads and particularly in the worst possible conditions. Well done stryker and I hope get to team up with Humesy on the northern beaches as you would not meet a more inteligent fishermen so keen on understanding the habits of jewfish than Andrew, that's for sure.... Cheers jewgaffer

Hi Tangled1 Shame you found the fishing so quiet in the morning... As far as "Never mind there is always this afternoon" goes and, provided that wasn't a shutdown in general on the particular day, never a truer word could be said.. Cheers jewgaffer

Good effort once more on the lures Joco and congratulations on catching you first kingfish on a lure Have you ever thought that if you keep on doing so well on these artificials there's always the chance that you'll never catch anything whatsoever using bait Cheers jewgaffer

It could evolve into one of the giant Herring species Cheers jewgaffer

"Grumpy old men" ay that's the nicest comment I've had since I was a teenager Outfisher you've earned yourself a seat in the bow the very next time the same "Grumpy old men" hit the Hawkesbury Never mind about jewfishing tactics just make sure you bring a video camera along so you can record the funnier moments of our jewfishing antics Cheers jewgaffer

Well done on reaching 1000 posts Groper By the way Basil, George and I can always do with a capable man like yourself fishing in the bow area... so if you can get yourself up to George's, he should be able to bring you up to my place so that we can have that overdue Hawkesbury session hopefully as soon as he gets back from Darwin. Cheers jewgaffer

Wow another good effort Marcer and Ray, and some healthy looking jewfish too your efforts lately have certainly been a far cry from the struggle you had a year ago. Cheers jewgaffer

Excellent fishing Wacko especially the effort that was put into the Marlin, that big trevally was no slouch either, it was a helluva fish..Top quality video work, and thanks for sharing the experience with us Wacko. Cheers jewgaffer

Excellent advice Grant, that little tip of yours is a huge tip, pure gold mate! Hi The Count just thinking there are twin boat ramps along the waterfront between Tascott and Woy Woy where the crab boats are that would make pretty good ramps for you to practice and you'd have pretty easy access to the rip bridge, paddy's channel and Lion island. you could also practice launch and retrieve at Davidson depending on which side of the Central coast you're on ..If the trailor doesn't have multi rollers you could consider having a retriever mate installed to make life easier lining the boat up when retrieving.. Cheers jewgaffer

Brett I hope Dad digs deep and buys you a couple of those Stella combos that are on special at the moment Cheers jewgaffer

+1 Gary good fishing as usual mate Cheers jewgaffer

Top advice Penguin, pure gold mate! and topped off with a nice little session in Botany Bay with plenty of good fish to take home too I'll be doing a session on Monday with old Geoff and a friend who's down from Ballina so we'll be able to see how the Hacking goes on the way out especially South west Arm around daybreak.... Cheers jewgaffer

Thanks Breambucket, If you are interested in my 35hp Evinrude Elan Peter and want to have a look at it, feel free to contact either Craig or Roger at Huett Marine, Cowan on 94561444... Huett's are currently in the process of ordering and fitting a 60hp Mercury Bigfoot to my Savage side console.... Cheers jewgaffer

Another good effort on the jewfish Pete I reckon that flathead is a good size to make lots of nice fillets out of and save a good supply of pieces to add to your next seafood banquet. Cheers jewgaffer

Good effort on the jewfish Peter It's a shame the hooks didn't connect during that decent sort of a run you had ...it might be time to tighten up that drag to a point where you'd be more sure of setting the hooks as soon as the line comes to a sudden stop... Cheers jewgaffer

Hi Raiders Just a quick report back to you after spending a few hours fishing for jewfish in the lower Hawkesbury on Monday afternoon.. I took my Savage side console up to Brooklyn on Monday mainly to give my 35hp motor a good run to see if I needed to update the horse power or not, and at the same time do a short jewfish session from around lunch time till sunset as we had to be back at Geoff's by 7pm to catch his butcher and get some extra meat for the barbecue that Geoff was putting on for Jim and myself. Here's the report:- On board with me was Geoff (aka Geoff on Fishraider) and an old friend of mine Jim Bowers who's also a member of Fishraider and came down from Ballina to stay with Shirl and myself for a couple of weeks or so.... The purpose of this session was mainly to give my 35hp Evinrude motor a good final test run loaded with three altogether to see if I needed to see Huey to update the horse power to 50hp or a 60hp Merc perhaps that Huey can also get in as well as carrying a good range of Evinrude E-Tech models which also appeal to me as being a good proposition to consider along with Huey's advice as to the optimum motor size and the optimum prop size for the boat as well.. We decided to take a few rods up there with us plus a few arrow squid and about 30 slimies and yakkas that I had left over from a previous session and see if we could get onto a couple of jewfish . The result after fully testing the hp of my motor:- Although the Savage managed to plane along quite ok with it's four blade prop, there wouldn't have been enough horse power in the 35hp when the boat was fully loaded to push the boat along well enough should a decent swell happen to come up at the mouth when going back into the river for instance... At this stage it looks like I'll be buying a new Mercury motor and hopefully thru Huett Marine. I also have a couple of heavy deep cycle batteries that Geoff mounted inside a seat box he made to go underneath a swivel chair in the bow area which are needed to run the Motorguide...My AGM 120 amp hour batteries alone weigh almost as much as carrying an extra person travelling in the bow area anyway.. Report:- The weather was a complete turn around from the previous fine days we've had on end and the rain was just what we wanted as, right from the word go we were getting baited down deep by bream, tailor and we caught heaps of catfish well behind the reef we fished using 8/0s and 10/0s... As soon as the baits settled we were constantly getting small bites and occasionally catching small fish on the 8/0s and 10/s in the deepwater no matter where we moved to. We managed to get a couple of soapies and then Jim went down to a 1/0 and caught a bream for Shirley and hooked up a good size fish on a 5" storm shad that made a couple of good runs and was unfortunately taken on the way up by a bigger fish or a shark perhaps. Anyway we managed to get onto a couple of soapies towards the end of the run out tide by fishing into a fairly fast current out in the open just wide of the entrance into Brooklyn itself. I'd like to thank Geoff and Jim for their help and good company on the day and a big thank you to Geoff for putting on a nice rump steak dinner for us when we got back. Thanks again from Jim and myself Geoff It appears there are a mile of soapies in the system... here's a couple of photos taken during 3 hours of actual fishing during the stop and start rain.. The general bite never stopped at any stage in the last half of the run out tide and we could have caught more fish in general if we hadn't decided to only use 8/0s and 10/0's on the day... Cheers jewgaffer