[Fingal beach]

Well done Mischief. Great catch.

dirtyh

[Corlette Beach this morning]

Thanks Mischief. Haven't fished Bagnalls for a while. Only moved up here late October so still have my L plates. Used to get good lizards there. 

I know where you mean Scratchie. We live just off Peninsula so 5 minutes walk away. I got a couple of just legal size whiting there before Christmas but I'll give it another go.

[Corlette Beach this morning]

Thanks fellas. I was probably expecting a bream if anything given the conditions but you never know. Considered the anchorage Scatchie but it looked a little crowded on the wall so I opted for the Conroy Park corner. I would have had some yabbies Baz but the rain came in yesterday afternoon just as I was planning to go so ended up having to use the prawns. I've done ok with the SPs at Jimmys in the past but haven't had any luck here with them. Will give 'em ago from time to time but I'm back in the bait camp at the moment. Lovely part of the world up here.

dirtyh

[Corlette Beach this morning]

Ducked down the road to Corlette Beach after the overnight showers to catch the run in tide with the remainder of a bag of prawns bought a fortnight ago. Just settled in when the thundery showers returned with a vengance. After sticking it out for 5 minutes or so I headed for a covered BBQ area in the carpark soaking wet and waited it out. After a couple of undersized sand whiting (released), my persistence was rewarded with this fella. Amazing how a decent catch makes you forget the inconvenience of soaked clothing. 

dirtyh

[First Fish]

There's truth in that, Mike

[First Fish]

Thanks fellas. It was just as thrilling for me. She wasn't sure if she'd like fishing but now I'm up for a kid's size rod next time she visits. Couldn't think of a better way to spend the money.

[First Fish]

Took my 10 year grand-daughter for her first fishing outing at Corlette yesterday. Papi caught zilch but she hooked this little flathead and landed it all by herself. Out of the water long enough to extract the hook and take the photo then released. One proud girl.

Dirtyh

[Much more fishing]

Thanks, Scratchie. We'll have to catch up when I get settled in. Looking forward to giving the rods much more use.

[Much more fishing]

Good Morning Raiders

Having now reached my three score years and ten (plus one), the call of the sea has led me to relocate to Port Stephens. Looking forward to catching up with any raiders in the area from time to time. I'm a shore based fella and have fished around Salamander for a week here and there over the years while on holidays but I'll have a lot to learn. Hope to make my first cast in a little over a week.

[Hawks Nest Flathead]

Nice report. I was up there a couple of weeks ago fishing Jimmys for flathead with SPs. Met a local who gave me some valuable advice on how to fish for flathead there. Ended up with a 48cm and 42cm over two days.

[Hawkes Nest]

Hey mate,

i have been going to hawkesnest in summer for about 12 years now and of course, do a lot of fishing. Whiting and Bream are at jimmy's on live worms. The sandspit right up near the heads of jmmy's beach is best with a full bag of 30cm+ whiting not uncomon. Winda Woppa further towards the river mouth is good too on a run our tide with the same bait. The beaches have loads of tailor atm and there are still plenty of bream, whiting and flathead too. Even the odd jewie and salmon too. The river is a great spot too. There are countless spots along the bank where you can set up and burley up a bag of bream and flathead. All the wharves i tea gardens are great for bream and jews too. If i were you and i am assuming you will not have a boat with you, i would hire one from tea gardens. Head towards the mouth and drift the channels with whitebait and prawns and you'll get loads of bream, flathead, whiting and flounder. The little mangrove creek entrances are worth a look for bream and i have even heard of a mangrove jack being caught there! Now to my NUMBER 1 flattie spot. Basically, you are heading downstream towards the mouth from tea gardens and after you have gone round the first bend near the oyster lease you will find a rockwall after a while. Somewhere along this rockwall you will find a little feeder creek. Not a big one but there are sometimes swimmers here so you should be able to find it. Here, the mullet are coming out of the creek on a run out tide and there are always flathead, big and small but plenty around 60cm aiting in ambush. Whitebait, prawns, plastics will all work. It may even be worth getting some poddies and sending one out where the flatties are sitting. They will sit about 10-15 meters out from the creek entrance.

Good luck!

Tom

Cheers, Tom . Thanks very much for the great info!

dirtyh

[Hawkes Nest]

Hey Mate i was up there a few months back now and had some great sucess beach fishing. I only had my little 7ft rod with 6lb braid and 10 lb flurocarbon leader but none the less it worked great off the beach. i headed up Mungo brush road which is when driving to the golf club turn left at the T-intersection and follow it for about 20km you will see the parking places and beach 4wd areas so pull into one of them and its not a far walk to the beach from there. choose your gutter and burly hard i found this to be crucial, it deffinitly made the difference as i caught a good haul of bream and salmon and the bloke 100 metres down from me got nothing. pillies was the bait of choice and they did the trick, a whole pillie seamed to get the salmon and a half pillie of pillie fillet worked on the bream. Burley i had was just mashed up pillies with some bread and tuna oil and a bit of sand to bulk it up.

Any way i hope this is of help to you i cant say i fished any other area up there as the beach fishing was always red hot.

Many thanks for the responses. fellas. This is really helpful. Looks like it'll be wet weather fishing but, hey, who cares. Looking forward to it.

dirtyh

[Hawkes Nest]

Hi Fishraiders

I'm heading up to Hawkes Nest the last week in February and was wondering if anyone has been up there recently and whether there's been any action on the beach or around at Jimmys. I'll be shorebased.

[Lake Macquarie]

Hey Fishraiders,

Will be going to Lake Macquarie in early March and have hired a boat for a couple of days. Used to go there regularly and fish around the Gwandalan area. Regularly caught flat head and blue swimmers.

If anyone can give me tips on where to fish. Have seen in on-line chats that around Pullbah Island is highly recommended. The sand flats around the entrance to the flats look interesting as well.

Will be going for squid as well. If anyone can recommend some squid grounds that would be good.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers, Pine

G'day Pine. I had a active session shore-based at Wangi Point last week whilst holidaying at Blackalls Park - about a dozen but sadly only one keeper. Might be worth a try. Good luck.

Dirtyh

[Smiths Lake Last Week]

to Fishraider, DIrtyH - well done on the flattie, too - good table size. I live at Forster & love getting out onto the lake here in my yak! Great fun & a bit of exercise too!

Cheerio

Roberta

Thanks for the welcome everybody. Grant, I'll heed your warning and take up the poddy trap next time.

dirtyh

[Smiths Lake Last Week]

I've been a member for a while but this is my first post. Spent last week at Smiths Lake and spent a little time flicking soft plastics shore-based on the off chance the odd flathead might prefer my offering to the myriads of fresh mullet that seemed to carpet the lake. Two or three were foolish enough to take up the challenge and paid the price. Here's a pic of the best - not a monster by any means but at 45cm it made a decent meal. Just a holiday fisherman but still learning after 40 years of one of the great pastimes.

dirtyh