Luke K

Good evening all, Is it possible to love something and hate it at the same time? Yes. It's called winter. I must admitt that although I loathe the cold winter weather, I love fishing in it. Why you might ask? There is no reason to put away your fishing gear in winter. It is a great time of the year to exploit fabulous fishing opportunities. Whether you fish from a boat, off the rocks or off the beach, or perhaps wade the lakes and streams, there are lots of fish to be caught and without the crowds too. I have read and heard far too many times in the past suggesting that winter is time to maintain your gear. Well don't believe it. Just take a look at Hodgey's efforts recently. I too had a fabulous weekend of fishing. On saturday morning I met up with some fellow kayakers to fish the cooks. There were plenty of bream and I managed a P.B whiting(about 47cm) on blades. The fish was healthy and fat. Unfortunately the photos probably don't do it justice. The way it pulled line I called it for a bream at first but low and behold it's a whiting. As I do not eat any fish caught in the cooks I still had an urge to catch a feed. I got a call from fellow raider Yakfishing (Tristan) at about lunch time today. He also wanted a feed of fish. After much debate/discussion, we decided to take our yaks up to the northern beaches in search for a quality feed. We launched our yaks at about 3.00pm and it wasn't long before Tristan was onto the first fish of the session, a 35cm flathead. I backed that up with one straight after around the same size. The water was very cold but the fish were very aggressive with plenty of missed opportunites. I think we ended up with half a dozen or so flathead and a flounder and we kept a couple for feed. It was an enjoyble weekend on the water. Regards Luke

Nice one guys, awesome effort. Looks like you had an awesome day. cheers Luke

Hi Roberta, Awesome report and great to see you back on the water. Those blackfish look massive. I am seriously considering one of those lox rods myself. You will have to tell me more about it. Regards Luke

Hey Tristan, Excellent report mate. What an awesome arvo hey! Big Gob hey, I'll remember that one mate for my next report. Oh that scream of yours after that big trevor you landed. Well my mum could do better then that.haha Welldone to Lyndo and Craig on those awesome winter whiting. cheers L.L

Nice one Rickster

Champion effort Pete!! Sure you must have enjoyed yourelf Simon. Cheers Luke

Nice work Tomski, great report

Welldone Mate, love the committment

Lovely fish Joco.

Happy Birthday Roberta!!!!! What a way to celebrate it ay You certainly got amongst some great bream around those racks. Which ones did you fish? I love gulp shrimp and looks like you do too now. Wow with a bag like that, you would have finished top ten I reckon. Congratulations regards Luke

Well done Peter, awesome tari mate!! By the way, how's the lake going at the moment? see ya Luke

Hi Tristan, Nice work on the blackies mate. Looks to me like you had a great time with the fam. How dare you say,"I hate blackfishing" Glad to see you correct yourself later. Oh and to the previous reply, I believe that divot behind the head is due to trawlers nets. cheers Luke

Nice one 007, Great report and a better feed cheers Luke

Nice one Pete! Sounds like you guys had heaps of fun and some quality fish too! cheers Luke

Hi Roberta, You have kept to your usual form alright, and I'm not talking about catching good fish after a grand final, I'm talking about your report. That was a cracking report and a thrilling read. Can't wait to get up there again! regards Luke

Hi Dan, Great read mate and congratulations to both you and Mick!! Cheers Luke

Congatulations Dan

Good effort for such crap weather.

WellDone on the new P.B's Slinky. Oh don't worry Grant I think the shorts look great. Great laugh guys Cheers Luke

Hey there, the best way to tell the difference between a tarwhine and a bream is the shape and lateral lines on the fish. A tarwhine has very distinctive lateral lines and has a very round shape. The fish a the top of the first pic is the tarwhine, the rest are bream. And the fish I am holding is also a tarwhine. They can grow quite big. This one was over a kilo and measured 42cm. Hope this helps you cheers Luke

Welldone Peter!! Consistant results as always cheers Luke

Welldone Snap-er!! Great reward for the time you put in. Yummy dinner too!

Thanks Steve. Your right, I will be much better prepared next time. Looking forward to catching up with you and Geordi for some black fishing. Regards Luke Thanks for the encouragement Hodgey and hopefully I can pull out next time cheers Hey Roberta, I would love to come up again soon and have a crack at those leases with you. I think heavier leader is the go for sure. Daniel Brown said he was using 15lb and he won the comp. That say it all I reckon. See ya soon Luke Cheers Iggy

Welldone Ray! Some beautiful flathead mate and some great pics too. That one flahead you have there is almost as wide as it is long cheers Luke

Good evening all, Well where do I start? Firstly I would to thank the support of all Fish Raiders. A big thanks to all those who put the event together. It ran very smoothly. And a special thanks to Roberta for all her efforts in taking some great photos and her spirit of competition. My prefish on friday had an interesting twist. I had not paddled further than 200 metres when my rudder decided to play up. It wasn't long before I started to go around in circles. So I paddled back to the start where the beach crew kindley fixed the problem. I was very lucky it happened now and not in the actual competition. The prefish was good and I managed to find where some fish were and found a few feeding patterns too. I did not try to hook to many fish as that would be pointless and may damage chances on competition days. Day1. The weather was not very good for my liking. The wind was blowing from the S.W at about 35km/h and this made things very difficult for my kind of fishing. I tried to find some protected water, but it was very difficult to find. I decided to hit man-made structure such as boats, pontoons and oyster leases. It was in these areas that I found some good fish, not massive but legal. I ended up in 7th place after the first day. I thought that this should put me in good stead for day 2. Day2. The weather was a little better as the wind had dropped. But fish didn't come easy for me, they were either too small or too big. 10lb leader and mainline was not enough for the Forster monsters. To give you some idea, I landed a 870gram fish on day 1 in the leases without too much hassle but I could not stop these fish on day 2. I suspect they could have been 1kg plus fish. Anyway I only weighed in 2 small fish on day 2 and fell quite a few places all the way down to 26th. Although a little deflated with my results on day 2 I thoroughly enjoyed the G.F. Next time I fish leases I might just up my leader to 15lb. If you wish to see the results and a more thorough report please read Roberta's entry. Here are some pics of one of my better fish and some of the territory I fished Regards Luke