Ron Howes

What about Wharf Road Gladesville. The council supply two bins, one for recycling and one for general rubbish. Last week I spent a half an hour emu bobbing picking up bottles, cans, lure packaging, hooks sinkers, rotting prawns, dead pilchards, small dead cat fish and McDonald food wrappings before I could feel comfortable to fish this spot. The smell of all this made me feel sick. The bins were overflowing and absolutely foul smelling. The council should ensure these bins are emptied regularly also. Howsy

Top report Ryder, there seems to be some quality fish moving into the lower reaches over the last couple of days. What is your criteria for taking on new clients :- Deep waterfront with jetty or pontoon, fishing access and rights to fish with notice. Strange how these people who own these properties rarely fish. I have a mate with a property at the end of the Moons on Georges River at Lugarno with pontoon and a deep 25 foot hole that I have fish religiously for years that has always produced blackfish. My son has caught jewfish, big bream and the odd flathead there also, however the owners don't fish.

We caught a couple on weed and were being baited all the time on downs without hookups. These spiky bastards sting like hell if you get spiked by one. My fishing buddy Poohbear can verify this fact.

Top result on the blackfish both days, weed should not be a problem living on the northern beaches. I got a bucket full of top weed up there today when I took my Mrs on a day out to Palm Beach and I checked out a number of spots that I've got weed from in the past. The harbour is a bit hit and miss. One day we will bag out and the next day in the same location nothing with the black trevally swarming after our baits and not allowing the blackfish a look in. Some times it pays not to burley them in. Howsy

John, Are you fishing from the shore or in a boat? Are you using local weed/cabbage or did you take it down ? The big fish 40 cm plus have started moving into the harbour, they are definitely sea blackfish as they are nearly white and wide mouthed. You can hardly make out the bars on their bodies.

Slept in this morning and had a 10.30 am start of my session with Poohbear. Had some excellent shell weed from Botany with a rich bucket of burley. Fished the last hour of the run in and lost one bait. Fished the next hour without even a touch after burleying heavily. Poohbear got a distress call from his Mrs and packs up and goes home to sought out family matters. I decided to stay and burley out wider and fish deeper at 11 feet, and bango I was on. The fish bit all the run out tide from then on, I could not keep a bait on. I had two young couples clapping me when I caught 5 in a row. There was at least 5 fish caught and released that were undersized and 5 that were close to 40 cm or above, however the general run was around the 30/32 cm range. I had 12 in swimmer at the finish and I dropped a lot of the bigger fish trying to lift and swing them up onto the ledge with a 6lb vanish trace. Lower harbour is really starting to fire up. All fish were released. I packed up at 6.00 pm with them still biting with a fish on my last caste. This spot usually fires on last hour of run up and the first hour of run out in past sessions. But not today. With past sessions this month all fish have been caught on half tide or lower. Sorry no photos as my phone battery was dead.

Papafish, The salmon was caught on cooked minced meat and flounder caught on prawn. Howsy

Had an early start at daybreak at Vaucluse with Poohbear, have not fished this location for about 6 weeks. Burleyed plenty with beautiful weed collected from ocean pools from Kurnell and fished hard for two and a half hours. Not even a bite, not one down. Got a call from a mate Johnno, that the fish were biting at Hunters Hill. So we pack up and relocated. The blackfish at Hunters Hill loved this stringy Kurnell weed and the three off us started getting stuck into them. The wirey weed was hard to attach to hook and needed to be plaited or we were continually being baited. Johnno also landed a nice sized salmon and a flounder before Poohbear and I got there. The lower harbour is starting to fire up for blackfish now after the big fresh switched them off. Howsy

Poohbear forgot to tell you, the big brutes we lost were being harassed by a pesky pelican. His second fish was as big, however the 8 lb Vanish is no match when a 20 kg pelican has hold of it when you are trying to net them.

Nice to see you have sussed out where the fish are. I have never used a weed fly, are they lightly weighted. We fished Chiswick Saturday afternoon and the fish bit like crazy on run up, however, only on weed I sourced from canal in Pomeroy street Homebush near Ausgrid depot. The weed there is absolutely beautiful. (you need a grappling hook and 20M cord). The fish would not take a bait when tide changed.

Top effort in landing those two sturgeon, I fished there about 5 weeks ago and lost 2 of my favourite floats to suspected sturgeon bites that rocketed off under ferry wharf. I even brought a stiffer 10ft 6inch blackfish rod to allow me to hold them out next time I fish Rose Bay. Also I fished Lambeth Park at Picnic Point this morning with plenty of berley and 50 drifts at varying depths for not even a bite with fresh Botany weed. Usually you get baited by chats, but this part of Georges River is dead for blackfish.

Poohbear, You forgot to mention the boy also caught two bream with bread on a blackfish float. We gave the bread a go and got nothing, after berleying heavily with water soaked bread in our chopped up weed and sand mixture.

Braved the cold morning at day break with my buddy Poohbear, West of Gladesville bridge to indulge in our passion of chasing harbour luderwick. I had some prime Botany weed and a rich bucket of berley. The fish were not plentiful, however the quality of fish landed was great. Poohbear and I got busted up by some big fish that took to the fresh weed where on recent outings all fish were taken on cabbage. Slowly the harbour is starting to come good after the heavier than normal rain. I only landed 2 luderwick today and Poohbear landing 3 and a mullet on bread. An hour after we started another two keen blackfisherman friends arrived to join us. They persisted in fishing with cabbage landing one each. Pictures are of all fish caught.

Ryder, I was down at Circler Quay at 11.00 am looking in water to left of pier 5 and saw some stud blackfish swimming amongst the pylons. Too bad I was on a John Cadman harbour cruise today with these fish around. It was a perfect warm winters afternoon on harbour. I don't know how the wind could of affected you.

Great catch, nice to see the blackfish moving back into the harbour. Good to see you have had your sport and released them too. I received another report on some big stud blackfish caught on Sunday afternoon on cabbage in the lower north side of harbour. Strange on my last successful outing in Harbour I had beautiful Botany weed and they only bit on cabbage. They would not touch the weed .

Top report, and reward for effort, as I know the weather turns most people off fishing when raining. Its amazing how all the run off with storm water into lake has not pushed the fish out into the sea. The high early morning tide would have helped push fish and salty water back into the system. Were you fishing close to lake's entrance?

Spent some time up at Bluey's Beach this time of year 12 months ago. I watched a chap bag out on blackfish of the rocks on the southern end of Bluey's beach nearly every day for a week. This chap was nearly 80 years old and my wife banned me from fishing with him as I had left my rock fishing shoes with cleats at home. He said to the right of the gutter he fishes was a good bream hole, where when cleaning his fish he often jags half a dozen bream on blackfish gut.

My fishing pal Poohbear got a leave pass from "she who must be obeyed" for Saturday after lunch so we arranged to meet up at 2.30 pm at Chiswick were the tide was near top and still on make. Poohbear arrived half an hour early and fished with cabbage with only one down and no stike in that time. I brought botany weed and berley. We primed our fishing zone with heaps of rich berley for 20 minutes before the action started. We landed two big fish and one around 35 cm and Poohbear dropped one while I was getting the landing net ready. The bites were plentiful for about 45 minutes, however we were having magic downs with no hook-ups. The fish were cropping bait without taking hook. In the last hour from about 5.30 to 6.30 pm the bites dried up completely as the run sped up assisted by the North Easterly wind that came up on change of tide. It was still a most enjoyable session as Poohbear was savouring his last session for 3 weeks as he is heading off overseas to visit family. Howsy

Arrived at first fish location on Sunday morning at 7.00 am with fishing pal Poohbear to fish the last couple of hours of the run in. Berleyed heavily with very little action. Poohbear jagged two blackfish and I landed a just legal flathead on weed. Fishing at this spot was dead. Decided to up camp and head to Chiswick. On arrival we met up with two fellow blackfishing anglers Johnno and Harki. I fished this location for 4 hours without landing a fish. Johnno landed 3 good fish, however no one else landed anything. We decided to pack up and head further west to get the last hour of the run out and first hour of the run up on the slower tide movement. Berleyed heavily and the fish fired as expected. Ended up with a most enjoyable session.

Excellent catch of quality fish. My nylon cutting board is 39 cm long and if this is the same, some of your fish are around the 40 cm mark. Nice to get into them in this quantity. I have fished the entrance to Lake and also the hot water channel at the power station on numerous occasions with similar results. There must be a dozen good blackfishing spots down there and I would make it my business to know the characteristics of each of them. e.g. What tide to fish, run out or run in, fall from high to low, small tides usually produce more fish, When they bite at each spot, what spot is protected from what wind, bait selection: cabbage or local weed or squirt worms,. Also on coastal estuaries when there is big bumps on cunjevoi (cunji)is a good bait. Howsy

I posted two photos however only one came through.

Ventured out this morning at daybreak with Poohbear to beat wind and try our luck. Berleyed heavily and the bites came nearly instantly. The fish were not as large as my Friday session in morning there. I was net boy today as Poohbear had a heavier float that was more suited to the conditions. Also there was a chap there hogging the spot fishing the bottom with 4 rods. I lent him one of my rigged up rods so he could have his first blackfishing session. Mind you his rig was working better than my gear, however, he struck too soon or far too late. He did not catch any, however I think we have a convert to the dark side. This also freed up our drift so we could take fish. The wind killed this spot at around 11.00 am, so we packed up.

Poohbear and myself rarely take fish home. The majority of times we fish its catch,keep alive in swimmer, take photos then release. Last week when we fished Drummoyne I let the swimmer get high and dry, the fish were barely alive so I bled and gutted and scaled 9 fish for my family and friends. Have no problems in eating small quantities now and then. Howsy

Arrived at Chiswick around 6.30 am with Poohbear my fishing buddy. It was still dark and it was about to lighten up so the fish would not need a spot light to find our baits. We fished with Homebush weed and cabbage. As it lighten up the fish started biting continuously up unto an hour before high tide. We were continually being baited with good downs and not striking fish. At other times we were catching fish on consecutive drifts. This spot usually produces fish around 40 cm plus, however today we only caught one around 42 cm and a lot of chats. All up it was a enjoyable session with plenty of action and fish.

I have found the 8 lb ProlURE CLEAR fluorocarbon leader at 0.23mm Dia catches more than fishing pals with Vanish 6 lb fluorocarbon leader. Make sure you don't have any sand on hands when tieing hook from berley and always lubricate the knot with a bit of spittle before tightening it down. I have had knots break on 6lb vanish also, but never on the ProLURE line. Howsy