tide'n'knots

Gday jeff, mate I had no choice but to let the line go slack until I could figure out which way to unwind the line around the rope. Luckily the fish was gut hooked so it was never going to dislodge the hook. It sure is hard work when you cant see properly. pete

well done ray - always good to get a couple of fish on the boats maiden trip! pete

hi guys its been a lean winter fishing wise for me this year but my son told me recently that his mates father works the ferry at wisemans and had reported a few jew being caught from the sandy beach near the ferry over the last couple of weeks and after the recent rain I had a feeling that the prawns should start to run and the fish would be on over the weekend, especially being around the full moon. I hadn't planned on going this weekend because I have a weeks holidays starting on thursday and planned to fish a fair bit of that week so I didnt want to push my luck, however my partner decided mid morning on saturday that she wanted to spend the day with her sister as she hadnt seen her for a while and the opportunity presented itself to have a fish. so I didnt need any extra coxing! There wasnt enough time for a long fish so I decided to head off and just fish for 4 hours and figured that it should be enough time to find out if the river was starting to come back to life after what was a fishless winter for me. I arrived at my spot at 4pm and the water was glassy and quite dirty from the recent rain, however by 4.30pm the wind started to blow up which is quite normal for that part of the river then it usually drops just on dark and thats exactly what happened. An hour went by and the wind was blowing against the current and causing the boat to slew sideways and at time fishing with more than one rod became a little difficult but I persisted. Then just when I was starting to think that the reports could have been a bit of BS one of my rods twiched. then again a second time, I pick it up out of the rod holder and it swam off casually with the bait as I lowered the rod tip and sruck hard coming up solid on a fish that I new immediately was a good fish. It then proceeded to swim straight across the other 3 lines so I had to lift rods out of the rod holder and swap them over until the fish was in open water to the side of the boat and now it decided to come back towards me and swim straight under the boat, as I held the rod low to the waterit then started heading upstream around the anchor rope that was lying slack in the water from the wind pushing against the boat it then chucked a left turn and in a big arc started powering back downstream so I quickly weaved the rod past the canopy poles to the front of the boat where I stopped putting pressure on the fish while I worked out how to unwrap the line from the anchor rope - no mean task when your as blind as a bat without reading glasses! luckily the fish behaved itself long enough to get things sorted then work my way back down to the back of the boat where I once again was able to apply some pressure. Thank goodness the line hadn't been damaged so no harm done and I eventually was able to net the fish. I managed a legal sized flathead after that as well as 3 small soapies. Just after dark the catfish decided that they wanted to join the party and no more fish were caught after that but I was happy with what I had anyway. I pulled the pin at 8pm. The bait that I was using was slimey mackeral fillets sqid and prawns and as what usually happens at wisemans ferry thee fish took a peeled prawn. pete

good luck guys have a great holiday. now some of us have a chance to actually catch some fish without stewy around catching them all!!! I reckon stewy would have taken some fishing gear for sure and you guys are probably eating freshly caught redfin. pete

after veiwing all the photos I can see why you guys are calling it the trip of a lifetime - I am very jealous. cograulations. It makes sydney fishing look sad. pete

wow stewy sounds awesome!!! a big variety of fish there. is that a goatfish? or a self portrait! ha ha!! glad to hear you had a good time. pete.

well done steve! its nice to see stewys butt kicked occassionally. one day Ill get him also! every dog has his day stewy and your dogs have had their day too! ha ha ha !!! good to see the friendly rivalry is alive and well between you guys. pete.

wow what a great social!!! i am sorry I missed it. sounds like you guys had a great time and by the way I totally understand the jokes about piecost etc! I dont know if you guys remember phil sigsworth who played for newtown and the magpies (nrl) - his knick name was whats a pakka! thanks for sharing. pete.

mike the squid whisperer! thats gold! hope the bigger ones come out to play next time mike. havent been out myself lately as I have had too much on but I am cracking my neck to get out - hopefully I can swing it soon. pete

well done boys nothing like a good bread burley to get things firing. what an enjoyable way to fish. pete.

wow what a great session. bad luck about the big one roberta - thats what goes with the territory unfortunately! good to see steve enjoying the company of a great raider! dont feel to bad steve I think roberta would out fish most people on soft plastics in her own back yard I think she probably knows every snag and has probably lost a fish or two on each of them! pete

nice work fellas. the georges produces a good mix of fish once again. pete

there are some awesome reds there basil!! and that water spout looks amazing too.I was getting hungry just looking at the photos of those yummy squid. pete.

well done steve sounds like a fun fish with a good mate. pete

awesome fish mate great stuff! pete

Hi roberta, hows the artheritis going have you been able to get out on the water? by the way your little fleesy hood/vest thing that you gave me was worth its wait in gold on those cold nights - I owe you one! pete

I doubt it as dave says he is a real land lubber! I am just glad I finally got to see he get a good fish. He was already eager to tell the boys down at the local about his catch and typical fisherman was already streaching the truth saying that he had caught a 36kg fish on an old wooden handline with a knotted up rope for a line. we had a good laugh about that one! pete

top fish mate - sounds like a fun trip. pete

the fish took a peeled prawn. we used squid and fillets etc but for some reason the majority of fish up there take peeled prawns. pete.

gday raiders, I just got back from a weeks camping and fishing at wisemans ferry and the fishing was pretty good. I arrived on saturday afternoon and finally finished setting up camp around 10 at night, had dinner and a shower then crawled into my electric blanket ( gotta love powered tent sites!) for an early morning session. Got up at 5.30 and after a quik cuppa and some toast I was on the water just as the sun was rising and set off with great anticipation. The tide was right on the turn and there was no run in the water for the first hour and a half but finally around 8 am the tide started to get a nice slow run and the bites started coming. I could only fish until 9.30 because I had to meet the family at the wisemans park by the ferry for mothers day but I managed 4 very nice flathead in the last hour and a half. On sunday afternoon when the family duties were over I headed out for another bash and fished from just on dark until around ten at night picking up another 3 good flathead and a jew around the 60cm mark. monday was a sleep in and I waited for my good mate dave to arrive who I havent seen for quite a while and he was coming to spent 1 night and come fishing with me for a chance to catch up. Dave has never caught a fish in his life and anyone who has fished with dave never catches any either - including me in the past. in fact he tells everybody that he carries a fishing curse, but that was about to change in a big way. As I was waiting for Dave my mate Joe wizzed passed in his boat so I whistled him over and found out that he was going to spend the next 2 nights in his boat fishing so I told him I would see him on the water when dave arrived. Dave arrived at 3pm and after a quick chat and a bit of organising we were on the water and fishing around 4.30pm half an hour after we arrived and dave landed a beautiful flathead and yelled out with excitment - THE CURSE IS BROKEN! in the next couple of hours we managed another 3 flatties when suddenly around 9 o'clock daves rod buckles and screams off zzzzzzzzzz. I picked up his rod and struck hard and came up solid on a very good fish then handed the rod to dave. Words cant describe the thrill I got watching him fight this fish, his eyes were lit up the size of a dinner plate and you couldnt smack the smile from his face.It took off up current at one stage and I feared it would swim around the anchor rope so I said to dave - go hard on it dave dont let it go around the rope, to which he replied I cant its pulling line from the reel! A few anxious minutes later and the fish decided to finally do the right thing and head down current to the back of the boat where it proceeded to swim under my rods so I took the rod from dave and weaved it past the rods to the opposite side of the boat and when I went to hand the rod back dave said - no you land it pete its almost in now, so a few minutes later a beautiful 14 pound slab of silver was lying on the floor.p> after a couple of woo hoo's and a man hug, I think dave finally realised why I love fishing so much. We took off to camp not long after that and left joe to fish the night, Joe came up to camp the next mornig with 8 nice flatties and a 55cm and 60cm jew.I said my goodbyes to dave in the morning and waited for another mate john to arrive to stay for the remainder of the trip. John and I headed out on dark and met joe at another spot that we sometimes fish and we anchored up for the night.Apart from the largest pike eel I have ever seen - It had to be at least 8ft long and a head the size of a bucket, we didnt catch anything else and left joe when the fog started rolling in. We found out the next morning that joe managed to catch a couple more flathead and 2 more jew around 60cm. over the next remaining days and nights we fished 2 hours either side of the change of tide and managed at least half a dozen flathead and the odd jew thrown in around the 60cm mark including one that went 73cm, on our last night we managed 10 flathead and a jew. all in all a very relaxing and enjoyable week. (MORE PHOTOS FURTHER DOWN NOW ADDED) pete.

hey trung that bottom photo looks like a traglin to me the tail is concaved and jew have a convexed tail!!Was the inside of its mouth yellow? great haul whatever it is! pete.