go-fish

Great catch! Looks like plenty-of-fun and I'm plenty-jealous Don't want to rain on the parade but... are the fish at Roseville affected by the pollution problems in Homebush? Is it safe to eat that monster single handedly or is it a 150gram portion control thing as recommended?

yeah, variable depths... mostly sandy on your side, followed by a few weed beds before the main channel. Between the dot on your map for Wobby Beach and Dangar Island... you have a small channel, then a big sand flat/spit. Max depth is about 7 metres, most of it is 3-5 metres. The sand flats are exposed at low tide - don't get beached here. But.... if you don't head towards Dangar and instead head straight out from Wobby... (or even a 20 degrees more the other way, towards Broken Bay) you still have the small channel.. then you have some deeper holes.. then you have the main channel. You'll see the channel markers out there... 3 greens and a yellow I think... anyways, those holes go deep to about 23 metres and are about 20 metres in diameter... there are at least 2 of these holes there... if you're drifting you'll notice the depth change when your lines point straight down. Drop anchor here. The edges of these holes are where the 45cm jewies are living and they are hours of fun. There are hardly any snags out there... so if you get one, be patient as half the time its a ray or something better holding the bottom. I haven't found the tides matter much for the small jews here - maybe thats why I don't get the larger ones? The flatties are tide affected - they move up onto the sand flats just after low tide ends, as they are trying to beat the small fish who need to take cover up there at high tide. You can wait near the flats at low tide and they come to you... but I don't usually bother because drifting is almost as effective and I can't choose my times like you will be able to. Being a mug fisherman I could be wrong on any of these points and would welcome someone knowledgeable speaking up on any of the above - thanks

There is a good bait shop in brooklyn that usually has fresh prawns and squid for the same price as servo prawns. Driving in to Brooklyn he's on the right, before the general store (which sells servo prawns).

The flatties are all over that area... just drift around and you find them pretty easily. I haven't had much luck on the sand flats though, mostly on the channel edges. There are reasonable bream in close to that beach. There are lots of 45cm jews about 100 metres out from the beach. Haven't seen any big ones for a while - hope you find one

I've fished in the hawkesbury around brooklyn regularly (well, during the warmer months anyway) for about 15 years. The first 7 years were spectacular. Regular, great fishing almost anywhere you threw a line. Bait was almost optional. The last 8 years brings tears to the eyes. Almost nothing mostly. Occasional flattie/bream/jew every 2nd trip but nothing like it used to be. I don't know about Broken Bay and Lion island though... hire tinnies don't go that far. We always look out there jealously but I suspect it might be a grass-is-greener thing? Or is that really where the decent fish are now? I guess I'm saying don't waste too much time in the river and get out in the bay as soon as weather allows. good luck!

Cane toads are a lot uglier than that, and they have large poison sacks on their head behind their eyes.

Hey all, I have also moved to Northern Rivers near Ballina... if anyone wants to hook up please let me know I have a small boat... but no roof racks to move it around currently. I've had it out on the Richmond River a few times - it leaks a bit but it works fine I'm planning on getting a replacement boat early next year, now that I have the space to park it. I've had a couple land based goes with the kids recently - there are plenty of fish up here Most of my gear is getting oldish... but I'd like to see what the locals are doing before buying new stuff. Thanks! Cheers, Marty

Nice idea - might use that one myself You'd want a solid plastic one - not an inflatable... they are quite cheap at any toy store... &*(&^ or BigW etc would probably have them cheapest. I bought one for the kids - I think it was $40 or so, but I probably got ripped off a little Just a thought... I have a 100 litre plastic box behind me currently with about 30 freshwater livies in it - they live in my office for fun. They've been there for several months and the box seems as strong as ever... the box cost me $12, has a lid, and would be better shaped than the wading pool (higher sides, smaller footprint). The sticker on the box says its 78cm x 55m (its 49cm high). It was very easy to add plumbing to the box...

Hawkesbury is full of Jewies at the moment, mostly about 42-47cm. I've been catching about 6 or so every time I go out lately - just using frozen prawns and bream gear. I guess there are bigger ones about but I haven't worked out how to tempt them yet. Good luck

I ate the Sambo last night - its the first time I've tried Aussie salmon. It was actually quite nice, but a little too strong in the "fishy" flavour for me. My wife liked it. There was none left for the cats

hehe, nice idea. I'm going to try it tonight. If its not a hit I'll pass the rest to my mates cats (which are definately spoilt)

Went out yesterday on the hawkesbury. Launched at Brooklyn and drifted from Dangar Island almost to Juno Pt. Caught a great snag near juno on a ganged hook so we tied the 25lb line to the boat and used it as an anchor for a couple hours. It twanged a bit in the chop but held nicely. Fished with frozen hawkesbury prawns and servo pillies. Caught a lot of flathead (about 8) but all were around 30 to 33 cms so they went back. Caught a lot of undersize whiting, flounder and snapper etc, all went back. Also caught this nice 57cm Salmon on a prawn using 6 lb line and 12 lb leader. He went for 3 really good runs plus a few shorter ones and took over 5 minutes to get to the boat. It was great fun on the light gear.

It looks like a foregone conclusion now ;( The fishing party put in a good showing up North. It will be interesting to see how well they did in the upper house. *fingers crossed*.

True. I have never seen a more corrupted government than the current Labor bunch. Its become so bad that I can't believe a single word they say. I can judge them by their actions however and on that measure they have to go at all costs. I will therefore vote TFP first, but direct my prefs to Liberal because no matter what they do it can't be worse than what Labor has already done.

I did the bridge walk about 10am and the boat traffic under the bridge was much less than I expected also. There was several ferries carrying on - maybe people were keeping clear of them and the area generally?