b.a.shannon

Hello All, So after having the first two days off in a row in a long long looooooooooong time I tried to spend a bit of time out chasing some sun and some blackfish. I spent saturday afternoon at Illawong for not much so the wife and I decided to head down to Wollongong to escape the city smog. After scoping out google maps the wharf at Primbee looked the goods for some green weed and from a distance it looked like it was going to be a quick gathering session and then off to Windang..... unfortunately on closer inspection it was all wire weed with the very occasional strand of bubble weed and a few tiny pieces of what looked like the blackweed I used to use as a kid growing up on the Clarence river. Luckily I had some weed leftover from the day before so no need to for tears luckily. So never having fished in Wollongong google maps again let me have a good look at the Windang entrance to the lake. Upon arrival the water was about 2 hours into the falling tide and the water was still crystal clear but I could see schools of blackfish along the rock wall and weed banks, first drift resulted in a 30cm fish, yay! Next drift a 25cm fish.....next drift 20cm fish..... next drift 10cm fish, good fun but not exactly what I was expecting, upon closer inspection there were no larger fish in the schools only fish up to 30cm. After a few hours I managed about 40 undersize and 4 keepers with the largest being 35cm. Apparently the local have been getting a lot recently around the bridge with them only slowing down in the last week (story of my life!) The whiting are also around in number on blood worms apparently with a few people who knew what they were targetting doing well, not to mention the two guys cleaning 2 x 20 pound blue groper at the boat ramp! All in all a great day to be out of the house/office/city so I cant complain at all (as I type this from a conference room in Canberra Looking to hit up the harbour tomorrow and hope the rain holds out or is at least a little gentle. Did anyone else do any good in the rivers over the weekend?

Hi Guys, Bombed out in the Georges today on the Blackfish front and am heading down Wollongong way tomorrow. I will probably head to the estuary side of things, I have fresh weed left over from today but will have a look around north end of the lake for some local greenery. Has anyone had any luck down that way towards the end of this week or anyone heading out tomorrow to catch up and say hi? I have noticed the swell is under 1m and a light offshore tending northerly tomorrow so the headlands may even be on the cards! Look forward to hearing your thought. Cheers, Ben

Hi Howsy, I had some free time today and headed to Illawong at the same spot you fished (by the looks of the rocks). I arrived with 2 hours of the run out tide left, burleyed hard at first and not a touch for an hour! I got a couple of fish in the 25cm-30cm range in quick succession in real close and nothing out wide. It all went dead again throughout the slack tide and the first hour of the run in with only a couple of smaller fish (out wide) in the next 2 hours and that was it! I used both fresh stringy weed and fresh cabbage, I even gathered some local stringy weed from further down in the point and used that to no result.... 6 days makes all the difference! Another guy was there about half hour before me and stayed for around 2 hours and never got a touch. I am going to head down Wollongong way tomorrow hopefully thing are a bit more productive down there. Cheers, Ben

Hey all, Rickster thanks for the heads up about them heading back to the rocks, I can only imagine the size of the bronzies off the stones with the size of the fish in the estuaries! It might be time to venture back there real soon.... Pity about the forecast for this coming Monday.....from 0.5mtrs on Sunday to 2.5mtrs on Monday...yay Smitty, goodluck with your blackfish hunt. Wow so even the females are a bit frisky.....i thought it was just the usual thing in nature where the males are geared up and the females are the roadblock. The weed isn/t great... I found if i let it air out a tiny bit in the sun to let it dry a little bit it was easier to work with without breaking it but then it is still soft once it rehydrates..... It is certainly still usable it just means rebaiting is a major part of the day and also not having the luxury of waiting for a long down before a strike as they are striping the weed off the hook pretty quickly.... I use the loop above the hook method and platted down the shank.... Stewy if your reading.... I tried and failed miserably with your baiting technique as it was just to soft for me to have any luck with it staying on the hook..... i guess i need more practice..... Hooklineandsinker I may have been the suspected blackfisherman you are refering to. Thats a pretty exact time....lol..... I wish I was taking that much notice of the time. Which one of the several guys I spoke to were you? Were you one of the two guys on the walkway, the guy walking his dog? Everyoneshouldlovefishing I am just ignoring the calendar hoping the blackfish season wont quieten down.....I dont think this plan of attack will work though..... oh well..... Time to go back to getting dusted by pigs....yay... Although I am heading back up to my old stomping ground on the clarence at chrissy for 2 weeks. The only problem is the flatties have just started going nuts, the bream are schooling up again, the rocks are firing for groper and the mullet are still running which means the jew will be still about.... I'm itching to get back up there!!!! Come on Chrissy!!!! Cheers, Ben

Hello, As I am sitting operating another "death by powerpoint" conference I am reflecting on an enjoyable days fishing. After having the end of last weeks fishing trips cancelled due to late work requests I finally was able to go for a fish on Monday....... bit of a slow day and only managed two keeper blackfish in the upper georges, with the larger of the two being 32cm... Had to work again on Tuesday and spent most of the day formulating the plan of attack for another attempt on Wednesday. So after a lazy sleep in on Wednesday (plans don't always go to plan........lol) I headed out west at around midday, after collecting some what is now very soft kelso weed from the creek I headed down to lambeth. Upon arrival two guys are cleaning a couple of large blackfish and then as I looked to my left, AHHHHHHHHHHH to my horror I saw about 1kg of kelso weed floating around on top of the weed beds........ At this point I think I went a little red and the inner devil was getting his pitch fork ready ..... But alas I got my blackfish rod and preceded to reel back in all the weed I could gather and scooped the rest I could reach, I didn't get it all, so I said a little quiet goodbye to all the blackfish that were now following the green weed down stream......yay...... The two guys wholeheartedly apologised and went on there merry way. So I made some burley and sent the float out for its first drift.......Within 30 seconds the float disappears and I'm on......wahooooo..... a nice little blackfish of about 28cm..... He was a little bit small to keep/eat but he had swallowed the hook and he was bleeding pretty bad so I reluctantly kept him . For about the next hour and a half it was a down every drift with a fish every second drift but all fish being caught being well undersize!!!!dammit!!! It was at this point I wished I had a weed fly as the re-baiting was taking longer than anything else....... I might have to take the long trek to Dural....... So I thought the little bast$%ds have my number at this spot so I thought I would try something a little different and move along the creek a bit.....First drift and the all that's left where my float once was is bubbles....On Again and land a nice 35cm blackie in the keeper net, he was a fiesty little critter and very fat. Next two drifts, same thing with a 33cm and a 34cm blackfish.....and then nothing for about half an hour.... So I went back to the original spot and fished on for a couple of hours catching a scary amount of small blackfish and I caught another two 30cm fish amongst them. All in all a great day out on the Georges which is making me a little sad that the Blackfish season will soon become quiet.... Oh well back to the stones for me....... Oh one more thing, a couple of the fish had the beginning of male roe.... Anyone else finding any blackfish gearing up for a spawn? isn't it a bit late for that kind of malarky? Anyway back to work, Ben

Well done on the flatty mate. Its a beautiful spot up there at Hawks Nest. We rented a holiday house up there opposite Jimmy's beach about a month ago and after studying all the National Parks zoning maps for about 5 hours we thought we were almost ready to head out fishing and not get fined for inadvertently fishing in a reserve!!!! We took the long journey outside the heads from the ramp at Windi Woppa hoping to chase down a few snapper. Bounced soft plastics and dragged some pilchards around for a couple of hours and only managed a 15cm sand flatty on a 5" jerk shad (the little flatties have some balls chasing prey that big). So we headed back inside the heads to no avail, we gave up on the boat and I headed out to chase blackfish off the shore and did terrible catching only a heap of undersized fish, actually some of the smallest I have actually caught on a blackfish rig. So I am glad you managed a descent fish because they elluded me on the last outing. Regards, Ben

Holy s...... That is monster of a Flathead. Well done on battling the beast on the gear at hand. You certainly deserve a after that effort. Congratz

Well done mate, a great sized Blackfish you got there. I am hope they are still holding in the area later in the week when work quietens down a little.