Juno Joy

[Guest johblow]

Gidday,

The Hawkesbury put out for us again yesterday, with a rather large bag of fish between four of us. We spent most of the time drifting around juno, after getting some yabbies. This formula has been extremely consistent for the last 8 weeks, though the cross section of fish we are seeing is changing with time. The bait is definitely the most important ingredient. I can recall many dissapoiting Hawkesbury trips in the past where frozen prawns led me to believe that there were no fish in the old river.

Our bag was roughly:

12 whiting (one hooked through the anus!!!)

6 flathead

3 flounder

1 thumper bream

1 great trevally (must have been lost judging by the Botany Bay reports)

Thrown back were:

- three soapies (who went like the clappers for a while)

- a bunch each of the usual suspects - little reds, bream, whiting, flathead etc

- the stingray

In a classic incident, we caught a sting ray in a crab trap. It was released a bit scathed, but only after having made a mess of the trap, R.I.P. Im still not sure if it swum into it to get the food, or i managed to drop it right on top of him! He was a frisbie sized one, so the later may well be plausable.

I had a great close-up look at its "stinger" arrangement. Rays can be a bit of a worry sometimes when pumping yabbies. Saw this big *orange* bugger yesterday, of about half a metre round - he was *really* freaky - he didnt seem to have a tail? Anyhow, the close inspection of the captured ray's tail revealed about three or so "eel-tailed catfish"-like spines that can be raised and lowered if required. I've been gotten by eel-tailed spines before - they really hurt, are sharp and barbed, and can go deep, but they didnt make sick at all. So im guessing that pain is the issue. Im gonna wear my water shoe things from now on when pumping yabbies in deeper water...

And, after that taste of soapies, im now gonna turn my attention to jew fish, one night next full moon. Just need to sort out what bait to use. I will get the old trustie yabbies for a bit of by-catch (backup) and some black crabs. Id love to get some fresh squid, but im not sure what my chances of are this - ill probably have to pay for it. I may invest in a poddy mullet trap and do a trip to Narra Lakes beforehand. Have also seen bulk yakka action down at ATB pontoon at night, but not sure if they still ahng out there?

Cheers All.

[harold]

That sounds like a great day. Juno can turn it on when it chooses to.