Port Hacking & Chippo Lakes

[Guest rzep]

Sorry for the late report, I wasn’t feeling all that well when I got home yesterday.

The day started with me arriving at Swordfisherman’s house at 04:45am with him already all prepared for the day ahead.

The plan was to get some squid to use for bait for The Entrance Social beach fish on the Saturday night.

First up we head down to Port Hacking and this is the first time that I have ever been on this waterway and I don’t think that it will be my last time.

We launched the boat right on 06:00am and while I was parking the car I returned to the ramp to find that Stewy was already casting his squid jig under the pontoon trying to get on the board first.

I jumped on board and quickly rigged up my rod with the squid jig that I got for free when I bought a can of Egimax from Watto's.

We motored over to some shallow weed beds and started working our jigs.

On my second cast I am on to a nice sized squid which was quickly put straight into a freezer bag, so we didn’t take a photo of it. After that I thought HERE WE GO its going to be a cracker of a day.

Well it wasn’t to be.

To start with we had quite a few hits but no hook ups so we thought that we would head around to Lillie Pillie baths and have a go around there. To cut a long story short we saw Sharky around there trying his luck off the wharf, the current was running way too hard and we had no luck.

We made the call to head back to our original spot at the weed beds to see if we could get anymore. Once we got there on our first drift Stewy’s jig was attacked by a little cuttlefish which was also promptly placed into a freezer bag.

Plenty of more follow ups but all were little cuttlefish and unfortunately for some reason they wouldn’t hold onto my jig. We persevered till around 10:00am and then thought that we would head over to Chipping Norton Lake and have a go at the Bream over there.

As we put the Boat back on the trailer Stewy had a nasty fall on the ramp due to the slippery surface. Not good at all. He was very lucky that he didn’t fall back on his head.

A short drive and we arrived at the lake to attack the bream.

We started to slowly work the shoreline with HB and we both got a few hits but no hook ups. A short time later and I was on a small bream which would have been around 17-18 cm. He was quickly released to fight another day.

Hard Bodied Lures were chucked all along the shoreline for no more hook ups so we changed tactics and went to soft plastics. At this stage we were getting a lot more regular hits and Stewy had some monster hits but no hook ups. I had a solid hit and hook up but it spat the hook a second later so I cast back into the same area and immediately hook up to a nice flathead. After a couple of quick photo’s and a measure (48cm’s) we released her.

Just up the shore line Stewy came up tight on a very healthy looking bream which was promptly put back. In this part of the creek that we were in it was very snaggy which meant that I had plenty of opportunities to practice the knots that Stewy had shown me.

Stewy landed 1 more bream before we headed back to the ramp and called it a day.

Thankyou for a top day on the water Swordfisherman I had a great time and learnt a few new things also.

It doesn’t get any better then that.

Edited April 11, 2007 by rzep

[frankp]

nice report rzep.

shame about the squidding.

just a quick question but i actaully live very close to chipping norton and i would be curious to know where you guys fish.

the fishing would basically be right on my doorstep

cheers

[Guest rzep]

just a quick question but i actaully live very close to chipping norton and i would be curious to know where you guys fish.

the fishing would basically be right on my doorstep

Frank,

I honestly wouldn't know how to answer your question as I have never fished there before and I don't know the system. All I can tell you is that we ended up fishing in the creek that runs out of the lake up behind the Warrick Farm race course. Which is where I got the flatty.

I hope that this helps mate.

[frankp]

thanks for the help.

it just would be nice to walk to my fishing destination for once