New Member (frustrated With Hbry Rvr)

[bradludwig]

Hi raiders.

Been a big fan of this site for a long time so about time I joined.

Well the Her Heiness and I have been having a pretty good go on the Hawkesbury for a while now and have been disappointed in the quality and quantity of fish in the river.We have tried from Wisemans Ferry to Pittwater without any really descent results.We have fished for every species at all times of tides day and night.I can never remember coming home with nothing as a kid and I certainly didnt put in the effort or the $$$ as I do now so whats going on?Are we trying to hard?should I move the boat to the harbour or Georges river? or will things improve with summer?

Ps will post some pics when I work out how.

[jewgaffer]

Hi raiders.

Been a big fan of this site for a long time so about time I joined.

Well the Her Heiness and I have been having a pretty good go on the Hawkesbury for a while now and have been disappointed in the quality and quantity of fish in the river.We have tried from Wisemans Ferry to Pittwater without any really descent results.We have fished for every species at all times of tides day and night.I can never remember coming home with nothing as a kid and I certainly didnt put in the effort or the $$$ as I do now so whats going on?Are we trying to hard?should I move the boat to the harbour or Georges river? or will things improve with summer?

Ps will post some pics when I work out how.

to the site bigears2u.

Yep the Hawkesbury is sure a hard river to understand and it is pretty challenging until you get used to finding in what areas each species hole up and where and when the general run of estuary fish prefer to congregate with reliable regularity.

You can often see too much of the big water fishing areas and wonder where all the fish are when you don't lose a bait.

Sometimes when the water looks the best on the day in the eyes of a visitor it can often be an area where you rarely catch any fish other than solitary rays and passing sharks.

But up there 90% of the fish are in 10% of the system which I have said so many times before and feel that I am losing some of my own originality in saying that again.

You have to keep out of the main channels for general fishing and think about sandbanks, moored boats, weed beds, rocky outcrops and mangroves ,backwaters, little alcoves, in close to shore boat fishing, stealth tactics like creaping up on them in quiter waters and things like that.

Please do persevere as rivers don't come much better than the Hawkesbury to do your general boating and fishing and you can take that from me, i've fished it since I was a kid.

When you're fishing in fast currents you simply have to use a lot of lead to keep your bait down near the bottom, yet in places where the water is still in the little creeks like mooney mooney and mullet creek at the side of the rail bridge you can fish around the shore line in the early mornings and late afternoons often using light gear or floating unweighted baits.

You often pull out the biggest table fish in the shallowest sections o the river.

However regular burley practices and burley bottom bombs , I find are absolutely essential to hold fish as it sure is a bid river where there is a lot of water in between fish.

In the deeper areas falling away from the shore lines if you run big fresh or live baits into bottoms which are sandy or a mixtuture of gravel and sand you may be able to catch good jew fish as this river is one of the best environments to well provide for its resident jewfish populations. Apart from those colonies you always get their tidal jewie marauder cousins coming in from the surf areas, the gutters, the open rocky areas and the blue water reef environments.

I am pretty sure that if you keep on posting for information on this site you will be made very welcome indeed and you will be able to keep your own almanac of the best places and the best times to get whiting , bream, flathead, kingfish , jewfish, squid, baitfish and even lobster and crabs.

So after a few good trips you will be able to just sit back on your boat knowing that you're fishing all the right places at all the right times and then you just take it easy and relax until they come on the bite and you'll find that you'll have have your rods bending all over the place when that happens.

If you have any questions just ask in each post as you will find the most knowledgable lot of fishos here that ever threw a fishing line out into water on this site.

hope this helps you

jewgaffer

I have including a nice professional photo taken by a good fishing partner of mine fishraider inhlanzi aka Mike and I hope the surroundings give you future aspirations to stay on fishing and boating the mighty Hawkwesbury with us and I feel you should really just soldier on and persevere rathing than just mooring elsewhere . You will be well very rewarded , I tell ya

Best wishes, jewgaffer

Edited August 17, 2007 by jewgaffer

[luderick59]

[hi jewgaffer

love your posts

good to see you helping out other fishos

peter

[bradludwig]

thanks jewgaffer for the encouragement,

Im sorry I buggered up my last reply but basically I spent most of my life fishing on or around the Hawkesbury but haven`t really been on it much for the last few.I cant help but wonder if it has anything to do with the lack of oyster farming in the system.Having worked on the leases as a young bloke we always new how the fishing was by how hard the fish had hit the trays. Today no trays no food to lure those bruiser bream we used to catch regularly!!

[jewgaffer]

thanks jewgaffer for the encouragement,

Im sorry I buggered up my last reply but basically I spent most of my life fishing on or around the Hawkesbury but haven`t really been on it much for the last few.I cant help but wonder if it has anything to do with the lack of oyster farming in the system.Having worked on the leases as a young bloke we always new how the fishing was by how hard the fish had hit the trays. Today no trays no food to lure those bruiser bream we used to catch regularly!!

Yes what you say about the cultivation of oysters and the associated provision of farm nutrients to hold bream in those areas is absolutely correct and good enough a reason for bream schools to leavete old oyster farms and split to a certain extent into far spread out segments where other food sources are more readily available to them.

I think the oyster leases of the past indeed congregated bream around them in a concentrated form and those harvested leases really did actually hold fish in that particular area for much longer.

It is probably worth considering that oysters have been growing around rocky areas well before oyster cultivation came along.

The old racks still hold good bream and you can still fish them successfully but I remember years ago when we used to hammer up the oysters at low tide and knowing that the bream schools would always come back in there 'tidying the oyster shells back up" on the rising tide.

We used to run bicycle spokes wedged into the side timber rails with the lines turned around bike tube valve rubber and when the schools hit we would chuck all the tangled lines away and start up again and so on.

In the summer we used to sell bream door to door with chocos in one side of our bicycle trays and dozens of bream in damp sugar bags in the other.

This year there has been a huge shortage of bream in deep water but only because of unusually cold. surface conditions from the southerly winds always being followed by colder westerly as conditions attempted an unsuccessful recovery just about each and every time and the persistent southerly wave direction bringing up more cold current and so many instances of cold front upon cold front continuing on for so long just as this winter has been to this very day..

Can you relate to what I am saying coz because bream go hand in hand with my own jewie fishing during the day in all the deep drop offs around the reef system between lion island and bar point and I have see only one bream in at least 10 outings over the last 2 1/2 months.

Yet around the tanks near wobby at the new oyster leases there and inside the little creek bream have been pulled out of there lately in bag fulls and just about all in the 1lb size and for the past couple of weeks.

This winter I have found an absolute shortage of bream big or small in the deep areas in reefs and the adjacent gravel areas.

Undoubtably this has been caused by the persistent cold currents coming up from the south since the big floods of this winter.

I am very sure though that there would be heaps of bream and other good table fish in shallower, warmer waters like the backwater spots all over the river at the moment and boaties do have a tendency to motor off to where the water seems bigger just like the grass can often be perceived as being much greener on the other side of the hill.

cheers

jewgaffer

Edited August 17, 2007 by jewgaffer

[abiasin]

mate as most people will tell you its time and experience when it comes to fishing the hawkesbury. i started off much te same as you not getting anything but slowly the results will improve and you will figure out the places to fish at the different tides.

the bridges are a good place to start as there is little structure in the river and all the species available in the river can be caught there.

fresh baits are a must, live is even better.

[fishguts]

great comments jewgaffer! a credit to ya!

stealth them jews!

..cheers!..stevo!..

[Guest Aussie007]

we have had some nice fishing in the HR mostly catch bream and flat head but we have caught port jackson,gray nurse shark and a hair tail we fished there just yesterday both of my cousins pulled in 3 flat heads size varied up to 45cm in 2 hours of fishing to our supprise one got tossed back another had a fresh whole squid in its gut and another had a fresh full size prawn in its gut so thats an idea on what bait to use we even fished a very over fished and popular spot

[bolan]

Hello to you my old mate Big Ears.

Finally you've decided to put up a post! (taken long enough)

I know most of the lads that have replied to your posts, and I assure you that there was some great advice given.

However, over the years of trying to fish the Hawksbury, only to find that I have to explain to the neighbours when I come back that " no, I didn't catch anything".................

I now proudly announce that "i'm going out boating"

That tends to save the questions of how many fish we came back with, aswell as allowing us to say that we had a quick fish whilst boating and we caught something!

Going "boating" seems to be sooooooooo much easier than going "fishing"

Have a good one my friend and i'll see you on the water.

Cheers,

Stumpy

[Chris 55]

Stumpy

that's perfect .......... Boating

You the man Muz

I can see it now - what did you catch

nothing, we went boating

Chris

[bolan]

Stumpy

that's perfect .......... Boating

You the man Muz

I can see it now - what did you catch

nothing, we went boating

Chris

Thanks Mate,

I'm currently refining my style

[Chris 55]

Yeah I could tell you were a man with style from the

first time I meet you

Chris

[Flightmanager]

Chris , we are talking about the same bloke arent we? Somehow I didnt think style and Stumpy belonged in the same sentence !! ( That'll teach him to pick on my Etec !)

Ross

[jewgaffer]

Hello to you my old mate Big Ears.

Finally you've decided to put up a post! (taken long enough)

I know most of the lads that have replied to your posts, and I assure you that there was some great advice given.

However, over the years of trying to fish the Hawksbury, only to find that I have to explain to the neighbours when I come back that " no, I didn't catch anything".................

I now proudly announce that "i'm going out boating"

That tends to save the questions of how many fish we came back with, aswell as allowing us to say that we had a quick fish whilst boating and we caught something!

Going "boating" seems to be sooooooooo much easier than going "fishing"

Have a good one my friend and i'll see you on the water.

Cheers,

Stumpy

Hi Stumpy. It sounds like your neighbors would believe you if you told them you were going to do some wild life photography while holidaying overnite in that bertram motel and floating restaurant coz there doesn't seem to be any signs of fish coming back on the impressions you say you are giving your neighbours

When they see all the rods you could say you had a weekend rod hire business for fishermen who got their boats in the water and suddenly discovered they left their tackle behind

regards

jewgaffer

Edited August 19, 2007 by jewgaffer

[bomber1]

I TO FISH THE HR SYSTEM AROUND WISEMANS FERRY TO SPENCER AREA . JUST REMEMBER A DAY ON WATER IS BETTER THAN ANY THING SOMETIMES FISH ARE A +

CANT WAIT FOR THOSE WARM SUMMER NIGHTS ON RIVER WITH A QUITE BEER & KG CHILLIE PRAWNS

[bradludwig]

I TO FISH THE HR SYSTEM AROUND WISEMANS FERRY TO SPENCER AREA . JUST REMEMBER A DAY ON WATER IS BETTER THAN ANY THING SOMETIMES FISH ARE A +

CANT WAIT FOR THOSE WARM SUMMER NIGHTS ON RIVER WITH A QUITE BEER & KG CHILLIE PRAWNS

Well what a great response to my 1st post and some great advice from you fellow die hard fisho`s.

(yes Muz I know its about time and thanks for answering the phone to me during your meeting as you can see you were right and I got it sorted.Was great to catch up with you and Jo on the water even if it was a fishless night in the middle of winter!)Thanks to everyone who replied and I look forward to meeting you all on the water!

[jewgaffer]

Well what a great response to my 1st post and some great advice from you fellow die hard fisho`s.

(yes Muz I know its about time and thanks for answering the phone to me during your meeting as you can see you were right and I got it sorted.Was great to catch up with you and Jo on the water even if it was a fishless night in the middle of winter!)Thanks to everyone who replied and I look forward to meeting you all on the water!

Hi bigears2u

An old mate of stumpy's is like being an old mate of mine too, don't worry about that

So Brad if you ever get stuck Ill gladly drive up to Berowra and see what we can do about jew .

how's that sound?

Just send me a post or a pm mate but I do find it's hard to say bigears2u though, when i think it should be "allears2u"

cheers and I'm very glad the nice welcome and the replies you received have got you feeling much better about staying with us all on the mighty Hawkesbury River old mate.

Regards

jewgaffer

Edited August 20, 2007 by jewgaffer

[bradludwig]

By the way Muz went past your place last week.The Bertie looks great with the work you put into it! (almost up there with that great lookin` house its parked in!!

Well done though mate petty there are no green smilies cos I`m very jealous!!

[gretsch]

Hey Big Ears,

The Hawkesbury has been miserable to me too.. I haven't fished there for a couple of years now.

We used to get a few big Whiting on the Banks and the odd Flattie at Juno. The big Jew has illuded us..

My advice is to read up on the system and try new things. Try some plastics, live baits, move around and look for structure.

We will be holidaying at the Central Coast this Christmas so we will be fishing the moutn quite a bit. I am starting my research now..

Good luck mate.

[paul_pero]

hi

my cousin and i have been fishing the hawkesbury for a the past few months with only one session bringing any decent return. last 2 times we came back with 1 flathead in total. we have however mastered the technique in catching live bait!! just need to learn how to turn them into better fish.

i want to keep trying, but i think he has given up and wants to try new ground.

i will keep reading and try to improve my technique. the only way to improve is to go back and try again with more knowledge of the area and more info on the fish you are chasing.

paul

i really appreciate all the info you guys keep posting on the forums