Hawkesbury River Saturday & Sunday 8-9/3/08

[jewgaffer]

I arranged to have a jewfish session with my good friend Steve Roosterman from the far northern beaches who called in for a visit at my home in Campbelltown recently and Tony Soprano a long time member of Fishraider.

The Hawkesbury River itself is still very dirty up river. It only starts to look reasonable towards the mouth clear of Cowan and behond as the new water comes in from the ocean. The tides have a quicker cleansing effect on Pittwater and Brisbane Waters due to those areas having less run off and seepage from heavy rains.

I did a thirty hour session (edit did a 15 hour session) with Roosterman and Tony Soprano on Saturday and Sunday, not realising that over two inches of rain had added to an already dirty Hawkesbury and not seeing the poor water condition when I dropped anchor at the rail bridge in the dark to fish the rest of the run in tide, before moving around the back of Dangar island to fish off Wobby for the rest of the night.

We finished up paying the penalty for my misjudgement and not heading down river by catching eels and catfish and not getting any jewfish or a decent bi catch wherever we fished in the deep water jewfish spots up river.

After the heavy rain and flash flooding of a couple weeks ago and reports since, I considered the situation, obtained good local advice and even mentioned to others that the mouth of Broken Bay and Pittwater would be the best choice for anchoring overnight for a jewfish session instead of anywhere up river. I guess I was careless in choosing up river sections for the night session by going on the small amount of rain that fell at Campbelltown and not checking on the amount of rain that actually hit the the Hawkesbury on Friday which was around two inches and this only added more dirty water before it had a chance to clear up from the previous flash flooding.

At the start of the Saturday night session while motoring up river from Brooklyn we noticed literally hundreds of mullet jumping merrily under spotlight above the deeper water all the way from the mouth of Long island to the end of Dangar Island. The presence of large numbers of mullet skipping like that in deep water is one of the first signs that a coastal river has received sufficient rain to have other fish go towards the river mouth. The presence of fish near river mouths attracts deep water predators such as jewfish and kingfish etc.

On the way over to Wobby I scouted around the near side of Danger Island looking for a noticably high peak rising up from a depth of eighty feet near the south western point of Danger island which I noticed during a session in Mike Inhlanzi's boat from memory. I think this peak may be a sunken boat and as such or otherwise, might be well worth sounding out another time for the type of activity around it, over a couple of tides, as I hadn't struck it previously.

We moved downriver after another try back at the rail bridge after leaving Wobby in a heavy fog well before sun up on Sunday morning which was when we first noticed just how dirty the water was.

We moved down river looking for the water line to show us some clear water on the new run in and Tony Soprano hooked up a really big size fast running fish on his lighter boat rod not long after we anchored between Lion Island and Juno Pt only to get busted up down deep close to the boat before we had the chance to see the fish. The fish had a lot of speed and fuel in the tank and the fast speed of the runs and the fighting style of Tony's fish to my mind were not typical of a jewfish.

When we arrived at Barrenjoey the area around the mouth and in particular the water looked reasonable and fairly clear up into Pittwater and beyond Stokes Point where we tied up to a mooring.Before calling it a day we had a quick go at the kingfish after the boys got a good supply of live bait off Palm beach wharf around mid morning. We had no other action apart from a big flathead that followed Steve Roosterman's bait to the boat near Lion island earlier. It was good to see so much enthusiasm and keeness in the boys after fishing all night as they started to catch baitfish on the live bait gear after Roosterman quickly brought a good supply of big and small yellowtail around the boat with his specially prepared burley mix.

If anybody is ever looking for the best of in fishing company and a fast and energetic man around a boat I would highly recommend Tony Soprano. Tony is polite and respectfull of others, very intelligent, well educated and an excellent fisherman very keen to do everything necessary to get the best results.

It's people like Tony that make Fishraider such an excellent site to join and meet new friends and it would certainly be a pleasure to take Tony jew fishing again.

And of course everybody's friend, Stevie Roosterman is also excellent company, very knowledgable, experienced and innovative in his approach to fishing, a very genuine person and a real asset to have with you in any type of fishing.

Tony Soprano pictured above with one of various shark species caught during the down river session. The rest of the freaks caught are far more displeasing to the eye than this handsome and well fed young shovel nose shark which was susequently released.

Cheers

jewgaffer

Edited March 11, 2008 by jewgaffer

[james7]

Bad luck Byron, or should I say “Night Owl” judging by the time you wrote this report (1.05am).

Maybe this should be your avatar from now on "Jewgafer Night Owl"

Even though you didn’t have the success you probably anticipated, it seems that time spent with good company such as Tony Soprano and Stevie Roosterman isn’t time wasted.

Cheers

Peter

[sambo]

shame about the fish guys.Atleast you had the company from eachother to enjoy another day on the water.

i went out with dad saturday night and arived at Palm Beach Ferry Wharf 1:00am sunday morning. i did the usaul with a big light pointing to the water i had frogmouth pillies and big yellow tail everywhere.i had some nice squid but could not even get one.We caught 4 bream just right in front of the ferry wharf then went to barrenjoey flats towards the middle and caught 5 more bream and 2 flatties.We stayed for another couple of hours trying different spots but i could not get a touch so we called it quits at 10am.

[mrt11n@hotmail.com]

Hi jewgaffer...

Good report, I have to agree about tony great bloke!!! We went out last wednesday and had a great day he was a whiz with the squid and great company!!! would have him out again anytime

Marty

[STOCK]

Hey buddy i know how you feel, i was out on a houseboat anchored up and setup with livies and prime fillets just near cottage point on saturday night/sunday morning with the only hookup being a meter long shark =( Only upside was the company on board was great

[Andy Loops]

Hey buddy i know how you feel, i was out on a houseboat anchored up and setup with livies and prime fillets just near cottage point on saturday night/sunday morning with the only hookup being a meter long shark =( Only upside was the company on board was great

Those shovelnose are a bit of a pest - my brother and I had a double hookup on two of these critters - both around 1m the last time we went for a drift chasing flatties.. I guess you can have confidence that your baits are in the strike zone at least.

[Tony Soprano]

Good report Mr Gaffer, well summed up and as you said the company made up for the lack of fish.

It would have been nice to at least get a look at the fish I dropped, but it wasn't to be...

That's what I get for fishing with big squid strips on 6lb

Thanks for the kind words Byron and Marty, much appreciated guys.

Look forward to fishing with both of you again in the future, and I think Steve and I have some unfinished business RE kingies

Cheers

Tony

[bolan]

Sounded like a good time lads...............except for the lack of fish.

Don't blame yourself Jewgaffer, blame Rooster!- I know I do!

Cheers,

Stumpy

[arpie]

Hi guys

Shame about the fish not coming to the party - that happens on occassions ..... makes the next trip, when they are on the chew, even better!!

Didn't know you were still getting such runoff from the rivers! Our water is so crystal clear up here the fish can see you before they hear you!

Better luck next time

Cheerio

Roberta

[Chappo]

Bad luck Jewgaffer. You wern't alone. 9 boats out for the whole weekend for social fishing comp and no Jewies or Kings. Lots and lots of flatties though. Know what you mean about the dirty hard running water. The ring around my tinnie was dark brown!

Chappo

[jewgaffer]

Bad luck Jewgaffer. You wern't alone. 9 boats out for the whole weekend for social fishing comp and no Jewies or Kings. Lots and lots of flatties though. Know what you mean about the dirty hard running water. The ring around my tinnie was dark brown!

Chappo

Hi Stock

Thanks for letting us know about the results on your Houseboat, much appreciated!!. I'll bet you picked a prime spot to have a good go overnight too and it's a shame you had good livies and fresh fillets wasted at a good spot like Cottage Point. I don't think anybody would have done much better anchoring overnight in the shallower bays in Cowan all the same.

Hi Sambo1

You and your Dad pulled the right reign fishing the flats at Pittwater that's for sure. Pittwater was the go alright much cleaner and it recovers much quicker. I pulled the wrong reign alright, always intended to have a go at the jew in the deep water outside the moored boats upstream from Palm Beach wharf or around Scotland Island even before Friday's rain made the water worse up river. I muffed up on that logic by going up near the rail bridge and wobby to fish an overnite session.

By the way I like your idea of lighting the area right up with a spotlight to bring the baitfish around and a lot of fine burley with it ay !!.

Hi Chappo.

Good to know there were lots of flathead caught in the social comp. Did the results come from the shallows around Brisbane Waters and Pittwater? Any idea what the flathead results were up river in shallow places like Mullet Creek, Mooney Mooney Creek etc? I'd like to find out if fish were active upriver in the shallows because there was next to nothing in good jew spots down deep. I even ran 5/0s instead of my 8/0s for the jew to allow for the usual bi catch. We ran an assortment of fish baits, Spit calamari and local squid, even big frozen nippers I had left over from a previous session. We had numerous hook ups in jewfish waters of eels and catfish and not a sign of a flathead or bream. Even the boats that fish the pylons left early. Surprising to see an absence of boats on a Saturday night at both bridges in reasonble weather like that.

It wasn't until the next morning when the sun came up that we saw the shocking colour of the water all the muck it had in it.

I dwelled on an idea I had that the jew would have been suited in deep water around Wobby and the rail bridge for the run in, but I did not allow for the amount of rain that fell in the Hawkesbury area on Friday night!

The mistake I made was not realising that over two inches of rain fell all the way along the system from the bottom of the mountains and finished up being wide spread along the river and right into the Gosford area.

The shallow waters, where the tides which run back from Brisbane Waters discolouring the improved water only slightly, suits flathead and was the place to be . The mouth of the river had improved much quicker than up river before the two inches fell so the rain was more of a bonus for Brisbane Waters and Pittwater.

All species fishermen who avoid deeper water by day may have had good results on the flats around Patonga as it would have only been a little murky if anything on the run out by the look of the good colour at the mouth of Pittwater. Up near Church Point would have got more good water with the run in tides and not much mud and rubbish on the run out.

It's always good to have a post mortem and I had our spots worked out for fishing overnight near the mouth but muffed it because of not having a good look at the water and as it was, we launched late at night in the darkness at Brooklyn and headed to the rail bridge.

With fishing it's always horses for courses. Our jew fishing session up river should have been postponed in that area until the water improved and we should have fished overnight in Pittwater instead, but sometimes we just don't do all the homework necessary.

Cheers

jewgaffer

Edited March 12, 2008 by jewgaffer

[Chappo]

The flatties were in shallow water. We had to put up with alot of under size fish taking our baits. It kept us busy. 4 rods out on the drift with whitebait whilst flicking lures at the shoreline. Word of warning. You dont always get conditions that allow this. The wind and tide can completey wreck drifting the shallows. Within minutes you can go from all lines going off to not a single bite. By the way, NO fish were caught upriver. One of the boats fished the bridges on Saturday night until midnight without a touch. You probably saw them. I'll let you know how we go when we get back from Tin Can Bay Inlet. Heading up there at the end of the month for a week on a house boat with my 4.1 dory as the tender! Hoping for a big catch of mud crabs! Chappo

[jewgaffer]

The flatties were in shallow water ........... Word of warning. You dont always get conditions that allow this. The wind and tide can completey wreck drifting the shallows. Within minutes you can go from all lines going off to not a single bite ..........By the way, NO fish were caught upriver. One of the boats fished the bridges on Saturday night until midnight without a touch. You probably saw them........

Chappo

Hi Chappo thanks very much for providing this very helpfull information on fishing the Hawkesbury system over the weekend after the heavy rain on Friday only added more dirty water which ruined fishing the up river sections.

The up river sections were all but unfishable due to the large amount of rain that fell on Friday night adding more mud and rubbish to the system which in retrospect and based on other results including my own session with Stevie Roosterman and Tony Soprano caused other fish including flathead to move up towards the mouth in search of better comfort zones. The shallow waters in alcoves and off shoots near the river mouth proved to be favoured by flathead, to congregate and nest up as is there habit when the conditions in their natural domain, the shallows and the nearby drop offs just in behind shallows, are best suited for their nesting up or the "communal congregation of flathead" as I like to put it.

I believe the presence of flathead activity in waters somewhat muddy or otherwise clear can be regarded as a benchmark for the occupation by other species in those same sections and in particular places like the sheltered alcoves downriver and nearby in the case of the Hawkesbury the two tributories close to the river mouth.

However those other species basically adhere to their own depths and comfort zones in both good conditions and when the water is dirty up river.

In simple words I figure in light of it all and based on past experience, the area with in the good alcoves like little Patonga beach and similiar tucked away areas which have varying depths may well have given good results with a good bi catch for jew fishermen anchoring over night, the up river sections being so badly affected by rain and flash flooding as they were over the weekend.

There is a very good lesson for all to be learnt for everyone from the facts you provided Chappo !!

We are always looking for consistent factors in fishing and the presence of flathead in alcoves near the mouth is one of the most consistent signs that other species in general have congregated in their own comfort zones or depths to suit the particular species near river mouths when the up river sections are too dirty and polluted as a result of heavy rains.

The Hawkesbury is big river and one thing I have found over the years is consistency, in that you find ninety per cent of the fish are in reasonbly close proximity to one an other in ten percent of the river looking at it in sectional form.

Chappo what you say about wind and current affecting flathead fishing in the shallows is absolutely spot on and I've found that the more adverse the wind and the slowing down of the bite in the shallows, the more of an expectation of catching jewfish and the bi catch that goes along with that at other depths in close proximity. This is the punch line and where consistency in fishing does repeat itself.

I think wind types and the direction of wind are not taken into account often enough and a little bit of the fisherman's own comfort comes into it when it shoudn't, especially when targetting flathead coming into the direction chosen by baitfish.

Cheers

jewgaffer

Wow Tin Can Bay in a houseboat Chappo !! A fishing holiday in a houseboat surely doesn't come much better than that !! Any room for an old hitchhiker armed with a couple of boat rods?

Edited March 12, 2008 by jewgaffer