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Calmwater Fishing Charters - Fri 21st


demmo

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Got out for my first fish is many months last Friday - been doing fatherly/family duties with the wife & new son. It is been quite sometime as I have not posted any reports since we had to rejoin the new forum.

I asked for & received to my great joy a day out on Calmwaters charter for my combined Xmas & B'day present so I was hoping to get amongst some action as my long ago fishing trips were far from fruitful.

We were met by Greg Joyes & cast off at 6am at Woy Woy wharf & proceeded out to Broken Bay on a beautiful morning with a lightish breeze & slightly bumpy swell.

On the way out trolled some rapalas for nothing.

Went to West Head & trolled some squid strips for Kingies as Greg said they had got a dozen or so there the previous day but they weren't there today.

Headed up into Pittwater & trolled some more rapalas up past Mackeral beach to the Basin for 3 decent tailor to about 50 cms with one dropped boatside.

Then headed to Flint & Steel at about 8am at within 20 minutes we had boated 3 schoolies between 70 & 80cm. I couldn't believe it - we just anchored, rigged up with whole (frozen!) Hawkesbury squid, chucked out 6 rods (60lb braid & mono-leader) & bang 3 of the rods went over within the first 20 mins. I have previously fished F&S for not very much. The tackle was abit overgunned for fish of this size but I still got a huge thrill pulling in my 75cm model (my 5th legal & 2nd largest Jewie!)

After the 20 mins of action it went a bit quiet for an hour or so - I managed a 34cm snapper on the Jewie set-up with which I (& the wife) were stoked - we moved on after the Kingies again. Got some yakkas at West Head & headed out to Valiant reef for a couple of runs but no hook-ups - then back again to West Head for more trolling for zip.

So it was back again to F&S at 11am where 2 more similar sized Jewies were boated plus a good sized Salmon. Had a quick unsuccessful troll on the way back to Woy Woy.

All in all it was a fun day, although according to Greg it wasn't one of his most successful of recent times - earlier in the week Greg told us they bagged out on 70cm+ model jewies in a couple of hours - showed us some photos of them & some were complete monsters! He also reckoned they had been getting quite a lot of knigie action recently as well. Greg was a wealth of knowledge & I certainly learnt a helluva lot so hopefully my future trips out by myself will be more fishladen!

Some total for the 6 punters was - 6 jewies, 3 tailor, 1 snapper & a salmon.

Will try to post some pics later from home.

Cheers,

Demmo

:beersmile:

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Its really important at Flint that your bait is on the bottom when the tides running hard. A decent bait can take 6 to 8 ounces of lead to get to the bottom & hold there. Many people use too little weight & miss out.

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Great report and some good helpful information. Now that’s a good present to receive.

Demmo, can I ask what stage the tides were at for Flint and Steel and was he in fishing the wide area northern end of Flint and Steel.

I have fished F&S a few time but never been as successful as you were.

Hope you get out a few more times and stay among the fish.

Cheers.

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Thanks Fellas,

Martin,

The fish were caught between 8am & 9am and then between 11am & 12noon - whilst the tide was running out.

I've just checked & High tide was around 6:30am & Low tide around 1:30pm.

I asked Greg Joyes what was the best time to fish at F&S & he told me it doesn't really matter if the tide is running out or in, as long as it was running. ie. not slack water. He catches Jews on both tides.

He reckons we were on a gravelly patch just off the eastern end of the reef that runs out from the channel marker - I'm not really sure myself - there were lots of other boats around us that didn't seem to be catching anything but he said the other boats would still catch them if they were using the right baits & rigs. He said the area to fish is as wide as 100 square metres or so.

Hope this helps,

Demmo.

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G'day Demmo and great report mate.

I am really keen to know the sort of rigs that Greg uses at Flint and Steel?? I am a regular on the Hawkesbury and find myself avoiding F&S mostly these days due to crowds.

Considering your results I may have to re-evaluate.

Please let me know the rigging and baiting details if you can mate. Also, does he fish with the reels in strike drag or allow them to take line unrestricted before striking??

Cheers mate

byron

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Guest Big-Banana
G'day Demmo and great report mate.

I am really keen to know the sort of rigs that Greg uses at Flint and Steel?? I am a regular on the Hawkesbury and find myself avoiding F&S mostly these days due to crowds.

Considering your results I may have to re-evaluate.

Please let me know the rigging and baiting details if you can mate. Also, does he fish with the reels in strike drag or allow them to take line unrestricted before striking??

Cheers mate

byron

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I chartered with Greg Joyes and even though Iam not a Jewie fisherman he did things which arent all that different. He uses a lot of lead and a single dropper with various baits. We went to a couple locations with no luck.

From what I can remember he left the reels in strike mode.

I think the only reason why he does so well is because he is on the water everyday and eventually he gets patterns of tides, times etc. I bet if everyone were on the water everyday we could be doing quite a lot better everyday. Ive spoken to a lot of ppl who have bombed out with him like us but some who have scored descent fish.

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Hi Byron,

We were using a 2 hook rig, size 4/0 or 5/0 hooks far enough apart of 1 either end of a 20cm squid. I'm not sure what size lead we were using but it was fairly sizeable - probably around the 4-6oz mark.

I asked Greg about striking etc. & he said "don't touch the drags, they're all setup & ready to go & don't worry about striking, if you have quality bait then the jewies will just grab it & you're on!" He was right in this, as for all the jewies caught the rods just doubled over & we started winding - I never saw any drags get used though as the rods were obviously ready for 20kg+ fish & we only got 4-6kg models.

Bait was block frozen Hawkesbury River squid - he buys it - says you should be able to get it from good fishing tackle stores (one I remember mentioned was St Marys) - just need to check it's Hawkesbury squid in blocks around 60 & 30cm.

Hope this all helps,

Demmo

:beersmile:

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He certainly breaks all the "rules" about jewie fishing. Such as having the freshest bait available and freespooling the fish for a while before striking...

Of course he mentioned a shop, haven't you seen his DVD?  :puke:

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haha yes that is a classic swoffa and annoying at the same time ...and what about " these glasses im wearing help me find the squid when looking for them in quite bays" :1fish::risata::risata:

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Letting Jews run with the bait for more than a couple feet is a classic way of NOT getting them. :biggrin2: With big dead baits & big whole squid live I used to give them about 4 foot maximum & that was only the line they got between me seeing the bite & getting to the rod & hitting them. The average strip bait or livie like a small Slimey or gar they got no run with the bait.

Jews just scoff the bait & most "runs" that you miss are stuff like bream dragging the bait away. If its a decent Jew you rarely miss if you get into them quickly.

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