jewgaffer Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 (edited) Hi Everyone. After an awefull result in the Hawkesbury on Saturday and Sunday and not catching anything generally considered to be worthwhile catching, I thought I'd post up a no fish report so as to keep you informed about the fishing situation in the best jewfish spots that I know of from the bridges to the mouth areas which are all good deepwater spots where other good fish can be caught as well. I can only say that I fish with a good variety of baits and always spread a number of rods and give myself and others with me the best chances. I have fished the downriver sections from the bridges to the mouth for a good while this season and am also in the position to receive reliable reports from upriver fisherman as well. I reported back my results on the weekend and was informed that they as well as others have caught school size jewfish between Marlo and Wiseman's in the past week. My friends also agreed that the mouth areas and the bridges haven't been producing as good as they are known to, with the exception of a large number of small soapies which were still being caught up to six weeks ago and, although being caught in big numbers throughout the system the small soapies suddenly disappeared. As to the weekend, I had a phone call on Friday to do a session from mid afternoon on Saturday till mid day on Sunday with a friend Italian Sam, in Sam's well set up older model Carribean. Sam's opinion was that we give the mouth area another chance and we agreed to perhaps fish a little way into Cowan unless things didn't work out on the Flint and Steel side by the early run out, before we both fish much further upriver until my friends see or hear of results coming in between the bridges and the mouth. After getting our bait in Pittwater, we planned to fish F&S on the run in tide and the last half of the run out was to be just upstream from Jerusalem, which is fair enough for jew coming in from the outside or the more popular Juno side if the F&S side is not firing. The live bait result was zero. We didn't lose a bait on our bait jigs despite using well prepared burley, to anything else not even pickers or baitfish at any depth in the same location which had produced a large number of big slimy mackeral up high and several small to medium size yellowtail down deep during a session I had with Digger on the previous weekend. We fished at the same spot at the same part of the run in tide, only this weekend the run in tide was during the mid afternoon, whereas on the previous weekend the same part of the tide fell during the mid morning. We had to buy our local squid and could only get extra large squid which still gave us a good number of baits by dividing the oversize heads down the centre into two halves, each half head having one eye, which makes the half heads, with part of the tube left on and divided entrails attached a very attractive weeping bait. To do this I leave on a couple of inches of the tube, and attach each half head to the divided tube section by passing the bottom hook thru the top of the part of the tube and turning the hook back thru the eye to face the tail end, with the barb of the hook just showing thru the eye of the squid. The top hook secures the entrails to the bottom part of the cut off tube. We cut the remaining tube section into long narrow skinned strips and also skinned and pinned the flaps together to make them into longer baits, and use two hook rigs which Sam and I prefer for all of our jewfish baits. I was also able to salvage a couple of slimies and garfish that I had from last weekend's sessionn after my freezer iced up and ruined the thawing out process for the rest of the bait making it only fit for mincing up for bottom burley. I also had a couple of bought blackfish to fillet that I had ready for a cancelled mid week session in the Hacking and Sam brought several left over tailer and had solid WA pilchards as well. After leaving the baitfish grounds empty handed, we anchored up to fish the rest of the run in tide in the sandy section just behind the deeper section between F&S reef and the red marker at the entrance of Cowan. From there we fished on for two hours of the run out tide, after relocating to the edge of the deepwater that drops down into F&S reef on the Broken Bay side, IE the opposite side to where we fish the deepwater that drops into the main reef during a run in tide. We were only troubled by rubbish occasionally which were of such a small variety that our baits were hardly damaged. It was so quiet at F&S that we decided to give the remainder of the run out which we had planned to fish Cowan near Jerusalum Bay a miss. We decided to fish the run out in close at Juno Point. There were two boats level with one another and dead square right opposite the green marker at Juno Point and too far up river and too wide in my opinion to take advantage of the point itself and the run out tide. A third boat anchored in a better location downriver from the other boats but again wide of the closest run to the point along the sandy deepwater section, which has always fished best at Juno whereas the outside section while still a chance is more flathead country and fishes quite well for flathead in the summer months. We anchored about 300 yards downriver from Juno just behind the deep section that runs from Walker Point towards the side of Lion Island where the jew come in to intercept baitfish coming around Juno and going inside Walker Beach and into Patonga as they usually do at night. We caught absolutely nothing at Juno Point using an assortment of bait and saw no action at all from the three boats lined up square off the point after the closest boat to us had moved and made a line of three alongside the other boats. We decided to move on and fish at Wobby for the rest of the run out and got nothing else other than about half a dozen eels. We moved to a prime spot at the rail bridge at 2.30AM and after all but freezing in the early hours and not losing a single bait in near seven hours of fishing the prime run in tide and the stillwater, Sam and I called it a day. It would pay those fishing the hairtail social to put on extra layers of clothes. Although there was hardly a breeze and the conditions were calm on Saturday Night, after about 11pm pm it became so cold that Sam and I agreed that we have never felt so cold on the Hawkesbury River. We were rugged up well and still shivering and the awefull fishing Sam and I experienced does not speak well for the lower Hawkesbury at the moment. I hope the fishing gets better for everybody and mysef included on the Hairtail weekend. Cheers jewgaffer Edited July 21, 2008 by jewgaffer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh88 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Too bad you didn't have much luck Jewgaffer. If you're not getting any then i don't like the chances for the rest of us. We didn't have any luck about this time last year in cowan either. Good luck at the social Cheers Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatty hunter626 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 no fish this week but better to be on the water than sitting at home....i know what you mean about the cold it has been absolutely freezing the past couple of night sessions i have had! cheers flatty hunter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brickman Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 hey gaffer seems the same all over we fished longy sunday 4.00am till 10.00am i had to resort to pic's of rays and portjacksons maybe the swell coming will stur things up havent seen a 5 meter swell for a few years.i thought the cold current coming up the coast may bring some big schools off samon and snapper up from down south,there are some fish about but not in the numbers i had hoped for owell it is still early days i suppose always a good read gaffer and full of those little bits of info between the lines cherrs gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray R Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Hi Byron, shame you and your mate didn't get any action, mate if you couldn't get a jewie with all that you had out in the chilly night then it would be more than fair to say that there were no jewies around, are you still shivering ?.... Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcel haber Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Bad luck Byron and Co, It seems the fishing of late has been very poor throughout the hawkesbury and Sydney Harbour. Alot of Fishraiders seem to be putting in lots of hours and money for very little to show. Hopefully the fishing will take a turn for the good and keep all the Raider desperates interested. Fishing is a challenge and becomes very frustrating when the fish do not come to the party, however I would not give it away for quids. All the best to Raiders who are braving the cold and fishing the social. Twin 1 Marcel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inhlanzi Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Sad to say Byron but the Hawkesbury is not doing too well at the moment. The last eleven trips not much more than bait fish and a few squid. Had some very serious Jew sessions in amongst hem and not even the peckers pickers and low life bottom dwellers are around. Fished with different blokes on different boats and always a big 0. Only good side is the amount of swimmer crabs to be had. I reckon go try your luck in the Harbour. cheers inhlanzi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryhno Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Hey Jewgaffer, I was out on Sunday 6.30am till about 4.30pm and we hit the same sort of spots, F&S, Valiant Wreck, Juno the Rail Bridge and Jerusalem Bay for not much either... And we also found it more difficult than usual to get bait at West Head also... So i know where your coming from... But hopefully the conditions improve for the Hairtail... But i do have a solution to the cold... its an invisible blanket that keeps me warm all night... Cheers, Ryhno Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james7 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Hi Jewgaffer Nice report despite the lack of fish. I guess that it only means that you are one step closer to your next big jew! From what I have heard lately, it has been fairly quiet everywhere. Things can only improve. Cheers Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kit Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 I was fishing on Sydney Harbour chasing Jew again on Saturday night. It was very quiet... Not even any pickers on my squid baits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunder Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 You must have picked the wrong weekend Byron. WE are going to blitz them this weekend !!! Cheers Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkymalinky Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 Sounds like it was tough going Byron . The worst of it all being the uncomfortably cold temperature. I can handle not catching fish if I'm comfortable but even the anticipation of a good run only goes so far towards motivating me when I'm not. I've laid in a stock of thermals, polar fleece layers, water/wind proofs, gloves, inner gloves, balaclavas and extra warm socks for this coming weekend. Hope it's enough. Hope you get into some better fishing in the coming weeks. Cheers, Slinky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digger Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 Hi Everyone. After an awefull result in the Hawkesbury on Saturday and Sunday and not catching anything generally considered to be worthwhile catching, I thought I'd post up a no fish report so as to keep you informed about the fishing situation in the best jewfish spots that I know of from the bridges to the mouth areas which are all good deepwater spots where other good fish can be caught as well. I can only say that I fish with a good variety of baits and always spread a number of rods and give myself and others with me the best chances. I have fished the downriver sections from the bridges to the mouth for a good while this season and am also in the position to receive reliable reports from upriver fisherman as well. I reported back my results on the weekend and was informed that they as well as others have caught school size jewfish between Marlo and Wiseman's in the past week. My friends also agreed that the mouth areas and the bridges haven't been producing as good as they are known to, with the exception of a large number of small soapies which were still being caught up to six weeks ago and, although being caught in big numbers throughout the system the small soapies suddenly disappeared. As to the weekend, I had a phone call on Friday to do a session from mid afternoon on Saturday till mid day on Sunday with a friend Italian Sam, in Sam's well set up older model Carribean. Sam's opinion was that we give the mouth area another chance and we agreed to perhaps fish a little way into Cowan unless things didn't work out on the Flint and Steel side by the early run out, before we both fish much further upriver until my friends see or hear of results coming in between the bridges and the mouth. After getting our bait in Pittwater, we planned to fish F&S on the run in tide and the last half of the run out was to be just upstream from Jerusalem, which is fair enough for jew coming in from the outside or the more popular Juno side if the F&S side is not firing. The live bait result was zero. We didn't lose a bait on our bait jigs despite using well prepared burley, to anything else not even pickers or baitfish at any depth in the same location which had produced a large number of big slimy mackeral up high and several small to medium size yellowtail down deep during a session I had with Digger on the previous weekend. We fished at the same spot at the same part of the run in tide, only this weekend the run in tide was during the mid afternoon, whereas on the previous weekend the same part of the tide fell during the mid morning. We had to buy our local squid and could only get extra large squid which still gave us a good number of baits by dividing the oversize heads down the centre into two halves, each half head having one eye, which makes the half heads, with part of the tube left on and divided entrails attached a very attractive weeping bait. To do this I leave on a couple of inches of the tube, and attach each half head to the divided tube section by passing the bottom hook thru the top of the part of the tube and turning the hook back thru the eye to face the tail end, with the barb of the hook just showing thru the eye of the squid. The top hook secures the entrails to the bottom part of the cut off tube. We cut the remaining tube section into long narrow skinned strips and also skinned and pinned the flaps together to make them into longer baits, and use two hook rigs which Sam and I prefer for all of our jewfish baits. I was also able to salvage a couple of slimies and garfish that I had from last weekend's sessionn after my freezer iced up and ruined the thawing out process for the rest of the bait making it only fit for mincing up for bottom burley. I also had a couple of bought blackfish to fillet that I had ready for a cancelled mid week session in the Hacking and Sam brought several left over tailer and had solid WA pilchards as well. After leaving the baitfish grounds empty handed, we anchored up to fish the rest of the run in tide in the sandy section just behind the deeper section between F&S reef and the red marker at the entrance of Cowan. From there we fished on for two hours of the run out tide, after relocating to the edge of the deepwater that drops down into F&S reef on the Broken Bay side, IE the opposite side to where we fish the deepwater that drops into the main reef during a run in tide. We were only troubled by rubbish occasionally which were of such a small variety that our baits were hardly damaged. It was so quiet at F&S that we decided to give the remainder of the run out which we had planned to fish Cowan near Jerusalum Bay a miss. We decided to fish the run out in close at Juno Point. There were two boats level with one another and dead square right opposite the green marker at Juno Point and too far up river and too wide in my opinion to take advantage of the point itself and the run out tide. A third boat anchored in a better location downriver from the other boats but again wide of the closest run to the point along the sandy deepwater section, which has always fished best at Juno whereas the outside section while still a chance is more flathead country and fishes quite well for flathead in the summer months. We anchored about 300 yards downriver from Juno just behind the deep section that runs from Walker Point towards the side of Lion Island where the jew come in to intercept baitfish coming around Juno and going inside Walker Beach and into Patonga as they usually do at night. We caught absolutely nothing at Juno Point using an assortment of bait and saw no action at all from the three boats lined up square off the point after the closest boat to us had moved and made a line of three alongside the other boats. We decided to move on and fish at Wobby for the rest of the run out and got nothing else other than about half a dozen eels. We moved to a prime spot at the rail bridge at 2.30AM and after all but freezing in the early hours and not losing a single bait in near seven hours of fishing the prime run in tide and the stillwater, Sam and I called it a day. It would pay those fishing the hairtail social to put on extra layers of clothes. Although there was hardly a breeze and the conditions were calm on Saturday Night, after about 11pm pm it became so cold that Sam and I agreed that we have never felt so cold on the Hawkesbury River. We were rugged up well and still shivering and the awefull fishing Sam and I experienced does not speak well for the lower Hawkesbury at the moment. I hope the fishing gets better for everybody and mysef included on the Hairtail weekend. Cheers jewgaffer [hi jewgaffer as with your last post when you were on my boat we only caught that flathead but had a graet time and the knowlege tou have with jew fishing has enlighten me thanks digger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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