George River Blackfishing

[seacow]

Evening Fishraiders,

after two trips which ended up in big fat doughnuts on the blackfishing campaign over the last two weeks, we decided to end the famine at Lugarno and Illawong and tried shooting fish in a barrel. That's right we fished at Lambert Reserve!!!

An early start at Illawong saw absolutely nothing except for a school of catfish passing by. In desperation we made our way to Lambert Reserve expecting to fish shoulder to shoulder with everyone else. I decided that sleep was higher on the cards than fishing so between 9 and 12 i checked my eyelids for leaks in the sun in the car. Big mistake!!! The old man got about 10 in that time. All of them legal and some of them to 35cm.

By the time I decided to fish there were 6 in the bag!!! Furthermore the old man had the boardwalk all to himself!!! My day consisted of one bite and one fish that went hard before the bite stopped at 1:30pm. 100% strike rate!!!

The fish were fat and full of Kelso Park weed. Enough of my gloating, a question:

Is anyone at the moment using braided line to fish for blackies??? There was a guy we were watching some time back who was using this braided line which floated and he could not help but catch fish. For me I like the stretch of monofilament but I am a fence sitter and interested in hearing about how other people fish for the illusive blackfish.

[luderick -angler]

Seacow,

try it out i am a fan of mono on blackies as the it results in less pulled hooks but you need to grease the line constantly, braid floats but its one drawback is the 0 stretch i did a test a couple years ago on a hot bite off the rocks and fished braid on one rod and mono on the other i dropped 1 in 3 fish on braid yet only 1 in 7 on mono using the same hooks trace and rig, just to prove a point i repeated the process a week later same result unless you hook your fish solidly in the jaw or gut hook chances are he'll throw the hook and i found less chance still on mono lot of folk new to blackfishing use braid and it has it merits do not be swayed do what i did test it for yourself. And oh if you got the blackie bug good an proper its not just a winter fish it will consume you like the dark side of the force!

Cheers

Royce

P.S first mistake you told everyone where the bait is if the fish are on there'll be none left in a fortnight!

Edited July 27, 2008 by luderick -angler

[Guest]

I use 35 lb rapala braid and its awesome on the blackfish witha 6 lb leader around 18 inches long.

The strikes are always direct and an instant hook up when the fish are on the chew and I have never lost a float,only a few hooks and leaders and I get 95% of the fish I hook to the shore and thats quite acceptable in anyones language.

The braid does float and its fantastic in the wind to mend the line and you can set the hook at 50 mtrs

Cheers Stewy

[luderick59]

ive tried braid off the rocks lost more fish than mono

mono has a lot of stretch like a blackie rod is very flopy it all helps subdue a lively blackie

somtimes when locked up on a good fish with braid a sudden headshake will pull the hook mono adds that little bit extra stretch that keeps the hook conected

i might be old fashioned but the only thing i liked about braid is that it floated and saves using vasoline

pe

ter

Edited July 27, 2008 by luderick59

[seacow]

Seacow,

try it out i am a fan of mono on blackies as the it results in less pulled hooks but you need to grease the line constantly, braid floats but its one drawback is the 0 stretch i did a test a couple years ago on a hot bite off the rocks and fished braid on one rod and mono on the other i dropped 1 in 3 fish on braid yet only 1 in 7 on mono using the same hooks trace and rig, just to prove a point i repeated the process a week later same result unless you hook your fish solidly in the jaw or gut hook chances are he'll throw the hook and i found less chance still on mono lot of folk new to blackfishing use braid and it has it merits do not be swayed do what i did test it for yourself. And oh if you got the blackie bug good an proper its not just a winter fish it will consume you like the dark side of the force!

Cheers

Royce

P.S first mistake you told everyone where the bait is if the fish are on there'll be none left in a fortnight!

Very interesting I will definitely use some of these techniques in the future. I have already spooled a reel with braid so it will simply be a quick change. Not a big fan of having to pay for the line mind you.

I don't mind telling people where I get my bait from. At times when it is really growing you can get enough bait for a weekends solid fishing in two throw outs of a grappling hook. What s****s me is when someone comes and takes bucket loads which you know they could never use in a month of Sundays.

So there you go a question and a whinge in the one thread, I must be on a roll!!!!

[Hotzy]

Thanks for the heads up on where to find a bit of weed. I just hope that people that do go there do so responsibly and only take what you need and then there will be plenty there for everyone in the future too

I think if everyone acted responsibly and only took what they need whether it be bait or fish there wouldn't be so many spot x's y's and z's because people would be happy to give you the heads up on where to head to collect bait or go for a fish. The days of taking 6 buckets of bait or a pile of fish you couldn't climb over should be a thing of the past.

[seacow]

With all this rain around I'm not too sure how long it will last for. It seems to die off pretty quickly when it rains this hard. I think it is because the waters get muddied so quickly with a big fresh into the river.

Good luck!!! The good thing about getting weed at this location is it is only another 5 minutes before you are fishing a Lambert Park or a number of other good locations.

[arpie]

Shame you missed the hot bite - the early bird really does catch the worm!

I started out using mono when first blackfishing a few years back, but on the breakwall here at Forster, where the fish play really dirty ..... often big fish, intent on taking you into oyster covered rocks to try & bust you off .... & I found I was busted off often & watching my float head out to sea towards NZ! It was probably more my fishing technique as muich as anything else at the time ..... however, since changing to braid, I rarely have bustoffs now! I use 6lb fluoro unless being busted off constantly, when I upgrade to 10lb.

I use 20lb Powerpro or Tufline on my breakwall rod & 6lb Fireline on my kayak rod & find it terrific. I rarely if ever gut hook a blackie - most are caught in the corner of the mouth. It is easy to use, easy to see so you can mend the line quickly when a belly does occur.

I still have the hooks pulled on big fish on occasion - but so do the guys with mono! Give it a go & we'll all be interested to hear of your result!

Cheerio

Roberta

[luderick -angler]

Very interesting I will definitely use some of these techniques in the future. I have already spooled a reel with braid so it will simply be a quick change. Not a big fan of having to pay for the line mind you.

I don't mind telling people where I get my bait from. At times when it is really growing you can get enough bait for a weekends solid fishing in two throw outs of a grappling hook. What s****s me is when someone comes and takes bucket loads which you know they could never use in a month of Sundays.

So there you go a question and a whinge in the one thread, I must be on a roll!!!!

Yeah i know what your saying i 'v seen 2 guys clean out that Creek in an hour collecting it for sale in shops problem is the stuffrots in sa few days if not preserved in the right way!

And yeop theres plenty of guys who will take 20l bucket to not even use a 1/4 of it frustrating at times especially when its not growing like a lawn!