Hodgey Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 G'Day all, Well, it has been an eventful couple of weeks. Last weekend, I met Fishraider Kel who was holidaying here in Tuross. Unfortunately our system is fishing a little quiet at the moment, but I'm sure Arthur will be back again in the near future! On Wednesday night, the 'Queen of Blackfish' called over for a beer. We had a great couple of hours, and Roberta regaled us with some unusual captures I will leave it to her to explain... Today things returned to normal. Set out with Deno at the very respectable hour of 0730. We are struggling a little down here because our water temp is still hovering around 15.5 - 16 degrees. That said, we saw some very encouraging signs. Started the morning by throwing small floating hardbodies around some great rock and timber structure. This is no place for blades! Managed to encourage a couple of small bream, but decided to leave it for a couple more weeks until the water heats up a bit. I was using a small Juro HB in clear/green, off 6lb vanish. It was time to head back towards the lake to do some 'popper speculating' Drifted between some oyster leases that had great weed patches between them. The only downside is a lot of loose weed floating on the surface Anyway, drifted across some water that was about 2' above the weed beds ... nothing. Started drifting towards the bank and quickly running out of water. Put a cast infront of the lease and start 'blooping' it back. Pause ... crunch! ... missed him! .... bloop, bloop, bloop, ... pause ... crunch ... I'm on! ........ "oh Goodness, Dene, I appear to have dropped him. Dear me!" (or profanities along those lines anyway). Take a deep breath, and make another cast roughly 8' to the left of the last one. Bloop, bloop, bloop ... pause ... swirl behind lure ... bloop, bloop, bloop ... pause ... ker-splash!! Holy cow, this little bloke had a huge serve of weeties this morning because he has the drag on the SOL singing and the TCurve bending nicely. After an entertaining tussle, finally managed to land this 35cm model. Dene's popper has been hammered to my right as well. Not quite as big, but bloody nice to get a double! We had intermittent lookers for the next hour or so, and we are looking forward to some pretty good action in weeks to come. I had mentioned to Deno that some big whiting had been caught of late, so we headed off to a favourite weed bank. 1st cast ... and Dene nails a real thick whiting Dene was using an 'old faithful' sure catch popper, and I was using a Gladiator Bubble Popper in red/clear/gold. To finish off the morning, we had a brief cast for flatties with plastics. They are still quiet, although Dene managed to hook what I thought was a good flattie about 70cms, until I realised he had hooked one roughly 35cm with another identical one following right on its tail! All in all ... promising signs for surface fishing in the weeks to come. Hope you all have a great weekend! Cheers Hodgey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjneville Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Another great report Hodgey, and very informative. I'm heading up to port Maquarie tomorrow for a weeks fishing, and salivating at the prospect. The weather looks good, and if you're getting them in those water temps, PMac should really turn it on. I'll send in a report as the week progresses. Tight lines! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Good one Hodgey By my calculations the bream and whiting should fire up on surface about four days after the next full moon when you should get some prawn activity I hope to be having a go on the next big tides over some favorite weedbeds around the next new moon Might have to catchup with Kel as I think he is from around this area Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkymalinky Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Man oh man Hodgey, The sight of that whiting in particular has got me twitching to get up to the Gold Coast and get into the estuary fishing. You take some really great photos mate... what sort of camera do you use. Do you clean them up before posting?? I've got a 5.1mp Lumix and it takes ok shots that I can tidy up in iPhoto but I don't get anything like the vivid colour and crispness in yours. What size do you make the pics for posting... mine are usually about 600x450 with resolution to get them down to 40-60k. Hope the fishing warms up with the water for you. Cheers, Slinky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodgey Posted October 11, 2008 Author Share Posted October 11, 2008 G'Day Slinky Up until a few months ago, I was using my Sony CyberShot DSC-P73. 4.1 mp/3 x Optical Zoom. You will probably remember that I was moaning about it playing up and missing important photo ops (like Dad's first 60+cm flatty) I now own a FujiFilm FinePix S5700. 7.1mp/10 x Optical Zoom. It is by no means an expensive or 'state-of-the-art' camera, but I am impressed with the quality of the photos nonetheless Apart from occasional cropping, they are posted untouched. I e-mail them to myself and I get them back at 40-50KB. This is a great size for posting on the forum, and the quality appears to remain pretty good. Cheers Hodgey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkymalinky Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Thanks Hodgey, I can't use Photoshop so can't do anything speccy with photos but I've discovered in iPhoto that I can straighten, crop, adjust exposure, resize and stuff... basic but useful. Not sure if it's like iTunes and can be used on a PC (I'm a mac user). I got a beaut journal for my birthday so once I move I'm going to start to keep a 'visual diary' of my fishing. I love going back over some of the stories of past days on the water. Want to make this like 'scrap booking' for fishos, with pics, scribbles, a scale or 2, etc. Want to make sure the pics are a good as possible. Cheers, Slinky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
love2fish Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Never doubt the Sol Hodgey,nice work there Matey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soft-on Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Hodgey when you mention your struggling down there....is that you struggling at 7am with your eyes still half shut?? Well done on the surface fishing fellas, great report too. Good to see the whiting smashing those poppers again. Mate that bloody cybershot about time you changed cameras i remember that was giving you grief when we went out Good photos though. Cheers Cam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Solid start to the poppering season there Hodgey. Excellent stuff. I managed a few bream on a Bushy Stiffy popper on my local water yesterday arvo. Great fun and I'll be doing a lot more of it this summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bream Mad Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Great work mate into the poppers already keep the reports and new techniques coming cheers kael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodgey Posted October 13, 2008 Author Share Posted October 13, 2008 Give it a couple of weeks and it will be well worth your while visiting, Cam. May even be able to chase a few bass while you are here Skip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug43 Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Nice report Hodgey, Thinking of those popper stalking fish gets the hair standing up on the back of the neck. Hopefully you get a warm flush down there soon. For photos guys i use a google download called 'picasa' it has a lot of features and is easy to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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