Fishing Comp - Lures/sp's/fly's Only!

[DarkHorse]

G'Day Crew,

Hoping you can help (especially the pro's like Hodgey and Slinky and Roberta and and you know who you are LOL).

Some mates have organised a inter family/mates fishing comp. 5 boats with 2 or 3 per boat.

My son and I (9 who LOVES fishing) are making up a team in our tiny tinny.

Location is the Hawkesbury, starting from Mooney Mooney ramp.

Only allowed to used soft plastics, hard body's and fly's.

Originally was going to be Bream only, but has been decided to include flatty's (Hodgey) and school Jewies etc.

ANY tips would be greatly appreciated. Still learning the sp's style of fishing.

My list of Hard Body's include:

Jackall Chubby - Deep and Shallow.

Smith Jades

Ecogear SX40, SX48, SX43 and CK 40's

Ecogear Blades

TT Blades

Soft Plastics include:

Berkley Gulp - shrimp, turtleback worms, grubs, minnows, shads

Squidgy Pro - bugs, fish, lobby, critter, worms

Got jig heads including 1/16, 1/6, 1/8, 1/12 and light resin

Anything else you can think of?

Thanks.

Robert

[arpie]

Hi Robert

Good luck in the comp - it is amazing how your fishing skill goes out the window when you are actually in one!!! I am no pro by any stretch of the imagination ....... but have thrown enough lures & sps towards structure, to luckily, hook a few!

Your lure & sp selection sounds pretty good to me - what rods & reels are you using? I'd use 3-4lb braid with around 8lb leader for the 'flats' section with not much structure/oysters. When targetting structure, maybe use 8-10lb braid & 12-15lb leader, in case of jewies & big flatties.

Maybe go to Lure fishing Reports & search for 'Hawkesbury' to see what others say they've caught on (also Fishing Reports too.)

How far up & down can you go from the Mooney mooney ramp? Pete (Tidenknots) fishes the area often!

Cheerio

Roberta

[Ray R]

Mate a great flattie killer is the berkley 5"jerk shads, go for any of the chicken varieties as well as watermelon and lime tiger,

Hope you get a few

Cheers

[mitch]

Hi Robert the Hawks is on fire at the moment, see my report regards sunday. Id be more than happy to post up some more exact spots if you would like. Who Shares wins

Mitch

[DarkHorse]

Thanks for the replies really appreciate it.

Mitch was out on the Hawkesbury ALL day Saturday all I got was a cold and a few small flatty's and a VERY small Bream. Using most of the sp's, hb's and live nippers to boot including berley.............

Funny isn't it. MOst exiting part of the day was the severe thunderstorm that passed through very slowly.

Had a great day none the less. As I said to the missus was "guess what I learnt today?"

"I know where the fish are not located" HAHAHHAHHAHAHA.

Seriously though thanks for the input. I am hoping it was more my technique and the fresh water from the rains that put the fish off the bite.

Regards,

Rob

[mitch]

don't be put off by the fresh in the river. the bream are still feeding. try slowing down your retrieve as much as possible. a lol of our bream came on the pause. Some of the time I would let my Vault sit for 30 odd seconds and a fish would hit it. With the pontoons Getting up underneath was the key. The bing lures and WOW grub were dynamite with the shrimp scent. the bream were also very high in the water and happy to hiy on the surface with Platics slow rolled out from the rock walls.

Hopo you get dome. im off to get into a few cod next week for a bit of a change

[slinkymalinky]

G'day Rob,

I used to fish Broken Bay a lot... had a boat at Akuna Bay for a few years... When there's been a lot of fresh water about, I always found the fishing better closer to the mouth of Broken Bay or in Pittwater.

If you head into Pittwater early and cruise the bays and Western shorline, you'll often find kings, tailor and bonito somewhere around. A Jerkshad or stickbait soft plastic on an unweighted 'worm' hook should pin a couple. Also worth keeping a small metal lure rigged on a rod for longer casts and you might also pick up some Frigate Mackerel that cruise the same area (lure has to be small for Frigates... 10g raider will do)

Once the sun gets up, head out to Box Head. From there to West Reef work the reefs with soft plastics... 4" minnows of 5" jerk shads... even 7" jerk shads. You might pick up snapper, bream, tailor, kings.

Trolling the same run or the North face of Barrenjoey headland early could get you tailor or kings. Run a couple of rods... one with a bigger minnow like a Rapala Magnum CD7 if you have one... one with a big stick bait like a 9" Sluggo (white preferably).

Then try working the South face of Lion Island where the reef meets the sand using small-medium soft plastics or blades and you should pick up some bream or tailor. A bigger soft plastic around 100-150mm on a heavy jig head or off a paternoster rig bounced along the sandy bottom should find you some flatties.

For options with your smaller lures, try heading up into Cowan Creek and work the rocky edges and drop offs with small plastics, blades and SX40s... lots of bream and the water stays pretty clean up in that arm. Give the moored boats some attention too. Just be aware that Akuna Bay marina is an unofficial fish sanctuary so they'll give you a very hard time if you chase fish there.

Good luck. Slinky

[DarkHorse]

Mitch and Slinky Thanks for the awesome replies!

Some great information gathered, hopefully giving me and my son an edge in the "comp".

As I have a fishfinder/GPS combo will be using the navionics charts a good looking over!!

Tried Sandy Bay and Porto Bay including the oyster leases a go last Saturday but came up nil.

Have only really fished around Milsons Island and pumpkin pt creek as well as the mangroves near pumpkin pt by trolling Chubby's. The lower Hawkesbury is the place I need to discover I think!

Regards,

Rob

P.S. Mitch I sent you a PM!