Georges River Surprise Catch

[Smitty]

Newsflash: It was a bit windy today!!!

Earlier in the week, fellow member Scottakasid and I had arranged to go for a fish in the Georges on Saturday morning and although the forecast wasn’t looking promising we decided we had to be in it to win it (actually Scott was so pumped, that we had to go - come hell or high water). :1prop:

No hell or high water, just plenty of wind and dust when we left my place this morning but we were on the water ready to fish by 6:30. Don’t know what it was like where you were at 6:30 but it was a little breezy on the water and the grey dust moved along like high fog cover.

The tide was still running out and the wind was coming straight downstream with it. According to the Bureau, winds in that area at that time were 13 knots gusting to 29 knots….. the gusts got more regular as the morning went on. At one stage I noticed a person in yak winding his way through the channel, as he got closer I said G’day and realized it was Mako (nice looking piece of kit there Andrew, wont be long till the next Georges River yak caught Jewie post – me thinks!)

We tried our hardest to temp a Jewie to eat our plastics for breakfast but it wasn’t to be. So after a bit over 90 minutes in some very trying conditions we dropped plan A and moved on to plan B (find spot out of the wind and have a coffee). We found a “less windy spot”, had a cuppa and formulated plan C (find an even less windy spot and throw some blades around).

It wasn’t long before we got some interest on the blades but the interest came from Pike, yes STINKY Pike all the way up past the moons. I’ve never seen them up that far before……….has anyone else? Alas, snags and sharp teeth soon decimated the blade population and the plastics just weren’t doing it. I asked Scott what he wanted to do; his reply was “I don’t care mate I just want to catch fish”.

So plan D was formulated (drop anchor somewhere where the wind and tide where going in the same direction and use burley and bait). We anchored on the edge of a sand bank, baited with pilchard filets and dropped little bits of pilchard over for burley and within ten minutes we started to get some interest. A couple of good strong bites raised our spirits then all hell broke loose. Scott strikes at a fish, his little graphite bream rod is pulled flat and the drag starts screaming as it looses line very quickly. The fish quickly took at least 20 metres of 6lb braid off a reasonably tight drag on its first run, then it took some more! At first I was thinking Jewie but it fought high in the water, wide of the boat , then when it got closer it dogged it out under the boat. It took a few minutes before we caught a glimpse of the fish and when it finally hit the net we couldn’t believe it – a 53cm fat salmon??? I know that Scott would have preferred it to be a Jewfish but he still looked pretty happy to me!!!

We fished a bit more but the wind soon got the better of us and we headed off about lunchtime.

Sorry about the lack of pics but we both left our cameras at home today Grrrrrr

First Pike, then Salmon - whats going on in this river? I’ve fished it for years and never seen this before. Has anyone ever seen these fish this far up river before?

Cheers,

Smitty

[pjbink]

That's new to me too. I have only caught the usual staples of bream, perch, flathead, mulloway and tailor in the upper Georges. I have seen turtles at the Moons and once there was a seal at Tom Uglies Bridge!

[johnno]

well done Smitty

Never caught a sambo this far up smitty

but yes we have picked up pike

further up then where id say you where fishing

[slinkymalinky]

That's a good reward for toughing it out in bad weather Smitty. Hope the coffee was relaxing cos it sounds like the fishing was hard yakka. A good salmon is a great outcome though.

Cheers, Slinky

[stuartf]

God on on Ya Smitty

Braving these winds in the the good georges i thought something different had to come out of the water with this whether. Ill be back on the water next week the boats ready after a lenghty delay.

Stuball

[johnv]

atleast u got one in those windy conditions well done

john

[Mickybee]

salmon in the georges river??

ive picked up a few dirty pike throughout the georges but never even thought of a salmon let alone catch one

good work mate, keep it up, hopefully next time it is a jew

[bender]

few years back saw a massive amount of salmon crusine up the river under the foot bridge. And a mate of mine while we were flicking plastics up chippy norton lakes caught a nice salmon (4-5 yrs ago). Yeah i seen a big turtle up the moons about 2 month's ago, Very weird. I was talking to the water police and it just popped up right near us. We wouldnt know what travels up and down the georges these days, Seen dolphins around tom uglys. Must mean the water quality isnt be to bad.

Benny

[tide'n'knots]

i got a pike last monday on a blade half way between alfords point bridge and picnic point fishing with swordfisherman (stewy) - the photo is in the lure and fly fishing section. As for salmon I have seen several caught in the hawkesbury up as far as wisemans ferry!! so catching one that far up the georges doesnt surprise me. many years ago Iread a report in the paper that a kingie was trapped in a witches hat ( crab net) near neverfail caravan park in mangrove creek ( if you can believe the papers )so strange things happen with fish sometimes.

great effort in the wind by the way.

pete.

[screech]

gabe from gabes tackle has told me he's caught them up there... i didn't believe it but u just proved him right!! hahaha