Jump to content

A Jew Session With Zenman!


tide'n'knots

Recommended Posts

Hi guys, I had the pleasure of fishing with Mike (zenman) on monday night. We arranged to meet at the parsley bay ramp for a hawkesbury jew session, things started slowly as I was running late and arrived 1/2 hour after the arranged time, the wheather was a bit sh#tty, drizzling rain and wind gusts but we perservered and had a bit of fun anyway.

We launched the boat and went straight to my mullet spot for some live bait and by the time it was almost dark we had managed 2 mullet a live herring, about 6 or 7 garfish and a couple of big mullet (one yellow eye and the other a flattail) that were a bit too big for livie so they were kept for bait at a later date.Mike had also bought a packet of frozen calafornian squid that I have had some success with on other occassions, so after catching the live bait we motored over to the jew spot. I baited 3 rods one with a live mullet, 1 witha squid and one with a dead garfish, then sat back to make us both a cuppa. Mike (not being as greedy as me) threw 1 rod out baited with a squid and as I was trying to make the cuppa and mike was trying to light a smoke we were both rudely interupted by a jew on mikes rod !! only a small one of around 45-50 cm but a jew none the less.post-8689-1259667334_thumb.jpg

2mins later it was my turn and a jew of similar size hit the deck - both on californian squid!post-8689-1259667370_thumb.jpg

by this time our coffee was nearly cold and the dark had set in and so had the eels!!! we fished for a few more hours with live mullet so as not to be annoyed constantly by eels but unfortunately there were no more jew.

Thanks to mike for a very enjoyable session I really enjoyed his company and I am sure we will get a few more trips in together in the future.

pete.

p.s. both jewies were released unharmed to fight another day.

Edited by tide'n'knots
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice one Pete

Great way to spend a few hours and jews a jew! :thumbup:

No matter the size of them, they always look so good!

Q) Do the eels not eat the live bait because it's not on the bottom or the bait doesn't smell like cut baits?

G

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice one Pete

Great way to spend a few hours and jews a jew! :thumbup:

No matter the size of them, they always look so good!

Q) Do the eels not eat the live bait because it's not on the bottom or the bait doesn't smell like cut baits?

G

good question and one I cant answer - I only know they tend to leave them alone! -most of the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mate i hope you don t mind but i really feel that i must add something to your post.

1 No mullet in that river is to big for the big mulloway infact the bigger the better.

2 if you really want to catch good jewfish in the river consistently you must use river squid, very fresh from the trawler or just caught.

3 Eels still take live baits whether it be a herring, yakka or tailor.

i have caught many big jew with mullet that people look at and scoff, infact i lost a jew on friday afternoon on a mullet that would easily gone 2lb.

tight lines and good luck

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Pete,

Thanks a lot for taking me out for a HR fish. I have never had any luck in the HR due to its size and lack of knowledge on the area on my part. It was great to get onto a jewie, mate i just love everything about them, their smell, colour and difficulty in catching.

Mate it was good company and very interesting to see some new techniques and thinking. When it comes to jews i have some bad habits and keep doing the same things for limited success. I appreciate your generosity in sharing info etc - thanks again!

Bloody wind eh, i hate it when fishing, rain i can put up with but wind really pees me off.

Need to get you onto my boat next and we can hunt down a MH mulloway.

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mate i hope you don t mind but i really feel that i must add something to your post.

1 No mullet in that river is to big for the big mulloway infact the bigger the better.

2 if you really want to catch good jewfish in the river consistently you must use river squid, very fresh from the trawler or just caught.

3 Eels still take live baits whether it be a herring, yakka or tailor.

i have caught many big jew with mullet that people look at and scoff, infact i lost a jew on friday afternoon on a mullet that would easily gone 2lb.

tight lines and good luck

we had other mullet so I couldnt see the point of putting the bigguns on as live bait due to the fact that they usually end up swimming across other lines and creating a tangle, the ones we used were big enough anyway - if we had no others they would have gone out no worries!

As for squid obviously the fresh hawkesbury squid are the best but dont underestimate the californian squid - they are in superb condition and they are arrow squid which is the most common type found in the hawkesbury and I have caught lots of jew on them over the years.

although an eel will still take live bait it only seems to happen occassionaly but with squid or slab baits they are into it as soon as it hits the bottom!

pete.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Pete

Can you buy these California squids easily from any tackle shop?

we had other mullet so I couldnt see the point of putting the bigguns on as live bait due to the fact that they usually end up swimming across other lines and creating a tangle, the ones we used were big enough anyway - if we had no others they would have gone out no worries!

As for squid obviously the fresh hawkesbury squid are the best but dont underestimate the californian squid - they are in superb condition and they are arrow squid which is the most common type found in the hawkesbury and I have caught lots of jew on them over the years.

although an eel will still take live bait it only seems to happen occassionaly but with squid or slab baits they are into it as soon as it hits the bottom!

pete.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good going fellas,

Pete good on ya for ashowing a fellow Raider your ways to success.

Mike good to see you exploring the horizons - reaken you've caught just about every Jew in MH.

No mullett is too big. I lost a good Jew to a whopper mullett once... Struck too early (Needed councelling)

Brett

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hehe I reckon you must be ready for another BIG one, Pete!!! Fingers crossed!!

Don't forget to try Blackfish fillets, too (or whole just legal ones!)

Cheerio

Roberta

hi roberta, I have heard of some really big jew caught on blackfish but they are a little hard to get in the hawkesbury and I feel that they probably arent part of there usual diet for that reason, I am sure they would work in the georges river though as there seems to be a lot more in that system, but i guess if you had nothing else and they are hungry they will eat it! my mate joe caught one on a bream around 1 1/2 lb at south west rocks once so i guess any live fish is better than nothing.

pete

Link to comment
Share on other sites

post-8689-1259667334_thumb.jpg

.......Thanks to mike for a very enjoyable session I really enjoyed his company and I am sure we will get a few more trips in together in the future.

pete.p.s. both jewies were released unharmed to fight another day.

Hi Mike, Hi Pete, Good to see like minded members meeting one another and teaming up for a jew session :)

Mike, I reckon you would a terriffic bloke to fish with for jew as it looks like you've finally found the right way way to focus a jew's eye to light a smoke instead of offering Pete a cigarette lighter in the wind :D

By the way, hope to join you both as soon as I can get someone from this end to help me get my Savage up there on a good day to suit everybody..... I like to fish three or four and prefer to run at least eight jew rods over a two tide session particularly when I go up to the Hawkesbury...

Cheers

jewgaffer :1fishing1:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Mike, Hi Pete, Good to see like minded members meeting one another and teaming up for a jew session :)

Mike, I reckon you would a terriffic bloke to fish with for jew as it looks like you've finally found the right way way to focus a jew's eye to light a smoke instead of offering Pete a cigarette lighter in the wind :D

By the way, hope to join you both as soon as I can get someone from this end to help me get my Savage up there on a good day to suit everybody..... I like to fish three or four and prefer to run at least eight jew rods over a two tide session particularly when I go up to the Hawkesbury...

Cheers

jewgaffer :1fishing1:

fish 3or 4???what people??? eight rods??? thats a total of 32rods if we all do the same thing :1yikes:

dont worry byron we will get that jew session in soon, I am looking forward to it!

pete.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

fish 3or 4???what people??? eight rods??? thats a total of 32rods if we all do the same thing :1yikes:

dont worry byron we will get that jew session in soon, I am looking forward to it!

pete.

Pete your talking 32 rods here and my boat only has 22 rod holders all up without the downriggers' rod rests i.e. the plastic overboards :biggrin2: ....two or three others running 8 rods between us in my boat wouldn't be a problem whatsover when they are run properly, we run 6-10 whenever we can mate..Slinky, Grant and myself ran 9 rods between us and got 7 jew and only 6 eels tangles last time we fished in Slinkys boat which unfortunately has only got around 17 rod holders if you don't count the downrigger rod positions. Can't speak highly enough of Slinky and Grant's know how in handling a rod spread in currents and their casting accuracy has to seen to be appreciated....

Cheers

jewgaffer :1fishing1:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Byron,

Mate its hard work with a big spread of rods. I always set 3 and play around with the fourth.

Makes for some hectic situations when its on!!

I always give the jewies the eye. One day i am hoping one of em is gonna fancy me. Must be the missing front tooth as i am getting no takers. Copped a sinker to the lip awhile back. OUCH. Actually it didnt really hurt but what hurts is the ribbing i get from my daughters. EERRRR look its dad!!

Cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mike there's a big difference in having an open platform to fish off such as a roomy side console like I have as far as handling a larger than normal rod spread is concerned... I am happy to have others in my boat doing well as it's the boat that catches the jew and the more rods managed properly the better the result, particularly when the timing is narrow and allowing for the tide delay and even moving upriver on a particular day can become more of an uncertain hunt ... that's why two tide fishing is necessary particularly in the Hawkesbury i.e. to strike the resident both tide jewfish and those jewfish coming in that have developed onshore and beach, mouth area etc run out tide habits at that stage...

1. rod holders have been pre - angled, rod positions become rod numbers monitored equally by all on board and small and medium size bites are only discussed over a smoke or a coffee, over excitement could mean overboard for anyone including myself on the end of an anchor particularly if fishing with my own senior family members..

2. 1st two rods are cast out by the bow fishermen forward of but at an angle away from the bow-

Sinker stays where it is - line which blooms out back to the stern settles wide of it and the follow on rods

3. two 9' or 10' range finders are the cast out square off the centre of stern or hold snapper lead in hand and let bait swim or run off in current where you want it to be and then drop sinker down while letting out slack..

4. next two short rods on the non casting alvey or non casting daiwa overhead for largest toughest bait are dropped straight behind the stern and line sooled out to be under the rangefinders and just behind heavily weighted bottom burley bomb tied off on rope going straight down to the bottom.

5. simultaneously with bow rods, centre rail mounts on each side are cast out further than bow rods in distance but not such as important as accuracy is..

6. wide bait selection is used, the hook up bait becomes a more favoured bait to use on other rods whist not being at the expense of bait variety

7. Bites and rod bends don't count one iota and only matter to monitor the bait situation, hook ups are obvious, chem lights are essential at night

8. Ist rod checked becomes the Ist rod cast off the bow again i.e. the other rods are moved around one or two places if it's either a simultaneous bait check or hook up

9.rod that goes off means all hands pause and watch line direction first, don't rush to get all other rods out of the way

10. unless drag is moving and under strain finish cigarette first otherwise watch rod dance for a while

11. Gaff should be used without complication also and fish should be lifted out of the water with loose enough drag..

I look like going up this Saturday depending on how my back is for a mid or preferably a late afternoon start with a friend or maybe two if I can someone from this end to get boat on etc

Cheers

jewgaffer :1fishing1:

Edited by jewgaffer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...