Fishing Narrabeen Lake With Mallacoota Pete

[arpie]

Hi all

With Keith & I returning from a successful 1/2 Ironman in Canberra (he won his age group and as the oldest in the field, beat 100 competitors home!) we took up my brother Cam/Sail's offer of an overnight stop at Collaroy to break the journey home. An unexpected bonus whilst in Canberra was actually catching up with my oldest brother, Neil - he was flying in to Canberra from Darwin on Monday morning for a meeting & had an hour or so to kill before the meeting started, so Kim drove us to the airport, picked Neil up & headed to Woden (where the meeting was) and had breakfast with him! It was terrific to see him before Xmas as he is heading to the UK in a few days & I wasn't expecting to see him! Then we packed up & headed to Sydney.

Hmmm, even before we left Canberra, I immediately thought of the closest fishing spots & after reading of Mallacoota Pete's success with flatties in recent weeks, sent off an SMS to him to see if he could join me on the lakeside, sometime after lunch? Unfortunately, he was busy that afternoon, so we continued our journey towards Sydney.

Now, on my last journey from Canberra, somehow, I missed one of the 'Newcastle turnoffs' and virtually ended up at the Pacific highway at the Mona Vale Rd intersection & I thought that would be the way to go this time, heading down to Narrabeen Lake, so I deliberately missed the Newcastle turnoff, expecting to go the same way! WRONG!! Bugger! I'd missed the wrong turnoff!! I should have taken the first turnoff & deliberately missed the 2nd one, up near Epping Road! Ne'er mind - the traffic into & thru the city was really heavy & everyone was in the same boat, so we just 'went with the flow', but I am sure it took much longer to get to Cam's place!

In the mean time, Pete had sms'd back, saying he COULD come fishing, so that was terrific! I dropped Keith near Cam's place & continued on to the lake. I found the shallows that Pete had mentioned & started tossing Sammys and NW pencils at the bream & whiting that I could see in the clear water. I had lots of follows by really small stuff, & just the one hit/splash (which I missed!) so when Pete arrived & suggested I join him in the knee deep water to find some poddies & try 'live baiting', I was in! I've never done this form of fishing before & had always thought that it would be boring! WRONG AGAIN!! Pete had his see-thru poddy trap in the shallows & soon after had plenty of poddies (average size about 100mm.) Pete very kindly loaned me a pair of his Crocs, as I was bare footed & those oyster shells are very unforgiving on bare feet! He also gave me a wide gape hook & tiny sinker to put onto my 1lb braid/8lb leader setup. I just hoped I didn't hook a monster! Pete showed me how to rig the poddy & I tested it in front of me - he didn't seem to notice the hook stuck thru his rear end! Heading over to where Pete reckoned we'd get some fish, I cast out & pretty soon, could feel the poddy panicking! Something was getting too close to him!! I had a couple of strong tugs & then, I'm on!!

I had released the drag somewhat, as there wasn't any real structure around, so of course, the reel screamed!! Sounded good!! He took a few blistering runs & slowly I brought him back to me & Pete very kindly netted it for me!! Woohooo!! We are on the board!! He was low to mid 40s. After that, a couple of the poddies were hit hard, but when brought back, only to find their heads were missing! I saw some black goo drifting past my legs & figured that even an occie may have ambushed the poddies? Pete, in the meantime had lost his poddy completely a couple of times to big hits that hadn't 'hooked', so we were going thru his stash of poddies pretty quickly! Pete then gets a smaller flattie which is released (and hid between my legs ....... he headed for structure!), then on my last poddy, I hooked into another flattie which also put up a spirited fight, and popped him in the net too, he was a tad under 40cm! Great! Now I can leave a feed of fish with Cam for the family! As Pete went back to collect his next lot of poddies (he left the trap out whilst fishing the first lot ...... smart move!) I reluctantly headed back to the van & headed for 'home'.

I was greeted with astonished looks of appreciation when I walked in with the 2 flatties after just 1hr of fishing!!

Many thanks for your company & expert tuition, Pete - you have opened my eyes up to yet another form of fishing that I was previously (I am being very honest here .....) a bit distainful of!! It was actually quite fun, too! You never know what you will get!! So now, I can't wait to put my new method into practise up here ....... we have plenty of flats/shallows & dropoffs to try it in ..... or even be brave & put a poddy down between the oyster racks!! Especially if I 'need a feed' for the family when they come up after Xmas! I think it would prove to be a very reliable way of getting a feed pretty quickly, when time is tight!

Back home again now - beautiful sunny day with the water nice & blue again after all the rain from last month had left it dirty for weeks ....... can't wait to get out in the yak & try it from there, too!!! Must remember to put my poddy catcher on the back!

Cheerio for now

Roberta

[mrmoshe]

It was great to finally meet face to face Roberta.

Yes, the old poddies are just the "ants pants" as far as flatties go at the moment.

After you left, I stayed another half hour and managed another nice lizard about 45cm (released) and then the wind picked up and shut everything down.

So, glad I was able to teach you something new (now there's a first) and thanks for the demo of the pencils..have to give those a shot on the whiting I reckon.

Looks like this wind is going to continue all week, so may have to put my feet up until it settles down.

Hope you can get the poddie method to work up your way.

Cheers,

Pete.

[johnny doi]

well done roberta,& good on you pete for showing roberta a new way of fishing.thats a good result for a short session,what more can you ask for,fishing & a feed.

cheers johnny.

[jewgaffer]

.........I thought that would be the way to go this time, heading down to Narrabeen Lake, so I deliberately missed the Newcastle turnoff, expecting to go the same way! WRONG!! Bugger! I'd missed the wrong turnoff!! I should have taken the first turnoff & deliberately missed the 2nd one, up near Epping Road! ...

......Pete had his see-thru poddy trap in the shallows & soon after had plenty of poddies (average size about 100mm.) He also gave me a wide gape hook & tiny sinker to put onto my 1lb braid/8lb leader setup. Pete showed me how to rig the poddy & I tested it in front of me -........

Cheerio for now

Roberta

A very entertaining read Roberta

Where they position their road signs is very confusing particularly for people new to an area and interstate tourists etc ...Somehow they always manage to put the signs in the wrong place or don't have follow thru signs at all when you reach important intersections and round abouts etc...It's amazing how so many drivers either end up turning into the street before or end up being forced to going over a bridge or an overpass that takes them back to where they came from ...For instance when you were coming back from Queensland, the signage at the outskirts of Newcastle was so big that it managed to make Maitland/Cessnock the capital of Australia and there was no reference to Sydney at all, making everybody confused as to whether they should either swerve off under a bridge that has a sign taking them to a winery in the middle of nowhere or whether they should head for Maitland....The only alternative was to drive up a dead end lane which took an endless procession of traffic into private hospital before they finally woke up and put a sign on the next little lane which at the time was the only way from there onto the freeway to Sydney..

By the way Roberta isn't this photo of Mallacouta Pete a classic that tells the story of a lake fisherman in a thousand words and shows others the way flathead fishing should be done.. I reckon it would be a real mantlepiece job over a quiet ale in the fishermen's bar at Pete's place

Anyway, Roberta it's good to see you finally meet up with Mallacouta Pete and get to do that session together!

Cheers

jewgaffer

[paulthetaffy]

Congrats to both of you on the flatty's. Those poddies are just dynamite up there and I agree it's such an entertaining way to fish!

Paul

[Hodgey]

Congrats to Keith on yet another winning performance, Roberta!

Another pair of like-minded fishos united through the Fishraider Forum. Well done to Pete for removing some of the mystery of poddy mullet collection. Cam would have been delighted with the windfall, Roberta, especially considering it only took you an hour!

Can I suggest if you are going to give baitfishing with poddies a whirl that you MIGHT want to upgrade from the 'silly string' Terrific to see Pete getting the opportunity to spend a little more time on the water. Sounds like you both had a great time.

Cheers

Ian

[arpie]

....Where they position their road signs is very confusing particularly for people new to an area and interstate tourists etc ...Somehow they always manage to put the signs in the wrong place or don't have follow thru signs at all when you reach important intersections and round abouts etc....

Couldn't have put it clearer myself, Byron!! The signage leading into Sydney (from any direction!) is appalling & I can only feel very sorry for anyone from overseas or interstate trying to find their way! And the Harbour bridge signs (both ways) is another pet hate!! I feel only NZ is worse (they don't put up any signs ...... WW2 mentality, I think ..... we don't want you to find us!!) I'm going to get the 'Truckie Map Guide to Sydney' - not only is it way bigger than the normal one, it highlights all the roads trucks CAN'T go down, so that eliminates half of the 'wrong turns' that I would do otherwise! Even Keith should be able to read it without his glasses. We nearly got a divorce when trying to find our way to accomodation in St Kilda about 5 years back!

Yep - Pete surely knows his way around the Lake!! I am hopeful of getting into some action here sooner or later!

....you MIGHT want to upgrade from the 'silly string'.......

hehe Hodgey - I had already thought of that on the way home! ...... I wasn't even sure if I'd wet a line anywhere at all, and Narrabeen was the only lucky spot!

....Cam would have been delighted with the windfall....

Christine sure was!!! Cam has been slipping behind in the 'fish for the family' stakes!! I am sure he will remedy that, once I enlighten him on where & how Pete got me into the flatties! I told Pete that the next person he would probably see at the lake would/could be Cam!

We will, (Pete & I) surely get together again if/when I am in Sydney next (not my favourite destination, unfortunately!) Nearly got collected on the way thru Brookvale when someone just drove straight in to my lane from a side road - without the slightest look! Luckily, I didn't hit anyone when I swerved into the R/H lane to avoid the collision! Makes us appreciate Forster all the more!

A buddy caught a really long 'Giant Herring' in the lake last week! First time I have heard of them in the lake!! He thought it was a huge whiting until it lept out of the water a few times! Couldn't make out what it was til he landed it - took 10 mins to land on 4lb braid - just following it with the leccy to prevent it busting him off. He reckons it was just SO powerful!

Really windy here this afternoon - may try & get out in the yak tomorrow after registering the Campervan!

Cheerio

Roberta

[Brooker435]

Well Done Roberta sounds like alot of fun.

I did that style of fishing for the first time last weekend and yeah its quite enjoyable... got a few bream legal and under will definately be back for more.

Im sure the family wont mind you stopping over more often If you keep bringing them feeds of flatties.

Well done.

Regards,

Nathan

[werris]

Last time I fished Manly Lagoon with live poddies all I got was bream. Funnily enough if I didn't hook up the poddy would come back with no head/no guts. Maybe they were small bream smashing your poddies today?

[jenno64]

Roberta.......you are moving to the dark side???? Good to see you had some fun with the poddies. The bonus of using them is they are fun to catch and my 5 yo is my chief poddy trapper who sorts the good size ones from the trow backs. What size were they as I have found that targeting bigger flatties with poddies 10-15cm is the go and the only ambushing comes from squid on the troll. The poddies now are usually a bit small but by February/March the bigger ones pull some good crocs and the spider web you are using would result in an Aussie record if you landed a monster! Nice of Pete to show the local ropes too

[Ray R]

Great read Roberta and another new technique learnt, it's great meeting Raiders in the flesh and swap some fishing ideas.

Congrats on your fish and also to Keith on winning yet another title..

[Basil D]

Great read up, missed the wrong turn

haha loved, good to see you had a good time.

[arpie]

....Roberta.......you are moving to the dark side????.....

Hi Rob - I know!!! Big move, eh?? But in a funny way, I don't really count poddies as 'bait' as such - they don't smell!!! Well, only if you left one lying on the floor of the yak for a few days .......

The ones Pete got were about 8-10cm - the ones I've only ever caught up here have been huge - between 10-20cm, and was never sure how to rig them, so usually ended up in the freezer for worming bait!! I also lost my clear plastic poddy catcher when a big fish must have gone in & swum off with it, rope & peg included! I had it lightly pegged to the shore (in a small creek here) & sat on the shore, reading & 5 mins later, went back to check it & it was GORN!! I have since made another one using a couple of big Coke bottles!

As Hodgey suggests, I will be upgrading my spider web to something more substantial - imagine if I did get a CROC on the silly string?? It surely would be a record of some sort!

...Great read up, missed the wrong turn....

hehe I had to laugh about that myself (once I'd calmed down!) How on earth can you deliberately take the wrong turn & still get it wrong??? I don't know how I did it, but I DID IT!!

Cheers

Roberta

[yakfishing]

Nice one Roberta! I should've gone to the front of the lake the other day. I couldve caught 16 in the time I spent there!