Nabucca Heads Trip

[brendong]

We trucked the family up to Nambucca Heads for the middle two weeks of January, my clan of 4 rounded out the relo's and family friends to around 30 that were staying in onsite cabins within one of the waterfront caravan parks on the Nambucca river.

Keeping the boats in the water makes for very easy access to all things fishy and the varied water activities we get up to whilst away. Unfortunately, the boats are stripped backed to bare bones over night to avoid the 5 finger discount invasion that seems to visit nightly. However, we walked away pretty well unscathed except for someone losing a passenger mirror off their car that was smashed up by one of the locals one night.

This year, there was something to play for with the launch of the family fishing comp which officially kicked off as of day 1 of the holiday...needless to say Coyote and I were very happy to hear about the trophy up for grabs and figured we'd probably end up somewhere near the point end of the field but last year Coyote’s sister took out the largest fish and my dad and his dad have landed some stonkers off the beach in prior years, so we weren’t counting our chickens. Plus a junior category would also be hotty contented by the many ankle biters we have in the clan.

The week started well and we picked up some nice whiting on Poppers (BassDay Suga Pens and Lucky Craft NW pencils) and Coyote scored a cracking flatty on Suga Pen...it went 53 and went really hard in the shallows and we managed to land her without a net!!

Plastics were also working well and after noticing some poddy mullet being harassed in the shallows we electric’d into the shallows and it wasn't long before I came up tight on this little lady in about 3 foot of water. She measured 76 cm and fell foul to a Berkley 4' minnow in Smelt on 4lb braid / 8lb leader. This was a new PB for me by all of 1 cm but the last one was on bait so this one felt a little special. A couple of snaps and back she went. So the that was the mark to beat in the comp on day 2.

Over the next few days the kids chipped in well with some nice fish usually on nippers with my little bloke casting and retrieving this nice 28 cm breambo which would finally take out the kids comp. (the rule was parents or children could cast out but the children had to hook the fish and not just be handed a hooked fish for the wind in)

Coyote's little girl also chipping with a nice wind in job on this mid 50's flatty taken on a bloodworm wriggler. (a couple of pics and back she went)

We decided to take a break from the Saltwater fish and head up to the fresh for a few bass. First light saw us throwing Suga Pens and Lucky Craft NW's at the sticks....a little slow to start but action quickly heated up as we finished up with 9 bass (Poddy 8 vs. Coyote 1) and two bream all fish returned. 4 of the bass topped 40 cm and 2 x 40cm, 42cm and 43.5cm plus I lost one that had to be high 40's but 4lb braid and 8 lb lead don't stand a chance against a massive pile of sticks and a rampaging bass....good bye black Lucky Craft, it was fun while it lasted....

By this time half the holiday had passed and I was starting to feel somewhat confident with taking out the comp with my flatty. We planned a day offshore and were all set to head straight out over the bar which was no probs on a high tide but the only day we could do, it was low tide at first light and a little too scary for liking. We thought we'd give it an hour and troll the rock wall with some deep divers and low and behold I get knocked off my perch by Coyote with a very fat 82.5 cm lizard. Grrrrrrr, I was filthy given it ate my lure which we’d tied onto his Nitro and his Stella made very light work of this girl.....a few quick pics and back she went to give birth to plenty more little flatty's for us to harass in the future.

Feeling the pinch I subjected the family to several fishing sessions over the next few days and with lots if little breambo's, whiting and flatty's caught by them on nippers whilst I persisted with the plastics in hope. We did landed a few sizable but I kept coming up short of the mark.

One memorable session toward the end saw us land at least 15 - 20 flathead on plastic and we both managed whiting on plastic a first for us both. We also put my old man onto his first bream on the surface and Coyote pulled this nice 35 cm breambo on Suga Pen and had some great fun over the weed beds too hammering the bream.

Alas I couldn't haul him in and Coyote finally took out top prize and is now crowned champ for 2010.

Plenty of fish in the river....between us we must have nailed about 50 flathead, 40 bream, 20 whiting most of which went straight back to fight again. Also saw dolphins feeding in the river on a daily basis on one occasion they herded a school of tailor into the shallows, turned over and the fish jumped in the air the dolphin bumped it up with its nose prior to swallowing whole.....crazy stuff and who needs the Porpoise Pool at Coffs when they do that in the wild. Also saw heaps of big turtles hunting in the shallows.

An awesome house of sticks some one had built which the kids loved

Antics on the knee boards

Just 50 weeks to wait until next year.

Tight lines.

Edited January 24, 2010 by Poddy Trapper

[Heath R]

Awesome report poddy trapper

Excellent photos and that trophy idea is gold

Those bass are crackers

[Flano]

That's what makes a great family holiday - competition Congrats on some pretty big catches. The tin lids look liked they had a ball.

Flano

[Hodgey]

Fantastic report mate! Congrats on your new PB and coyote's big girl as well. What a terrific holiday! Some terrific bass in the photos No doubt about it ... when you pair of buggers get together, no fish is safe! Love the idea of the family fishing comp (complete with very nice trophy).

Best wishes to you, Josh and your families. Hope to catch up with you both again this year

Cheers

Ian

[Jewhunter]

That's a terrific report Poddy!

Well done on plenty of good fish & great family holiday.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

Grant.

[arpie]

Awesome report, Poddy Trapper!! I love the idea of a full on family fishing comp!! Love the trophy, too!! Shame your BIG flattie got pipped at the post by Coyote's ....... but as your lure caught her, you should be given some of the brownie points ....... Are the kids allowed to use bait in the comp or is it all lures??

Shame about the five fingered discounters - we encountered the same when there in Sept - a lot of us went to the $2 shop & bought battery operated sound activated motion detectors ...... in the form of a frog or cow! The cow was much louder than the frog, and we left it in our awning/kitchen when we went out & especially at night! The council really does need to put a fence around the campground (like Forster) but I know that Port Macq has the same problem along the breakwall camp ground too. Too easy for outsiders to get in from any direction.

You guys did really well on the top water lures - isn't it addictive after your first few fish? How far up the estuary did you go? I've only pedaled the yak up about 1km and had fun with bream & flatties on lures. Some nice blackfish there too!!!

Those are EXCELLENT bass!!! Well done on an all round terrific holiday with the family!!

Cheers

Roberta

[hamerz84]

great report mate sounds like u all had a ball. awesome fish and looks like u had amazing weather there to.

[Ray R]

Great report mate, what a terrifc time you had away, you certainly scored some cracker fish from the river

as your top class pics show.

A top notch holiday, congrats matey..

[brendong]

Thanks all, we love the place and having honed the fishing skills over the last few years with different techniques like top water fishing and and plastic'ing we are finding our fising so much more productive the just relying on nippers etc....additionally resources like Raider have helped big time with ideas. methods and answering of questions....

Are the kids allowed to use bait in the comp or is it all lures??

Shame about the five fingered discounters - we encountered the same when there in Sept - a lot of us went to the $2 shop & bought battery operated sound activated motion detectors ...... in the form of a frog or cow!

How far up the estuary did you go? I've only pedaled the yak up about 1km and had fun with bream & flatties on lures. Some nice blackfish there too!!!

Cheers

Roberta

Both kids and adults are able to use bait or lures....most use nippers as they very easy to come by if you have a boat....my kids mix it up with both sp's and nippers....but I usually let them make one change per session otherwise they want to change every second cast or depending upon what the last fish was caught on, which eats into my fishing time.

Love the Frog/Cow idea that's a cracker, will look into that for next year.

We work all parts of the river, Warrel Creek is where most of our fish were taken this year. Its an arm of the river that runs behind Forsters beach and would be great in a yak to sneak around over the flats and has many weed beds.....the main river arm has some great disused racks (Tiger country - in Hodgey's language) that are also great for pulling some solid breambo's and losing a few expensive lures...

There are some massive Blackfish up there every weed bed you cross is loaded with them...we got a few by chance this year on nippers....perhaps the weed levels are down and they are hungry...

Edited January 26, 2010 by Poddy Trapper

[Basil D]

top holliday there poddy trapper, sounds a wonderfull hollidays, its only 50 weeks for mine too, haha

[FISHARK]

WELL DONE PODDY TRAPPER ...I LOVE THE IDEA ABOUT THE FISHING COMP

[rickb]

We trucked the family up to Nambucca Heads for the middle two weeks of January, my clan of 4 rounded out the relo's and family friends to around 30 that were staying in onsite cabins within one of the waterfront caravan parks on the Nambucca river.

Keeping the boats in the water makes for very easy access to all things fishy and the varied water activities we get up to whilst away. Unfortunately, the boats are stripped backed to bare bones over night to avoid the 5 finger discount invasion that seems to visit nightly. However, we walked away pretty well unscathed except for someone losing a passenger mirror off their car that was smashed up by one of the locals one night.

This year, there was something to play for with the launch of the family fishing comp which officially kicked off as of day 1 of the holiday...needless to say Coyote and I were very happy to hear about the trophy up for grabs and figured we'd probably end up somewhere near the point end of the field but last year Coyote’s sister took out the largest fish and my dad and his dad have landed some stonkers off the beach in prior years, so we weren’t counting our chickens. Plus a junior category would also be hotty contented by the many ankle biters we have in the clan.

Well done Poddy,

you were lucky U did not try the bar that morning,one bloke from central coast

tried it and paid the penalty only with lose of gear and damaged gear and great shiner.

Don't go telling Roberta about our top spots in Warrel for nig-blackfish,she knows most spots already. I haven't seen her at the golf course getting weed yet.

we can start fishing again now ,that all your terrorist have gone back home.

Only Kidding!,your great for our economy.

But we still love it. when we have it all to ourselves.

Glad the tin lids had a ball.

Cheers Rick.

The week started well and we picked up some nice whiting on Poppers (BassDay Suga Pens and Lucky Craft NW pencils) and Coyote scored a cracking flatty on Suga Pen...it went 53 and went really hard in the shallows and we managed to land her without a net!!

Plastics were also working well and after noticing some poddy mullet being harassed in the shallows we electric’d into the shallows and it wasn't long before I came up tight on this little lady in about 3 foot of water. She measured 76 cm and fell foul to a Berkley 4' minnow in Smelt on 4lb braid / 8lb leader. This was a new PB for me by all of 1 cm but the last one was on bait so this one felt a little special. A couple of snaps and back she went. So the that was the mark to beat in the comp on day 2.

Over the next few days the kids chipped in well with some nice fish usually on nippers with my little bloke casting and retrieving this nice 28 cm breambo which would finally take out the kids comp. (the rule was parents or children could cast out but the children had to hook the fish and not just be handed a hooked fish for the wind in)

Coyote's little girl also chipping with a nice wind in job on this mid 50's flatty taken on a bloodworm wriggler. (a couple of pics and back she went)

We decided to take a break from the Saltwater fish and head up to the fresh for a few bass. First light saw us throwing Suga Pens and Lucky Craft NW's at the sticks....a little slow to start but action quickly heated up as we finished up with 9 bass (Poddy 8 vs. Coyote 1) and two bream all fish returned. 4 of the bass topped 40 cm and 2 x 40cm, 42cm and 43.5cm plus I lost one that had to be high 40's but 4lb braid and 8 lb lead don't stand a chance against a massive pile of sticks and a rampaging bass....good bye black Lucky Craft, it was fun while it lasted....

By this time half the holiday had passed and I was starting to feel somewhat confident with taking out the comp with my flatty. We planned a day offshore and were all set to head straight out over the bar which was no probs on a high tide but the only day we could do, it was low tide at first light and a little too scary for liking. We thought we'd give it an hour and troll the rock wall with some deep divers and low and behold I get knocked off my perch by Coyote with a very fat 82.5 cm lizard. Grrrrrrr, I was filthy given it ate my lure which we’d tied onto his Nitro and his Stella made very light work of this girl.....a few quick pics and back she went to give birth to plenty more little flatty's for us to harass in the future.

Feeling the pinch I subjected the family to several fishing sessions over the next few days and with lots if little breambo's, whiting and flatty's caught by them on nippers whilst I persisted with the plastics in hope. We did landed a few sizable but I kept coming up short of the mark.

One memorable session toward the end saw us land at least 15 - 20 flathead on plastic and we both managed whiting on plastic a first for us both. We also put my old man onto his first bream on the surface and Coyote pulled this nice 35 cm breambo on Suga Pen and had some great fun over the weed beds too hammering the bream.

Alas I couldn't haul him in and Coyote finally took out top prize and is now crowned champ for 2010.

Plenty of fish in the river....between us we must have nailed about 50 flathead, 40 bream, 20 whiting most of which went straight back to fight again. Also saw dolphins feeding in the river on a daily basis on one occasion they herded a school of tailor into the shallows, turned over and the fish jumped in the air the dolphin bumped it up with its nose prior to swallowing whole.....crazy stuff and who needs the Porpoise Pool at Coffs when they do that in the wild. Also saw heaps of big turtles hunting in the shallows.

An awesome house of sticks some one had built which the kids loved

Antics on the knee boards

Just 50 weeks to wait until next year.

Tight lines.

[tekokot]

fantastic.

just made my day at work that bit more painful

those bass are stompers

nice work