Georges River Sun 24 Jan

[fishtime]

A longer post than my previous few - actually something worth reporting about - woohoo ! Hope you enjoy.

After spending a voucher left-over from Christmas to buy a new graphite rod with reel on Saturday, the opportunity came to try it out on Sunday. We had been staying with some friends in the Shire, and whilst the girls went shopping, the boys went out for a fish around the PM turning tide.

The pressure was on. My mate and his son are new to fishing and boating, and there was high expectation that I deliver some fish for the families for dinner. I did try to explain that I have very poor record, and just to be on the safe side we need to keep the take-away flyers close at hand . . .

We took my boat to launch off Hawkesbury Reserve (a nice set up there) and headed into the river. Moments after setting up the first drift between Capt Cook and Tom Ugly's Bridge, one of the boys was onto a squid. I have never caught one of these before, however remembered from reading this site that you want to get them to ink in the water before they make a mess of your boat. After some unsuccessful attempt to make the squid angry, I grabbed it a shoved in the bucket. It then inked !

The next few drifts and each of the boys and my mate scored a couple more squid however I had yet to make any contribution and was really feeling the pressure . In between baiting up the boys, I was trying out the new rod & reel. A few twitches, and then suddenly I feel the weight come on. A quick check that I was not snagged on the bottom, and I feel the pull of a fish ! A pretty good one too. With excitment at having hooked into something I begin a short but satisfying tussle and bring up a 47cm flatty.

What a relief - catching a decent fish, using plastics, on my new purpose gear.

A few more drifts - and I managed to hook into what looked a bit like either a biggish tailor or very small king (est 45-50cm) - again on plastic. It was swimming fairly fast and came up past the boat, however spat the hook before getting to the net. Made a mess of the 3" minnow.

That was the end the session, we cleaned up a bit and headed back in. One of my most successful fishing trips ever - and in the end I did provide a bit of the entree and dinner (coupled with some chips from around the corner) accompanied by .

I can't wait to get back out to give my new rod another go.

Tally for the afternoon:

4 x squid (each on prawn)

1 x flatty (3" minnow pumpkin seed)

[IVZ350]

once ya go plastics mate and catch....thats it your hooked

[ACIMA]

Hi Fishtime Congrats on christening the new setup.

Shame about the one that got away, but I bet the Calarmari and flattie fillets went down well.

Nice report to

[Mik]

Nice report & well done, especially on the squid, from what I read you caught them on hooked rigs not squid jigs.......here's us spending $$$$$$$$$$$ on flashy jigs & your prawns are cleaning up. Excellent!

[fishtime]

Thanks for the feedback folks .

Garlic and Chilli Calamari was excellent with BBQ flathead - I can almost taste it now again.

Yes, the squid were on smaller hooks. Is this an unusual way to get them ? I do have a squid-jig in the fishing box, however have never had too much luck using it - go figure ! With my new found excitement, I am looking forward to getting into the Hawksbury / Cowan system to chase a few more - perhaps get the jig doing it's thing.

Cheers,

fishtime.

[jenno64]

Well done on christening the new outfit and scoring some squid...they are rampant in the lower Georges atm attacking liveis meant for other customers! Keep it up!!