Putney Park

[KeiraJade]

Good afternoon all!! I am currently sitting on a rock near where the ferry goes across parra river at putney park and having some issues with the rocks any decent spots people can suggest?

[KeiraJade]

Give us some more information.

Bait or lures and what type and species you are targeting.

Gear you are using.

The tide is rising atm and should start to produce bream as the afternoon progresses.

If you are using lead or sinkers ?? get rid of them and just cast your bait out unweighted,leaving the line slack so the bream can pick up the bait and swallow it.

Regards Swordfisherman

we are using our new shimano rods, with prawns as bait.

Happy to get any fish but bream sounds like the way to go.

Our only problem at the moment is our location as we are losing a lot of our hooks and sinkers to the rocks

[KeiraJade]

Peel the prawns and bury the hook inside the peeled prawn and that should help with your snags.

we'll give that a go now and report back soon, thank you for the help!

[Jeff]

Hi Keira,

The best place to fish is the other end of the park. From the carpark take the path toward the right hand end of the park. There is a stand of she-oak trees and fish anywhere along the wall at this point. The bottom at this end is mostly sand with a couple of light weed beds and virtually no rocks. It fishes best on a high tide as it can get quite shallow when the tide is low. You get all the usual fish, bream, whiting, flathead and tailor. I used to take the kids there regularly. I use lures and set the kids up with bait. Mostly for bait I use fresh bread squeezed into a doughy lump about the size of a small marble around a No 4 - No 2 suicide hook. Line is 2 - 4kg mono or braid on a light rod and I don't use a sinker. With mono I just tie the hook straight to the end, with braid I use a small leader. I cast this out about 15 - 20m and let it sit there on a slack line. The bream will come up, grab the bread and just swim off with it, hooking themselves. Largest fish we caught using this method went about 45cm. Huge fight and released to thrill someone else. If you use prawns you will get other types of fish (only bream eat bread) but be prepared for lots of small ones.

This is a good place to learn how to use plastic lures as there is usually a flathead or two lurking about. Set one rod up with bait as above (take some PVC tube to use as a rod holder) and throw a small plastic on the second rod while you are waiting. Work your way along the wall fanning the casts out so you cover all the water in front of you, then take a few steps sideways and repeat. A good starting point is an 80mm Squidgie Pro Wriggler in wasabi or bloodworm colour on a 2gram (1/16oz) jighead. Rub a bit of the scent that comes with the plastics on the lure before using. You will also get bream, whiting and tailor on the plastics but flathead are the most likely catch if you are just starting.

Mostly I used to fish late afternoon, but providing the tide is high, you will catch fish there any time of day.

Good luck, let us know how you go.

Cheers,

Jeff

[KeiraJade]

Hi Keira,

The best place to fish is the other end of the park. From the carpark take the path toward the right hand end of the park. There is a stand of she-oak trees and fish anywhere along the wall at this point. The bottom at this end is mostly sand with a couple of light weed beds and virtually no rocks. It fishes best on a high tide as it can get quite shallow when the tide is low. You get all the usual fish, bream, whiting, flathead and tailor. I used to take the kids there regularly. I use lures and set the kids up with bait. Mostly for bait I use fresh bread squeezed into a doughy lump about the size of a small marble around a No 4 - No 2 suicide hook. Line is 2 - 4kg mono or braid on a light rod and I don't use a sinker. With mono I just tie the hook straight to the end, with braid I use a small leader. I cast this out about 15 - 20m and let it sit there on a slack line. The bream will come up, grab the bread and just swim off with it, hooking themselves. Largest fish we caught using this method went about 45cm. Huge fight and released to thrill someone else. If you use prawns you will get other types of fish (only bream eat bread) but be prepared for lots of small ones.

This is a good place to learn how to use plastic lures as there is usually a flathead or two lurking about. Set one rod up with bait as above (take some PVC tube to use as a rod holder) and throw a small plastic on the second rod while you are waiting. Work your way along the wall fanning the casts out so you cover all the water in front of you, then take a few steps sideways and repeat. A good starting point is an 80mm Squidgie Pro Wriggler in wasabi or bloodworm colour on a 2gram (1/16oz) jighead. Rub a bit of the scent that comes with the plastics on the lure before using. You will also get bream, whiting and tailor on the plastics but flathead are the most likely catch if you are just starting.

Mostly I used to fish late afternoon, but providing the tide is high, you will catch fish there any time of day.

Good luck, let us know how you go.

Cheers,

Jeff

Thank you all very much for your advice!

Unfortunately my fishing rod got into a fight with my car door and came out second best so fishing is out of the question until next pay day

Just quickly, I'm still new to this (obviously still learning terms and species of fish). A local (Hi richard if you are on fishraider!) told us that the cute little fish swimming around our feet were in fact highly poisonous 'toad fish'.

Can someone please fill me in with these little critters and the best thing to do with them??

Keira.

[DGF]

well avoiding them would be best

[Breambucket]

I would never of thought of putting toad fish into the "cute" category lol

But i suppose they are pretty interesting and how fearless they are around humans, i had one nipping my toe when i was up lake mac over Easter a few kids had a good laugh at me when i jumped almost 10 foot out of the water

Pete

[dixon]

Anywhere alone Parramatta river is great fishing.... on land... make sure it's the 2 hour before run in high tide and 2 hours after high tide.

Don't use heavy sinkers. In fact... some times... none at all. But sometimes... the tide runs too quickly in or out... and an unweighted line will end up in the mangroves and SNAG ! A very small ball sinker 1/2 size of a pea should be plenty on a running tide.

2 weeks ago... we fished parramatta river. Using Soft Plastics only.. 6 - 8 lb braid, 6ft light rod of 2-4kg casting weight .. soft plastics on light weight hooks of 1/8 oz. 24 fish caught in 3 hours. All ranging in sizes of 10cm to largest 45cm Flat Head (that one we kept). The rest was released. 4 species , bream, tailor, whiting and flathead. Hen and Chicken Bay, Cabarita, Morrison Bay and the Rhodes train bridge as well as Ryde Bridge. Look around... and you can get there on foot. We took a small tinnie of course, but we worked the river edges... not deep water. Flicking small soft plastice to the shallows of parramatta river.

Autumn fishing is still good... but do it before Winter really sets in. Cos.. you'll end up being in front of a fire at home.

Enclosed image - a typical Parramatta River Bream. This one was around 35cm... Looking in the back ground of photo ... looks like Concord Hospital !

Good luck Fisho !

[Jeff]

Hi Keira,

Sorry to hear about the rod.

The best thing to do with toad fish is just let them go. Richard is right, they are extremely poisonous, but only to eat. They have no spiky bits at all and are completely safe to handle as long as you don't stick your finger into their mouth as they can bite. They also have the interesting habit of sometimes swallowing air and inflating like a small balloon when you try to unhook them. My kids still enjoy trying to catch a couple while they wait for something a bit more serious to come along.

If you're not that familiar with the fish we commonly catch it could be worth doing some research on the net while waiting for pay day. I also suggest you take along a piece of rag to help hold any fish you catch so you don't get spiked (although getting spiked by flathead is a rite of passage) and a small pair of long nose pliers to make unhooking easier.

Cheers, Jeff