hamerz84 Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 congrats on your fish of a lifetime that was a great read, and i wouldnt want to catch my fish of a lifetime with anyone other than my old man aswell, good on you mate i still cant stop staring at your pics !! cracker fish !! cheers hamerz!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennyk Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 awesome jew dude, must be wrapped Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beach_Defender Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Well done mate. That is truly special. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finin Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 PWAH, What a lovelly fish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregg.michael Posted April 16, 2012 Author Share Posted April 16, 2012 Thanks for all your nice comments Raiders. I'll be sure to pass them onto my bro & dad. I know they will appreciate them as much as me. Especially the ones about achieving it together, I couldn't agree more. Thanks Chewie - the Poly ('Falcor', the white luck dragon) is very dear to my heart and I learnt of these great boats through this website. To answer a couple of questions. Zaki, Juno point is in the lower part of the system. Its east of the bridges but either of the ramps near the two bridges would put you within striking range - or alternatively one in Pittwater. But a word of warning - don't get stuck in the idea that this and only this spot will produce. Jews move through the entire system. Aussie weekender, the squid were caught around Barrenjoey Head just before lunch. Last bit of the run in. We caught 6 and worked reasonably hard for them. We caught two that were almost too big for live baits. But they made a great head/gut bait Barrenjoey was alive and the Gannets were putting on a show bombing us all around the boat some coming within a few meters, an amazing spectacle. About 6 dolphins came by ahead of a sailboat but stopped past to crash the surface apart as they fed on fish. One of those magical fishing days. Which leads me to agree with you Humesy, the Hawkesbury isn't dead by a long shot. Even with trawlers working the system at seemingly every turn during our time on the river we found definite signs that the mighty river, whilst a shadow of its former glory, still has a nice balance. The vast areas of oyster leases seem to create a large network of nursery areas where the smaller fish can escape the nets. Interestingly with one hand commercial fishing industries are putting in what the other hand takes away. That's not to say I wouldn't love to see a buyout of some of the trawler licenses in that system. Given half a chance - the life would explode in biomass. Sadly we saw what appeared to be two guys launching to do some illegal fishing at dusk. Very small recreational boat - very big net piled into the back and a stack of those blue fish crates from the fish markets. If these guys were legit, they were doing a rubbish job of appearing so. But we got their trailer rego and vehicle rego and I absolutely intend on making sure the relevant department is notified. Keeping an undersize fish is bad, but indiscriminate and illegal fishing on a larger scale makes my blood boil. Anyways bit of a tangent, thanks for the comments everyone. Great to hear your reactions. Hamerz84 - I can't stop looking at them either! Thanks again everyone, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaffdogg Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Awesome fish mate that's a beast of a fish congrats on the fish of a life time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bisso Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I'm Speachless.. Amazing fish... would love to hook one of those.. Fish of a lifetime that one... Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denzor Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 GreatReport!!! Makes me want to call in sick for 3 days..... if i could manage onehalf that size i would be stoked!!! Awesome fish Mate!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bongie555 Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 well done champ.congrats all around .you guys definitely did better than us, we hit the hawkesbury last sunday too,on a hire tinny. drifted bridge to bridge, was even at the infamous 3rd pylon on the rail bridge on the run in tide, landed approx 100 fish, 99 of which was the ever popular catfish (even spiked my bro in the leg which swelled up as expected) and 1 legal flatty which went back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan00734 Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Well done on the fish of a lifetime mate. Still trying to get my first decent Jew. Just a quick question. Where abouts do you get the mud crabs in the hawkesbury? My old man wants a feed of crabs but I thought there were only blue swimmers. And is it one trap per boat or one trap per person on the boat for the muddies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibby01 Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Hey Raiders, Bit of a special post so I may go on a bit. Thought I would share my most recent catch with you. Spent Wednesday and Thursday fishing the Hawkesbury with my brother and father. Conditions were tough on Wednesday with the winds still blowing from the day before. Cut a long story short - the next day was perfect. Mudcrabs in the pots and squid were cooperating, things were looking good for the afternoon run out tide. I didn't know how good they would get. We were just settling in to our second spot for the afternoon when all hell broke loose. The rod set closest to the boat buckled over and I grabbed it, setting the hook. The fish ran upstream into the current and straight under the anchor rope. So within 30 seconds of this fight starting - I was in trouble. My brother was already bringing the anchor up, so with him holding the rope up, I passed the rod under and I was in the clear again with the fish charging into the current and towards the reef. I managed to turn the fish and thankfully it ran wide and then went with the current downstream and towards deeper water. I felt the heavy headshakes of a fish with some serious weight and called it for a Jew. The leader came to surface three times before I got a glimpse of what I was dealing with as it continued to charge for the bottom and away from the boat. But when the murky brown water of the Hawkesbury finally revealed it to me, it dawned on me how important it would be to land this fish properly. A few expletives were uttered at the sheer size of the fish which had finally given up and was heading now towards my brother with gaff in hand. Special thanks to my bro who slipped the gaff into it's gaping jaws and perfectly pinned it through the bottom jaw and lifted it up over the side and onto the deck. Now we could see it in all it's glory. This thing was way bigger than any Jew I had caught previously and definitely the biggest fish I have ever landed. I was hoping for a nice schoolie - when we measured it, it went 140cm. It didn't fit on the brag mat! (please note the tail in this photo is bent up the inside of the cast deck and looks shorter than 20cm beyond the end of the mat - but it was measured properly on flat a surface and it went 140cm) High fives and carrying on attracted the attention of the family fishing next to us who came over for a look. The very young kids couldn't believe their eyes, and it reminded me of being a very young bloke learning of the mighty mulloway that lurked in my local waters and the dream of one day catching a big one. Unfortunately we didn't have scales but even if we did they probably wouldn't have been adequate for a fish of this size. I checked the dpi website and a fish of 140 cm should be 27.7 kgs. It felt every bit of it. I know it will take me a long time to top that fish but the memories will be with me forever. A huge thanks to my father Gary, and my brother James. Without these two I wouldn't go fishing half as much as I do and there is no way I could have landed this fish of a lifetime without them. I have attached one pic with a red bull can in frame for COTM and would like to submit this fish for the fishraider records. Enjoy the pics & thanks for reading. Mike wtf well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Hooked Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 WOW! WOW! WOW! and WOW! Well done and to catch it with your bother and father makes it even better. Fantastic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassboy888 Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 that is one BEAST of a fish!!! I can only imagine the expresions on your face when that slab came up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plumb Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Gezzz it's head is bigger than yours... Nice catch, congrats Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumperbream Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Fantastic fish, let the memories live on. I've never had the chance to fish for jewies, makes me want to now. Well Done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaki10 Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Thanks for all your nice comments Raiders. I'll be sure to pass them onto my bro & dad. I know they will appreciate them as much as me. Especially the ones about achieving it together, I couldn't agree more. Thanks Chewie - the Poly ('Falcor', the white luck dragon) is very dear to my heart and I learnt of these great boats through this website. To answer a couple of questions. Zaki, Juno point is in the lower part of the system. Its east of the bridges but either of the ramps near the two bridges would put you within striking range - or alternatively one in Pittwater. But a word of warning - don't get stuck in the idea that this and only this spot will produce. Jews move through the entire system. Aussie weekender, the squid were caught around Barrenjoey Head just before lunch. Last bit of the run in. We caught 6 and worked reasonably hard for them. We caught two that were almost too big for live baits. But they made a great head/gut bait Barrenjoey was alive and the Gannets were putting on a show bombing us all around the boat some coming within a few meters, an amazing spectacle. About 6 dolphins came by ahead of a sailboat but stopped past to crash the surface apart as they fed on fish. One of those magical fishing days. Which leads me to agree with you Humesy, the Hawkesbury isn't dead by a long shot. Even with trawlers working the system at seemingly every turn during our time on the river we found definite signs that the mighty river, whilst a shadow of its former glory, still has a nice balance. The vast areas of oyster leases seem to create a large network of nursery areas where the smaller fish can escape the nets. Interestingly with one hand commercial fishing industries are putting in what the other hand takes away. That's not to say I wouldn't love to see a buyout of some of the trawler licenses in that system. Given half a chance - the life would explode in biomass. Sadly we saw what appeared to be two guys launching to do some illegal fishing at dusk. Very small recreational boat - very big net piled into the back and a stack of those blue fish crates from the fish markets. If these guys were legit, they were doing a rubbish job of appearing so. But we got their trailer rego and vehicle rego and I absolutely intend on making sure the relevant department is notified. Keeping an undersize fish is bad, but indiscriminate and illegal fishing on a larger scale makes my blood boil. Anyways bit of a tangent, thanks for the comments everyone. Great to hear your reactions. Hamerz84 - I can't stop looking at them either! Thanks again everyone, Mike Thanks mate appreciate it heaps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mialla Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Holy Moly Batman - thats awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMac Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Unbelieveable scenes. The boys in the office were most impressed. Serious fish!!!! That first flash would've been outrageous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusky_Chaser Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 one of those crazy once in a life time fish.......many are still trying to catch their first but that is huuuuuge...well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshmiester_au Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 Very jealous, amazing fish! Most encouraged that Juno still holds such quality with all the traffic it accomodates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicknet Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 I don't think you need to explain how it's tail whilst curled up was still 140 when straightened out, that's a solid 1.5meter fish for sure - no red bull can neccessary. Well done. Now if I could just replace the sharks for table fish of this size i'll be happy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little marlin Posted May 11, 2012 Share Posted May 11, 2012 Whopper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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