Wisemans Ferry for the Weekend

[Tsuska]

Hi Raiders,

My first post here and only recently got back into fishing (used to go fishing when I was a child with my father)

For the last couple of years i've only been off fishing for once of twice a year but this year I've grabbed myself a 1 year license and dedicated myself to investing in some proper (budget) fishing gear.

Well I'm off to Wisemans Ferry for a retreat this weekend and will be doing some fishing friday evening, saturday morning and saturday avo/late avo and maybe sunday as well for a just few hours each time. Will be land based and fishing not too far from wisemans ferry. I was thinking trying out the beach left of the main ferry, maybe the jetty right of the main ferry and a few spots down singleton rd. Problem is, I've never fished in the Hawkesbury before and have no idea what i'm looking for.

Will be trying a couple of different rigs out: using hawkesbury prawns (as i have read are great), SP, and maybe fresh squid (depends how much I catch from the Hacking river friday morning) and aiming for bream, flathead and jewfish (maybe EPs, never caught one before...probably couldn't recognise it if i did...)

Questions:

1) Where are the spots I can park near and fish from down singleton rd but relatively close to wisemans ferry?

1a) Where's a good spot large enough for a few people to join me to fish from?

2) What am I looking for? ie. how far should i cast? will i be able to see where the trenches are? Reef/sand patches?

3) Is the current strong? With the prawns i'm planning to run a running ball sinker to swivel to hook -> also how do i alter this rig to catch jewfish if they are around? What size sinkers should i used?

4) What SP should I use and (i'm new to SPs) what size hooks/hooks with weights should i use? what colour/shape SPs? I got some minnow (pumpkin) and 'shrimp/prawn' (green). I hear the water gets quite muddy there...

Thanks (i'm sure i'll have more questions)

[nickb111]

For SPs 3 inch minnows in nuclear chicken and pumpkinseed are good as well as 2-4" prawn imitations. 1/8 oz jig with or 1/0 hook are also good, for the flathead especially. Jews need much tougher tackle, and work on a lighter jig 1/12 or 1/16 with a slightly smaller hook size for bream. If you can with the prawns, fish them unweighted and let them drift down, just with a fluorocarbon leader. For jews fresh squid is a solid bait, and that should also be sent out unweighted, with one hook through the hood. Use a swivel about a meter from the squid.

Good luck!