Georges River day trip 06/07/15

[papafish]

Since taking some times off work, i decided to hit the georges river starting from the como bridge with 3 other mates. we set off at 8am on the dot.

started to move slowly up towards tom ugly and then captain cooks bridge. it was the slowlys day trip i would say. we didn't get 1 fish till 12!! thats 4 hours of fishing, it was alittle windy and the water were moving abit faster then usual, so we stop just under captain cook bridge, bang bang got something on my rod, comes up a nice whitting 25cm, didn't expect to get them at this weather. and then we decide we move back to como boat ramp, and toward lugarno. we pick a spot and it was 3pm!! so we got another hour to go before we return the boat. 1st cast, i left the rod standing while i cut up my pillis for burley. half way dicing up the pillies my rod went screamingggggggggggggggg.. i pull and hook, i had it on for 4 sec, line were going and then stop!!!!! F*(K i scream!!! i knew i lost something good, we got nothing decent aside from a 25cm whitting. so we knew it was a good spot, so we burley more and then cast again towards the same spot. 5 minute later. im on again! and up comes a 31cm trevelly.

another 10minute later my mate got one which were 34cm. another 15minute later, i was dicing more pillies and my mate said, your rod move! i turn around and nah, its not moving,

nah it move he said. so i just ignore it for like a minute, then i lift up the rod and felt some small movement and start retrieving, I was on.. the fish just sat there lol, when i got it to the top, it was silver, white, long, and slim! as we got the net out, it spat, off it went off with my hook. so i wasn't too sure what it is. it would be easily 30cm+ so im assuming it was a big whitting, a big mullet???

time were catching up to us. but we did manage one more trevelly and a flounder before we went home.

so for 1 good hour we did most of the catch, and all the early out we got nothing at all, aside from a good size whitting.

overall it was a good day to be out with the boys, would be alot better if there were more fish in between.

[papafish]

26/07 sunday morning session,

[jtp]

Nice work mate. I was out there from this morning as well in the hobie. Might have seen you as I fished from around alford's point bridge to lugarno. It was a slow day for me too. First time in a while that I couldn't entice any bream. Managed 4 flathead between 40 - 58cm but bites were very spread apart. I also hooked onto something solid with some headshakes that was not stopping but the hook pulled after 20secs. Were you using pillies as bait?

[Conor_B]

Do you eat the fish from this section of the river?

[papafish]

It's clear water. Nothing wrong can see all the way to the bottom from 2m

[Jimbu]

Papafish - clear water does not guarantee the fish are contaminant free. For example, the floor of Sydney harbour and the parramatta river is full of dioxins and other nasties, and fisheries recommend that only fish east of the harbour bridge are safe to eat (in limited quantity!). Despite this, the harbour water clarity is excellent on many days; certainly much cleaner looking than the Georges river.

That said, fisheries does not present such warnings for consuming fish from large sections of the Georges river.

[Ric001]

Hi jimbu, the Georges is relatively free of dioxins as there was no heavy industry on the water as Sydney harbour and parra river had upstream as far as the weir. Silver water had numerous outlets straight into the river for decades. Botany had issues around the orica site and with the ships dropping ballast there is probably still some minor issues.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Burger]

A long time ago I worked at CSIRO testing water samples from streams for heavy metal contamination. The water was crystal clear (and bloody cold!) but the heavy metal content was off the charts in some places!

Do NOT take water clarity as general indicator of water purity, it all depends on the history of the area.

[Squishy]

Sounds like a great afternoon out! (Not so much the morning bit.. slow days are frustrating!)

So glad I don't eat much fish... never have to worry about what the things have had to eat

[papafish]

to be honest guy as long as theres no warning sign on the river or a Massive news break through on the TV warning people not to eat from certain water stream. i think it is nothing to be of a big concern. lots of member here fish around the area and im sure they have ate fish from where they got it, i dont see it as a threat. but water for not being perfect i can't complaint about it. happens everywhere. but the water i would say its alot better then 5 years ago.

[GreyNurse]

I tend to agree with papafish. Given that most of us practice catch and release, the few times we would keep a fish like a nice flathead or whiting and eat it, should not endanger our health. I wouldn't eat fish regularly from the upper Georges ( west of Tom Ugly's ) or west of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, for that matter. That's playing with fire. If you want to fish a system for fish to eat regularly, look for working oyster leases, as a rule of thumb.

Nice work on the whiting and trevally papafish. Bad luck about the dropped fish. Still, it sounded like a nice day on the water for you and your mates.

[searanger]

sounds like that spot would be worth fining again and next time maybe with a live bait.

[pjbink]

There are warnings for above Rabaul Rd, Georges Hall. I think the problem is pesticide residues.