St George’s basin

[Ian51]

I have been trying to fish this area do a while now. I have tried bait, burley and plastics. I would prefer to use plastics though. Any advice as I can’t seem to find fish. 

[noelm]

The Basin fishes OK, best bet is to concentrate on a single species like (say) Flathead and fish using a technique that works for them (mind you, it is getting cool now) use smaller plastics, retrieved slow with a bit of a “hop” along the bottom, fish drop offs and the edges of weed beds and places like that where baitfish are active. If using bait, fresh live Nippers are hard to beat, easy to gather yourself and work a treat. Use lighter line, small sinkers and once again, fish where the fish will likely be.

[Green Hornet]

If you have a good sounder, cruise around the deep side of weed edges and locate schools of bait to fish around. 4 and 5 inch plastics for flathead, 3 inch for bream. Expect bycatch of legal size reds, big tailor and the occasional jew.

There’s nothing for fish to snag you up on, so fish light for the best results.

It’s a large, relatively featureless expanse of water. Covering lots of ground is the key to a good catch.

[noelm]

1 hour ago, Green Hornet said:

If you have a good sounder, cruise around the deep side of weed edges and locate schools of bait to fish around. 4 and 5 inch plastics for flathead, 3 inch for bream. Expect bycatch of legal size reds, big tailor and the occasional jew.

There’s nothing for fish to snag you up on, so fish light for the best results.

It’s a large, relatively featureless expanse of water. Covering lots of ground is the key to a good catch.

Yep, that about covers it, much like Lake Illawarra, it’s just basically the same all over, so weed beds and small reef type structure is where the fish will be, even channel markers can be a good option.

[Green Hornet]

49 minutes ago, noelm said:

Yep, that about covers it, much like Lake Illawarra, it’s just basically the same all over, so weed beds and small reef type structure is where the fish will be, even channel markers can be a good option.

100% mate. I never pass a channel marker without wafting down a Cranka Crab down beside it. Even the buoys on chains hold XL bream at times.

[Green Hornet]

I should add, being such a large expanse of water with such a long, narrow entrance to the ocean, The Basin isn’t really affected by tides. Best time to fish it is early morning and late afternoon and around the dark moon cycle. Particularly during the warmer months when the prawns are about.

That being said, I’ve had plenty of good sessions around the full moon and middle of the day. Sometimes a bit of wind on the water entices a bite.