January Bassin' and bream in the Georges River

So another update from Tezza and also a quick report on my pre-fish on the Georges River for the upcoming tournament on sunday...

"Happy New Year to everyone, hope you all had a safe & enjoyable Christmas & looking forward to a bright 2012.

Well finally the weather is starting to warm up, after a few weeks being very unsettled, it felt like August all over again. This is a great time of year, this month & the next, to target bass, as the weather really heats up, hot days & in between balmy nights, breathless mornings & the water being a mirror which means surface action. It doesn’t get any better!

As the New Year kicked in I've been out again for bass, chasing them with surface lures. Being on the water bright an early & a 40 minute paddle one way & the steam coming off the surface, was looking very promising. As I approach a very narrow section of the river it was lit up with life, flying insects ,a few slurps & splashes from the feeding fish, as the morning was breaking through.

A cast into the snag, as the fizzer landed, it exploded with an almighty splash, not even giving me a chance to flip over the bail arm on the spin reel. As quick as I can be turning this fish around, it pretty much stitched me up into the snags. These fish can be very suprising at times with the amount of enormous speed & power they have which shock alot of people.

With an investigation trying to rescue the fish or the lure from the snag luckily it was at hand reach. This fish was quality size. Being alone made things very difficult trying to rescue the fish into the net & cutting the leader. Eventually the fish was on the lie detector at 365mm I was very happy, a quick snap shot & the fish was on its way to its natural habitat.A quick investigation showed I could rescue the fish and the lure from the snag as luckily it was just within reach. This fish was a quality size, too. Being alone made things very difficult, trying to get the fish into the net & cutting the leader. Eventually the fish was on the lie detector at 365mm I was very happy, a quick snap shot & the fish was on its way to its natural habitat.

After the leader was replaced, I was back into action. Another good fish took the liking to the surface lure, though it didn’t get a chance to stitch me up. Even the little guys were having a go. Most of the numerous fish that I landed were averaging 300mm. The biggest was 380mm. In the couple of days that I was chasing them they were shutting down early as the sun was getting high . So getting as many casts in as possible was needed.

Especially in heavily fished areas, they tend to get spooked, though there is no harm in trying for them during the day, just work the lure very slowly. Concentrate in very deep shadow pockets as the bass don’t like sun.

There are a number of surface lures on the market these days , so its important to get a various types such as fizzers, walkers, poppers, etc. They all swim in different ways, so its best to try different lures and see what works best on the day & most importantly, try matching the hatch. Here are just a few of what I use.

As I mentioned in the previous bass report, be very observant and imitate the lure as a wounded insect. Its then a matter of casting under an overgrown tree or snag & be prepared for a sudden eruption. Sometimes as the lure hits the water it gets smashed, other days you have to work a little harder to attempt them to strike. If there is no surface strikes then have a try with divers, spinnerbaits, etc and hopefully they will work."

Thanks again Terry and once more, you've brained those bass. And such amazing locations you get to fish in, too. Brilliant.

This sunday (29th January) sees the first round of the Squidgy Southern Bream Series kick off on the Georges River. Full info can be found here: http://www.ssbs.basinlureandfly.org.au/

Last year there were 84 boats and 26 kayakers, but I'm sure those numbers will be eclipsed this year as now there are also qualifying spots for the ABT Grand Finals up for grabs. The reigning champ from last year is Andrew Death (the Bearded Swine) and I'm definitely out to improve on my 6th place (with a 1.265kg bag) from last year.

I snuck out for a quick pre-fish on saturday and pinned a few with one very nice specimen coming over the side of the kayak. At almost 38cms total length, three of those in the well would do me very nicely. I wont tell you where I got him : P but I'll let you know that he fell to a Squidgy Bloodworm wriggler rigged on a TT HWS hook. He was nice and fat too, and probably just shy of a kilo. Fingers crossed I'll catch up with him again this weekend. With a range of enviroments on offer for the Georges River round (flats, weedbeds, racks, moored boats, bridges, jetties, rocky shorelines), there is ample opportunity to fish whatever technique is your favourite. Hopefully we'll see you down there. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,

Cid

Terry gets into the Bass - Oct- Nov 2011

Still not much fishing for me except for one trip with Stewart chasing Kings. That report will go up later this week. However, Teryy has been getting into some quality bass (as he usually does) and he's sent through this report:

"Its been awhile since I have done a fresh water report. In the lead up to the bass season ( back on the 1st September ) I’ve been stocking up on fishing gear & some bass lures: hardbodies , softplastics , vibes, spinnerbaits the list goes on, there is so much on the market these days. These style lures catch bass in all conditions whether its rivers or dams.

Its always good to have various types of lures to cover all your basics & colours as well . Bass fishing can be very difficult some days, so trying out a variety of lures & colours is a must, just to see what works on the day.

Rods & reels, these days there are plenty to choose from, but only recently I purchased 2 rods - Pflueger Trions, 6ft 1-3kg . These rods are ideal for casting under overgrown trees & getting into some very skinny water. The reels I have are Shimano Stradic 1000's and they are just perfect for the outfit. I have 4lb & 6lb on these, which is perfect for targeting bass.

Now lets go for bass!

In the last month or so I have been getting out in my kayak in various locations & even in new waters. Sometimes we have to work very hard to get to some unique water ways ,whether we have to drag the yaks over rapids or rocks & let me tell ya it ain’t easy, tho' if your getting fish it really makes it worth while .

This year with the amount of rain we have been getting, most rivers are getting a great flow of water through them ,which is great for the bass to migrate back upstream from the salt. There have been some descent bass getting caught in the area that I fish & I was keen to get amongst them .

So after a very long paddle & arriving to perfect bass ground, I wasn’t wasting anytime, I cast a spinnerbait under an overgrown tree, right into the depths to the bank watching carefully for any sudden hits on the line, as the spinnerbait helicopters down into the depth. With a very slow retrieve & a few bumps through the sunken timber I was excepting a solid hit ,but it wasn’t to be .

One more cast & this should really fire up the bass , as they are very territorial, sure enough the line came up tight & I was on. The thing I like about spinnerbaits is that they can be worked very slow to really fire up the bass when they aren’t in the mood.

I kept on plugging away into the deep shadows & came up tight again . Geez they fight hard don’t they? Whether its a biggen or just a tiddler, they have an enormous amount of power. No matter what size bass you catch they are just beautiful to admire.

The bass in the last few trips have been quality & I can’t complain. When they are in the high 40’s 0r mid 50’s they are trophy fish that you’ll never forget for a long time, not for me anyway.

Just really looking forward for the weather to warm up & the insects are flying about . This is a great way of visual fishing, using top water lures. It can be retrieved in all sorts of ways imitating a wounded insect & bass can’t resist. Just be alert for an eruption.

So if there is a fresh water river near you, it might be worth taking the kayak & doing some exploring, you’ll be surprised whats out there !

cheers, Tezza"

Thanks for the report Terry, we'll have to get together and get into a few bass soon. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,

Cid

Oyster Bay - 17/9/11

After taking a winter sabatical from the fishing reports, spring is now here and it's time to get into the fishing and writing. To tell you the truth, there wasn't much to report during those cold months except for a few jewfish sessions where Stewart and I got busted up more than we should have. Stewie did manage to land a few crackers though and here is one of them that went mid 90's. Plus he and Andrew always manage to get into a few fish wherever they go but muggins here has too little time with soccer for myself and Lachlan, but now that that is all over, let's get into a few fish.

So with a fairly miserable winter done and dusted, the weather finally warmed up enough for me to take Lachlan out on the front of my Outback to hopefully snare a few spring flathead. He was really chomping at the bit to get out on the water and the saturday morning was just about as pristine as you could get - no breeze whats-so-ever and a cloudless blue sky. We started off by trolling a Jackall Chubby and a River2Sea Baby vib. A few small bream and flathead kept the interest up until we finally landed one of 42 cms that was coming home for dinner with us.

With one in the well, we decided to move onto the pontoons and jetties to see if the bream were home. Well, one was and he went 29 cms to the tip, so that was one more for the frying pan. We moved around a fair bit but couldn't get anymore legals so we headed back towards the ramp.

About 300 meters from home, the rod with the Baby Vib buckles and Lachlan is once again all smiles. This fish was decidedly better than the first one and the drag zinged as the fish went on several short but strong runs.Finally it came up and oh yeah, she's a cracker! I could see she was hooked right in the corner of the mouth so I knew with patience we land her. Lachlan listened to my frantic "rod over there, don't wind, that's it, wind now, keep the tip up" instructions and to his credit he followed them all to a tee. We slid her (well, half of her) into the net and it was yeehahs all round.

I explained to Lachlan that this girl was one of the big mummys and that it would be best if we let her go after a quick photo. We put the lip grips on and he lifted her for a few seconds while I took one quick snap and then we set her off until the next time we catch her. We never put her on the brag mat but I guessed she would have gone 65-70cms. He couldn't stop grinning like a Cheshire cat (without teeth) and I couldn't have been prouder or happier.

Of course, now Lachlan didn't want to go home. I said times up but we still have a couple of hundred meters for you to hook another one. Back out go the lures and we've only moved 20 meters or so when the rod Lachlan is holding (Jackall Chubby) kicks in his hand. He starts winding and it comes in easily. 'Oh, this is just a baby' he says but as it nears the yak, a genuine croc of about 80cms looms out of the depths. Lachlans eyes nearly pop out and I thought 'Oh, this'll be fun..' when the big girl decided to kick into gear and she shoots off under and behind the yak. I'm too slow to turn and the line scoots under the rudder and 'ping', she's gone. We were devastated but that's fishing and Lachlan took it all in his stride.

Naturally, he wants to go out again next weekend, so lets home for some more warm weather. And maybe two front teeth so he has a complete smile... : ) Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,
Cid

Squidgies Sydney Harbour Round - 15/5/11

What the? A clear, crisp morning with only slight winds and a measly 20 yaks turn up for the event. Come on Sydney, there should be at least 30 at a minimum. The boaters of course turned up in droves (92 boats, I think) to fish what has become one of the biggest and easiest going tournaments around. Really, if you want to give tournament fishing a whirl, this is the one to test your skills in. No membership needed, just pay your 50 bucks and get into it. Even if you don't catch fish, you'll meet heaps of like minded anglers and will learn more than you'll ever do scouring the forums and reading books.

I set off to where I got my bag nice and early back in November for the ABT Daiwa/Hobie tournament but try as I may, I couldn't even get a hit. I was flicking about the new blades from Mick Munns, as well as the Squidgy 100mm bloodworm Wriggler. Not even a flattie. After an hour, I changed to a TT Switchblade to see if that would make any difference. Nup, nuthin'. Now I'll try a shallow diving Chubby, and then an Atomic Semi-hardz. Crapola...let's try the good ol' Gulp camo Sandworm. Still zilcho.

Right, time for a move so I shoot off to Exile Bay. As I cruise past the moored boats, I decide to give them a quick work over with a SP. Back to the Wriggler and yes, I'm on. Yahoo! 28 to the tip and that's one in the well. A few more boats later I get a better one that is 34 to the tip and he's a much fatter fish. With all the boats exhausted, I try the flats but again I can't raise a scale.

Now I head around into France Bay and bump into Andrew Death. I'm shocked to hear he's fishless but it's still early days and I know he's a top angler, so I can't count him out yet. He's working the shallows so I leave them to him and try the boats again. Strike me lucky, I get another one. A full bag and it's only 9:17 am. Not bad seeing as I didn't get my first fish until 8:25! I've caught up to Andrew again and he now has one in the well. He swears at me when I tell him I just landed one too. Nice, eh? : )

Time to keep moving so I decide to head down towards Gladesville. For me the bite has stopped and all I manage is a couple of leatherjackets and a nice flattie of 50 cms. Try as I may, I can't get a hit on a HB today. I tried different blades and minnows but all my fish were coming on the Wriggler. Pretty unusual as normally the blades are a sure fire thing as far as I'm concerned.

Heading back I pick up a couple of more fish, with one being a slight upgrade. So now I have a 34 cm fish and two about 30 cms. Ok but I really need a kicker fish to push me up in weight. With only 10 minutes to go I hooked a screamer that had me hooting but it was only a thumper whiting (boo hiss) that normally would have been welcomed with opened arms. In a bream comp though, all they get is cursed at! At least I had my full quota though.

Back on the beach the reports were that there weren't many 3 bags but without that big fish I didn't hold out too much hope. And sure enough, Bill Woods, Luke Kay and Stewart Dunn all had fish that were up near a kilo. Stewies was a beauty and he eventually took out Big Bream amongst the kayakers with it going 0.94 kgs. He also managed third (1.81 kgs) with second going to the on-fire Luke Kay (1.85 kgs), but the top podium spot went to Bill for his first win with a 1.885 kgs bag. Bill also managed his first ever jewfish from a kayak so it's was a doubly great day for him. Well done, Bill.

I came in in fourth with 1.505 kgs and Andrew took fifth spot with 1.185 kgs. I was talking to the

top three guys and funnily enough, all their fish were caught on HB, especially blades, so it just goes to show that sometimes certain fish in certain locations will hit one thing while in other locations they won't.

All up I travelled 13.4 kms which is pretty average for me and we're really lucky to have such a beautiful harbour to get to play on. I've marked on the map the locations where I landed my six legal bream. The next round is down at the Shoalhaven but aaarrrggghhh, I won't be able to do that one due to work commitments. Bugger. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,
Cid

Squidgy Southern Series - Sydney round pre-amble

So tomorrow morning we hit the Parramatta River and hopefully about 90 boats and 30 kayaks will be chasing the mighty bluenoses that can inhabit the Sydney system. From a few reports I've had, the fishing hasn't been fantastic but bags have been managed and one good thing I've heard is that there have been quite a few jewfish about. Hopefully I can get one and bring it home for dinner.

I have a new weapon in my arsenal of lures and it's made by Mick Munns from Lure Logic Tournament Tackle. Mick has turned his very clever hands to producing blade lures and as always, he's gone ahead in leaps and bounds and come up with a variation that I think will be a sure fire winner. Pictured here are a few of his protoypes (that's why the finish isn't as smooth as normal) and check out those silicon legs.

I'll be flicking these about tomorrow and hopefully the bream will climb all over them. Plus the flathead and whiting and jewfish and blackfish and kingies and...

Check back early next week for an update on how they (and I) went. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,

Cid

Oatley & The Georges River - 26/04/2011

A couple of weeks ago a got an SMS from my old mate Jay who sent me a photo of the canoe he bought, I've been telling him for ages that he needs some water wheels and he decided to buy a canoe over a kayak for storage and carrying purposes. (I can't wait for summer and some bass camp outs now that someone can carry a tent, decent esky and a gasmate.)

We'd planned late last week via email to catch up rain, hail or shine on Tuesday after Easter Monday for a session around Oatley and Como for bream, flat models and a jewie if they were around.

We met at our first spot at Oatley around 8.45am, neither of us are keen on early starts and we catch good fish during the day anyway. The spot wasn't to be, we hadn't been there before and as it was getting on towards low tide the water was well out from the bank and the mud was like quicksand so we headed further around and launched from the ramp at Oatley Bay.

We paddled slowly out from the ramp, it's been a long time since I'd been to Oatley, actually the last time I fished it was from Cameron Jone's boat about 4 years ago and I remembered back then we were peppering the boats with plastics. I rigged a 100mm squidgy wriggler and cats around a few boats before the line went tight and I was on to my first bream a nice silvery little guy that was about 24cm to the fork. I released him and headed off to the next boat where I landed another fish about 23cm. not a bad start I thought but not the size I'm after.

We paddled further out towards the main river working the boats and pontoons as we went, Jay hooked to a nice bream about 27cm and things started to look up. we headed out into the main River and it started pouring non stop, I remembered talking to Carl about jewfish last week and he mentioned an awesome day he had on the jewies when it was raining, so I got out a big squidgy fish in the black/gold colour and rigged it on a lumo jighead. I cast and trolled it for ages until I was soaked through and decided to hide under a jetty until the rain eased a little.

I waited about 15 or 20mins and then headed back out into the rain which had eased a bit and started casting the wriggler again, I saw this row of 4 poles with some heavy wire mesh and sent the wriggler on it's way, I lift the rod and nothing, then I let the plastic settle again and one the second lift the line went tight and the rod buckled over, I knew straight away it was a better bream and I had to fight hard as it tried to bury itself into the wire mesh below the water line.

I battled for a good 3 or 4 mins trying to keep the fish away from structure and finally brought it to the net. It was a nice bream which was about 29cm to the fork and fairly chunky, I was much happier with this fish and the shivers I had from the wet clothes seemed to disappear as Jay took a photo of me with the fish.

That was about it for the day, except for a nice Pike that Jay hooked on the way back to the ramp, we bought thought it was a thumping whiting for a while, but it wasn't to be.

In all a great morning even though it rained fairly heavily, was happy to catch up with a good mate and get out on the water.

Cheers,

Fordy.

Daiwa/Hobie ABT Forster & Squidgy Port Hacking

Well, there's my leave of absence out of the way. A couple of busy weeks after moving into the new house but I'm back on-line and thought I'd better catch up with two of the recent tournaments I competed in. The first was the Daiwa/Hobie ABT Forster round on the 12th-13th March. Nothing of note to report here. All I managed was one legal fish the whole weekend. I was roasted a few times in the racks (which is pretty standard for up there) but apart from that it was a lot of casting for not much result. Although coming back into the weigh-in on the last day I raced past Meechy and you would've thought I'd cracked a good bag from my actions. In reality, I was just glad it was over. The photo is courtesy of the ABT website. http://bream.com.au/ The top 3 guys found the fish though and 3rd place was taken out by Stewart Dunn with a 6/6 for 2.57kg. 2nd place went to Jason Meech with a 6/6 for 2.61kg and top place went to Luke Kay with a 6/6 for 2.73kg. Luke found his fish in the Breckenridge Channel and found they took a liking to his Gulp 2" Shrimps in banana prawn colour. Well done guys on what was a pretty tough weekend as bag sizes and fish numbers were down on usual results. The next tournament I entered was the Squidgy Port Hacking Round on the 30th March. The weather wasn't great (the predictions were worse though) and this kept the kayak numbers down. Only 15 of us this time and I struggled to find fish. Pontoons and jetties just weren't working for me so I ventured into deeper water and finally pulled one up from 10 meters on a Gulp Camo sandworm. I then landed a couple of legal snapper that had me thinking I had found a chool of bream but alas, it wasn't to be. They were coming home for dinner though and then I even landed a squid, so he came home as well. I continued moving about and made it down to the weedbeds near Maianbar. The wind really kicked in then, as did the rain but I perservered and was rewarded with my best fish for the day, a 32 fork specimen that smashed my Atomic semi-hard (muddy prawn) as soon as it hit the water. I managed a few more that were just undersize and then I landed a first for me EVER! A Garfish!!! Being a first, he was granted his freedom. Time was up for me though so I it was in with the lure and into the long trek back. Reports from most was that it was a tough day, in fact only six of us yakkers managed fish. I scraped into 5th place and picked up a rod and reel combo and the podium was a who's who of the bream circuit at the moment. 3rd once again went to Stewart Dunn and 2nd went to on-fire Andrew Death (I think thats two firsts, a 2nd and a 3rd in his last 4 comps) but the winner (again) was Luke Kay who found all his bream in deep water and caught them on blades. This sunday sees the Squidgy St Georges Basin round being run (for details visit their website: http://www.ssbs.basinlureandfly.org.au/ ) and I hope we get a few more yaks at this event. Hopefully I can have a good round down there and get my bag nice and early. Happy yakkin', everyone! cheers, Cid