Parramatta River - 14/12/08 & Oyster Bay - 21/12/08

Squidgie Bream Challenge Round 2 - Parramatta River

While Gary sat and drank bourbons in the pool on Hamilton Island, Terry and I braved the 30 knot winds (again!) for a rather unspectacular bag. We only managed 2 fish and didn't even crack the top 20. Sure, we lost a few crackers but the only fish of note landed was a nice whiting of 40 cms that Terry picked up with ten minutes to go.

Oh, and Terry did hook a monster...the only trouble was that the monster was him. Ouch! Right in past the barb and it took him about 20 minutes of cursing, crying and yelling to get the hook out. Makes me wonder how the fish get off so easily sometimes.

Oyster Bay - Lachlans 1st fishing trip

I remember a family holiday at Nords Wharf on Lake Macquarie when I was four years old and the days were spent with my father, drifting around in a tinnie, catching bream, flathead, whiting and blue swimmer crabs. That holiday was golden and my dad instilled in me a love for fishing that will be with me forever.

I felt that my son, Lachlan, who is four, was ready to come out in the yak and I'd attempt to get him hooked on this wonderful lifestyle we lead. He was a bit sceptical when I woke him at 5 am but was keen to get in the yak as soon as we reached Oyster Bay.

Drifting the flats with one lure out the back and casting ahead with the other (I'd cast and Lachlan would wind in), it didn't take long to get a hit and Lachlan was ecstatic. This was no record breaker but it bought back those fond memories again as this was the same type of fish that I'd caught for the first time all those years ago. A bream! Not legal but Lachlans eyes were wide with wonder and he readily accepted why we had to put him back.

Over the next two hours, I had the best fishing session ever. Not because we caught the most fish or the biggest but because I was there with Lachlan, teaching him what had been taught to me by my dad and watching him get excited over the same things all us anglers do. After 3 fish, he wanted to land them on his own and I was surprised when he managed it, too.

The final tally for the day was 8 fish - 6 to Lachlan and 2 to Dad, with four keepers (3 flatties and 1 bream). Back home he couldn't wait to show off his fish and was grinning like a Cheshire Cat when Grandpa took some snapshots.

We snuck out again for a quick session this arvo and landed a hefty flattie that went close to 60 cms which was closely followed by another about 40 cms. When we'd packed up and finished putting the kayak away he said, "When are we going again, Dad?"

It looks like I've got a new fishin' buddy.

Unfortunately my father died 17 years ago but I know he'd get just as big a buzz out of seeing Lachlan enjoying himself as I do. I never said it at Lake Macquarie when I was four but I'll say it now.

Thanks, Dad.

Happy yakkin', everyone and may you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

cheers,

Cid

Botany Bay - 8/12 to 12/12/08

I made it out for another few sessions this week but do you think I could land a legal Kingfish (65 cms)? The closest I came was 63 cms (about 4 times) but I did get smoked twice. I caught up with a few different guys out there and on friday morning there was ten of us bobbing around out there.

Once again they were hitting anything thrown. Poppers (from small to HUGE), SP's (all colours and types) and even metal slices. There'd be a frenzy of action for a few minutes then it'd go all quiet again. Then someone would hook up, and another two or three guys would get crunched as well.

Andrew (Rebel1 from AKFF) had been out most days and had a blinder with DaveyG where they landed about twenty each with Davey getting the biggest at 80 cms. But Andrew went out again this morning for zip. Not even a hit. Funny creatures these fish.

No Kingie action for me this weekend as it's the 2nd round of the Squidgie Bream comp. It's being launched from Bayview in hen and Chicken Bay and there should be over forty teams again which will make for a challenging day. Add the forecast wind and the murky water from the torrential rain we've just had, and it'll be doubly challenging!!!

Gary is up on Hamilton Island (catching Coral Trout, the swine) so I'm partnering with Terry for this one. Let's hope I can pull my finger out and land a couple this time. Happy yakkin, everyone.

cheers,

Cid

Botany Bay - 29/11/08 & 2/12/08

After last weeks efforts, it was pretty obvious where we were going to try next time. Saturday morning was just as calm in the grey light as wednesday but the obvious difference were the amount of boats zooming about. Terry was first off with a cast and straight away he hooks up. My cast is only a few seconds later and ditto, I'm on, too. These guys although spirited, were obviously undersize so it was quickly into the yak and back into the water for them.

Next cast and we both hook up again. Woo Hoo! Slightly bigger but still only about 60 cms. And that was it with the poppers (I find as soon as it's gets light they go a bit deeper), so we change to the Mojos. All up we managed about 6 each with two big reefings to our credit. No legals but great to see such healthy stocks of fish about.

I'm sure they went off the bite early due to the amount of power boat traffic. What really cheesed us off was a guy that raced straight over to where we were fishing before cutting the engine, then he rattled around with his anchor chain before tossing it over. If there had of been any kingies left in the area, they certainly weren't here now. : ( We gave it another 5 minutes without a touch and headed for home.

This morning I just had to have another quick flick and was greeted by two other yakkers already fishing, Andrew and Kevin (hi guys). They were also getting stuck into the kings and it was triple hookups a lot of the time. Once again they were mainly rats, such as Andrews here, but at least there were plenty to go around. No power boats to put them off and it was action aplenty until 6 am when they shut down. We floated about chatting for a ten minutes or so when ZZzzzzzzzzzzz, we're all away again.

I hooked my biggest for the day (felt like a beauty, too) on the last cast but the swine busted me off on something. Biggest I landed today went 63 cms, so I was only 2 cms off a legal one. I really do need to get some heavier gear as the 15 lb braid just doesn't cut it sometimes. I hope the weather holds for another early morning session this week. Happy yakkin, everyone!

cheers,

Cid

Georges River - 23/11/08 & Botany Bay - 26/11/08

Squidgie Bream Challenge

25-30 knot winds with gusts up to 40 knots. Sensational breamin' weather...NOT! These conditions completely stuffed any ideas that Gary and I had of venturing up to the Cooks River. Instead we stuck it out in the Georges which was a battle enough in the wind.

Things started off slowly until we hit some weedbeds that we figured would fish ok with the falling tide. Gary eventually rigged up with a Gulp 2" Banana Prawn and bang!, was on straight away. A few minutes later, he added number two to the well. After about 3 hours I finally get a hit and it's a small flattie. Not long after that I get another take and this one is much better..but it's still a flattie. Very nice size at 65 cms but useless in a bream comp.

As the day wore on, we slowly added bream until we had our 5 bag and even added a couple of upgrades. When I say we, I actually mean that Gary hooked them, I netted them and then put them into the well. I couldn't catch a bream for love nor money. Talk about being a spectator! And with 10 minutes to go I finally hook up to another decent fish but this time it's a whiting that stretches out to 44 cms. Sheesh...

Our (ie Gary's) bag ended up weighing 2.16 kgs which saw us nab 16th place out 41 boats, so not too bad considering the conditions. And to top it all off, two out of the top five boats caught their bream in the Cooks! Aaaarrgghhh.... Sorry Gary, next time I'll do better, I promise. : )

Botany Bay Kingie Madness

I'd heard that there were a few kingies around in Botany Bay so I ventured out for a midweek early morning session. Perfect conditions saw me flicking out an East Coast Popper bang on 5:30 am. Six or seven cranks of the handle and 'BOOF-O', I'm on! At first I thought it was a tailor but a strong run had me thinking that maybe it's a king. I had to go fairly easy with the 6lb braid and eventually I netted a feisty king that was about 60 cms. And first cast too, how sweet is that?

Just in case there were a few more bigger guys about, I upped the tackle to my 15lb outfit and threw out a 6" Mojo SP. Another surface smash knocks the lure flying and I can hardly control myself to fire off the next cast. I let it sink for a fews econds, then get two winds away when I'm on solid. Ooh, this feels like a good 'un. The line zings through the guides and I'm being towed back to the beach. Lot's of surging runs and I keep sideways pressure on him to tire him out. When I eventually see him through the slightly murky water I think, "Yowser, this could be close to a meter!". I make sure he's totally knackered before I tail grab him and haul him into the yak. Woo Hoo! He's a new PB for sure but on closer inspection, I don't think he'll go a meter. In fact, he came in at 89 cms and 5.82 kgs, so I wasn't too far off my estimate.

As I'm re-rigging, a school of kings busts up in front of me, so I throw on an olive green Sluggo this time, seeing if the colour change will make a difference. Another instant hook up, so no, it doesn't make a difference! This one goes about 55 cms and the next one I land is probably about 70 cms. I've already kept the big one which is enough for me, so anything I catch now goes back to grow bigger and wiser.

I change lures again, this time to a Squidgie Slick Rig and it's nailed as well. I continue changing lures and it doesn't matter what I use, they are getting hit. Another angler in a hornet (Brad) had turned up and had landed a few on poppers but they'd stopped hitting them and all he had were 3" plastics which he wasn't having any luck on. I gave him a couple of the Mojo's and he was back into them straight away.

At about 7:45 am they switched off which was my cue to go home. What a session! I'd say I landed about 12 kings between 50-65 cms and 5 between 65-89 cms. Plus I was reefed three times as well by some bigger guys, so I may have to take out some heavier tackle next time. Next time? When will that be? Two parties to go to this weekend sees an early session on saturday or sunday unlikely.. Cough, cough...Ooh, I hope I'm not sick during the work next week... ; ) Happy yakkin', everyone.

cheers,

Cid

Cooks River - 9/11/08

Still working too much and about to go up to Coffs Harbour for a week (but without the yak). Ripped off! I've just finished loading the car so thought I'd better throw this quick report up.

Nice conditions and a good tide last week but STILL the fishing is sloooooow. Plus the water was down a couple of degrees from last week. All up I only managed two decent bream, one falling to a blade over the flats, the other from a bridge pylon on a Gulp Sandworm in camo.

As I was heading back I flicked one of my rigged blades towards a channel marker and it was crunched immediately and I thought I had the bream from hell on the other end. But 10 seconds into the fight I felt the 'thump, thump, thump' up the line and knew it was a good trevally instead. Not a bad size at 46cm's and I was wondering what he was doing all the way up here.

Next week Gary and I will be fishing our first bream comp for the season. It'll be the 1st round of the Squidgies Bream Challenge which will be run on Botany Bay. Man, I hope the fishing improves! So stay tuned next week for the report in which hopefully, I'll have photos of Gary and I grinning from ear to ear because we took it out. : ) Happy yakkin', everyone.

cheers,
Cid

Cooks River & Botany Bay - 2/11/08

3 weeks without fishing is crapola! To make up for it, we were hoping the fish would turn it on for us and come out chewing their heads off. The sky was overcast, the tide had just started to run in and the water was up to 20.5 degrees. All signs looked promising. We started off by fishing the Airport Bridge and Terry dropped one right at the start. This was obviously a big mistake as we're sure the little bugga swam around telling all the other fish to be on the lookout.

Bites were few and far between until I finally managed to land my first bream of the day that went 32cm to the fork. But that was it from there so we moved out into the bay to start fishing some of the sand flats.


The action was a little better out here (though not by much) and I managed to get a mixed bag of bream, trevally and a tailor. All the bites were fairly tentative and we couldn't figure it out. Maybe there was still a bit too much fresh in the system and in hindsight, fishing deeper may have been the way to go.

Terry had landed a flathead and I left him to continue along the drop off as I had to head for home. Apparently, just after I'd gone, a small school of tailor busted up but Terry said they were only choppers and there were no legals among them.

To finish off, Terry ended up with 3 nice flatties, all caught on a TN60. And, he also managed an unusual by-catch on the TN60: a squid. The unlucky guy was hooked by one of the trebles in just one of his tentacles. He was soooooo close to getting away. That's life, eh?

I must say that the fishing hasn't been all that great in the Bay lately and I'm starting to wonder if all the dredging that's going on is having an adverse effect on the fish. I'm hoping it's just a slow start to summer and that things will come good any day now. I hope... Happy yakkin, everyone!

cheers,
Cid

Parramatta River - 8/10/08 & Botany Bay - 11/10/08

Another 2 reports but for one of them I was on a dirty, rotten, filthy, stink boat...but gees, I still had fun! A midweek session with Gary Brown (http://www.garybrownfishing.com.au/) on the Parramatta River was a chance to practice for upcoming bream tournaments and the early morning start saw us land a few nice flathead, the best going 55cm's and we ended up keeping 6 for the BBQ.

The bream were fairly quiet today but we still managed to swing a few onboard with the 38cm fella above being our biggest for the day. All the bream we caught were nice and fat though so at least they are in good condition.


Over one of the flats we worked, Gary had his Ecogear VX40 crunched big-time and we thought he had a ripper of a bream on the other end but when he eventually came to the surface he'd turned into this cracker of a whiting. Just over 40cm's and another welcome addition for the pan.

The water temp is slowly creeping up and surely it can't be too long now before the bream really start to put in a few great days for us.

Before the weekend chores, I raced down to the HWO on saturday morning for an hour to see if any kings were about. No luck there but I did land a few trevally (mostly on the blades again. These lures are great!) and dropped a nice bream right at the side of the yak.

On the way back in I did a sneaky and quickly had a flick under the oil jetty amongst the pylons. I felt some weight as the SP slowly sank, so I struck and ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip....ka-ping! I had no chance of stopping this guy and I was left with shakey hands to rig up again. Another cast to the same pylons and ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip....ziiiiiiiiip....ka-PING! Aaarrrggghh, done over again. On with some 10lb leader, another cast and bloody hell, I'm on again and it's looking like a repeat of the first two. I clamp down on the spool with my hand and now it's a brute strength tug-o-war and somethings gotta give. Unfortunately, it was the hook, which half straightened out which was enough for the fish to get off. Ooh, 3 casts and each one an adrenaline producing rush.

The bites stopped after that but when heading off I did see a couple of schools of bream which looked like they had a few 40cm+ specimens among them. Ah well, better luck next time, I guess. And to the two yakkers that were heading out in the Viking Tempo (I think that's what it was), I hope you had a great day and got into a few fish. I'm sorry I didn't get your names but thanks for saying hi and I'm glad you like the website. Happy yakkin, everyone!

cheers,
Cid