Harbour & Lake,, Inshore Fishing Light Line Fishing Page 2
This is more about Light fishing, casting / flicking a few plastics about, both from boat and land / shoreline.
Inshore,,, Swansea and Newcastle Fishing areas, that are currently being fished.
Hunter River, Areas around Kooragang Island, Ash Island.
Lake Macquarie, in and around.
Wallis Lake, great flathead ground
Click on the date 07,04,2009. 10,04,2009. 02,05,2009 20,05,2009 11,07,2009
05,08,2009 07 / 09,08,2009 12,09,2009
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Seeing that the water in the harbour was as dirty after all that rain, and you could not cast over the debris, I thought that I might go for a walk along the Swansea channel.
The water was nice and clear (maybe to clear), but a great walk, even if you don't take a rod and go fishing.
So how good is this, looking west, lots of areas to throw a few lures, and a caravan park well back on the left.
This is looking East, we are on the South Western side of the bridge.
I saw the rough patch of water, this is where the shallow runs into deeper water, a good spot for Flathead.
Well I tried but it was not happening, but a great walk and a nice day.
Paulus
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10,04,2009. Flathead for a Friday feast
Thought I would go and throw a few lures around Kooragang, I was surprised to see that the water had cleared a considerable amount and that I could see bottom in about 6 ft of water.
Still a lot of debris in the water and on the Eastern side, it is more than annoying, lots of leaf matter and grass made fishing more than difficult.
You can see the colour of the water.
Well I did no good around all this debris, and decided to give the point a go, not before I hooked bottom and lost a lure. My knots and set up must be working well as I had hells own trouble in breaking it off, and as expected the surgeons end loop knot broke. Just great.
Having moved around to the southern point, it was only a few moments and I had a small Flattie and let him go, where there are small ones there are big ones, like the next a 600 mm Flathead, about time I said to watching by passer. After a few minutes of untangling the lure out of the net, I set about to try for another.
Half a dozen casts later whack and away it went this is a good fish I thought, and after a few runs I saw the fish, not a lot of hook in him, so tread careful, finally got it in the net.
One side of the loop was broken so that was a saving, as the fish and lure would be gone.
So fish and chips tonight.
Paulus
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02,05,2009, a day out with Tony (Bolts)
After seeing this on the BigCatch site (The
great economic slowdown) I thought I better give in and take Bolts for a
fish in the lake.
So empty all the marlin gear out of the boat, fuel in and put the small
stuff in.
I said this is going to be an office hours fish, 8 am start as I am
stuffed after a trip out to the shelf the day before.
Well, we put in at Croudace bay, and headed out to find a few flatties,
Tony said I know where their are some Bream about,,, I do not like
bream, so allowed that to go over my head. This is a flattie hunt.
Pulled up over some old ground and after 2 drifts Tony had a few medium
and 2 large flathead in the boat, 690, 740, and I had a 710, then he
lands another 765 or so, bloody hell when your on your on, anyway he
tells me its got to go back, I looked at him strange, Back I said,,,
yep,, you are only allowed one each over 700, well I said you better do
a remeasure, and he did laid them all out, and well, it had to go back,
and it did, rules are rules. Drat.
At one stage Tony looked at me and I could see the thinking,,,, I said I
will catch some fish if I get a chance to get off the bloody net and a
line in the water.......We got a bunch more medium and smaller ones, and
missed, dropped a lot more small and big ones. A few straightened out
hooks, tried out some fancy colours, a few things yet to try, for the
next trip.
And near forgot, all the Squid and flounder.
What a great day, never seen so many big big fish, as the wind got up
and we decided to give it away, but will go back
Bolts ya brained them mate. Never seen so many big fish.
And he should be smiling too.
The one in the net had to go back, Just to many
big ones, we started catching them around the 480 to 650 after this lot.
Still dropped a few big uns though.
Paulus
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20,05,2009. The last week
Threw a few plastics about and got some very nice
Flathead, well 3 in 3 casts, things slowed a little when out of the blue Tony
got a hitto end all hits and the reel just just screamed off, no holding back
this fish. As this fish is taking heaps of line, Tony said can you turn the boat
a little Paul. Any one would think you had a marlin on, and the way it was going
it could have been.
Anyway as time went he finally wore it down and out, we landed it in the net a
great pinky well with a bump on it's head its a Snapper, it went 2 kg and what a
nice fish.
On the Mat 530 mm at 2 kg. got to love that bump, a great
fish for the lake. get a load of the Plastic.
What a top day.
We got a little of everything today, like a good sized Taylor foul hooked,
called it as a 1mt Flattie.
And so back again, into the lake for a fish.
And well well well, what a busy time fishing in the lake
of late, and a lot of good fish.
Just goes to show when you find the area where they are hiding, and you can
entice them out to play, it pays off well.
Fishing with Tony (Bolts) and Harmen, what a great time we had this day.
Harmen with a new rod, reel and line, great combo, and got some massive
flatties, first cast, yet alone to try.
The lake is a great spot to fish with plastics, with a great variety of species
available.
We fished in some very very poor weather conditions and at times had to steady
the boat, but the fish made them selves available to us.
We had Flathead, with many big ones being put back, Flounder, Jew fish, Snapper,
Tailor, Bream, and a few thing that are still travelling at high speed, and then
some very small things that we will not mention.
Had a great time with good company. Time to check out a few new spots.
be back soon.
Paulus
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11,07,2009 A plastics trip in lake Macquarie for flathead
The weather was just too good to pass up, so asked Tony if he wanted to do a little plastics session in the lake.
Little did we know it was going to turn it on for us, we had never seen so many good sized fish
This is the area we fished, normally we are in an area a little north of this called the traps, but it stopped fishing a while back, that was after all that rain we had.
We found the fish by drifting south so just kept on going back over the same area. The drift was slow so it was easy to fishing. We were amazed at the quality of the fish, and the amount of hits we were getting.
The lures we were using were 3/16 gram and then changed to 1/4 gram jig heads with about a 1/0 hook and 5 inch jerk shads in a yellow and brown colour, I had started to use a lime and pink lure, and changed over when Tony was getting more hits on his colour than I was on mine.
It was taking the lure about 25 to 35 seconds to hit bottom, that's before we could start working it, at times a little longer (the further you cast), I think one tends to start working the lure a little too soon, you need to see the line slacken, before you then start working it.
The water temp was a little cool at 12.9 deg at the start, but built up as we drifted south to 15.5 deg.
The 4 lb Woodstock Power Strike braid and 8 lb mono leader never failed all day and we had hooked a lot of big fish, just great when you find a system that works for you.
If you want more information on the line, knot, setup and system contact me.
We wound up with a bunch of Flathead, 2 Tailor and a nice Bream. The Flathead were between 500 and 690mm most on the larger end of the scale, with only one over 700mm long, at 760mm.
We put a few back and dropped a lot, just not hooked up well enough I guess.
This was the biggest fish for the day, and what a fight it put up, you can see the line coming out of it's mouth has a 4 to 5 inch long double (a surgeons end loop) at the lure end , this is actually tied to the lure with a clinch knot, many fish have teeth that cut or rasp they soon wear through the line, in there somewhere is a 5 inch jerk shad.
I guess this little guy was wondering what was going on, it's a Gurnard, and what a show, not big enough so lives to fight another day.
As we had reached our limit with the Flathead (so a few elderly friends will be happy) we tried for other species in the afternoon but nothing, where ever we went, so called it a day.
Paulus
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Another great day on the lake, plenty of big Flatties and
a few good sized Tailor, at the traps area, in 9 mts of water.
Out with Harmen, and met a few of the boys from the Bigcatch website, Hey
Guys,,, who were also doing very well on the Flatties and bigger Tailor (650mm)
than we got. Good to have a chat Guys.
We could see the tailor were working close to us, but did not try to encounter
them, as we were not setup for them, although we did, and I got bitten off.
Harmen landed 2 good ones, mind you he was lucky as he lip hooked them, mine was
bitten off with 3 inches of the double gone, then he lost one it bit through 2
layers of 65lb braid that was on the stinger.
We had some great hookups on big Flathead, and with the water being so clear,
you could see them take their runs time and time again, awesome to see these big
fish doing barrel rolls and darting away trying to get away, and a few did just
that.
We used 1/4 oz jig heads with a 2/0 hook on 5" jerk shads in curried chicken, I
started off using a stinger in the lures tail and caught most of the fish on it,
when Harmen using a blade, on which he also got good fish (and some very small)
decided this stinger bit is a good idea and changed over. Then landed fish
because of it. I think he is hooked in the idea.
Great Day Mate, Thanks
Paulus
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Went out on the lake with Bolts to try for a few
tailor, Flathead and what ever else bites and gets stuck on the end of
the line.
We set out in the usual area and got a bunch of flathead, the Tailor
were not about in the numbers we saw the other day.
The wind had picked up by now so we put a few weights out, to slow the
drift along with a big square bucket.
We got a squid that was put on a paternoster rig out the back, we towed
it around all day, although the squid changed it's self for a tailor at
some stage so we towed it, and it was released at the end of the day.
We let all the flatties under 550 go, seemed to be a lot of smaller ones
about.
I was using a stinger and i thought that tony may have changed ove as he
dropped a few, but no he said he was happy with his setup, I thought I
may have swayed him as i got a lot of my fish on the stinger,,,, but.
Things slowed a little, and Tony said i am putting on a 7 inch pepper
prawn shad to try, big lure on a small hook, I thought.
We did a slightly differing drift, and Tony hooked up big time, I mean
big time then gone, open the bail arm, open the bail arm, i yelled, gone
it's gone. Now maybe a good idea to put a stinger on.
Two minutes later Tony is on again, big big is the word, this fish is
just put a huge bend in the rod, Tony is saying, don't you let go,,,,
don't you let go, then, just read the above, dam dam,,,,, now it may pay
to look at that stinger.
A few minutes later the same thing and same end result, and then after 3
losses on goes a stinger. He did get a 640 flathead later,,, and not on
the stinger,,,, it was time to go.
I believe that the stinger along with a lighter slightly softer leader,
my catch rate is up 30%.
Great day on the water, windy but nice. Paulus
Now I went back out 2 days later >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Out this time with my line testing mate Scott,
another mad fisho.
Well went to the usual spot and the second cast I got a hook up on one
of the monster fish that Boltsy dropped the other day, now with a new
rod doubled over trying to hang onto this monster, so after a few runs
this thing came forward and Scott got into the net. 3.57 kg, not my best
but a great Flattie, weighed it and we released it.
We saw the birds working and knew that the Tailor were on the way, I had
pre rigged a line for the toothy critters, Scott said I might have a
crack at these,,, let's see if I can loose a lure, next thing we knew we
had a double hook up on Tailor, and got both in, great Tailor, Scott
with one over 550 long.
Scott for the day got Flatties, Bream, Tailor,
Squid and Flounder, we let an awful lot of fish go.
Scott said''''' I did not think that their were fish in the lake, he
normally fishes the Karuah area, but now, may well fish in the lake.
Paulus
Ps Boltsy will be pissed, seeing that shot. I recon that is one of the
ones he dropped.
Comment from Tony,,,,,, glad you put it back so I
will get it on the weekend,,,,,,,, anyway I think one was bigger.
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12,09,2009
On the Lake
Well with the weather being windy of late and me
with a knee that went between two rocks, Ouch, the weather can be a
little unkind in the boat off-shore, so we went back out on the lake
again on Saturday, in the Croudace bay area.
I have had a bit of a problem with my Daiwa rods of late, that is the
runners going rusty and breaking, so I tried a new rod, I generally use
a 8 to 12 lb M7, so I tried a new Flueger well the first flattie I had
on, I had the tip meeting the butt and it was obviously not a 8 to 12
lb, any way it went back. I then decided to get another Daiwa similar to
what I had, well what a disaster this was, line wrap around the first
runner, air knots and cut and join many times through out the day,
strange isn't it 2 rods only difference being the size of the first two
runners (smaller then bigger) what a disaster.
So having that off my chest. I went back to another old Daiwa M7, but
with 30mm off the tip (new glued on) no further problems.
Well back to fishing, and what a great morning it was, first few casts
out great, then I spot my troublesome rod and thought, wonder what the
difference between these two rods is, grabbing the rod and holding it
along side of the older one,,, little difference only the runner size,
so I go to put it away and the jighead and treble tangle in my line,,,
shit, tried to untangle and it just got worse, by now my line is well
under the boat and all shit is going on. Well finally got it all
untangled and started to pull my line in and Dam it, stuck, struck a few
times at the snag, then got a few bumps back ,,,,,,,, well a fish and a
very big one at that, so after a 30 second fight it spits the lure,
bugger opened the bail arm and let the lure drop, watching watching the
line then gave a twitch and I struck, on again, not long after it spat
the lure again, open the bail arm but this time its gone.
The reason ,,,, no stinger on. so fixed that.
Then my buddy Tony gets a hit I looked at him and said my fish that is,
balls that was way back he said, it's been following, ok ok then it
spits it, open the bail arm, already being done, on again and half a min
later spits again, sama sama and on again this time it's in the boat,
great fish still recon it was mine.
I got a few small fish and we put a 5/0 hook in one and towed it about,
that was for a while then Tony said some thing odd about that rod, gave
a tug and the reel started to scream, got a great Flathead, then got
another small fish and was going to hang him out the back when i jumped
out of his hand, lucky fish, probably saw the hook.
Fishing was slow but we boated a few and let a lot go, at one stage we
saw a school of Tailor smashing the surface and heading our way, but
they changed direction.
For the day we got Flounder, Bream, Snapper and Flathead, great day on
the water.
Saw a few guys at the ramp and on the water, Hey Tully good to C U again
I need to have a rod with a few small baits to tow around just to catch
a few small baitfish to use as livies.
I had better set it up.
Paulus
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