From the land of the big bream.

It's been a while I know but the fishing has been top notch most days, and with the weather being pretty kind to us so I have been on the water most days the past few months. As I write this it's now May and it's freezing outside thanks to a cold snap. The Basin will now see some patchy days now but the good news is big tailor are present and they love the cooler water.I've now got tailor rigs at the ready which consist of 6lb braid with 80lb flourocarbon leader, and small minnow style spinners.The bay has continued to be productive although the past month has been a bream fest on the Basin so I've left the bay alone with the southerlies. The bream returned in massive numbers post spawn around the weekend of the Squidgey Southern Bream Series and went on the chew for 3-4 weeks solid. Every fish coming to the boat was shitting cockles and nippers and in really good condition to boot. In fact the bream were so prolific that was all we could catch for nearly two weeks. During this period I managed my first kids tour where we didn't use bait so that says it all. I love when you drift past a few boats dangling bait and catching nothing and the kids are whacking them left right and centre. I recently filmed a segment with Dave Buttfield which will be aired on pay TV in the next few weeks. You guessed it, bream. The segment was filmed on the new artificial reef which was layed down before xmas, check the screen saver shot!

 The screen shot you want to see. Wall to wall bream.
 

 Luke Jakovic with a cracking c&r 46cm Basin Bream on a camo Gulp craw.

 



Speaking of all thing TV and promotional. The "Big E" weaved his Basin magic with Paul Worstling from Ifish recently. They managed a 92cm "Croc" which took 20mins to get to the boat and had them calling it for a jewie or a big red. It will be amazing to see the footage. Yours truly turned blackfish expert for the day and Paul, myself, and good mate Dave "layback" Johnson managed a few luderick from the stones which was a nice distraction from the boat for a day. I used to do a lot from the stones and I plan to do a bit more over winter chasing blackfish and pigs.


I also had the privelege of guiding the enigmatic french lure designer Patrick Sebile recently. Mr Sebile has had a career as a guide, fishing lodge owner, lure designer having sold in excess of 4 million lures world wide which he has personally caught  over 664 species world wide. The guy has fished in 54 lodges around the globe and we managed to get him a world record Australian Salmon. We'll let it sit for a bit before we smash that one, but seriously, it was an inspirational day to say the least.



 Patrick Sebile with his record 60cm salmon. In 5 trips to Australia this was his first one! We're stoked.



The BCF presentations went down well and it was great to meet some Sydney siders who are now more tuned in to catching fish, particularly on lures. Check out this testimonial. This is why I enjoy guiding so much.

 

"Hi Greg,

I was at the talk at BCF Auburn you did with Garry Brown. I was Very unsure on the how where and why of blade lures but from some using the feed back was good. So on that night  I brought 2 blades to try both around 6 grams. I had talked to my mate about a lure only day and thought this a good enough reason to have a go. He told me they were getting some fish at Long Reef so to Long Reef we go. After finding a good looking spot on the sounder we tried the soft plastics and with many touches we only managed some small Snapper. Not setting the world on fire but showing promise. We decided to move and I changed lures to the little Strike Pro in an olive holograph finish. First cast I let the lure sink ant then gave the rod the lift to feel the vibration I let the lure sink and gave the rod a second lift, BANG! A fright train had just taken possession of my lure. Line was absolutely screaming off the reel. We were fishing  over rubble in about 30' of water  I was praying not to get bricked by this fish. I was using 10lb fire line with a 12lb trace to achieve the more natural presentation you stressed. So the battle was on what would give in first line, leader, hooks, or the fish.  I would get line back the fish would take it, I'd get it close enough to see shape but no colour. This fish was taking me all round to boat. Finally after a fight of between 5 and 7 minutes a nice Sampson fish of around 3kg was boated. To say I was excited was an understatement my fishing partner just stood there looking at the fish laughing. It had been hooked with both sets of trebels but had straightened one set out and nearly done the same to the second set. My fishing partner said I was lucky to not have lost the fish because the lure I was using was for use on bream and bass not these brutes.

I reformed the hooks on my lure and my mate changed to a blade. After a couple of small Snapper and having fun with a school of Bonito the wind got up and we left. We didn't get any more Sampsons but I know I'll be giving the Blades another go. That is after first upgrading the hooks.

So thanks for your input and advise It is appreciated.

Thanks"

Iain Mckay

Don't forget that winter in my humble opinion is one of the best times to be on the water. There's very minimal boat traffic and it was July last year that got me the cover shot for NSW Fishing Monthly with a 72cm snapper from very shallow water in the bay. Check out my monthly reports in NSW FM as Greg Finney has decided to call it a day and Tony Zahn has roped me in to report on matters piscatorial for the Illawarra. Happy days.

 Canberra Fisherman's Club secretary Chris Head with a thumping Basin Tailor

 Gary Brown came to town and put a smile on his dial!
 

Khaled Ajaj with the prize. C&R 43cm bream from half a metre of water in the middle of the day.
 

 Eleanor Gibson (13) proved that fishing isn't just for blokes.

 I'm lovin these new shads from "Storm". You need them in your bag of tricks!

  

 

See you on the water some time

Greg Reid

www.bayandbasinsportsfishing.com.au

Autumn is here.

Where did summer go?

Whilst the northern half of the country suffered under the deluge of flood and cyclones we've been very very fortunate in this part of the world to not only have missed the whole natural disaster thing, but experience some of the best fishing in years.

The Basin has showed why it is one of NSW premier fisheries with some cracking sessions but just like any estuary it can and does shut down, particularly with lure fishing. Compared to previous dry summers the summer surface bite hasn't lasted as long, and the whiting in particular were down right slow by comparison in the Basin itself. The Sussex River has been the go this summer for whiting. Having said that we set a new record of 20+ black bream on surface in one session over the past month, and the bait fishing sessions are still going strong. Happy days.

 New kayak fishing guide Darryl Head with his PB 90cm Basin tailor on a Rapala Shad Rap.

A brace of Basin blacks. You didn't need to go to Mallacoota boy's.

JERVIS BAY

The bay and offshore have fired! It was great to part of the team from Hobie and Fishing Australia with Rob Paxevanos, and to witness Rob's amazing effort in capturing an 80kg black marlin with Paul Leary from a Hobie tandem Mirage Is kayak at the "Banks" in February. See the Hobie website for more details.

http://www.hobiefishing.com.au/2011/02/hot-currents-equals-hot-fishing/#more-1136

A truly amazing day at the office!

In the bay the kingfish have been going off! I got my pb metre king to 12kg in February. We've been getting some great kings to 92cm with sessions of regular 74-83cm fish. I tend to think that this is a direct result of the banning of the fish traps over a decade ago. Also, a wet winter. The nutrient (food) which was part of the fish kill in January is more than likely contributing to the high recruitment of juveniles from many species this month. This has led to a feeding frenzy by yellowtail, slimey mackeral and bonito, which in tern attracts the larger predators. Underneath all this feeding on the surface the reddies have been cleaning up the scraps and we have caught reds to 4.5kg in the middle of the day. Blink and you'll miss it. The down side to this is that reefs in the bay have resembled a car park on the weekends whilst the people with day jobs jostle and drive too close to each other for comfort. Book a midweek tour to avoid the congestion.

Note: All the large kings pictured were released to fight another day. Only take what you need for a feed and put the bigger fish back if you can. The red came from 30m of water and couldn't be released. It ended up on the dinner table after being prepared at the local Thai restaurant in Huskisson.

 Feb has seen a few flat days and a bend in a rod.

 The girls had a great day out with this fish in the middle of the day on a Berkely Gulp.

PB's all round!

A nice little stripie on 6lb for a bit of surface lure fun.

NEW KAYAK FISHING TOURS AND GIVEAWAYS.

On the kayak fishing side of things I'm really pleased to announce that we have finally got the I's dotted and the T's crossed from the relevant authorities and we will be launching our NEW kayak fishing tours in the very near future. The first 50 people to book onto a guided tour will receive a "Hobie pack", containing a shirt, hat and accessories. This is really exciting for both myself and new kayak guide Darryl Head. Darryl is an extremely experience canoe and kayak guide and has been operating tours on the upper Shoalhaven River for more than a decade. All kayak tours will be conducted on the calm waters of St George's Basin and the upper Shoalhaven River for bass, in fact we have access to private property on the river. Stay tuned for more.

Check out the pic of Darryl and his pb 90cm Basin tailor whilst filming with Rob Paxevanos recently.




FISHING WORLD MAGAZINE

Just in case you weren't aware of Fisho's extensive online material, check out the link below and take the time to really have a good look at the website. It's a wealth of essential info, and the regular weekly newsletter will keep you up to date and informed as to what happening in the "fishing world" pardon the pun.

http://www.fishingworld.com.au/news/estuary-reds-the-usual-suspects

BCF INSTORE APPEARANCES

I'm booked to do another instore talk with Gary Brown at BCF Auburn on the 6th of April. This follows on from the successful BCF Club Member night at Campbletown recently. Gary and myself will be waffling on about how to catch all the inshore species like flathead, bream, snapper and jewfish on both bait and lures. Put that one in your diary if you live in Sydney and pop in and say g'day.


ET'S E-MAG

Check out my latest article on ET's new E-mag. It only takes a minute or two to register and you have access to some great fishing and lifestyle articles from the best in the business.
check out www.escapewithet.com

Tight lines and good times

Greg Reid

www.bayandbasinsportsfishing.com.au

Happy new year.

G'day Folks

Well hasn't it just been an incredibly busy period since early December 2010. The planned trip out west with Jamin Forbes from Riverina Sportfishing was canned because of the flood situation and the week guiding on Sydney Harbour for Craig McGill's Fishabout Tours was a highlight of an amazing year for yours truly. The Harbour is an amazing world class fishery and Fishabout are a very professional operation. Expect more things to come in this dept.

Xmas has been and gone and will go down as the best xmas fishing I've ever experienced on the Basin to date. We managed to find a good patch of super hungry pan sized snapper, bream, and tailor to 4kg on surface. Throw in a few croc sized flatties and there a lucky few who now have new pb's and memories to last a lifetime. Throughout these whole session we didn't have another boat within half a mile of us the whole time! Happy about that considering the amount of knuckleheads on the water who put their families safety at risk by not having a clue about where they're going. Enough said. Jervis Bay is still on the cold side at around 19 deg and the kings have been patchy inside the bay. The upside has been a good run of summer reds. Graham Parker now has a pb red of 72cm to 4.5kg to brag about. Well done GP. As I write this we have in the past few days experienced one of the most intense downpours of rain which filled a wheelbarrow in a few hours in my back yard. The amount of fresh is definately affecting the surface bite in the Basin. Lets seen what Autumn brings? 

Tight lines and good times.

Greg Reid

www.bayandbasinsportsfishing.com.au