Well didn't Tom Mclean and I just eat the proverbial at the B.E.T.S Bream comp on the Harbour last weekend! After a few days of pre-fishing and getting our bag we couldn't catch a legal fish to save our lives on comp day. We actually caught one but given the fact the weigh in was taking forever with 80 odd teams we chose to ditch it and head for home to beat the V8 supercar traffic at Homebush. We had fun catching fish just not the right species. That's fishing.
The trip out to Windemere with Riverina Sportfishing was cancelled due to flooding which was a shame. We'll have another go in March.
Whilst guiding on the Monday morning in the Basin we wacked 20 odd bream and a reddie on bait for an early session then I managed a 70cm flattie and a cracking surface session in clear sandy flats for bream to 35cm on clear Jazz Zappa's and Maria Pencils.It was a fish a cast just as the wind came up in the arvo and one of those days locked into the memory bank forever. Water temp cooled a little this week from recent rain to 24-25deg as opposed to 28deg in shallow, and this has certainly helped the surface action.
Water in JB is still around 17-19 and with howling noreasters and rain not too many people have ventured out. I'll update this on Sunday if we manage to get out there ourselves on Saturday.
As your reading this hopefully the fish are setting up home in their new digs in the Basin. Thanks to the club that doesn’t just take, take, take, the club that practices catch and release, educates, organizes successful bream and flathead comps and put’s back into fishing, that being the St George’s Basin Lure and Fly Club, the Basin is now home to NSW’s largest artifical reef. NSW Dept of industry and investment recently gave a presentation at recent club meeting on the deployment of the second stage of the Artificial Reef program. The club was instrumental in acquiring the necessary funding from the recreational fishing trust (our licence money) for the establishment of the reef. The latest stage has seen a further 600 concrete balls ranging in size from 700mm – 1200mm arranged in a squared grid pattern near reef no 2. There will be gaps in between each section to allow fish to settle in the sand and travel, as opposed to just dumping them in a big heap on the bottom.
Check out www.basinlureandfly.org.au
Also on the research front, I&I now has in place an acoustic tagging program in some NSW waterways. To date fish have been captured and surgically implanted with an acoustic tag. In excess of 500 “Listening” devices have been established, so as the fish swims past it registers an electronic signal and the data is captured. These tags have the potential to last 10 years in a fish if it is allowed to swim and doesn’t get caught in a net or on a line by a fisho who doesn’t give a ---t about fisheries research. If you do catch a fish with a yellow tag near the dorsal get the number, take a photo if you can, release the fish and contact the dept of I&I. The info which has so far been collected on the Shoalhaven River is amazing to say the least, and gates have been recently installed in the Basin. To give you one example of the info collected, a mullet tagged in the fresh water in Tallowa Dam has ended up in Sydney harbour! The first batch of data to come out of the Shoalhaven River has been amazing to say the least.
These pictures are from a recent tagging session in the Clyde River with Dylan Van Der Muelen from NSW Dept of I&I.
First off catch a jewie on a plastic
The fish is then placed in a tub and sedated by pouring in an anesthetic.
Ready for "Doctor Dylan" to begin the procedure.
A regular tag is placed externally on the fish.
During the surgery the gills are kept hydrated by splashing water onto them.
It will be interesting to see what this summer brings on both a fishing and weather front. Given the fact that as of October NSW was officially out of drought and this part of the world has transitioned into a La Nina weather pattern we should see warmer east coast currents, more cyclone activity up north and some good inshore action at least. It’s anyone’s guess as to how long the Jervis Bay will stay cold for? But all the usual species have been on one day and off the next, and the LBG guy’s will be chompin’ at the bit for the annual run of small Marlin from the tubes. If the Shoalhaven River doesn't burst it's banks with a big flood this year I'll be very surprised.
The xmas madness is not far away now!
See you on the water some time
Greg
0413 610 832
www.bayandbasinsportsfishing.com.au
