As I tap away on the keyboards me old office which is a caravan parked in back yard (and doubles as a bird watching hutch) is rockin away with gusts of over 40knts outside. I went down to the boat ramp earlier on and was lucky to prize the door open on the car. It had to happen. It's been wonderfully calm and serene here now for weeks and we need a good bit of weather to stir the mix and bring the fish back on the chew in some murky water.
June and July is a pretty interesting time in this part of the world. The pace is a lot slower and I get to enjoy time with the family along with some long lunches and afternoon siesta's by the fire. It's a great time to recharge the batteries and do some fishing I normally wouldn't do with clients like chasing blackfish and drummer off the rocks. Speaking of which, check out nex weekend's (July 17) episode of Ifish on ch10 and One-hd where your's truly turns blackfish expert for the day and catches a few luderick for the dinner table.
Luderick from the stones with Ifish's Paul Worstling.
Speaking of all things tv. If you have pay tv then check out "Hooked on Tackleworld" with Dave Buttfield on the Aurora channel on Tuesdays I think it is. We recently had a great bream session on the new artificial reefs in the Basin. The show should be re-run at least 20 times this year :).
Basin bream for "Hooked on Tackleworld" with Dave Buttfield.
Down in the Sussex River we've been doing the odd luderick session off the boat on spin gear which has been great fun. At this time of year the lower reaches of the estuaries are teeming with "luds" (luderick) and they taste great to boot. It's also been great to bring some simplicity back to my fishing and re-connect with fishing off the "stones" again.Also on the "lud" subject, I recently assisted the JBMPA staff in a luderick acoustic tagging program which is a combined effort by the JBMPA and Booderee National Park. Fish were tagged in the bay and I'll keep you up to date with any progress. It will be interesting to see how far the fish travel?
Surgically implanting an accoustic tag into a Jervis Bay Luderick.
"Luds" on spin gear is great fun with light fast tapered rods.
Regarding the rumours of 6 ton of fish being taken by fisheries in the Basin. Wrong.I recently participated in a trawl survey one evening in the Basin. Each trawl was 5 mins long using a 3m by 90cm long net. No more than a dozen fish or prawns per shot were collected, measured and then returned to the water. This method has been utilised for the past few years and valuable data about Recreational Fishing Havens all over NSW has been collected. Large amounts of fish are not being taken and if you do witness such an event you should be encouraged to record boat rego’s etc and call the illegal fishing hotline on 1800 043 536
Basin trawl count. 6 tonnes? yeah right.
PFIGA AGM
What the hell is the PFIGA. It's the Professional Fishing Instructor and Guides Association. Google it. I recently cruised down to Narooma for the weekend for the annual AGM and get together. The PFIGA is now in it's 20th year and whilst it originally had it's roots in the trout side of things, the membership base has now increased to reflect the saltwater side of the equation. The PFIGA accreditation is a stamp of approval of the guide or business having met strict qualifications and guidelines so that you as the client know that you are dealing with a professional operation not some back yard blow in or shonky operator who is neither insured or focused on the clients needs. Looking into the not too distant future, anyone who wishes to operate as a guide or charter operator will need this accreditation. Fishing tourism is worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the Australian economy and it's important that we have industry professionals offering the service, not dodgy brothers inc.Following on from the meeting we did what all good guides do and we went fishing. It was really great to spend the morning with Stuie Hinson from Aussie Fish Estuary Adventures and Jack Dart from Sunset Fishing Adventures on Stuie's boat on Wagonga Inlet. We managed some great estuary salmon, bream, trevally, flathead and tailor, and I have to say that Jack's thinly sliced beer battered salmon on the barbie was some of the best fish I have ever eaten. You better believe it!
Jack Dart and his famous beer battered salmon. Fast growing high yield fish that tasted delicious.
BIG REDS AND SALMON
July is also snapper time. Apologies to the few of you who had trips planned for the bay that had to be canceled due to the earlier batch of weather. The way the pattern works here is a batch of weather then calm conditions for extended periods. The calm in the few days following the weather is the time to be Johnny on the spot, particularly if that corresponds with high tides at dawn or dusk. The big reds are in real close for a few weeks to chew on the cuttlefish who are dying off after they mate, and big fish are a real proposition.As the water clears after the first week the fishing becomes tougher unless you want to chase salmon.
When I got the call from Nick Carpenter from Sussex Inlet that he wanted a lesson on chasing reds on plastics I immediately had a good feeling. I get really excited by the shallow water options that occur for a few weeks at this time of year, and as we set out in the pre-dawn light from Huskisson anticipation was high.Less than ten casts in, and enough time for him not to be concentrating on his line the rod buckles over and beautiful sound of ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ and line pouring off the real was a real wake up call. Thank fully the fish swam away from the reef, and after a few more solid bursts and a mexican stand off where we thought it was snagged on the reef, all 85cm of shallow water red appeared and was promptly netted.
Nick Carpenter's caught and released 85cm Jervis Bay Snapper.It's all down hill from here mate lol.
This red smashed the boat and his personal PB and the biggest buzz of all was actually releasing the fish after a few pics and watching it swim off. Words can't express the intense exhilaration you feel knowing the amount of preparation that is required to hunt these fish. These big reds are prime brood stock which will suffer no effects of barotrauma and should be released. It's a moral issue, but in my humble opinion more anglers need to develop a custodial view of the resource like the traditional landowners had, and only take a few smaller fish for a feed. You'd have to be a mug to kill one of these big one's. Glad to get that off my chest! We also ended up catching legal kings, salmon, bream and an absolute horse of a silver drummer on a plastic on that morning before hitting the Basin in the afternoon for not much.
You can see my latest article titled "Nick's Big Red Bream" in the next edition of ET's new E-mag.Go to www.escapewithet.com and take a few minutes to register. The mag is definately worth a read and it's free.
Gulp 5" jerkshad's in nuclear chicken. Guess what they catch?
The one below is a 6" Sebile worm which accounted for this small red second cast.
Now that's what I call a silver drummer.
Speaking of salmon earlier on, as most of you know I love love catching salmon, and in this part of the world they are a year round proposition. I've recently purchased a 6wt fly rod primarily for this species, along with mullet, bream, flathead, bass and carp, yes carp!, and I can't wait to tangle with some 3kg plus fish at Target beach. Speaking of Target, I had a social session there with Andy McGovern from Sport Fishing Australia Magazine last week. The beach was literally stacked with fat fish in less than 5m of crystal clear Jervis Bay water and they were willing to eat almost anything you threw at them. The guy's at Lox Rods had sent me a few rods to "play" with, and so the SP 7527 and the SP7225 were paired with a small 30 size Pfluger Arbour reel with some 6lb braid and look out! The stand out lure for the day was by far the 90mm sinking Sebile Stik Shad in green with blood red oil centre & retro fitted with a single at the rear.. This is the lure Patrick Sebile introduced to us when he was here recently, and the one which the IGFA record claim was caught on. I'm sorry Patrick but we are going to smash that record. Anyway the Lox rod performed beautifully. They are sooth as silk and casting is a joy. Mind you the 4-8kg Berkeley Dropshot's which we use on the boat with the same reel combo is pretty hard to beat in terms of value and you'll be amazed at their pulling power, we've only been using them this summer but they have accounted for some amazing fish and are a good all round combo for flatties, snapper,salmon and small kings.As I have said to many people who are new to using light tackle spin gear for bream etc Get your 1-3kg set up with 3lb braid and target some salom. You'll be amazed at how much power these finesse set ups really have.
Andy McGovern with a Target sambo.
BASIN
The fishing in the Basin has been challenging if you're targeting bream.Phil Holme's 41cm black being the standout for the month. The yellowfin bream are there but haven't been on the chew of late. We won't mention the result of team "Big E and the bandit" in the annual Sussex Bream comp because the big fella and myself were basically reduced to spectators on the second day watching everyone else around us wack fish left right and centre! That's fishing. On the final day we entered Cockrow Ck at 1pm with nothing in the live well and by 1.50pm we had our bag but had left our run too late to get back to Sussex without being penalised.We must therefore apologies for our unsportsman like behaviour and not fronting up to the weigh in on the final day, but it was pretty hard to leave the black bream biting lightly weighted plastics drifted down the side of sunken logs and travel back to Sussex.Compared to the monotony of blading in the deep you can give me structure any day. For those of you who are regular clients think about dedicating a day to exploring the "timber" on your next tour.
Start line for the Sussex Bream Comp.
Phil Holmes with a PB 41cm Black Bream on a green Maria Crankbait. These are a must have lure when chasing bream.
KAYAK TOURS
Over the next few months Darryl and I will be commissioning a new "fully sick mate" purpose built off road trailer to transport the kayaks to the upper Shoalhaven River and Tallowa Dam for our Bass, Bream and Carp tours. Now don't you laugh about carp! we're not going to knock back the opportunity to target 5kg plus fish because they're a noxious pest! Dazza promises me 100 plus bass sessions in the height of summer so let's see if he can deliver the goods. In the mean time it's closed season for bass and ep's which are spawning in the river but some high 40's bass have been caught and released well down the river in the past few weeks for those in the know.The trailer will be able to carry up to 6 yaks with all the gear and you won't miss us on the highway with a full wrap over the whole unit. I also can't thank Steve Fields from Hobie Australasia enough for his support in helping us get this off the ground. The yaks will also be available to hire for tournaments from Mallacoota to Forster with airport transfers available for anyone travelling from interstate. We're really looking forward to making some new mates and going fishing!, so give me a call today on 0413 610 832, or email info@bayandbasinsportsfishing.com.au
Have trailer will travel. Come bass fishing with us this summer.
FISHING REPORTS ON THE RADIO
Tune in on the weekends now for the latest fishing reports from this part of the world. On Saturday's I'll be broadcasting live on ABC Southeast with Jen on 103.5 at around 7am and then on Sunday's on "Hi Tide" with Keiren and Packo on 2SM in Sydney.
See you on the water some time.
Greg Reid
www.bayandbasinsportsfishing.com.au
