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

Artifical reefs tagging program & report 10.12.10

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. 

 A small incision is made and the accoustic tag is inserted. The tag is about the size of the top of your index finger. I missed the shot because it happened so quickly.

 During the surgery the gills are kept hydrated by splashing water onto them.

 A few stitches.

 A shot to ward off infection

 And a successful release.

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