Well well, I'm back from a trip to Narooma, and I come back with some new experiences and captures, some sun burns, very little sleep and one hell of a time. It's always good to get out down south, and although the fishing wasn't too crash hot (with no help from the weather either!), it was a lot better than last year!

It all started last Sunday, we got out pretty late and hence arrived in the late afternoon, met up with Rod Stokman at Batemans on the way there and grabbed some tackle and info. After unpacking, the whole family fished the Wagonga flats for a few baby bream and tailor (amongst other things) on nippers, I just wanted to relax, no serious fishing was intended. Narooma sure is beautiful.



The next morning was spent fishing the early morning on the flats in Wagonga inlet...there were NO SIGNS OF LIFE! Tried everything for nought, but, all of a sudden a big something (probably a ray) picks up my lure and steals almost all my line before...ping! Now I need new braid, I can't fish with only 30 metres of line left. That was a real pain in the arse, but oh well.

We then went to a special spot in Tuross River in the afternoon, and guess what dad breaks my favourite rod with the car door of all things! Everything was going wrong tackle wise today. The broken rod really put a dent into my session and made fishing tough. But, I continued with the 10lb outfit. I hooked up to a smaller ray that gave a little tussle, and saw some of the biggest whiting ever! Spewing that I didn't take any poppers! Tried to get them on SP's (all I had on me) but little bream, toadies and tarwhine beat them to it everytime. Next time.... I also forgot the camera, it's a beautiful area and one that produces...how do I know? Because Stuart Hindson fishes there.

Then went beach fishing in the evening, nothing really doing, the beach was pretty bare, there were barely any gutters. HOWEVER I managed a crap load of little mullet. The picture is the average size (tiny ay? ) but I did get 2 or 3 legals, one which I cut up and chucked back out in hope of something bigger. No body else on the beach seemed to be catching anything by the way, they were all shuffling closer to me and studying my technique as I was pulling in the fish, albeit small ones hahaha. At least I was catching fish, almost every cast pulled up fish.



Tuesday morning was spent on my favourite charter, we caught some bait including a few slimies mixed with the yakkas. One of the little guys (around 12-13yrs) hooked up on old squid, a short while later, a very tired little boy brings a thumper 86cm king on board! I don't think he caught another fish though hahaha. The sight of the king told me to grab the brand new Duo Drifter/Applause combo and down went a live yakka...waiting...waiting...waiting...thump! zzzzz! Hooked up to something, I managed to get it up without too much trouble. A nice ~60cm king was boated and the new outfit was blooded. I was at the front of the boat (bow I think?) so going down to the deck to get a piccie was too much of a hassle in the big swell, and he was only little too, so he went back in no time. My hopes were high for something bigger. ;) We do some more drifts around Montague Island and some trolling, but nothing serious for me. I manage to boat some assorted species like rock cod (some thumpers too!) and sweep (kept one to see what it tasted like), but apart from that I was struggling. Short while later, thump! zzzzzz! This time on the 20lb outfit. This time an even smaller king was boated, it went around the 50cm mark. Ah well, that's two more kings than last year and let's not forget that at any size they still pull bloody hard! At least I came good in the last few minutes before full time, pulling in a nice snapper for the table. I also kept some slimies for both bait and for the table. ;)



We enjoyed the rest of the day around Tilba Tilba, just looking around with the family, enjoying a nice lunch and buying little things like cheeses, candy and crafts. These little towns have ripper food! I love free samples lol. Went back home to just lounge around, and have a nap...was a bit buggered from the past few days. The family sat down that night to a fresh seafood meal. The rock cod was delish with a béchamel sauce as well as the snapper cooked whole with various asian spices. The slimy mack and sweep was surprisingly good if fried lightly and crispy.

Slept in a little bit on Wednesday as there was no charter on, totally booked out across the whole area! However we did pump some nippers in the arvo and hired a tinny to motor around Wagonga. It was pretty fishy everywhere even though they were all basically just undersized bream and snapper, but my mum managed a nice bream.



As soon as it went back in the bites stopped and we had to move. Unfortunately all we got for the rest of the day were undersized fish. Sat down that night to pizza and rigged up for the following charter trips for the next three days.

A a side note, I managed to convince my dad to pick up a new rod to replace my broken Black Diamond, a Strudwick Sic Stick Pro 7' 1-3kg. A very nice rod, I also picked it up for a scamp $140...marked down from $280. I think Strudwick has gone out of buisiness or something.

On Thursday I went out on another charter, but the results were pretty ordinary. It started badly with no live bait showing up which meant we had to use old frozen stuff, and sloppy weather stopped us from fishing the best spots. I only managed a few sweep, a leatherjacket and a few sand flathead. Nothing really exciting, a few rat kings were landed by other blokes but apart from that it was slooooow going. However we did have some fun with the big rays at the cleaning tables, with the tide a bit high they weren't afraid to poke their heads out of the water for a hand feed of scraps. Gave a few a pat on the head...they are very very slimy but very docile.

The days catch in a bucket of blooooood...



Up close and personal with the big rays.



Spent the rest of the day resting, the past days of non-stop fishing had caught up to me. The family went to some beach (I forget its name) and saw a guy fishing and they say he caught what looked like a rat salmon and that was it.

Friday provided very poor weather, it forced most of the charter operators to cancel their trips in the morning, including mine. Not to be deterred, I went back to the cabin and rigged up for some bream in the golf course lake. There were a heap of fish around, mostly rats but the odd OK model...but all of them were extremely spooky. Gave up after about two hours and went back to have a real breakfast.

In the afternoon we all decided to hit Wagonga and fish land based. Tried poppers at first but the wind was making the surface too choppy and made accurate casts near impossible, I lost my Rebel Pop-R thanks to a sudden gust of wind blowing the lure right into a mooring rope. :mad: However, once I found the fish I absolutely nailed the bream, the first few were on nippers but I quickly changed to SP's and they couldn't get enough of the Gulp! New Penny 2" Sandworms, but they were all little runts like the one below. For some reason the Wagonga flats fish better in the afternoon than the morning? Or at least for me.



We also managed to find a Blue Swimmer crab swimming about. We managed to scoop it up for a snack. Very tasty.



There was also a huge storm front showing up in the evening, just outside our cabin hovering above Montague Island. Amazing to watch the clouds sweep in and move out to sea.



Saturday was my last opportunity to go out on a charter, unfortunately like the Friday the weather prevented us from going out. :mad: So I decided to hit the beach just down from the caravan park. Third cast...tap tap tap...on. Felt like another little mullet, but instead a baby salmon of around the same size. I was using the slimy macks from the first charter trip. More hours past, more little hits. Hooking up to that size fish is hard with 3/0 hooks. A local dropped by and informed me that he had caught some 3-4lb salmon a few days ago, so they were around. Again, more bait went out, more taps then THUMP. Missed it. More bait, more taps and THUMP again, but this time it stuck. After some tense moments fighting the fish in the churning waves, a beautiful salmon was in my hands. Would've gone a touch more than 3lb I rekon.



Spent the rest of the day pumping nippers and amusing myself with the undersize whiting and bream that hung around the clouds of sand we puffed up. We then went to a spot a local butcher informed us of a special spot that works just prior to low tide. Unfortunately the weather then turned for the worst with high winds, rain, thunder and lightning forcing us to retreat back to the cabin.

And finally, today came. I spent the morning at the beach again. Managed a small salmon of around 35cm but had to cut the morning short to pack. No pictures, the camera was stowed away somewhere or other in the car.

So that was my trip, it was a lot better than last year but I am still to relive the antics of 2006, that was a trip indeed. However the fishing was still good, a lot of fish albeit not too many big ones. The salmon was a highlight and any kingfish is a good one in my eyes.

Cheers,
Alex

P.S. I'll post up some more pictures later, stupid thing limits my amount of pics.

good one mate sounds like ya had a good time ,except for the rod ,,,oh by the way you still had more page to write on if ya though tit was a bit short of a story lolololo

Good report mate...looks like you all had a great time....well done...

Well done on report left some tips in shoutbox for you.

It's a bummer when you go away & the fish dont want to co-operate but @ least you got a few

Just one Q ???

Did the sweep taste like crap ???

Nice report and photos.

My favourite part of the coast pal. I'm down there from Saturday for a week. Family and fishing. Cant wait

What charter where you going out in(or trying to)

In my limited experience.. the flats, on a low, in the afternoons have landed me some quality

nice pics looks like another good trip thats what lifes all about experiences im off with me mate sumo to awoonga dam long way but if never ever go youll never ever know ...barra here we come ..ahhaha keep up the posting well put togehter

Well done C&R it was like reading a book, I was wondering what was going to happen next.
What did the sweep taste like?

Hey Goldfish, thats a great story, don't ever give up writing them, Just a couple of tips though! shorten your story and write two or three different versions, including all that you have tried to put in one, and try to finish with the climax
( highlight of the story) a couple of stories makes for better reading and doesn't tend to get boring, You have the capacity so use it to your best advantage and people will be asking you when the next story is coming.
I like your style Alex keep it up.

nice report cnr, there are lots of fush there,


yes jumpy, i reakon the sweep would have tasted like crap,

Sweep taste nice if fried lightly. Have to eat them on the day you catch them, they don't keep at all.

Will try to add pictures later, the stupid computer's acting up.

This post has been edited by catchnrelease: Jan 14 2008, 04:37 PM

nice report mate, and stuff what others say write in your own style.
i found it most enjoyable and informative, and it is good to see u having fun
the wife and i are heading down for a 3 bay fishing trip soon and i hope i can do as well as u did.

More pictures....

Me on the bow of the charter.



Some of the thumper rock cod from the first charter trip.



Another picture of the ray, it shows just how big it really is. It must have been at least 1.5 metres across. :o



A very very very very very very very very very very very very small salmon.



Salmon headshot...very sandy but came out nicely.



And the salmon cleaned up a bit, just gotta love the colours of a beach salmon.

good onya catch!!!

The Skipper used to make Gilligan go stand on the bow off the SS Minnow

Did you eat the salmon as well ????

Lightly fried with a Twit of Lemon

Nah, I put the salmon back. :thumbs_up:

I will firstly say to catchandrelease, very good report on the fishing and non fishing. It was well balanced.


Now as for these guys





Fight for the right of the Sweep.

Sweep require to be eaten with some sauce. I think a light salty type sauce (Soy with lemon)

What was that you were saying about info Christos



If ya ask me thats waaaaay toooo much information .

This post has been edited by Smelly: Jan 21 2008, 06:05 AM

Yeah thats a top report there Catch

Heap'sa detail almost too much i'm struggling to raise a Q

I did notice one thing tho

You were saying you were catching heaps of little Mullet with a few going legal .

Whats the go there ?? your allowed to use small poddy mullet for bait are'nt you ????

I trap'em all the time down the coast . My record is 24 in a cordial bottle in one hit.

Nice pics too budd specially love the ones of the ray .

Yeah you are right. I should have stopped by the way.