Smorgas Board Bonanza
Boat ramp are buzzing with talk of plenty of bust offs happening around Wisemans Ferry by what are thought to be big mulloway. With plenty of rain over the past few months, the usual jew spots around Wisemans haven’t disappointed anglers keen to land a mulloway. The fish causing havoc haven’t been sighted, but have left little line on reels as they have taken off without showing any respect for anglers attempts to land them.
Another species that are likely to cause similar chaos and destruction are sharks. Whaler sharks have been caught in the Hawkesbury for as many years as old timers can remember, and I know some of them who can remember sharks being seen at the North Richmond bridge when the steam train ran to Kurrajong.
Next time you see a skier flying past you on the river, think of them as doing some super high speed trolling. There are no known shark attacks that I have been able to find anywhere, but people have been attacked in rivers around Sydney, with injuries and death resulting.
More recent stories of the past few years have been of a whaler shark caught at Wilberforce, and another angler I spoke to who saw a huge spray of water erupt as a shark took a duck near the Putty Road bridge at Colo. The boys from Southern Bass also lost a nice sized bass to a shark and were left with nothing but the head.
Whalers are known to move into freshwater reaches way upstream from the more traditional saltwater habitats, with these sharks having been seen well above a sets of rapids in freshwater of some of our northern rivers chasing mullet.
Tailor are still about as anglers trying for different species are finding out. Tailor are lovers of lures and plastics, which gives those chasing flathead and bream are real surprise at times.
Wisemans Ferry and around Lower Portland have been likely locations for an encounter with tailor. It pays to have a reasonable trace on if tailor show up, because they make short work of light line.

EP’s Raise The BP’s
If there’s one fish that raises my blood pressure a little with excitement it’s estuary perch. They gaining in popularity on the Hawkesbury, with John Bethune and local guide Dean Hayes, having helped these great fish become appreciated for the great sport EP’s are, through various magazine articles and the Tidal Bass Action DVD. I reckon there’s not a swamp drain on the Hawkesbury that hasn’t been earmarked for some serious attention.
With Australia in the grip of a soft plastics craze for sometime now, soft plastics and EP’s go together like turkey and cranberry sauce. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about EP’s is that they love to tap the plastic before taking it. I like to slow role the plastic along the bottom and stop the moment I feel a tap. A very slow role across the bottom I find is best a lot of the time, and it’s almost slow enough to make someone think you were disinterested in fishing. SLOW!
Great locations to try for EP’s are in Webb’s Creek, Leets Vale, Dad’s Corner, Clifton Vale, and up to Cattai and little Cattai and beyond. Find some snags, weed beds and some swamp drains of course. They tend to hold a little wider out than bass, so if your in a boat, move wider than you would be for bass and give them a go.

When Times are Tough!
With daylight saving and warm afternoons, there’s every reason to stay out and fish for a few hours in the afternoons. With bass fishing activity at its highest level of the year, you might be finding that the fish are a little bit wary and reluctant to take a lure. While surface lures are great to use early and later in the day, it might be a good idea to try some new approaches.
Anyone can catch a fish when they’re on the chew, but being able to take fish when others can’t, separates the 10% of anglers who catch 90% of the fish. The problem with the 90% that catch the remaining 10% of the catch is that they’re so entrenched in their old ways.

With fish are being bombarded with a large number of various lures from all directions, it’s no wonder than the fish go quiet. If you"ve ever tried fishing an area straight after a fishing competition you’ll understand.
When things are tough, lighten up your tackle. The word finesse is often used to describe this, and it can make all the difference. Looking at the bass competitions along the east coast, the anglers who do consistently better than the rest in the field are those that use much lighter lines. Using line like six pound Berkley braid for bass that are potentially over fifty centimetres or might take some ticker in a competition, but in the right type of water, light lines rule.
Another tactic for hard fished bass water is to use techniques that others are using little of. The Nepean River near Penrith would have to be the most heavily fished piece of water in western Sydney, which can make it a difficult place to fish at any time. One guy who consistently takes not just bass from this area, but bass in the forty plus centimetre range is Tadashi Nishikura.
Tadashi has written a number of articles for this magazine on the Japanese fishing methods he has brought to Australia. If you’ve still got Tadashi’s articles, it would pay you to go over them again. This guy does nearly everything different to the rest of us, and he has the results to prove he’s on the right track.
Fishing is also a little bit like fashion. If you keep your old lures, they eventually come back into vogue again. Lipless crankers have held the popularity states now for a few years and for good reason, but fish have seen a lot of them by now and can become a little shy in heavily fished water when lipless lures make an appearance. It could be soft plastics which always seem to take fish regardless of how hard fished a place is, or perhaps it’s getting out the fly rod and doing what looks as natural as the real bait.
Try and think outside your normal tactics and be prepared to try new techniques. There’s some big bass out there, and it’s been said before, but big bass don’t get that way from being stupid. They’re there! You just need to be smarter!

Make The Most Of It!!!
When you’re fishing hard fished waters this next point is really important, because you may only get one good shot at pulling a fish in some areas.
Look ahead for places to cast your lure. Don’t spoil a spot by rushing a cast and making a botched job of it. You alert your fish to your presence and spoil an opportunity to catch it. Get yourself into a good casting position and make the most of the opportunity.
Rushing a cast is made all the more worse by fishing with someone else. Whether there is a spoken or perceived competition going on between you and your mate, the pressure is always on to catch more fish than them. Feeling the need to get a cast into a hot spot can mean a lot of time sorting out tangled lines and lures hung in trees.
If you’re in a boat with a mate, take turns to fish from the front, so you both get the chance to cast to to the best looking place first. If you’re second in line to make a cast and your casting into second hand water, cast a different type of presentation than your mate, and make your cast as accurate as possible. There’s a real possibility that second water delivers a first rate fish.
If walking the bank, you can make similar plans to those fishing in a boat. Whatever way you approach your fishing, it’s a lot easier and a lot more fun if you enjoy helping others catch fish, and you end up having no shortage of fishing partners.

Timely Reminder
Picture this! You’re out fishing at night and you cast a lure, fly or baited hook. No sooner have you made the cast than you feel a sharp sting just below the eye. After the initial shock sets in, you realise that you’ve just been caught by your own hook. You feel a little green when you realise how close you came to losing an eye.
I met up with a guy in hospital recently, who managed to hooked himself in the finger and ended up letter a novice doctor have a go at removing it. Not a good night out!
I recently hooked myself in the finger and with a little surgery managed to get the hook removed. We both had the same injury in the hand but the outcome was different for the both of us.
The difference? I crush all my barbs before any lure goes in my tackle box and I keep all my lure hooks very sharp. The guy is hospital believe that crushing barbs means less fish in the boat. I don’t believe I’ve caught less fish because I crush my barbs flat, and the guy from hospital has seen the light after his brush with pain.

A Proud Moment
My son is as keen as they come when it comes to fishing. He refers to bass often as "Daddy's fish!" and could tell the difference between a bass and bream when he was two.
I've been taking him out in the boat quite a lot, and like a lot of young kinds, doesn't take instructions very well from Dad at the moment. He has a 3'6" Ugly Stik with a little Shakespeare reel and he just think he's the ants pants with that. For obvious reasons, the lures he has been using have had the hooks removed.
On one particular afternoon, I was determined to help Nathan land his first bass. This particular afternoon started with a bit of drama, as Nathan ended up in the drink after falling from the boat. There was lots of tears, but a change of clothes and a biscuit and he was fine. Thankfully the water was 23 degrees.
To avoid the "I wanna go home now!" call from the wife, I had to come up with a fish and fast if we were to stay any longer.
My little 5'6" Strudwick and Shimano 50MG is a great little casting outfit, and I managed to get my bright green Kokoda Bugger Chug into a dinner plate sized pocket of water which was surrounded by weed about a foot or two below the surface. There was also a little bit of timber nearby, and just had "Bass Hole" written all over it.
The lure sat still for a second or two, and with a slight twitch of the lure, I was slammed by a bass. Nathan soon forgot about his mishap in the water, and while he put his rod down, I steered the fish around some snags into deeper water, before giving the rod to Nathan.
With the Strudwick and Shimano 50MG worth a few dollars, I was pretty wary about giving it to him without being very vigilant.
Nathan had great fun pulling the fish into the boat, and my wife caught it all on video as well. Nathan wanted to hold him, and while keeping his little fingers from being caught on trebles, I tried to take the hooks out of the fish. As you'd expect in a story like this, the fish kicked a bit and a single hook from the middle treble went straight into the little finger on the right hand. Being right handed, it was left to the wife to try and remove the hook, while Nathan kept asking "I wan to hold him Dad".
Thank goodness for sharp hooks and flattened barbs. No lure goes in my tackle box without getting its barbs crushed down, and I had only just sharpened all the hooks on every lure in my tackle box last week. There were a few anxious moments due to the hook that was in my finger being caught over the lip of the lure.

A quick photo of the fish, and a measure and Nathan was keen on putting him back in the water, which he did.
He was proud as you'd expect, and at 219mm he wasn't a large fish, but it was his first bass. All the heartache from falling out of the boat was forgotten, and calls soon started to "Catch another bass Dad!" while I tried to stop the bleeding from my finger.
Nathan "caught" another fish a little later, before the " I wanna go home" call came from Mum. As it was pretty cool, we made for home.
It might not have a been a big bass but it was Nathan's first, and I was really proud of him. He's always been keen to see any fish released, but it was great to see him do it and say "See you next time" as the fish took off into the weeds.
It's not always cricket score catches that makes a fishing trip memorable. Sometimes it's the things that happen on trips that make them a story for future generations.
As for the Kokoda Bugger Chug, it's been retired after this afternoon, and will sit on top of the framed picture of Nathan's first bass. A little bit of my DNA will remain with the lure, that with the framed picture, will make an interesting piece of family memorabilia.
This months a great time to get out with the kids and create awesome memories. Make the most of the time, because kids grow up to quick.