Bass Blitz
There’s been some great bass caught from reports coming from various sources, with a number of bass caught over the 400mm mark. These have typically been caught in much of the higher waters, but there’s been a few in the Lower Portland and Wisemans area as well.

Soft plastics will also be a great choice for those estuary perch that are in great numbers in the lower sections of the Hawkesbury. Creek mouths have produced good numbers of these, and no doubt these areas have recieved plenty of attention since the release of Dean Hayes and John Bethune’s DVD.
If you’re looking at the areas upstream from Wisemans Ferry, there’s plenty of worthy areas to target bass. Webbs Creek, Walkers Beach, Leets Vale, Dad’s Corner, Clifton Vale all offer a variety of great areas which are excellent locations for bass.
Around Sackville, there’s a lot of weed beds and snags that are just begging to be targeted. A lot of timber is half submerged in the water, and these should give up some decent bass as they have done in the past. I generally target these areas with spinnerbaits or plastics which don’t tend to grab hold of any branches. I don’t show much fear when casting these about, with casts being made right into the guts of the timber.
Undercut banks can produce good bass, and a lot of rats too, at any time of the day. Some of these undercut areas require pin point accuracy with a lure, and any time you’ve spent practicing in the backyard or on the water will be time well spent in these areas.
There’s also a lot of back eddies to fish, and these areas should never be overlooked, especially if there’s some fallen timber in the back eddies. I cast lipless lures, plastics and my favourite Nitro Whiz Bangers and really work the area over well.
While some thick weed can provide varying degrees of difficulty for paddlers, bass love weeds which provide protection and food. My favourite surface lures include various Taylor Made lures, Kokoda Bugger Chugs, Predatek Spaddlers and Heddons Torpedoes.
If you’re near weeds, lipless lures like Jackalls and Daiwa lures should be used. Casting these lures along the face of the weed beds, bass will pounce on them with lightning speed at times.
The Colo is another great place to fish and is one of my favourite pieces of water. The water tends to be very clear in the Colo, unless there has been a lot of rain further upstream.

When the water is clear in the Colo, I tend to go for natural lure colours. Suspending lures is a great way to tempt fusyy fish, especially when worked around the numerous weed beds. However, my preferred method when the water is clear is use the fly rod or use a lot of soft plastics. There’s a lot of weed beds, rocks, snags and other forms of cover all along the Colo, and working flies and plastics in these areas is one way of pulling fish.
The Nepean is showing some sorry signs of Salvinia creeping back into view again. It’s not that it was totally gone, but with the heavy rains at the end of last year, the Salvinia was pushed downstream to where the public could see it. Yarramundi Lagoon is now heavily weeded.

On a more positive note, much of the Nepean has been fishing really well and should continue to bring postive results. The Nepean around Penrith seems to be more busier than in past years, so it pays to pick your time to fish in this area.
For those with kayaks or canoes, other areas of the Nepean are all yours and you can fish uninterrupted, while enjoying some great scenery and pulling some great fish. There’s still a lot of people who don’t fancy paddling about while fishing. For those who do enjoy paddling and fishing, they know just how exciting it can be to be fishing water which is quiet, scenic and offers very productive fishing.
With other recreational water users making the most of daylight saving during the week, the early morning until the mid afternoon is the quietest times to fish areas that skiers and jet ski’s frequent. Weekends will continue to be very busy wherever there is a boat ramp nearby for the next few months.

Smorgasboard Time
It’s always easy to plug the bass fishing side of things when writing a monthly report, simply because they are probably the most popular species in local waters. However, if you’re looking for something other than bass, there’s no shortage of regular places to target other species.
Webb’s Creek provides plenty of opportunities for bream, estuary perch, flathead, mullet and the odd jewfish. Webb’s is a very pretty creek and the scenary is an added bonus.
The mouth of Webb’s Creek and the Macdonald River are always a favourite haunt for those targeting jew fish, especially after any heavy rainfall where the water is pushing out into the Hawkesbury.
If you sit off the bank over deeper water at Leets Vale you’ll be in the running to catch bream, bass, EP’s, flathead and jewfish.
Clifton Vale will often give up EP’s, bream and flathead, with the best bait being live Hawkesbury prawns or poddy mullet.

Getting The Right Advice
When looking for the right advice to go fishing, there’s plenty of places to find information that will help you be successful on the water. When looking for the types of areas to fish, the right lures and bait to use for various species and choosing the right tackle are all important. It’s not much good target bass or estuary perch with an outfit you’d target kingfish with.
It sounds a bit extreme as an example I know, but it never ceases to amaze me the wide array of tackle people use to chase our local fish. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen ten foot beach rods down at Yarramundi or at Windsor.
There’s a number of great books that will give you an idea of what is considered to be an ideal outfit for a wide array of fish species. There’s also the internet, with a number of good websites and chat rooms available to pick the brains of the more seasoned anglers.
Then there’s a number of local fishing clubs in Sydney which are a huge resource to tap into for those wanting to know more.
Local tackle shop advice will also give you excellent information about what is working at any given time in local waters.
They’ll also help you make the best choices. I recently bought my first Loomis rod from the guys at Windsor Bait, Tackle and Camping. These guys love their Loomis rods, and working out which was going to become my first Loomis rod, was made a lot easier when talking to Chris. There was no hard sell stuff going on. Just straight forward advice on what rod did the best job for my needs. In the end I got a rod that I am very happy with, and which suites my immediate needs.

It’s On Again
The Hawkesbury Nepean Bass Anglers Association is holding its Inter Club competition later this month, and is inviting all members of other clubs to compete in this well known competition.
There’s plenty of camping facilities available, including shower, toilets and electricity.
The event will be held on the 25th and 26th of this month at Lower Portland, with plenty of prizes on offer as well as a weekend of great socialising and fishing. For more details, go to the clubs website at www.hnbaa.com.au where you can download all the information and an application form.

Just a Reminder
If you want to send any digital pics of you favourite moments in, just remember to take the picture in medium or large format. Small resolution shots don’t come out very well when they are enlarged for the magazine, which is pretty sad when you have a good fish to brag about. Nobody else gets to see how good an angler you are, and you can’t brag to your mates.
Along with a medium or high resolution pic, include some details like what lure or method you used, your name and roughly what area you caught the fish in. Favourite spot can remain a secret, as I won’t be publishing the exact spot.
Until next month, get out there and enjoy your fishing.