Gamakatsu Team Series (GTS) South Round 2 St Georges Basin

You may have noticed that Chris and I have been chasing a lot more Bream than Bass recently. A couple of things have contributed to this, the main one being the really crappy Bass bite we've been experiencing lately on the Shoalhaven. Really, we should get back out on foot and chase them down on some of the skinny water creeks, but with the newly acquired boat, it's been hard to pass up an opportunity to take it out. The South Coast of NSW is a great region for Bream and with the mecca that is St Georges Basin within 25mins drive of home, and some great creeks that have been producing the goods for us we have found ourselves chasing the Bream more and more.

Previously we hadn't done much Bream fishing so when I told Chris that I wanted to enter the GTS on the Basin, we decided that we needed to polish up our skills to at least be in with a chance to weight a fish, hence the last few post. The last week or so has been torrential rain on the South Coast, and with the water looking like chocolate milk in most places we had little confidence going into it.

So the weekend quickly approached and neither of us had time to get a pre-fish in. We had visited the Basin around 3 weeks ago where we found some fish, so we had options for the day. After making 2 trips to Sydney in as many days, then dinner with friends, we had a late night on Saturday in preparation for the following morning. Chris had recently purchased a new flats set up consisting of a Shimano Rarenium 1000 matched to a Lox Yoshi 1-3kg 7'6" which needed spooling with 3lb Sunline Sniper straight through, along with bags being organised and the boat being packed, meant that sleep wasn't achieved until midnight.

We left North Nowra at 5am and headed south, grabbed fuel at the local servo along with half a dozen other boats and had the boat in the water by 5.50am. A dark rainy ride over to Palm Beach from Erowal Bay for the briefing and we waited our turn to get under way. Our number was called (49) and we made a bee line to our first bank. Within a couple of cast I boated our first fish which measured in at a guess of 33cm, quickly put in the live well, high fived the fact that we could weigh in and started casting again. It fell to a Cranka Crank Deep in Black Flame.

5 mins later Chris was up next with a fish that fell right on the comp limit of 26cm, that took a Diawa SC Shinner in Yellow Spot colour.  Things were looking good as we had now double our expected weigh in catch. The boat was only sitting in 1.5 - 2 meters of water and our lures were working in shallower depths as we were casting towards the bank. 

Under advice from Chris Neville at Tackleworld Nowra who swore that the goto lure for the day would be a Lucky Craft NW Pencil 52 I picked up my other outfit and on around the 5th cast placed the lure directly beside an old rotted out jetty, that only had it's pylons standing. The first twitch of the walk the dog retrieve and it was smashed off the surface and the Soll II was screaming it's head off. It caught me by surprise and running 4lb leader had me scared with the structure. We chased the fish in which had moved away from the jetty and netted it. It came in around the same size as the first fish. The adrenaline of catching fish in a comp is something that everyone should experience at least once. It gets your heart racing knowing that you could easily drop a fish that would result in a day changer. 

This bank went quiet so we moved one bay over to find 3 boats already in there. We ummed and arrghed as to if there was enough room for us, so we went to the back where no one was, or looked like they would be there in any time soon. It was a good move as I put our 4th in the boat before 8am. Again on the same Cranka Crank. We left the bay after 20mins and went back to our original spot where after a couple of missed hook ups the 5th fish was in the well and it was only 8.30am.

Things got exponentially tougher from there onwards with a slight breeze turning into a stiff wind, we got a couple of Flatties as by catch which found us needing to hunt around for another patch of bream. We moved across to the other side of the basin where Chris upgraded our smallest fish which was a welcomed relief as it was borderline. Again things went quiet so we went for the deep water flicking blades and plastics. By this time the wind had really started to howl and we weren't getting anything, not even a tap. After catching a mid 40's Flatty on a Ecogear Bream Prawn it was time to reassess what we were doing as we were in need of a good kicker fish to give us a half decent bag. A choice was made and we made our way back into the shallows of Paradise Beach. I made the switch back to the Cranka and at 12.50pm upgraded our smallest fish. Weigh in was at 1.30pm so we called it quits at 1.05pm and ploughed our way back through the chop.

Stoked that we were weighing in a bag for my 2nd comp and Chris's 1st, regardless of placing we were content. In the end we weighed in 2.72kg for 28th behind our nemesis and BassFishingAddicts.com contributor Wes Murphy who placed 21st with 2.83kg's. First place smashed it with a bag of 4.48kg. The highlight for the day was getting to see a true brute of a Bream that tipped the scales at 2.17kg and measuring 47cm to the fork, unfortunately none this size graced our lines :(

Basin Bashin'

Last week Chris and I had experienced some sensational fishing, which was much welcomed after having some dismal trips over the last couple of weeks/months. It just seemed that where ever we went the fish just weren't interested in what we were offering or they weren't where we were targeting them.

After smashing the creek twice in the same week, we thought it best to leave it alone on Friday and instead head a little further south to St Georges Basin, the South Coast Bream and Flathead mecca.

We arrived at approx. 6.15am to find perfect conditions, and with our thoughts on giving the next Gamakatsu Team Series (GTS) a run next month, we had a plan in place of where we wanted to fish and see what we could bag in the allocated time and to explore as many places as possible so we have options come comp day.

Our first location was on the flats flicking hardbodies close to the stacked weed banks. My first cast was hit as soon as it hit the water and a Tailor was the first fish in the boat. We continued to work along this edge and it continued to produce some more chopper Tailor but none of our target species.

A quick change of location around the point and the Minn Kota was directed to work slowly along the edge. A Whiting was the next onboard, followed by a couple more choppers until I finally managed an undersized Bream. Things were looking bleak to say the least. We had a phone call from Wes saying that he had received a photo of a Bream being that had been caught on the opposite side of the Basin from where we were, but we persisted with our bank in the hope of hitting a patch. It wasn't the case, but Chris did manage a nice Flathead that engulfed his Atomic Bream Shad and did a number on his 4lb leader.

From here we quickly got over our location after Chris got another Flatty and decided it was time to move into the creek, where I had some success the Friday before, using small minnows thrown tight against the abundance of fallen timber structure. Unfortunately we weren't able to repeat the results with a couple of taps and follows but no hook ups.

We then moved into the main creek that feeds into the Basin where Chris was the only one to have any luck, landing a couple more undersized Bream. My casting was way out and saw us chasing down lures in trees more often than I would have liked.

So out of the river we popped and across the Basin to where Wes had been told about. We once again set the Minn Kota up to work a bank and started casting. A couple of taps here, a couple there and still no fish being boated. Things were definitely looking grim. I finally landed a legal Bream, our first for the day, on a deep Cranka Crank in Flash Prawn colour. We had bothed hoped that this would see the end of our hoodoo curse, but nothing else came from here. We moved to the opposite bank and within the first 10 cast Chris was onto a Flatty. 

We moved around a weed point and I placed a cast tight against it which resulted in another Bream using the same lure, and after a spirited fight through the standing weed it was in the net.

The very next cast was fouled up on some weed off the surface and after giving it some twitches to try and shake it there was a big boof right behind the lure. The weed was still covering the lure but a pause followed by a twitch saw the lure disappear. A better fish this time and after swimming circles around a stacked weed column, the whole lot was netted. There was no way he was swimming out from this mess.

Happy with how the day was turning out we continued with this bank which saw me drop 2 more fish and Chris land another Flatty. We moved to the deep water, as that is one of the plans we had for the day, to plug away with plastics and blades. Chris had the first fish on board, another undersized Bream and I managed to drop a couple. 

The day was quickly getting away from us, so back to the edges to see if we could rustle up anything to make our live well look a little better. Unfortunately I dropped a horse as it managed to tangle itself on the weed some distance from the boat. Easily bigger than my last, but I guess we'll never know.

The timer ticked over and we called it quiets. We finished on 3 out of our target 5, but with the comp only 2 weeks away, and a new Humminbird 898CX SI we will be heading back down to give it another bash and hopefully come game day have a better result.

That's Crankatastic!

I'll put my own spin on a line from one of my favourite movies, Billy Madison, and say that yesterday afternoon was really (Think blue duck) Crankatastic! After Sunday's success in the creek Chris and I knew we had to get back there A.S.A.P. and the stars aligned in our favour which gave us a window after work to go up there for a couple of hours.

I had recently purchased a couple of Cranka Lures (Cranks & Shads) to improve the look of my tackle box and even though we had been having success on the weekend with the Daiwa SC Shiners, I always love to test out new lures. Chris stuck with the Shiner and I tied on a Cranka Shad in BBQ Prawn colour. We arrived at our spot that produced days before and whilst Chris belted out some cast, I rigged up. We felt a couple of taps but nothing with any substance until we reached the end of the corner, where the weed bank turns to Mangroves. A slow roll with a few twitches thrown in saw me produce the first fish of the afternoon, and thankfully it was our target species!

This fish was picked up at the opposite end of where we were getting them the other day, so we moved turned around and moved back along continuing to work the bank downstream.

We found there weren't as many strikes occurring, but they were still here. We were used to the hits but continued to miss them. Not that we were too worried as the size of the fish hitting the lures were nothing to be to concerned about.

The edge went quiet again and it wasn't until the last 1/4 before the mangroves started again that we had taps. My next cast was placed near a horses skeleton (if you know the creek, you can't miss it!) and on the 3rd or 4th crank the taps continued. A short pause, a couple of twitches and some weight was felt on the other end. 

We had now made our way into Mangrove country and flicking under the overhang with a slow retrieve continued the tiddlers rain of terror. At this point Chris punched in a great cast and was smoked upon entry. After a screaming initial run the fish must have really liked Chris's lure as that was the last we ever saw of that Gold/Orange Shiner. 

Chris was pretty disheartened after losing a good fish, but after raiding my tackle box...again... turning the boat around and heading back upstream he was back in the water and onto 2 fish in quick succession which lifted his spirits.

We were back into the Mangroves again a found a hole that was producing fish. Lots of small fish with the occasional mid 20's. We made mention that it was now a numbers game as to when we might get something a bit bigger, as surely if there were this many small fish in here there has to be bigger right?

Whilst the bite was on I was varying my retrieve trying to find something that would increase my hook up rate, from Slow rolling, twitching and a combination of the two. A few more fish came aboard for both Chris and I, but then I decided the next cast would be a slow roll with no pause, no twitches and just see if they would take a steady retrieve.

I was hit, no hook up but then it was back and missed again but 3rd time lucky and I hooked up. This thing flew to the surface for a big splash but quickly went for deeper water...thank god! It stayed deep and ran across the creek only to scratch the surface which is when I got my first glimpse at this creature. A couple of swear words later and I had Chris's attention. It made a run behind the boat so I quickly moved back then around the starboard side where after a couple of small runs, he was in the net. We couldn't believe what we saw, something that neither of us expected and definitely a new P.B. for me!

A quick high five later and it was in the live well for some photos later on. We were both pumped and continued to plug this hole for some other un-noteworthy fish. Chris miscast into an overhang and we were over the top of the spot to retrieve his lure. 

Things really settled down after the last fish and we struggled to find many more. It was time for a change of location so we made our way downstream again. We fished timber structure and reeds for not even a bump and continued to follow the river looking for the bite we experienced earlier. Another one for me again off the Mangroves but this was to be amongst the last for the afternoon.

Chris and I were both gobsmacked at how well the Cranka Shad produced for me that afternoon as Chris's estimate would put it at a 5 to 1 advantage over his lure. We tried a couple more spots on the way back to the ramp but realistically we should have stopped fishing over an hour ago as now we were just chasing the high.

A brilliant afternoon in the creek again, and it is now definitely a favourite destination which we know can and will produce!

Sunday Funday Arvo

Feeling ruff and ragged after a big night on the drink with minimal sleep and having to work the next day, Chris and I called in for an arvo session whilst our partners slept off the effects of the night prior.

I finished my day at the office, raced home to hook up the boat, throw all the gear in and went and picked up Chris. After a successful day on Friday pulling Bream from fallen tree structure in St Georges Basin on Friday, we were keen to see how one of the local creeks would produce.

We launched and putted over to the opposing bank and started flicking at any bit of timber we could see. With not a touch for a couple of hundred meters we decided to move on and see what else was around, as it had been some years since either of us had been here. On cruising on up stream we came to a corner which had a nice weed bank with what we can only guess (Yet to install a sounder) a deep drop off. There was plenty of activity on the surface on the shallow side of the weed and it wasn't long until we started to feel some ticks in the line. We set the Minn Kota on cruise control at a slow pace and flicked as close to the edge as we could and slow roll the Minnow lures back. I had a flashy white Ecogear SX40 and Chris with a Daiwa SC Shiner in a Gold with Orange Back. Chris was the first to get loaded up!

Which was then followed by an absolute brute of a Bream.

We did 2 runs along this bank but not much else happened. The next corner up looked similar to the last and the next fish in the boat repeated the style of location with another small Bream falling victim to the golden glow of the DC Shiner. I also managed to get the monkey off my back here with a similar sized Bream. We only gave this bank the one run before switching sides and fishing under over hangs for no result. We made the decision to move on and before we knew it we were in the upper reaches and into Bass territory of some of our previous expeditions. We saw a familiar face on the way up who had only just hit the water but said that there have been some good catches of late in our next planned location. Maybe it was the change in weather from the 35 degree celsius, 80% humidity the day before, to the cold and almost raining weather we were experiencing then and there. We couldn't muster a hit, let alone a follow. We pushed up further past some shallows where Chris fouled up a cast with some surface debris but low and behold had a fish hit it, but miss the hooks. I had my Spotters on so could easily see the Bass sitting under the lure waiting for it to be twitched, so under instruction Chris did exactly that and he was on!

At the limit of where I was comfortable of taking the boat on the lowest point of the tide, we made our way back to the original weeded corner where we caught the first Bream at.

It was at this point that I had succumb to the allure of the Gold/Orange Daiwa DC Shiner that Chris was having success on and tied one on my line. Using a Daiwa Generation Black 1-2kg Rod, with 4lb Fireline Exceed Braid and 4lb Sunline Siglon FC leader, I was getting tapped on almost every retrieve. You could feel they were only small fish that couldn't find hooks, but eventually one was unlucky enough.

The size of fish repeated itself over and over and every retrieve resulted in countless ticks and hits. Usually I would give it a slow roll after the cast, get a hit, pause the lure, give it a couple of twitches and continue the retrieve which would result in another small fish. We had managed to find the nursery...

Things started to look up though as I was now catching more fish than Chris (always my mission whenever we go out) and finally boated a larger model aswell as a Luderick.

As can be seen in the photos, the weather was really starting to close in on us now, with light patchy drizzle and plenty of thunder. We made our way to the end of the bank where it started to turn into a drop off at the edge of some Mangroves. About 3 cast into this section and my drag started to sing. Excellent! After the best fight of the day I had it boat side, and after a couple more runs it was ready for the net.

We turned around and repeated the run, but noticed a drop in the number of hits and the tide quickly coming back up over the flat. We were about to call it quits when I managed to fit one more fish in for the day, a 40cm Flatty just to finish off the species list.

The heavens opened up and it really started to pour down with flashes of lightning and the sound of thunder not far behind it,  we blasted off into the razor sharp shards of ice, also known as rain drops for anyone else who is travelling at walking pace, with no wet weather gear, and arrived back at the ramp soaked to the core, shivering and in desperate need of a warm meal and a hot shower. 

With a great mixed bag of fish (Bream, Bass, Flathead and Luderick), what started off to be a very difficult hung over day turned out pretty good and no doubt we will be back there very soon to try and work out this little creek a bit better!

Double Hook-up!

Chris and I ducked up the river after work for a quick session this afternoon. Plenty of small fish to be had, with the stand out lure being the Daiwa Baby Crank in Ghost Perch. It was lost to a half decent fish after I grabbed the spool when it made a run for some submerged timber.

Chris and I did manage a double hook up though, which is always fun. However I think, as I'm sure you will agree I was totally outclassed in size!

Shoalhaven Slender's

Chris and I hit up the river this morning for a flick and allocated a couple of hours before having to head home. I was finally able to land a decent fish from the river, something that has been annoying me for the last couple of seasons. Although not heavy or thick, it had length! Pictures below.

The new Savage 455 Jabiru Pro

We've upgraded! We took the new Savage 455 Jabiru Pro up the river for a mid-day run yesterday, boating a lot of punks with the occasional mid 30's. Check it out! Special thanks to Five Islands Marine in Yallah www.five-islands-marine.com.au.