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Lake MacQuarie N.S.W. Oct 26 - Nov. 1

blue_mako

By blue_mako
in Saltwater

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blue_mako Newbie

blue_mako

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Hey Guys.

I recently went on a trip to Lake MacQuarie in New South Wales. Might I say it's a great fishery down there and I wish Queensland was the same. Their size limits are strict and your not allowed Crab Pots and Fish Traps in the Lake. Also it's been closed off to commercial fishing for some years now. I saw some great things through-out the trip and got a few firsts and P.B.'s.

Day 1: I didn't do any fishing since we got there at around 6pm and was too tired to go explore a place I've never been to at night. Though I did watch the massive Green Backs show off on the surface at the marina I was staying on. Too bad your not allowed to fish there :( . And yes, I tried many times but didn't last 2 mins before being noticed :P .

Day 2: Got up early and headed straight for the rocks. I was using only 4lb fluoro and got busted off by a nice Tailor around 30cms in front of me while trying to land it. Went up to the Tackle Shop later and got some new leader, lures and jigheads. Headed down to a spot the staff recommended which was only just up from the rocks I was fishing earlier. I saw loads of Whiting and Bream just cruising though they weren't interested in anything I threw at them. It looked like it was going to rain soon so I headed back up to the appartment I was staying at, got something to eat and walked the opposite way to try my luck.

First cast got crunched on the new C'ultiva Mirashad HB I just bought. Second cast I was on. A nice Pike of 30cms which was around the average size of Pike for the trip. The next eight casts all produced Pike after Pike setting a new personal record. Great fun on the 2lb. The storm was coming over and it seemed to drive the fish mad. I caught what I thought wasn't a Pike, only to reveal a huge 57cm model. :blink: . The biggest I have ever seen or caught. I have pictures but can't put them on the comp. since they are on my phone :( . I continued to get Pike on the HB so decided to change to a Popper to see if I could nail my first popper fish as they were so active. Did about five or six casts for 1 hit and decided the HB was working better and stuck with that.

The rain pelted down and I decided to call it quits for about an hour waiting for the rain to stop. Went back down and still got loads of Pike. I had caught a total of around 30-35 Pike at the end of the day.

That night I headed to the Pike spot. As the sun went down the Pike went nuts. Creaming Prawns everywhere you looked. I got a few on the Mirashad and then switched to a Rapala Skitter Pop once the sun went down. I stuck with that for about half an hour with not a single hit. I saw a Long Tom cruising around and got two hits from him until he realised balsa wood wasnt his thing.

I guy came down in search for some Squid with his Squid Jig. He got about 6 or 7. Three of which were mine, caught on the Mirashad. While I'd be unhooking the one I just caught he'd go in search for his mates as they usually don't swim around alone. So I managed topic up my first 3 Squid on artificial ;) .

Day 3: I went down to the same spot though the Pike were finnicky and not so keen on taking HBs, Poppers, Gulps or Plastics. I managed to get a few here and there but only got around 10 Pike for the day. I headed back to the spot the guy recommended and got a 30cm or so headspan Ray on a 6inch Gulp Sandworm, cut in half down to 3inch. I could have sworn it was a solid Flathead the way it fought :( . And yes Angus, it was a legit. hooking, no jagging what so ever :lol: .

I stuck with the 3inch Sandworm for awhile only to drop a small Silver Trevally around 10-15cms at my feet and get a few taps from some thumping big Whiting I could see cruising around. So I swapped to the Mirashad and after about 20mins of casting got a small 25cm Flattie.

Day 4: I went down to the Pike spot once again. Though they were all most 100% shut down. Over the course of the day only got 8 or 9. They were so shut down I switched to plastics. They would still follow it in but no matter what I did they wouldn't eat it. I then came up with the idea that, if I let the Pike follow it down while it was sinking I could quickly jerk it back up and sometimes they'de unluckily be hooked on the plastics way up. And it worked quite a few times that day.

After I got bored of jaggin Pike :P . And since I had tried all most everything in my tackle box I decided to put on a Jackall tn50 too see if the noise made much difference. I soon found out that Tailor love them being ripped through two meeting currents. After about 10 or 11 Tailor ranging from around 20-35cms, sadly the 12th Tailor took it with him :( . A very expensive cast!

That night I headed down to some weedy flats in search of some Long Tom. My first cast got the trebles tangled around the line. The next cast I splashed it with a 1,2,3, stop retreive. About 3 or 4m infront of me a small bursting splash breaks the surface on the second jerk and after a quick fight a nice 27cm Tailor was landed :) . My first fish on a popper. I was stokked. The very next cast I'm nailed by a Long Tom about 5 second after my Skitter Pop's hit the water and 2 jerks. As they do, he tail danced for about 10m before throwing the popper and sending it another 5 meters through the air :P:( .

Day 5: I organised a charter in hope for some reefies and Snapper :) . Got to the meeting point at around 7am and we had reached our spot by about 8:30am. The long trip was well worth it! After about 5 mins of no touches we changed position and first drop down one of the guys pulls up a huge Cuttlefish from 90m down. It was just about fish after fish for the rest of the day. I managed around 40 Nannygai, 1 Morwong, 1 Snook and 1 5kg Snapper. The Snapper had a huge nob on its head :) . They took pictures and said they would put them on the site but haven't done so as yet :( .

Day 6: Going home time :( . It was early in the morning so I couldn't get a fish in :( .

Troy

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blue_mako Newbie

blue_mako

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Feral: Yeah I used it to begin with. They had 10kg spin and 8kg overhead gear. Though I switched to my plastics outfit for a few drops just to see what braid would be like. It was awesome bringing up five Nannygai at once on it though extremely hard work with a small reel and low gear ratio :P . So I only used it for two drops and eight Nannygai, three on the first drop and five on the second, before I gave up.

If your fishing nintey meters deep I strongly recommend using braid. With mono you have absolutely no idea when to strike, you just quickly jerk up your rod as if your striking every 5-10 seconds. If your rod stayed loaded up at the top of your jerk then you were on to at least one fish. If the rod tip just straightened out you didn't. Also you weren't feeling many head kicks until it was near the boat, it just felt like a dead weight until it was close. So lesson learnt, bring along a braid loaded reel if they arn't using braid.

Troy

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