Forster Pre-Fish !

[Dave W]

Hi Bream Lovers (in spirit only guys.....:rolleyes: )

Spent a couple of days pre-fishing for the second N.S.W. B.R.E.A.M. round, and had a lot of fun :)

Forster is a beautiful fishery, plenty of structure of all kinds - oyster racks, jetties, snags, the works.

My bag yesterday would have gone 3kg or so, and todays a bit more, in the 3.5kg range.

I didn't get heaps of fish, probably 15 legal with a handful of undersize ones.

I went a bit lighter in gear than a lot of guys, running 4-6 lb Fireline with 6-10 lb Siglon Flourocarbon Leaders, fished off my Okuma Epix and Avengers, mated to a Procaster-X and one of the newer Wilson Surecasters.

I decided to go light as the water was very, very clear in some areas, and only got busted off twice - got lucky a few times too :D

As to the plastic..... I was determined to avoid hard bodies, as that is what the majority of Forster spinners use.... Jigs were 'Redback' forged in 1/32 and 1/16 oz sizes 4 and 6, with most 'natural' (browns, greens etc) colours doing the trick - the ever faithful Pumkinseed Storm Rattle grub coming up trumps again :)

If you are going to fish this place and aren't too familiar please get a good map of the area - I got lost twice, the place is like a rabbit warren, and if it wasn't for the Waterways map I had, I'd probably still be out there (not that that's a bad thing :D )

Here's a few pics (the one below was how I started Saturday) - it's going to be a hard comp... but hopefully this time I'll break my record of one fish :D

Cheers :)

[Dave W]

Deftly retrieved from around 2 pylons and an oyster rack - go the 8 lb Siglon :D

[Dave W]

The business end of a 1.8 lb fish....

[Dave W]

How not to treat an Environet - and you boys over west think your blowies get big:D

[Dave W]

Probably the best one I got - and trust me when I say there are 50 cm + models in there as well :D

[Tony Ireland]

All nice fish Dave, hope you get those sorts of bag sizes in the comp:)

[Richo]

Nice bags there Dave, all the best for the comp mate.

And man that blowie thing is huge:eek: glad we don`t get them that big here, not up the river anyway.

cheers

[Dave W]

Thanks guys :)

I'm still not that confident.......

Going on last years results at Forster, the 10th place getter had a bag of 10 fish weighing 4.48 kg, with the winner getting 6.34 kg.

I'm pretty certain my bag total would have been over 6 kg - but I've done that before during a pre-fish, only to 'double doughnut' during the comp..:rolleyes: :D

Don't worry, I'll have all my fingers and toes crossed :D

[march fish]

Dave,

I am heading up on the Sunday to see the weigh-in as I am only two hours south.

As I am new to this form of fishing I intend to take my boat up and watch some of the action and pick up a few ideas, what do think the response would be to cruising around and watching, obviously within reason?

[Dave W]

Go for it :)

As long as you don't get too close to the boys fishing, or go tearing past someone obviously working a section it should be cool.

If you see me come and say g'day - keep an eye out for my boat (pic below)

Cheers,

[Mick]

Sounds like you got a few fish Dave, I spent a couple of days up there and didn't get a limit on either day. Got a lot of hits on the softies though and that may be the plan of attack for the weekend. But dont tell any one;)

[outo]

Cannnot wait to get blown away at Forster again this year,I've booked the cabin and gone up to 10 and 14 lb Fireline,only got 4 out of 8 last year on 4 and 6lb

[cameron]

Dave good to see you had a good time with thte bream! Get used to that crystal clear water mate unless your willing to travel up river!! that is what forster is!! I told you i had seen some monsters in there last year.. seamo tells me they are catchable!! round those racks though lucks gotta have something to do with it!!

Its intersting hearing what you and mick have had to say about the difficulties that may be faced up there. its a little scary to think that two breamers as good as yourselves still found the going a bit tough.. Would either of you say its because of the different habitat you have to fish.. i find forster very different to anything we have in and around sydney. perhaps the weekend of the comp the fish will all come to the party! after all its 3 more weeks of fish heading down river to spawn!


im hoping the guys i get to fish with up there have a pretty good idea fingers crossed cause it would be great to watch them work the racks .. who knows i might even learn something i can use when i go up there for two weeks in october!!

[Bear]

It looks like a really great way to Bream fish. It's one comp I'd really like to come over and fish. Pulling honkers off the racks sounds like fun to me :D

Hope it goes well guys.

Interesting to see a few guys using plastics.

[Mick]

Cameron, thanks for the wrap but I'm no better then the next guy at catching bream:D . Forster has two extremes the water around the town is crystal clear but you dont have to travel too far upstream and it is the colour of tea.:eek: I think on the day any one can get a good bag limit if they crack the combination. There should be a lot more fish down stream by the time the comp comes around so it should be great fishing.

There are some monsters lurking up there. I was fishing between racks when I saw a huge fish sitting under a rack next to the boat in about 18 inches of water. I was surprised he didn't spook, but was even more surprised when he swam along beside the boat under the rack for about 30 metres, he followed me right to the end of the rack and then stopped to see what I was going to do and then he slowly swam away. He was only about 40 cm from the boat and followed it like a dog:D . I didn't even bother trying to catch him as I wouldn't have been in the game.

It should be a fun weekend, can't wait.:)

[cameron]

Yeah mick.. i love the way the water up there almost changes from crystal clear to dark green over about a 100m stretch.. in some places it seems to change almost instantly! as for that bream you saw... maybe he was just waiting for you do drop a lure in front of him so he could steal it from you
:D :D

i reality i spose most of the bream up there are pretty used to boat traffic..


later

cameron