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Bountiful Broken Bay
  |  First Published: February 2003



The waters of Broken Bay have warmed up and there are bait schools everywhere, with large schools of tailor and smaller schools of salmon and kingfish are feeding on them.

We have had some days when we have caught more than 100 fish, most of which we released. We keep enough for only a meal or two. Most of the tailor and salmon have been taken on small metals, small poppers and flies.

The bonito and small tuna should have turned up by the time you read this. Kings have been a little fussier. Most have fallen to soft plastics. Check out some of the new Storm plastics – the kings love them.

Pittwater has also been fishing well for kingfish, salmon, tailor and a few unusual species such as cobia and spotted mackerel.

The upper reaches of the Hawkesbury have been fishing well for bass and estuary perch. Bass have been taken on surface lures early and late and small crank baits and Beetle Spins when the sun is up.

The Colo and McDonald rivers have also been on fire with plenty of bass and perch being caught on the small Taylor Made Nuggets and small spinnerbaits by Creek Rats Aaron Horn and Jason Qual. Bass have been in the shallow areas close to weed beds, while the perch are holding in deeper water near drop offs.

New lures

I have been testing a couple of new lures with great success – a Baby Feralcatt, a 25mm Knol’s Native and the Taylor Made Basscada surface lure. All will be high on most bass anglers’ most-wanted list when they are available.

The small Feralcatt is one of those lures that will work when most others won’t. It is a small version of its bigger brother, one of the best impoundment bass lures made. It, too, is a deep diver and catches bass, bream, estuary perch, dam bass and golden perch.

The Knol’s 25mm comes in deep and shallow divers and casts like a bullet. The shallow diver is dynamite when fishing for bass over weed beds. The deep diver is deadly on bass, bream, flathead and estuary perch in deeper water near weed beds and sunken timber.

Taylor Made surface lure have set the standard for the past four or five years and the new Basscada, released a couple of months ago, is no exception. It is cicada-shaped and works at a slow speed. Bass and bream love it.

Feralcatt and Knol’s lures come in great colours and are made in the Hawkesbury area by local expert fishermen Greg Catt and John Knol. Taylor Made Lures are made by expert fisherman Robert Taylor. from the Port Macquarie area. They also have great colours, including a chrome finish.

1

Greg Catt with 42cm river bass caught on one of his own Baby Feralcatt lures.

2

Sam Sheumack with a nice salmon taken from Broken Bay.

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