Look at the picture. You’ve seen this bloke before. We featured him with a framed picture of a large flathead he caught on a lure.

With the flathead run now finished, Dave Hoyle and his fishing buddies are turning their attention to the big winter bream and they have caught some monsters.

Recently Dave nailed a 40cm bream which, using a fish length to weight converter translates to 1.6kg or 3.5lbs.

That’s not all: he has caught a total of eight bream over that mark. The biggest was 48cm. This comes across as 2.7kg or 5.9lbs.

Where did he get them? Dave was coy about revealing his secret spot but in general, he advises wannabe fisher folk to cast in amongst the channels in the oyster racks and always on the incoming tide.

“We are sports fishermen,” he said.

“All of those big fish were returned to the water to breed and prosper.”

“As for the lures, we work under the principle of ‘match the catch.’ This means that our lures resemble the type of things that bream feed on; prawns and small bait fish,” said Mr Hoyle.

“Unlike flathead, bream are more fickle and fussy about what they go for,” he said.

Reports have also been filtering in of big blackfish being caught inside the new swimming pool at Lemon Tree.

The old pool was always a popular fishing spot but with the smaller mesh now in place it was thought that it would deter the fish. Not so!

One theory has it that the meshed sides provide a ‘safe haven’ for luderick which can seek shelter there from the local dolphins which chase them. Don’t believe it?

Take a look at the blackfish and the bloke in the photo. That’s Ron Gunness from Mallabula looking pleased with himself after landing this 42cm luderick which he hooked in the LTP swimming pool a week or so back.

 

By Geoff WALKER