Kindergarten Capers

Hi All,

I wrote recently about the influx of juvenile jewies inhabiting our local waterway's here in Sydney and it seems the trend is set to continue. Predominantly i have found the trend to be more prolific in the Hawkesbury River than other Sydney estuaries but as i stated previously, Sydney harbour and the George's River is experiencing the same phenomenon.

This time however, instead of finding the jeuvi's a little more mature and slightly bulkier than before, i happened to stumble across a patch of kindergarten kids. Honestly, the fish were no bigger than 30cms. What made this a bizarre situation wasn't the pint size of these blighters, but the fact they all were caught using 5" jerk minnows. Now that's 12cms approx of lure! In most instances the lure was well hidden in a disproportionately cavernous mouth. All aboard were amazed at the ferocity the small jewies had in both chasing down the lure to hit it and the venom displayed once they were hooked. They fought well above thier weight.

If you were to gauge the fight and attitude a mature jewie might have based on the dogged nature as juveniles, you would be fooled into thinking they would be an unstoppable adversary and willing to hit any lure put in front of them. Unfortunately this couldnt be further from the truth. As they grow they get wise. The takes are no more than timid taps, once hooked the runs are fairly short comparative to other apex predators in our waters, and they can be fussy eaters on both livies as well as lures. But maybe that's the reason we here in NSW revere them so much. If it was easy catching them everyone would be doing it!

There is another plague in our southern Sydney waters as well. Leatherjackets are showing up in mammoth numbers throughout all the clean waters in the hawkesbury System. These include Pittwater, Cowan and Brisbane Waters. The jackets don't seem to encrouch in the dirtier water in the main river itself but are becoming an annoying pest to all local fisherman.

Those who flick lures know the penchant jackets have for lures and a day's fishing is becoming a costly excerise. They are the species of jackets you see well offshore. I would be interested to know why they have come into such shallow water but are ruining some of the gun local spots. Some days your lure will not last 30 seconds before it's reduced to a bare jig head.

I know jackets were once fished commercially in Cowan but to the best of my knowledge are not anymore. Maybe this might have something to do with the influx of fish. Whatever the reason...I hope they disappear soon.