Bobbing for Yellowbelly

[PNG1M]

Hi all,

Looks like I'll be joining the realms of the "Roma bound" (for work) come January. So I am enquiring on this thread about techniques for catching Yellowbelly.

I read a bit about "bobbing" for yellowbelly but I have no idea about the methods used to do this. I am guessing it is like jigging but its called bobbing.

Am I right? And if there any specific equipment or procedures necessary? Boat or shore?

Any info appreciated so that I have time to psyche up for the freshwater and accumulate some of the right gear etc.

[Steve B]

PNG,

Bobbing (in Western QLD terms) is basically a long piece of bamboo.....about 50lb line hang off it.....cork/polystyrene float......about 1-2mtrs of line, hook, sinker suspended below float. usually use a yabbie or shrimp for bait.

Method: Sit in boat. Open beer. Bob bob bob and have fun. When they are on, its the best fun you can have in any form of fishing.

You can bob off the bank too.!!!

Cheers Steve

[PNG1M]

Ok, Bob's your uncle..!!

Thanks for that info Steve. Sound's lke I'll be able to adjust to the described method without drama. Looking foward to testing it out, especially point 2 of the method.

[rabbi]

Hi SteveB,
Sounds like what you are referring to is a "Ned Kelly" outfit.
More hanging than catching

I started out doing that style of fishing when I was around 6 years old around the Inverell,Mungindi, Goondiwindi, Boggabilla area.
Back then the old man used to rig up a very large ball sinker tied straight onto a 9/0 thick gauge hook and a short boat rod with an old Alvey with 40lb line and use the biggest crayfish he could find.
Nowadays I fish the rivers and dams mostly with lures but will go back to a nice light little rod with 8 to 10lb braid, a 20lb leader, a pea or bean sinker tied onto a 3/0 chemically sharpened suicide hook and use either a shrimp, a 50mm crayfish or even a worm and bob up and down about 40 t0 90cm just to impart a bit of movement to the bait.
Anywhere around a bit of structure, logs ,rocks mudbanks and in only a few feet of water at times.
Ive seen anything from carp to huge cod caught on this sort of bait. Had some good cod,yellas,silvers and catfish eating SP rubber worms bobbing out west here a while back.
Cheers, steve m.

[Steve B]

Yeah Rabbi,

Its a pretty simple old method of fishing that works.. I have the fondest memories of my early 20's fishing out near Isisford, Muttaburra and Barcaldine bobbing for yellas, or just a simple handline off the bank. I do remember on the odd occassion when the river used to clear up, we would troll celter spinners and catch as many yellas as you wanted.

My mates out there now reckoned they were using gulp schrimp soft plastics and getting fish the other day.

Cheers Steve

[PNG1M]

I just remembered a few years back (like the early to mid 1980's) I was fishing at Copeton Dam near Inverell.
Our host has us zooming around here and there in his boat but we didn't catch much except for loads of big eel tail catties from the shore at night.

Anyway, while out on the water we saw a boat tied up to a bunch of submerged trees and they had rods over the side & lifting them up and down in a jigging style.
And they caught some fish too. I thought that that might be an example of bobbing but I don't now what they had on the business ends of their rods.

Maybe there's a certain kind of freshwater bobbing/jigging thingy out there somewhere. But I still like the Ned Kelly bobbing method too as described earlier.

[wamjam]

I just remembered a few years back (like the early to mid 1980's) I was fishing at Copeton Dam near Inverell.
Our host has us zooming around here and there in his boat but we didn't catch much except for loads of big eel tail catties from the shore at night.

Anyway, while out on the water we saw a boat tied up to a bunch of submerged trees and they had rods over the side & lifting them up and down in a jigging style.
And they caught some fish too. I thought that that might be an example of bobbing but I don't now what they had on the business ends of their rods.

Maybe there's a certain kind of freshwater bobbing/jigging thingy out there somewhere. But I still like the Ned Kelly bobbing method too as described earlier.

At Copeton they could have been Ned kellying for yellars or bobbing baltic bobbers for redfin. Back in the 80's either would have been possible.

I'm a bit like rabbi, that was the style of fishing I grew up with... Tell you what rabbi... I have never bobbed a yellar using braid. I bet that bang bang bang at the end of the rod is full on!! with zero line stretch, when you are day dreaming, looking up into the river gums at the cockatoo's squablbling over which branch they want to sit on as the sun gets up late in the morning........

Scott

[PNG1M]

A memory flash tells reminds me that I used to do some of the "Ned Kelly" bamboo rod style of fishing as a kid growing up in the Clarence Valley area.
We'd cut a long bamboo pole from a grove of bamboo and tie some line the the end of it that was the same length as the bamboo pole itself.

A stick or a cork as a float and an earthworm or grasshopper underneath and we'd go after Australian Bass from the shore in some creeks and along the river. It worked!!!

In the months ahead was thinking of applying an 'upgraded' technique using a modern 10ft spinning rod (instead of a bamboo pole) and a suitable reel with maybe 10-12lb mono.
Then instead of a wine bottle cork I'd hit BCF or the local tackle shop and get a selection of decent floats.

One idea would be to try the 'neutral bouyancy' method similar to when fishing for luderick (I used to do that at Norah Head).
Even if using an earthorm for bait it still should be possible to weight the float so that the neutral bouyancy will minimise the pull of the float when the fish takes the bait.

Or maybe thats too technical for yellowbelly fishing.

PS: Re the above post - yes, I think it would more likely have been the redfin they were after in Copeton with those bobber thingo's

[rabbi]

At Copeton they could have been Ned kellying for yellars or bobbing baltic bobbers for redfin. Back in the 80's either would have been possible.

I'm a bit like rabbi, that was the style of fishing I grew up with... Tell you what rabbi... I have never bobbed a yellar using braid. I bet that bang bang bang at the end of the rod is full on!! with zero line stretch, when you are day dreaming, looking up into the river gums at the cockatoo's squablbling over which branch they want to sit on as the sun gets up late in the morning........

Scott

Hi Scott,
Yeah its a tonne of fun with braid and quite abrupt when they hit the hook.
I used to fish Howell point at Copeton back when the redfin were thick and didnt I have braid back then but used to have fun with light 6 and 10lb mono outfits when SP's first come on the scene. Bobbing in about 10 to 15ft of water and getting heaps of big Redfin.(I used to lose too many Baltic bobbers)
Used to like Bedwell downs but my favourite spot was the Gwydir River between Copeton and Bingara.

Get down there early in the morning before first light after dodging big Roos all the way, go in to Keera Stn where Nugget Rampling used to live and the cockys would start up at first light, put the boat in at the top of the hole and there was a big whirlpool at the top of the hole on one side. We would just drift around in this big circle and slip a crayfish over the side in 3 m of water and hang on. I used to use 3/0 suicides back then and lost count of the times we had them straightened or broken by big cod. 10kg plus fish everywhere back then cause Bingara were doing their restocking thing at the time and the fingerlings were released in moderation into each hole and this allowed the fish room to grow.

If you put too many calves into one paddock they will never grow. That was Nugget's saying!! It still applies to cod
I digress again.
Natural therapy Scott, Saved me thousands on counselling

Nothing nicer than floating down a western river watching the roos and wildlife come down to the riverbanks in the afternoon whilst wetting a line and enjoying the peace and serenity.
cheers, steve

[odes20]

Yep I also grew up with a bobing rod. Most of our was done from the banks of the Conamine and its tributaries. Grat fun. The only real difference between bobbing and jigging in fressh water for us was in that bobbing has a cork or float which presets the depth you want to jig at, and helps you have the bait above the bottom. I think the term bobbing would have come from the action of the cork bobbing up and down on the surface as you bobbed away.
Always fun to see the cork suddenly dissapear when a cod or yella grabbed the bait. I have even had cod attack my red and white cork!

They were days of great fun at fishing- chilidhood right thru to today. In the boat I prefer to jig live crays around sunken timber with a baitcaster outfit and perhaps no more the 20lg line or braid. I too have caught heaps of yellas on spinners. All our rivers are clear for e change so should be a good option this spring till the summer rains send their blessed flow down our inland waterways.

I will be jigging on the Condamine in 2 weeks . cant wait!
Great thread

Cheers

[rabbi]

Hi odes20,
I guess there were not too many fishos out our area that used the cork method but it was the go in Keepit dam in the 1980's.
We just used the method of lifting the rod up and down with a yabbie on the end and it was referred to as bobbing in the Inverell, Moree, goondiwindi area at that stage.
We used to refer to the people that used corks as "floaters" (in a nice way).
I have never used corks myself unless fishing for little carpfish behind our house in Inverell.
I did see a tv program with Robin Barlow many moons ago with fishos at goondiwindi fishing dried up river holes with long bamboo poles and floats.

I had this thing about snakes so I tried to keep away from grassy river banks when possible. My Nickname at one stage was "Ram Chandra".
If they ever make a movie about me it would be called "Dances with Snakes"!!
Cheers.

[PNG1M]

Ok, I've got the idea now that there's 'bobbers' and 'floaters' but is the actual bobbing done wth the float on? There's been mention of the word jigging too.

From the posts so far it looks as though 'bobbing' is essentially having the bait suspended under a float and you kind of keep bobbing the float up and down to generate movement at the bait end?
Is that it??

I would have thought that bobbing the float up and down would scare the fish away? When I used the Ned Kelly float method years back 'the quieter the better' was the rule and we just let the float drift silently around until it went under. That must put me in the category of a 'floater' I guess.

I do remember, back in the mid-1980's I lived in the Narran River area for a couple of years. A few times we used the 'float' method for Yellowbelly. Occasionally we'd hook a big fish and it struggled and splashed around and got off the hook. More often than not if we baited up quickly and cast out in the same place - we'd catch the same fish (apparently) again within a few seconds.

By the way, when it's Cicada season out there - can they be used for bait?

[wamjam]

My method of bobbing, the oldman showed me as a youngen... In the dams is a 3/o or smaller french hook with a generous size ball sinker sitting on top of the hook with a small crayfish ( preferably a crayfish from a dirty granite farm dam or muddy creek). In the rivers the method was as my mates dad showed us, same as above but a bit larger hook, 6 or 7/0....No float just drop the bait to the bottom and bob the rod up and down until you got a hit. If no bites after 10- 15 minutes move to the next tree...

Scott

[rabbi]

My method of bobbing, the oldman showed me as a youngen... In the dams is a 3/o or smaller french hook with a generous size ball sinker sitting on top of the hook with a small crayfish ( preferably a crayfish from a dirty granite farm dam or muddy creek). In the rivers the method was as my mates dad showed us, same as above but a bit larger hook, 6 or 7/0....No float just drop the bait to the bottom and bob the rod up and down until you got a hit. If no bites after 10- 15 minutes move to the next tree...

Scott

Spot on scott

[wamjam]

Hi Scott,
Yeah its a tonne of fun with braid and quite abrupt when they hit the hook.
I used to fish Howell point at Copeton back when the redfin were thick and didnt I have braid back then but used to have fun with light 6 and 10lb mono outfits when SP's first come on the scene. Bobbing in about 10 to 15ft of water and getting heaps of big Redfin.(I used to lose too many Baltic bobbers)
Used to like Bedwell downs but my favourite spot was the Gwydir River between Copeton and Bingara.

Get down there early in the morning before first light after dodging big Roos all the way, go in to Keera Stn where Nugget Rampling used to live and the cockys would start up at first light, put the boat in at the top of the hole and there was a big whirlpool at the top of the hole on one side. We would just drift around in this big circle and slip a crayfish over the side in 3 m of water and hang on. I used to use 3/0 suicides back then and lost count of the times we had them straightened or broken by big cod. 10kg plus fish everywhere back then cause Bingara were doing their restocking thing at the time and the fingerlings were released in moderation into each hole and this allowed the fish room to grow.

If you put too many calves into one paddock they will never grow. That was Nugget's saying!! It still applies to cod
I digress again.
Natural therapy Scott, Saved me thousands on counselling

Nothing nicer than floating down a western river watching the roos and wildlife come down to the riverbanks in the afternoon whilst wetting a line and enjoying the peace and serenity.
cheers, steve

I remember as a young fella in the back seat of my mates brothers HK, hitting a big wallaroo going down the hill just before you go over the spillway on our way to Keera about four in the morning. I don't think the car or the wally got damaged.

Things have changed a bit.... No seat belts, crack the quarter glass an inch so the cigarette smoke would draw out, glass rods, mono line and the older brother drank beer most of the day and drove us home with no problems...

Not wrong about the natural therapy Steve... I don't know how I would cope if I couldn't escape back to the rivers every so often... Think I best get my backside down there soon...


Scott