Roseville – 18/6/06

Early morning starts in the middle of winter can be chilly affairs and today was no exception but at least it wasn’t raining! Today I competed in the Ausbream June Social that launched from Garigal National Park underneath Roseville Bridge. There was only a small field today with 8 power boats and two yakkers, Dave (aka Peril) and I, who were ready to show them the advantages of stealth.

7am kick off (launch off?) and I headed to the flotilla of moored boats opposite the ramp. First cast with a Berkley 2” Hawg (green pumpkin) at a crusty pontoon and I come up tight on a 24cm tip bream. ‘Ooh, that’s promising’, I think but it’s not big enough and today is especially tough as although we only need one fish, it has to be 30cm tip length minimum. Next three casts and I bring in three more bream – 25cm, 27cm and 25cm! If this was a normal day I’d have 3 keepers by now but TODAY they all go back in the drink.

I dropped one more smallish fish off the boats and decided to pack up and pedal my Hobie downstream towards Killarney Point to fish the shoreline for the last of the run-out. I changed SP’s to the 6” Sandworms (Camo) and finally I was rewarded with a 30cm fish. Yahoo! I’m on the board. I checked the SP then flicked it back towards the shore. On the first hop it was nailed by something big that took off like a freight train. I gave it as much pressure as I could which at least stopped it but it just screamed off in the opposite direction. The line sliced through the water as the drag screamed and I thought, ‘Hmmmm, I don’t think this is a bream…’ Of course, the inevitable happened and I felt the scraping of the line and ‘ping’, it was all over. A Kingie maybe? Still, it was good fun for the ten seconds it lasted.

The action died off for a while so I had a bite to eat then made my way back upstream, casting as I went. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed some small baitfish jumping right in close to the shore. I quickly rigged up a 3” Minnow (pumpkinseed) and flicked it to where the disturbance had been. It was crunched straight away and I managed to keep this one away from the rocks. Ooh, this is much better – a bream of 37cm and now I feel I’m in with a chance.
I finally make it up to Roseville Bridge and there is still 90 minutes until the weigh-in at 2pm. I change back to the Sandworm and fish the deeper sections near the pylons, casting downstream and retrieving the lure towards me. The lure is right below me and its hit on the run by another solid fish. He really went for it and I had my rod right down in the water to keep him away from the oyster-encrusted ledges. He spun me round once or twice but the hook held and the best for the day came onboard. 40cm tip length and with a big blue nose like Jimmy Durante!

At the weigh in we saw how tough the day was with only 9 anglers weighing in fish. But that last one of mine was enough for me to clinch top spot for the day so rack another one up for the Kayaks! The big guy went 0.97 kg’s and bolted once released. These big fish can be about 25-30 years old so I’m glad he’s still swimming about.

Fordy was meant to be Bassin’ but due to car troubles he was stuck at home getting phone calls from me. Next time, Fordy. Happy yakkin’, everyone.

cheers,
Cid