Oyster Bay - 6-10-07 & Botany Bay 14-10-07

Last weekend, Chris, Mick, Terry and I went after bream in Oyster Bay and the Georges River. Conditions were perfect and we hoped for a great session but for some reason, the bream weren't willing to play. We still managed a few between us though, with Chris getting the best of the day - a 32cm fork battler that had him in knots amongst some jetty pylons. Great rod work extracted the fish though and the performance was duly appreciated by us onlookers.

Flatties were out in force though, with Mick and Terry landing half a dozen each on a variety of HB's and SP's. We also bumped into Buj and a Andrew (9Ball) from KFDU (www.kfdu.com.au) that had also cleaned up on the flatties by working HB's over the flats in the upper reaches of Oyster Bay. Good to see you guys!

There's been some great kingfish sessions off Clovelly lately and I joined a group of about seven like-minded yakkers midweek to tangle with these mighty adversaries. If only we'd told the kingies to turn up, though! The water was a bit lumpy (it's Gatesy in the photo) and there were thousands of Blue Bottles which had been absent the earlier days. Maybe these put them off the bite. I think one or two small kingies were landed but nothing to write home about. Gatesy had been braining them over the last week and his best session was 9 legals in just over two hours, all caught on lures. Sensational fishing when you can get it. And well done on passing your exams, Michael. Congrat's.

Finally, Terry and I launched from La Perouse today hoping to find some schools of salmon near the mouth of the bay. There was no surface activity first thing in the morning, so we headed over towards Molineux Point. This turned out to be an excellent choice as birds started working within Yarra Bay as we approached. Out go the lures and yeehah! Double hook ups are on the cards. Two tailor hit the decks and it's grins all round.

And so it was for the next two hours but we had to keep our eyes peeled to find the feeding schools. They'd come up for only 20 or 30 seconds and you had to be ready to cast as soon as you were close enough. At one stage we had a school nice and close and Terry had just hooked up on his metal lure when his SX40 he had out the back took off too! In the photo you'll see one rod between his legs with it's tip bent down into the water while he's playing the other fish. Bloody show-off! : )

One of the fish I landed coughed up what they'd been feeding on and it proved that my lure had matched the hatch perfectly. Here is the half a pilchard/anchovy type of baitfish shown next to my SP which landed all my fish today.

We were hoping that there'd be a few salmon underneath the schools of tailor but today it wasn't to be. If you could manage to get your lures under the surface fish, the avarage size was a bit better though. Most fish were in the 35-37cm range, with my two best both going 40cm's. Not monsters, sure, but on light gear they're great fun. Terry and I probably landed over a dozen each and we easily dropped that many as well. As the sun rose the schools busted-up less, so if you're planning on chasing a few tailor, nice and early is the way to go. Happy yakkin', everyone.

cheers,
Cid