Cooks River - 31/5/08 & Botany Bay - 8/6/08

COOKS RIVER
Keen to get into a few Jewfish, Terry and I thrashed the river to bits for 3 or 4 good hits but no hook ups! Very frustrating but with a bit of perserverance, I'm sure we'll get a few over the sides of the kayaks before too long.

An hour into it, Terry had a big hit and initially we thought 'YES!' but it turned into a big 'NO!' when a trevally (a nice one though) surfaced next to him. After a couple of hours of being fishless, I couldn't hold out any longer and turned to the good ol' bream to give me my fishy-fix for the week. First off I threw the TT Switchblades over the flats and pinned two, and from there moved onto the bridges and changed to SP's (Gulp 3" Minnow in pumpkinseed) where I managed another two before having to head home.

The tides look good for the weekend so I only hope the wind and rain will back off a bit and let us have another go at the Jewies.

BOTANY BAY

A visit to the HWO was scheduled in for sunday morning after Terry and I had heard about a

few big tailor being landed throughout the Bay. Terry was 20 meters ahead of me and fired the first cast off and promptly yelled "I'm on! Good Tailor, too, I think." I swiftly flicked out one of Mick Munn's East Coast poppers that has done really well for me in the past and as I skipped it back over the surface it was pounced on by 4 or 5 sets of gnashing teeth. In the turmoil, the bloody fish were knocking the lure every which way but failed to hook up. Terry continued to hoot and holler so I responded with a 'Shaddup...' as I fired off cast number 2. Same scenario as the first cast but half way back the popper is finally nailed and I'm on.

"Yeehah! Double hook up!", I yell and to make sure I'm well connected I set the hook again.

'ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,' goes the drag and I turn to Terry and say "Ah... don't think this is a tailor anymore" before getting the legs moving and taking chase. This thing rockets off and I put on as much pressure as the 6lb braid and 10lb leader will allow me to. I gain some line, I lose some line and so it goes. I'm pretty sure I know what this fish is now but I'm still waiting for colour. After several minutes the big runs have subsided and I slowly work this guy to the surface. My thoughts are confirmed and I eventually slip the now very small looking net under a very healthy Yellowtail Kingfish.

Oh man, how good was that! A new PB for me as he goes 79cm's and weighs in at 4.15kg's. And my first on a popper, too. The lure he took is a Splash n' Dash that I'd modified by taking out the middle treble. I removed this because I like the lure to sit right on top of the water when chasing tailor. Hook ups mightn't be as prolific but I also think it stops a lot of the damage that may occur to fish (especially around their eyes) if there'd been two sets of hooks.

By the time I'd made it back to the HWO, the tailor had disappeared so we tried for kings for another 15 minutes then moved out to The Sticks where we picked up a few bream and trevally on SP's. I had to leave but Terry stayed back and landed another 6 tailor by trolling deep diving HB's, with the biggest for the day for him going 55cm's, which is a cracker of a Tailor.

I just checked my diary and June last year was a great month for me and Kings. I landed over a dozen all up so I'm sure I'll be putting in a few more visits over the next few weeks. Still, the Jewie Fever is in my head and there is only one cure for that. Happy yakkin, everyone!

cheers,

Cid