Cooks River - 29/6/08

I had planned to go chasing Jewies on the weekend but I dragged my lazy bones out of bed too late, so instead I thought I'd bother the local bream population at one of my favourite breamin' grounds, the Cooks River.

First off I hit the freeway wall and picked up four average bream (biggest 29cm fork) using a TT Switchblade in gold, the same colour that did all the damage last weekend. When I reached the airport service bridge, I switched to SP's and rigged up with a 3" minnow in pumpkinseed. On the 2nd set of pylons, I flicked it right up into the shadows and after letting it sink to the bottom, I hopped it out with a few pauses between hops. I felt the line go tight, so I lifted the rod then BOOYAH!

At first I thought I'd hooked a jewie but I couldn't have been happier to be wrong. The fight was a little more sluggish than I'd expect but I figure the cold water has a lot to do with that. To make room for her in my live well, I had to put the 3 smallest bream back into the river!

At just over 41cm's fork length, it beat my previous PB by 2 cm's. Back on shore, I measured the girl alongside my next biggest bream and she makes him look like a tiddler! She would've been 3 inches thick at the shoulder and even though I didn't have my scales with me, I reckon she would've been close to 1.4-1.5 kg's. She was a thumper!

As I eased her back into the water, she was obviously none the worse for wear after her short stint in captivity and she sped off into the depths with a few quick tail beats, quickly followed by her smaller brother. So no jewfish to report but who cares when you can catch a bream like that? At a total length of 45cm's, I'm now only 5cm's away from my goal of a half meter bream. : )

So what to do this weekend? Try for some more winter bluenoses around the breakwalls, spin up a few greenback tailor in the Bay or get out of bed on time and try for the jewfish around the bridges? What a choice... Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,

Cid