Georges River – 8/3/07

Man, time sure is at a premium with a new baby in the house. Extended kayak trips have been put on the back burner for a while but I still snuck out for a couple of hours one morning to see if the bream wanted to play. A quick trip to my local waterway and by 8:50am I was heading to the first set of pontoons. The tide was nice and high and just starting to run out so I had high hopes of getting amongst them.

From the first pontoon I pulled a small flattie. Ditto for the second one. If only they’d been about 20cm’s bigger. As I made my way down towards the mouth of Oyster Bay I snared my first bream. He took a bite of my orange/gold Halco Scorpion as I worked it between the boulders hard against the shoreline and mangrove trees. 26cm’s total length so there was plenty of room for improvement. Two casts later I land one of 25cm’s. ‘Come on, where’s the big guys?’

That was it from the shorelines so I moved onto the boats and jetties. A quick flick with a 3” Gulp Minnow in Pumpkinseed right up the back of the shadows and it’s pounced on immediately. Ooh, this feels better and I wind quickly before it can turn its head. This ones 29cm’s.

And so I made my way along, casting into all the nooks and crannies where bream love to hide. I landed another two: one of 28cm’s with some healed net damage just in front of its dorsal fin (see the photo) and a big fatty of 31cm’s. I reached the end of my usual run of boats and the last one is a big 45 foot cruiser. There is a gap of about a foot between the boat and its jetty and I skipped the minnow down it with a bow and arrow cast. It stopped right next to a pylon and had only settled for a few seconds when my line zipped tight.

I struck and immediately knew I was in trouble. The drag sang and I quickly threw the rod to the left to try to turn what was obviously a thumper. I winced as I felt the line rubbing against the pylon so I backed off the pressure to see what would happen. Suddenly the fish changed direction and now raced under the boat. I pushed my rod down into the water to try to keep the line away from the keel but there was too much line out and it all went slack. I wound in to find a nicely shredded leader.

This is the sort of thing that I love about fishing for bream from a kayak. You’re right down close to the water, and you never know what you’re going to hook next. Every now and then you hook a beast that is unstoppable which leaves you shaking and quivering as you try to tie on another jighead. Great stuff.

This Sunday I’ll be competing in the Berkley Summer Series Sydney round and I hope to land a few similar to the one I lost above. I’m teamed up with Gary Brown and I’m sure we can put a good bag together and hopefully come out somewhere near the top. Fingers crossed. Happy yakkin’, everyone.

Cheers,
Cid