Port Hacking & Cooks River Report – 3/2/07

Well, another weekend with a competition but unfortunately, no kayaks are allowed so I had to do it from a power boat. I still feel weird fishing from a boat and at times I felt like sitting on the deck to continue casting! Its funny how you get used to fishing right down at water level.

This was another Squidgy Comp, this time on the Hacking. Bream only, with a maximum bag of 3 fish. My first came aboard at 8am and when I hooked him I thought ‘Hello! This is a beauty!’ He raced off along the shoreline then quickly changed direction before shooting up towards the surface before diving again. I was a bit surprised as for his size he was fighting way above his weight division. It was only when I reeled him close to the boat that I realised why he’d put up such a spirited performance.

There, shadowing him all the way were two Yellowtail Kingfish, both about 65cm long. Poor bugga! I’d have gone like the clappers too with those two big things behind me. They were only curious though and swam off once he was in the net.

The next two fish I landed both had kingfish following them up. If only I could’ve managed to hook one of these excellent sportfish. They probably would’ve made short work of my 4lb gear but it would have been fun while it lasted.

Gary was doing it tough landing snapper, flathead, whiting, flounder…everything except bream. Towards the end of the day he picked one up on a 3” minnow over the weedbeds opposite Lilli Pilli but that was it. Oh, except for a seagull that flew into his line on one of his casts. I was killing myself laughing and managed to get his capture on film.

The weigh-in showed how tough the Hacking can be sometimes and I managed to scrape into 3rd place with 1.463 kg’s. The biggest bream (not one of mine unfortunately) was a cracker of 1.06 kg’s that fell to a surface popper over the weed beds as well.

Sunday morning Adam and I ventured onto the Cooks River to film but it was quiet compared to 2 weeks ago. We managed 6 keepers between us with all of them falling for the 6” Sandworm in Camo. We got some good footage for the DVD but had to finish filming early due to the incessant noise from railway construction nearby. Happy yakkin’ everyone.

Cheers,
Cid