Botany Bay - 19/9/07

I absolutely love these warm spring days with nary a breath of wind, which is how the morning dawned when I set off onto Botany Bay in search of a few more trevally. I had two hours to persuade a few to chomp my SP's and after our last session I was highly confident. I moved along towards the end of the 3rd runway, staying just outside the markers, casting towards the runway wall. I only had two of the Gulp 3" minnows in limetiger so I figured I'd use them up before moving onto the Pumpkinseed ones.

The first fish hit the minnow on the drop and I knew it was a good bream. Back and forth he went and at 33cm fork length he was a good start to the day. The very next cast I hooked up again (yeehah!) and this was a twin to the first one. As I started to lift him into the yak, he did a quick backflip, threw my hook back at me, gave me the two-fin salute and swam off quick smart. That can happen when you crush your barbs down. I guess I should have used the net. D'oh!

I had the camera with me to finish the trevally segment for the DVD and had just finished running through the lures we use when I heard some 'splish splash' behind me. 50 meters away there was a school of something chopping up the surface. It actually looked more like 'sucking' at the surface so I guessed (and hoped) they were salmon and not tailor. I zoomed over and flicked out the minnow. I skipped it across the surface in the middle of these fish and I didn't even get a sniff. 'Ok,' I thought 'this time I'll let it sink and give it a few twitches.'

This did the trick and the line went tight and I knew I was into my first salmon. A nice hard run followed that had my Pflueger Trion reel singing it's beautiful song. This was my first salmon from the yak and I love the gusto these guys have. I kept the rod high and reached forward to turn the camera on to capture the fight on film. They don't fight dirty like kings and as long as you have some patience and don't overtighten your drag you should land them. They can jump and throw your lure sometimes but this guy stayed deep. Into the kayak he finally came and I held him up for a quick snapshot before sending him back to his mates. Unfortunately, the school had sounded and even though I kept my eyes peeled, they didn't resurface again anywhere near me.

The tide was pushing in a bit now so for the last half hour I fished the flats with a small HB - a Halco Scorpion. Flicking around the edge of weedbeds, I snared a nice 50cm flattie as well as a another just legal bream. Normally I'd keep a flattie of this size as I love flattie fillets in garlic butter with fresh lime and cracked black pepper, but I was heading off for a few days and there's no point in not having them fresh. The lucky guy was sent packing. Oh, and the Trevally? Not one of the buggers anywhere. Typical...

I forgot to give a quick report on my new ST fins that I put on my Mirage Drive last week. These fins fit onto the same masts as the original fins and are a piece of cake to install. There is a noticeable difference between the two and I'm glad I decided to upgrade. Mick Munns has the larger Turbo Fins on his outback and we set off together, using his GPS to monitor our speed. We were comfortably cruising along between 5 and 6 knots and with a bit of up-tempo, we we're up to 8 knots. I told Mick to give his some 'oomph' and he clocked up 10 knots before clutching his chest and falling overboard. Only joking. : )

And to finish off, when we left Terry last week he stayed out for another few hours and absolutely brained the bream when the tide started to run out and he also picked up a nice little king from one of the marker poles. Only 55cm's but a sure sign that they are on their way. Happy yakkin', everyone.

cheers,

Cid

Botany Bay - 15/9/07

With spring here I'm ever hopeful that the kings are just around the corner. With a few reports of kingies being caught just outside of Botany Bay, I had a quick 'before work' dash to the Hotwater Outlet. There was a lot of that slimey weed floating about and every cast the jighead would come back coated with the stuff, so after 20 minutes I packed it in.

Not wanting to go home empty handed though, I decided to have a flick about with a Gulp 3" Minnow in the Lime Tiger colour. 25 minutes later I'd caught my '5 bag' of bream for a total weight of 2.3kg's. If only I could do that in a competition!

Gary Brown from http://www.garybrownfishing.com.au/ had been out on Botany Bay last week and bagged out on the trevally, so Mick Munns, Terry Grima (who was taking his Hobie Sportsfisherman for it's maiden voyage) and myself launched from Foreshore Rd hoping to lure a few of them off the flats. The weather was perfect and we felt confident of getting a few.

Terry was casting a Berkley 3" Bass Minnow in watermelon and it wasn't long before he had his first onboard. These fish are great fighters and really use their broad sides to gain leverage within the water and you'd swear the fish was twice as big as what they actually are when you eventually get them to the surface.

As we moved over the flats, we looked for any variations or features of the seabed that may hold fish - weed patches, slight drop offs or indentations in the sand, even a solitary marker pole serves as a refuge for any baitfish and thus, also a feeding point for the bigger specimens that we were chasing.

I was using the same lure as I'd had success with the bream and it was rigged on a 1/16th oz jighead. I'd cast out, let it sink for a few seconds then give a few subtle twitches. Half way through a retreive there were two quick, sharp hits - bang, bang - and I was hooked up. This fish zipped through the water and I knew it was a good fish. The tell tale 'thump, thump, thump' could be felt up the line and my rod tip pulsed, the sure signs that it was a trevally. Mick quickly pedalled over and started filming just as I was lifting her into the yak. 48cm's long and 1 cm shy of my PB.

Terry and I picked up another 3 each and Terry even managed a nice 50cm dusky flathead which sped off quickly on release. Mick, who normally fishes me out of the water, couldn't pull a fish today so I've managed to peg a few back on him. Fishing can be like that. Same gear, same lures, same techniques and the same area but some poor schmuck gets nuthin'. Thankfully today, Mick was the schmuck! : ) Happy yakkin, everyone.

cheers,
Cid

Nepean - 7/9/07

SPRING IS HERE

Ah, the weather is warming and that means that those great Australian Bass are a realistic target again. Sure, you can still get them through winter but those balmy summer days when they are smashing lures off the surface are pure magic! I called Mick Munns from East Coast and we met at Tench Reserve in the early morning twilight. He had a few new lures to show me and the twin blade spinners look absolutely sensational.

The reports from the Nepean have been good but they've been from way up in the gorge and we weren't planning on venturing that far. We stuck close to the ramp and tried working the surface we various fizzers and poppers but there was no action on top today. Give the water another few degrees and I'm sure they'll come on the chew.

We switched to spinners and I tied on a small single bladed version with a purple skirt that Mick said had been working well on earlier trips. I was flicking this up the back of snags when I finally hooked up. Nothing spectacular but a solid hit and I could feel some weight on the end of the line. The line zipped right and I could feel the line rub on the submerged snags. I worked the rod left and the fish turned. Ooh, more line rubbing but I eventually get the girl out away from her hidey-hole. I finally get to see her and I'm now grinning. She healthy, fat and looks about mid forties which will easily be my PB...or so I think. As I guide her to the side of the yak she gives two big tail beats and 'TINK', the line breaks and she slowly swims out of view. Bugger...

Then to rub salt into my wounds, 20 meters downstream Mick hooks up and lands a 33cm bass on a red-skirted spinner. 'That's how you do it!' he says. This fish is also in prime condition and it looks like there could be a few really big bass caught this coming summer. Hopefully I'll be able to stay connected and bag one myself!

We continued down to the rail bridge but had no more success so we turned and slowly made our way back to the ramp. I had to leave but Mick stayed to have a lunch with a few guys from WSBB (Western Sydney Bass & Bream). They'd been upstream and between two boats they'd landed over 35 fish, with not one of them being below 30cm's.

If the fishing shapes up as good as I hope it will this summer, it's going to be hard to decide what to chase. Kingfish in the Bay, Bonitos and Salmon off the headlands, bream in the racks, flathead over the flats or bass amongst the snags. Two of my goals are to get a bass over 40cm's (ooooooh, I was soooooooo close) and a kingie over a meter from the yak. With a bit of luck and perseverance I'll hopefully get there.

I recently purchased a pair of the ST fins for the Hobie and I'll be giving them there first run this week. They should give me that little bit of extra speed and I'll give a report on how they went next week. Look out fish, here I come! Oh, and in case you missed the video of the kingfish action, here is the link again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz2deaLhwuM

Happy yakkin', everyone.

cheers,

Cid