Cooks River - 24-5-08

Banana Theory No. 3


It’s been quite a few months since I’ve put the old “bad luck Banana Theory” to the test and Saturday saw Terry and me chasing bream on the Cooks River. I’d loaded up with the biggest banana I had from home and with it sitting right next to me, Terry had a raised eyebrow or two regarding me tempting the wrath of the Banana Gods so flauntingly.

It was 6:15am and conditions were perfect, with the tide about to start running in which hopefully would put the bream on the chew. Of course, if the banana lived up to its reputation, Terry would bag out and I’d be returning to the ramp fishless with my tail between my legs. As we made our way to the canals, I pointed to a large green channel marker. “We’ve gotta have a cast at that,” I said. “I nearly always pick something off it.”

We positioned ourselves either side of the marker and fired out our SP’s. My first cast went about 6 feet. Ooh, a crap cast to start with. Not good. I retrieve and have another crack. This one is better and as the Berkley 6” sandworm in Camo colour settles on the bottom, I feel a bump. I lift the rod and set the hook into what feels like a good fish. The fight is sluggish and I’m surprised when up comes a thumper of a bream that only puts in a few runs once he’s away from the safety of the marker. 40cm’s to the tip (36 fork) and he goes just over a kilo.

Woohoo! Bananas Schmananas! If this is bad luck, what would good luck be like? Terry shakes his head as we continue on our way, looking for any old bananas floating downstream...

The last time we were up here, the edges of the canals were the productive areas but this time they were pretty devoid of fish. But as soon as we starting searching around the man-made structures ie bridges, the fish were plentiful. We both dropped some good fish but after three hours I had a fairly decent 5 bag that went 2.8kg’s. All the fish came on SP’s today with the sandworm doing all the damage for me and Terry getting his fish on the worms and also 3” pearl watermelon Bass Minnows.

As we returned to the ramp, we passed over a spot where it drops from 1.5m into a 5 meter hole. Always on the lookout for jewfish, we both have a cast and Terry is immediately rewarded with a crunching strike. His drag sings out and we’re both hoping for a jewie! But the run is short lived and he eventually lands his best for the day, which measures out at 36cm’s total length.

So how is this Banana Theory going? Well, that’s 3 trips where I’ve put it to the test now and each time I’ve had great fishing. Maybe I need to take two or three to really throw down the gauntlet.

Terry and I are pretty keen to get stuck into a few jewfish so next to we hit the Cooks, we might concentrate on those for a few hours and see if we can bring a few in for a photo or two. Happy yakkin’, everyone!


cheers,
Cid

Oyster Bay - 3/5/08 & Kurnell - 10/5/08

Regular readers would remember that during the Squidgie Bream Challenge Grand Final, Gary and I used Ecogear VX40's (metal blade-style lures) for the first time and caught a bucket load of bream on them. Well since then, TT Lures have released their own blade lure called the Switchblade that comes in 10 different colours. Managing to get my hands on a few, I gave my two local spots are quick going over with them.

The thing that I love about these lures are that they are so compact they'll cast a mile, even on windy days. They work over flats, around structure and boat hulls and are great for jigging in deeper water.

The bream in Oyster Bay were all taken from over the weed beds and I landed 7 or 8, with the three colours I had - Green Back, Golden Boy & Nightmare Red - all taking fish. And not only bream. Whiting, Flathead and Chopper tailor were also getting in on the act. In fact the flatties gave me a few nervous moments when I got them to the surface, as I saw that the buggas had engulfed the whole lure and the leader, being only 6lb flurocarbon, was looking pretty well chaffed. Some gently-does-it into the net however allowed me to retrieve my lures and send them on their way.

As the tide rose, I moved onto the old Oyster Leases and found that the Nightmare Red was getting more hits than the other colours. Digging around in my tackle box I found the River to Sea Mini Vib 43 I first gave a swim to last week. On he went as a comparison and low and behold, it comes up trumps and gets nailed half a dozen casts later. This guy zipped about in the shallows and was definately the best fish of the day so far. He made a few determined runs towards the few posts that are still in the water but sideways pressure turned him each time and eventually I eased him into the landing net. 34cm's fork length and that's another good fish to a fairly new lure!

At Kurnell I decided to try them in water a bit deeper and found a lift and drop action worked better than the rolling hops I performed over the flats. Another couple of bream and one trevally this time and I'm starting to think that these lures will work on anything. Time will tell. I'll have a hunt around for a colour chart and if I find one I'll put it up next week.

Hmmm, I just checked and there are high tides nice and early this weekend, eh? Looks like I'll have to give them a 2nd test just to make sure the first time wasn't a fluke. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,

Cid