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