5:30am and Team Pflueger (Gary and I) were chomping down our Bacon & Egg Rolls and finalizing our plans for the day. 44 teams had turned up and after the key-tag draw, we’re going to be the 36th boat past the starting line, which gave the number 1 boat about an extra 10 minutes worth of fishing time. This can make a huge difference at the end of the day, so we had a plan. A cunning plan…: )
To counter this, Gary and I made the shortest trip out of the entire field to our first spot. Straight onto the flats in Exile Bay and we proceeded to throw TT Switchblades about and hop them back to us. First up was a small flathead, then a few timid bumps that failed to hook up. I get a huge hit and feel one head shake and my 6lb leader is sawn through. Must’ve been a big flathead…or at least I hope it was? An hour quickly passes for no bream and we’re talking about moving when Gary loads up on something that bolts off and peels line off his reel.
“If this is a bream, it’s a beauty,” says Gary and we watch the braid slice through the water, first out into the open water and then back towards the mangroves. Gary plays it out perfectly, keeping the rod high, staying calm and easing off the drag as we get first sight of the leader. After a couple of tense minutes, what we’ve been hoping for slowly appears out of the slightly
murky water. We hold our breaths as I slide the net under her and then simultaneously yell “YES!”What a fish to start off with! 39cm’s to the fork with big, thick shoulders and I guesstimate about 1.2kg’s. What a relief and it spurs us on to keep working the flats. But that was it from here and keeping an eye on our watches, we stick to our plan and motor up to Silverwater and work the rock walls with SP’s. Finally I get one that’s just legal (25cm fork length minimum for this comp) and that’s 2 in the well. 5 minutes later it’s another one for me that’s just legal and we’re on our way to a full bag.
A quick check of the time and it’s off to our next spot, fishing the down current side of some buntings. I get a flattie, then Gary gets a bream that goes 27cm’s fork, quickly followed by one of 29cm’s for me. That’s a full bag now but we really need to upgrade the 2 smallest guys.
Off to some more flats and Gary comes up with the goods and gets a 33cm fork bruiser that looks like it’s been eating non-stop for weeks. That’s a good upgrade and as the wind picked up we moved to our penultimate spot.
Gladesville Marina worked well for us in the Squidgy Comp and we planned to give it another crack for 40 minutes before moving back to exile Bay for the last 30 minutes of the day. The wind made it difficult to stay in position and we were constantly buffeted by waves from passing boats but it didn’t stop Gary from hooking up (yet again) and strike me pink, it’s another cracker that’s 35cm’s fork length and fat as, as well. As I tossed our last small bream back into the briny, we had a look at the 5 swimming around and thought ‘Hey, we can do this.’
As we approached the flats again, I half joked, half challenged Gary. “I’ve got the 2 smallest fish in there; you haven’t got the balls to kick them out.” We counted down the final minutes. ‘Gary, 7 minutes left,’ I said. ‘Ok, 3 more casts and that’s it,’ he replies. Cast number 1: nothing. Cast number 2: nothing. Cast number 3 and Holy Moley, he’s hooked up again! I laugh as I compare it to my smallest fish and say “Well, it’s at least 100grams bigger, so it could make a big
difference.”As we walked to the weigh in, I saw Alan Loftus and Ross Cannizzaro releasing their fish and there were some thumpers in there, too. On the scales goes our bag and it settles on 3.835 kg’s, our best bag to date, but was it good enough? Gary’s big bugga went 1.285kg’s and was the leading big bream until the very end when Jorge van Hussen weighed in a monster 1.315kg bluenose.
We nervously waited as they tallied the bags and then started the count down from 5th place. When 3rd was announced at 3.737 kg’s, we suddenly realized how important that last fish was and when 2nd was called out as 3.780 kg’s, we knew we’d won it.
We were over the moon as it’s our first big comp win and we put our result down to the facts that we stuck to our plan and never gave up. The $1,000 prize money will definitely help restock the tackle bag and the beer (or bourbon) will taste extra sweet from the winner’s mugs. Thanks for a great comp, Gary and you certainly put the runs on the board for us today. I’ll get the big guys next time, okay? And of course, a big thanks goes to the great team from Western Sydney Bass and Bream (http://www.wsbb.com.au/) who certainly know how to run a good competition.
Back to the yak next week and I’ll probably try my luck for a jewfish again. Happy yakkin’, everyone.
Cheers,Cid
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment