Botany Bay - 20/7/08

Work is still the bane of my existence but at least it keeps the wolves from my door. It was a week and a half ago that Terry and I ventured out of the Cooks River and over towards the runway as during the week he'd bagged a half a dozen salmon on SP's over the flats. Showing the stability of the Hobie Outback, Terry stood to cast a popper at a few surface boils not far away, but to be honest, I think he was trying to temp the Qantas jet. Thank God he didn't hook up! : )

Unfortunately, the boils only proved to be small chopper tailor that were no bigger than 25cm's. There were no signs of any salmon on the surface and our submerged SP's couldn't raise a scale either. We started to target the marker bouys and eventually picked up a few legal bream but nothing to write home about. I hooked what felt like a nice trevally (thump, thump, thump coming back up the line) but I pulled the hooks on it 30 seconds into the fight. A minute later, Terry lands one but he's in a generous mood and sets it free to grow a little more.

Heading back I switch to a TT Switchblade and start working the flats, hoping for a flathead. No flatties but I did manage to rack up another species on the blade, this time a Flounder that came home with me and tasted magnificent once filleted and dipped in a beer batter and served up with fresh lime wedges, Maldon Sea salt and cracked black pepper. Mmmm Mmmm...

The weather is looking a bit dicey this weekend but if there's a chance, I'll give it a go somewhere. I just hope it warms up a little...

cheers,

Cid

Cooks River - 6/7/08 & Botany Bay - 13/7/08

A short and sweet report as work is keeping me too busy! Boooo Hisssss!!! Another attempt at jewies in the Cooks and apart from a HUGE hit that was over as soon as it started, there was no jewfish coming up to say hello to us. I'll get one one day.

Back to the TT Switchblades and the bream start to come in fairly consistently. Terry calls out and I turn to see he is being towed upstream, so I head over to take some photos. It's a beauty, too and goes 39cm's total length (37cm's fork). She's a real porker and we set her free to go eat a few more mouthfuls for breakfast.

I lose a cracker that must have been lip hooked and then Terry drops another horse that is also taking him for a tow. All up we landed about 15 bream and I finish off the day with a very nice trevally that also hit the gold Switchblade. As I head back to shore, Terry heds outside the mouth of the Cooks and proceeds to land 8 salmon that are working over the flats. No bust ups on the surface, they're just scoffing down his 3" bass minnow in pearl watermelon colour that's rigged on a resin jighead. A couple of trevally finish off the day for him and all up it's been a great session.

Last sunday I had an hour and fifteen minutes to kill (ha!) and after talking to Terry who'd bagged out on salmon and trevally over near Foreshore rd yesterday, I launched from Kurnell at 6:30am for a commando assault on the resident fish. First off, poppers at the HWO, hoping for tailor. Nuthin'. I change to Mojo Twitchin' Minnow's and hope for a winter kingie. Zip. Over to the bouys around the fish cages and I let a few various SP's sink next to them hoping for bream. Zero result, so I head out to the Sticks, trolling a deep diving HB, which doesn't even get a nudge.

More SP's flicked about, followed by switchblades and then back to different SP's. And still, I come up with a big fat donut. I head back to shore dragging another HB and as I land I realise it's the first time EVER that I've been out on the yak and haven't even had a bite. Now, there's been times I haven't landed a fish during a session but to go out (albeit a short time) and not get even a small bump was, I think, pretty unusual.

Fishing...just when you think you have it sussed out, it comes back and bites ya in the bum big time. And we wouldn't have it any other way, would we? Happy yakkin, everyone!

cheers,

Cid

Cooks River - 29/6/08

I had planned to go chasing Jewies on the weekend but I dragged my lazy bones out of bed too late, so instead I thought I'd bother the local bream population at one of my favourite breamin' grounds, the Cooks River.

First off I hit the freeway wall and picked up four average bream (biggest 29cm fork) using a TT Switchblade in gold, the same colour that did all the damage last weekend. When I reached the airport service bridge, I switched to SP's and rigged up with a 3" minnow in pumpkinseed. On the 2nd set of pylons, I flicked it right up into the shadows and after letting it sink to the bottom, I hopped it out with a few pauses between hops. I felt the line go tight, so I lifted the rod then BOOYAH!

At first I thought I'd hooked a jewie but I couldn't have been happier to be wrong. The fight was a little more sluggish than I'd expect but I figure the cold water has a lot to do with that. To make room for her in my live well, I had to put the 3 smallest bream back into the river!

At just over 41cm's fork length, it beat my previous PB by 2 cm's. Back on shore, I measured the girl alongside my next biggest bream and she makes him look like a tiddler! She would've been 3 inches thick at the shoulder and even though I didn't have my scales with me, I reckon she would've been close to 1.4-1.5 kg's. She was a thumper!

As I eased her back into the water, she was obviously none the worse for wear after her short stint in captivity and she sped off into the depths with a few quick tail beats, quickly followed by her smaller brother. So no jewfish to report but who cares when you can catch a bream like that? At a total length of 45cm's, I'm now only 5cm's away from my goal of a half meter bream. : )

So what to do this weekend? Try for some more winter bluenoses around the breakwalls, spin up a few greenback tailor in the Bay or get out of bed on time and try for the jewfish around the bridges? What a choice... Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,

Cid