It was a freezin' start to the morning but at least the predicted wind was absent. We started off in Exile Bay and I picked up our first (bang on 25cm fork) after about 30 minutes. We snaffled a few that were just undersize so we moved upstream to Brays Bay near Ryde bridge and started working a likely looking shoreline. Dave was fishing the shallows, I was casting out into the deeper water.
Dave gets a whack and lands number two (27 fork). Then I get another that's 26. Beauty, that's three and we still have three hours to go. All the fish have been caught on blades so far, even though we are changing between various HB's and SP's.
Then Dave calls out 'Yeah, this feels good!' and I turn to see his rod loaded up and the line
zipping through the water. But bugger! It's a nice whiting of 37cm instead. Then he gets a flathead and another whiting.I'm perservering with the deeper water and finally I hook up. This fish puts in some strong runs but every now and then I feel this 'thump, thump' reverberating up the line, so I'm starting to think that it's a trevally. And it is, too! Double bugga. 50cm worth of treva is a good fish but not what we want.
We'd reached the end of the shoreline and figured it'd be worth another run, so back to the start we go and turn the boat as it drops down into 5 meters. I purchased a new outfit last week (a Shimano Stradic Ci4 matched with an Okuma spin travel rod) and I was keen to christen it on a good bream.
We're still using the blades and first drop into the deeper water I get a double-bump and strike. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz goes the drag and there is some good weight here. There are a few head
shakes but no tell-tale trevally signs so it's either a bream-from-hell or a jewie. The drag on the Ci4 is beautifully smooth, which is just as well as I'm using 2lb crystal braid with 4lb leader.The fish takes me around the boat a few times, then turns and rewinds itself. We're still hoping for a bream, but I'm almost certain now that it's not. And sure enough, she surfaces and it's a nice jewfish. Dave does a stirling job of scooping her up in the net and at 70cm total length, she's well and truly christened the new outfit.
So that was it from this area so we scoot around a bit and only manage those evil, pesky 24cm bream that always come out in force during a tournament. We have an hour to go so head back to Hen and Chicken Bay for some drifts over a 'Spot X' that Dave has been told about. First drift and Dave gets a 26'er. That's four, just one more for a full bag. We really need a kicker fish though and as the last minutes tick away, we both drop a couple of legals but nothing that would've pushed our bag out to a tourny winning weight. So it's time up and we head in with our four fish.
We manage 18th place with 1.51 kgs so it wasn't a bad effort, we just couldn't get those thumpers that we needed. In fact we didn't even hook any that we'd call good fish. Still, it was a great day,
even if Dave and I felt a bit funny fishing out of a boat rather than a yak.On the Botany Bay front, Terry has been hitting it all this week (jammy git has been on holidays, hasn't he!) and has been getting heaps of tailor on the troll. Most of them have been up near the 50cm mark too, so they're a good size. Every now and then he'll pick up a trevally as well, so he's been having a ball in his new Hobie PA. Happy yakkin', everyone!
cheers,
Cid
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