Oyster Bay - 17/9/11

After taking a winter sabatical from the fishing reports, spring is now here and it's time to get into the fishing and writing. To tell you the truth, there wasn't much to report during those cold months except for a few jewfish sessions where Stewart and I got busted up more than we should have. Stewie did manage to land a few crackers though and here is one of them that went mid 90's. Plus he and Andrew always manage to get into a few fish wherever they go but muggins here has too little time with soccer for myself and Lachlan, but now that that is all over, let's get into a few fish.

So with a fairly miserable winter done and dusted, the weather finally warmed up enough for me to take Lachlan out on the front of my Outback to hopefully snare a few spring flathead. He was really chomping at the bit to get out on the water and the saturday morning was just about as pristine as you could get - no breeze whats-so-ever and a cloudless blue sky. We started off by trolling a Jackall Chubby and a River2Sea Baby vib. A few small bream and flathead kept the interest up until we finally landed one of 42 cms that was coming home for dinner with us.

With one in the well, we decided to move onto the pontoons and jetties to see if the bream were home. Well, one was and he went 29 cms to the tip, so that was one more for the frying pan. We moved around a fair bit but couldn't get anymore legals so we headed back towards the ramp.

About 300 meters from home, the rod with the Baby Vib buckles and Lachlan is once again all smiles. This fish was decidedly better than the first one and the drag zinged as the fish went on several short but strong runs.Finally it came up and oh yeah, she's a cracker! I could see she was hooked right in the corner of the mouth so I knew with patience we land her. Lachlan listened to my frantic "rod over there, don't wind, that's it, wind now, keep the tip up" instructions and to his credit he followed them all to a tee. We slid her (well, half of her) into the net and it was yeehahs all round.

I explained to Lachlan that this girl was one of the big mummys and that it would be best if we let her go after a quick photo. We put the lip grips on and he lifted her for a few seconds while I took one quick snap and then we set her off until the next time we catch her. We never put her on the brag mat but I guessed she would have gone 65-70cms. He couldn't stop grinning like a Cheshire cat (without teeth) and I couldn't have been prouder or happier.

Of course, now Lachlan didn't want to go home. I said times up but we still have a couple of hundred meters for you to hook another one. Back out go the lures and we've only moved 20 meters or so when the rod Lachlan is holding (Jackall Chubby) kicks in his hand. He starts winding and it comes in easily. 'Oh, this is just a baby' he says but as it nears the yak, a genuine croc of about 80cms looms out of the depths. Lachlans eyes nearly pop out and I thought 'Oh, this'll be fun..' when the big girl decided to kick into gear and she shoots off under and behind the yak. I'm too slow to turn and the line scoots under the rudder and 'ping', she's gone. We were devastated but that's fishing and Lachlan took it all in his stride.

Naturally, he wants to go out again next weekend, so lets home for some more warm weather. And maybe two front teeth so he has a complete smile... : ) Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,
Cid