Oyster Bay - 24/3/13

Grabbing him by the ankles, I dragged Lachlan out of bed at 6am. 'It's still dark,' he said while rubbing his eyes. 'It won't be in 30 minutes,' I said. So a quick hot chocolate and some raisin toast and we were on our way.

The tide was right on high and there was no run whatsoever but I still figured we pick up a Flathead or two. You also get some good bream in this area but there definitely needs to be some water movement before they come on the chew. But we weren't here for bream, we were after a meal and nothing is better than fresh Flathead fillets. We only needed three fish around the 40-45cm mark and I was sure we'd get them fairly easily. And after the Narrabeen round the other week, I knew just the lure that would do the job: the Gladiator Bingo.

In fact, the Bingo was the only lure we took with us. That's how confident I was in it's ability to tempt the local Flathead population. It's only a small lure but it's action is perfect whether it's used with a slow retrieve or a medium-paced troll. The depth of water is about 1.3 meters which is an ideal depth for these lures. And luckily I had a pink one, too, a colour which is a Flattie favorite.

So we set off and quickly deployed two lures out the back, with Lachlan holding one rod and me holding the other. We'd only covered a hundred meters or so when my rod bucks and I'm on. 'Ooh, dad, gimme!', so I pass over the rod and flathead number one falls to the pink Bingo. 'Ha ha, one to me,' says Lachlan. What the....? So it's my lure choice, my rod, yet it's HIS fish. I can see where this days tally is heading already. This guy goes 41 cm so there's number one in the well.

Back out go the lures and it's not too long before we get another hit. This time it's Lachlans lure so I say, 'Gimme!'. Fat chance of that happening. This one goes 43 cm so there is number two. One to go. So out go the lures again and hang on, what's this? Aaarrgggh, it's a boat towing a wake boarder and he proceeds to race around the flats even though there's two boats and another yakker fishing this bay with us. Oh well, not much we can do about it I suppose.

To mix it up a bit, I took Lachlan in close to the edges so he could practice his casting. Maybe he getting better as a few times he cast right up onto the shore but then again it could be due to the fact he's using these Psyborg Rods which are a step above the rods he's cast with before. 'Come on Lachlan, we need one more Flathead,' and on cue, he hooks up. This guy was much feistier than the others and I was hoping for a bigger specimen but when he surfaced he looked pretty similar. And man, had he really wanted that lure! He'd completely engulfed it so I told Lachlan to go easy on him as we were only using 4lb leader. We eased him into the net just as he gave one last head shake and severed the line. Hoo-ee, lucky.

Once the lure was extricated it was high-fives as this was Lachlan's first legal 'cast and retrieve' flathead. Well done, Lachlan, you handled it perfectly. And at 42 cm he was ideal for the last fish for our bag. A quick photo and then it was time to head for home. '3 for me and none for you dad. I told you I'd beat you.' Hmmmm, I'm going to have to come up with some new tactics if I'm going to win one of these father-son fishing comp's. Next time I promised Danielle I'd take her out, so I think my chances of getting another beating will be pretty darn high.

So the Bingo's came through with flying colours. They cast well, have sharp strong hooks and swim perfectly straight out of the box. I can't wait to try them out in the racks down in Woolooware Bay. I'm sure there are some 1 kilo blue-noses just waiting for these to swim past.

The next lot of lures I'm going to test out are the Gladiator Elfin Shrimps. Maybe I'll swim these in the racks instead, or over the oyster-encrusted rocks around the edges of Woolooware. So many choices. Here's hoping you all have a safe and happy Easter. Happy yakkin' everyone!

cheers,
Cid

Gladiator ABT Hobie - Narrabeen Lakes - 9th & 10th March

41 of us ventured out on the 3.5km trek to the back of the lake which is where most of us yakkers headed to to try to claim our bag of four bream for each day. Normally the rounds are a three fish bag limit but a couple of them are four. A few anglers dropped off the flotilla on the way and as most spread out to work the edges, I went straight for my GPS marks that worked so well for me last year.

I was keen for a good result this tournament as I'd only just joined up with Gladiator Tackle (www.gladiatortackle.com.au) as one of their Pro Team Staff members. They have very generously kitted me out with a full assortment of gear from rods and reels to line and lures. The range is spectacular and some of their new gear is simply amazing. Their new minimalist Psyborg rods are out of this world and I'll give a report on this amazing piece of kit in a later report. I've been using some of their lures for a while now, such as the Smashbaits Minnow SP's and Hip Baby HB's but the lures that really caught my eye were the Bingo's and the Bait Breath 2" RushCraw's, which are very similar to the Hawgs that slayed them last year.

I started off with a RushCraw on a 1/20th jighead. I circled my marks and it wasn't long before I came up tight to something. This thing had some weight though and didn't feel like a bream. There were a few strong surges but my guess proved to be right and a beautiful 60cm flathead was led into my waiting net. A quick release and out goes the lure again where it is quickly engulfed as it hits the bottom. This feels flathead'ish again and another cracking flathead (this one was 55cms) says a brief hello. The wind was minimal and I would have preferred just a little more to bring the fish on the chew. Just to check if it was a colour thing the fish were fussy about, I rigged up one of the same hawgs from last year. After 15 minutes without a touch, I decided to move and try some deeper water blading. It seems I wasn't the only one catching flathead though and I passed Steve Fields from Hobie that was landing a beauty.

The Shiver Vibes are perfect for the depth I was fishing, which was between 1.7 and 1.9 meters. And Yay, a bream, but it's only 23 cms. And then another. And another! Finally I hook one that seems a bit more spirited and he's legal, too. Only 27 to the tip but it's a start.

I could've gone home then as it was the only legal I could manage. This massive beast weighed 320 grams and I prayed I'd find the fish tomorrow. It turns out that I wasn't the only one that couldn't find them though, as Meechy, who normally has fish coming out the wazoo, couldn't even get a legal. That shows that if you ain't where the fish are, you can't catch 'em!

The next day I decided to hit the weed edges early and my lure of choice was the Blue/Black Bingo. This is similar to a small Chubby or a Camion and it casts like a bullet and has a great wobbling action that works well at any retrieve speeds. I was getting it to dive to the bottom and would twitch it to stir up little puffs of sand and the first fish of the day was another 60 cm flathead. With great skill I'd hooked it perfectly in the corner of the mouth so with patience I knew it would only be a matter of time before I netted her. She was a nice fish but the wrong species.

The rest of the day I pulled in undersize bream with the biggest going 25 tip. So close yet so far. I managed legal Whiting and Flathead though, all to the Bingo but I just couldn't find the bream I needed. I even ventured up one of the creeks to see if I could find them but to no avail. That's fishing though, sometimes you nail them (like last year) and sometimes you don't (like this year).

Back at the weigh-in I bumped into Meechy. He'd managed 2 fish and it just emphasized my opinion of how frustrating it can be sometimes because if Jason can't find 'em, then it's tough fishing.

But of course some people did find them and kudos to them for searching them out. It looked like Kevin Winchester was going to take it out but he was pipped at the post by Bryce Beechey. Southern stalwart Craig Coughlan from Custom Lure Art rounded out the top three.

So it wasn't as great a tournament as I'd hoped but there's always next time. I think I'll try to take Lachlan out and test out some of the great lures on my local water ways. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,
Cid

Gamakatsu Hobie Fishing Series (GHFS) - St Georges Basin - 3/3/13

Conditions were great, there were over 40 kayaks and I was primed and ready to go. jason Reid and I quickly reached our 'go to spot' which has served us so well the last few tournaments down here. The fish haven't been huge but we've always managed our bag.

Jason likes fishing surface and I usually throw a lightly weighted SP or a shallow diving HB but this time I thought I'd follow Jasons 'Modus Operandi' and I started tossing about a translucent orange Gladiator Kozami 60. It was only a few minutes before I had a hit and the hooks stuck. It's silver and yes, it's a bream, but it's only 20 cms so back it goes. But at least that's a promising start. More casts ensue but there are no more follows, so I change to the green Chubby that worked last week in Woolooware.

To cut a long 6 hour story short, I got nuthin'!!! I didn't land another bream, not even an under size one. I got flathead, whiting and a few leatherjackets (one of which was a beauty) but when it came to bream, no way Jose.

I scoured the flats and weed beds changing lures every few minutes hoping to find something that would work for me. I moved out to the cockle beds and tried blades, vibes and SP's.

The wind picked up and I moved back onto the flats. Jason was still there and had been having just as much luck as me. We gave it another hour or so and decided to move out to deep water and see if we could pin a few with blades.

We caught up with Stewie that was having a blinder. Jason and I were true gentlemen and immediately pushed our way onto his drift. I don't even a bump, Jason lands two snapper and Stewart upgrades twice. We hate him and curse him and tell him to get stuffed and leave him to have his photo taken as he lands a 1 kilo bream for the Hobie photographers. Ooh, if only I had a sniper rifle with me...

And thus it ends and I quickly pack up and eat one of the Paddle Pedal Sail BBQ'd snags that are again a major highlight of the day. So thanks again to David O'Toole. In the wash up, Stewart smashed it and finished up with a fantastic bag that went 2.72 kgs. 2nd was Lachlan Gubb with 2.28 kgs and 3rd went to Steven Cefai with 2.17 kgs. Andrew Death had great delight in telling me he smashed me with his one fish of 310 grams. Another swine.

But of course, the Basin always provides at least one beast of a fish and this time it excelled itself with a 2.17 kg bream that one of the boaters that picked it up of the flats WHERE I HAD BEEN FISHING MOST OF THE DAY! Gaaarrrggghhh, if only.

So well done to Stewart, who really is a quality angler who knows his stuff. thankfully he has to work this weekend so he wont be at the Narrabeen round that is a double header (saturday and sunday). Remember, you can just roll up on the morning if you want to compete and the weather is looking absolutely perfect. For full details, visit: www.hobiefishing.com.au. Hopefully we'll get 40 plus yakkers again and I think there are a few 'Mexicans' coming up to try and take the trophy off the current holder, Jason Meech. But we're not gonna let 'em have it. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,

Cid

Woolooware Bay - 27th February 2013

A tale of two reports. One good, one rubbish. So typical of how these sneaky b*stard fish (to paraphrase DaveyG) can leave you elated one day and deep in despair (ha ha, for those in the know, that's a good joke) the next. So onto the good one first...

It was a high tide and I thought I'd give the racks another crack seeing as I had a blast there last time. It was mid-week and there was no-one else out to spoil the serenity. Perfect. I peppered the usual single posts on the way to the racks but nothing was ready to eat my offerings. Never fear, the racks were near. But hmmmmm, where are they? The tide was at the very top and the trays we could see before were now out of view. I could work out where they were with the sounder though, so I rolled a selection of HB's across them for nada.

Ok, let's try some SP's instead. First the Berkley Hawgs. Zippo. Then the Gladiator Smashbait Minnows. Zilch. Ok, let's go to the Squidgy Wrigglers. SFA. Not even a bite. And then all of a sudden, I'm on! Massive, a 23cm flathead...

Ok, this ain't working, so I think maybe they're over the flats near the mangroves. The wind is starting to pick up now and puts a nice ripple on the surface. There are lots of oyster covered rocks in this area and as the tide started to move out I figured the bream might start to get a bit more active. I switch back to HB's and start flicking out a small red and black Daiwa lure (sorry, I can't remember it's name). I get a few taps but it's 30 minutes before I land my first legal. Yay, I'm on the board. He's only 26 fork but it's a start. 

The wind is picking up a bit and this lure is a little too light to cast, so I change to the Saku lure I was using last week. It hasn't lost it's mojo and accounts for number two for the day, another 26 forker. The bream were really aggressive now, smashing the lure with gusto where as before I was only getting half-hearted hits.

As the water ran off the flats I had to drop with it to deeper water. There is a section I know that is a channel about a meter deep in between to built up rock/oyster bars. The water was just low enough to expose the tops of these and I thought this would be a good place to target. I grabbed my heavier rod that was rigged with a green Jackall Chubby and cranked down the drag.

First cast and it's belted! With no line giving, the fished sliced away through the water to the left and thankfully away from the rocks. I crank him in and he's the best so far at 29 fork and he's got a full belly on him, too. 

I continued to the end of the rocks then turned around an started along the other side. Casting was tricky with this wind but eventually I landed a cast only inches away from the oysters. I barely had time to crank the handle when the rod loaded up and a solid fish took off towards me. I wound like a madman to gather line and the fish kept going and ended up behind me. I held the rod up high and twisted in my seat to get a better angle and tried to keep the fish from ducking back into the rocks. It was a stalemate for a few seconds until I won the battle and led him out into the open water.

Fatter than the other one, this was a prime specimen of Woolooware Bay Bream. 31 fork length and I was a little surprised when he weighed in at just over 700 grams. He was a fat bugger though. On closer inspection of the lure I realised he'd almost straightened out the hooks. They sure can pull hard when they need to and he almost gained his freedom. As it was, he only had a quick ride with me back to the ramp with his mates before I took one last snap before I sent them on their way.

So Woolooware Bay turns it on for me again. Now it's all smiles and in 3 days time I'm off to St Georges Basin for the next tournament. Little did I know what a let down it would be but that is for the next report which will probably be tomorrow. I was going to include it with this one but decided why ruin this blog with the tale of woe that is (or was) the Basin. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,

Cid