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
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