I tie on another one and move up and down between the rails but it pretty quiet today and I only get a tentative bump for my troubles. Nothing to do but move onto where I lost the big ones yesterday. I'm pleased to see that there is no one else in the racks. Which could mean that I'm the first here, or that others have fished it and moved on.
Again I decided to go with soft plastics and I rig a Fishtail Shad on one of my modified jig heads. I paint the lead section with fluorescent orange nail polish and this gives a slight orange-ish glow through the plastic, hopefully tempting the fish into thinking its a crab or prawn or whatever with roe.
Up and down through the racks and all I can get is a 20 cm bream and a 30 cm flathead. Very different to yesterday and I'm guessing the amount of anglers through the area may have put the fish off the bite. Time to find some fish, so I venture another couple of hundred meters upriver to a set of floating racks. About half way along I hook up and the poor bream doesn't even know what's happened as he's in the yak quick smart. I put him on the tape and he juuuuust scrapes in at 26.5 cms. That's the Donut Monkey (a donut is when you get zero fish for the day) off my back but I need to get a move on. It's just gone 10 am and I'm wondering how all the other anglers are doing.
That's all I can pull from this set of racks though and I wonder what to do? Well, if my secret spot was good to me yesterday, maybe it'll do the right thing by me again today. I had worked it fairly thoroughly though so my hopes weren't very high. Fingered crossed there's no-one there and yippee, there isn't. I'm sticking with the Fishtail Shads and the first cast I see a fish follow the lure out and dart back to the shelter of the racks. That's a good sign. But an even better one is a bite next cast and number two (27 tip) goes into the well.
'Come on, just two more,' I mutter, and a few casts later I reef out a 29 tip. Ooh, I only need another one for a full bag and if everyone is having a tough day, it may see me creep up into the top 10 and possibly get a qualifying spot. I land another bream but he's only 25 tip and on the last set of broken down racks I set the hooks on a better fish. This guy is definitely better and I angle the rod to get him away from cover and quickly guide him into the waiting net.
'You beauty!' He's 30 tip and there's my full bag. Thank you Secret Spot, you saved my day. Again! I finish off the last rack but there are no more breambos coming my way so I start to slowly make my way back. I bump into Craig (yesterdays leader) and he only has 2 fish. Next I meet up with Andrew and he has a full bag too, and his fish are better than mine, which means that he may leap-frog me on the leader board. That's ok though, as he's already qualified and won't take one of the spots up for grabs today.
We both move down to The Paddock. It's nearly midday so we have just on two hours left to fish. And then, disaster! The current is really pushing through this area and I hook a nice flathead that takes off behind me. I turn to get him back under control and while my attention is averted, the current quickly takes me along with it and I run aground into a sandbank with my Mirage Drive fins down. There's a clunk and my eyes widen. I've snapped the front mast and this renders the drive unusable.
I still have my paddle though but the tide and wind is pretty strong so I paddle (paddle? How do you do that???) across to the set of boats moored on the other side of the river and I hope I can get out of this wind and current. This is the first time I've fished without the mirage drive and let me tell you, I don't want to do it again. Trying to position myself while being pushed about was sooooooo frustrating. Eventually I figured it was a waste of time in these conditions so I headed back in an hour early.
The long wait started and slowly the other kayakers started to filter in. One of the top 10 guys tells me he only has one fish. That's good news for me but not for him. As the field returns there are a few tales of woe but also some excellent fish caught, too. The top 10 were weighing in last so I got my turn out of the way to see where I'd sit. My bag went 1.48 kgs (total 2 day weight of 3.22 kgs) and by the time everyone else had weighed in I was sitting in 3rd. Andrew had smashed me with 1.910 kgs (total 2 day weight of 3.6 kgs) and was sitting in the hot seat up on stage.
The next two to weigh in each only had one fish and couldn't bump me down. By my calculations, I might just grab the last spot. However, Chris (snapper Chris from a few reports back) was up next and he needed 1.08 kgs to beat me. Up he goes and he only has two fish for 650 grams. That was it! I knew now I'd grab a qualifying spot and what a relief that was. Top angler for the weekend was Denis Metzdorf and congratulations to him and the other podium anglers, Russel Babekuhl and Dan Brown. Rounding out the top 5 were Stewart Dunn and Andrew Death. Which means that with a 4th, a 5th and a 9th, Team Rainbow Flat had a fantastic tournament.
With a place in the Grand Final, I was a very happy yakker. Firstly, thanks to Steve Blackmore from Gladiator Tackle for sponsoring me and providing all the fantastic gear that helped me grab this top 10 placing. Their lures and range of tackle are pure gold! And a big thanks goes out to ABT and their excellent crew for putting these competitions on for us and also to Steve Fields and the rest of the Hobie staff for always ensuring that these comps are the best on the circuit.
Next comp is the Gamakatsu Georges River round on the 26th May, so I'd better put in a few sessions to see where the bream are. Happy yakkin', everyone!
cheers,
Cid
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