Trevally Time - 7/9/13 and 15/9/13

Trevally are a great winter-time staple fish and as the weather warms, they move up further onto the shallows in search of the ever increasing baitfish schools. This weekend and last weekend, I hit Towra in Botany Bay hoping for a mixed bag but more than happy to come away with only Trevally to my name. These guys punch well above their size and when prepared correctly and eaten fresh, they're very nice on the tooth, too.

Last weekend I ventured out with Stewart and Andrew and I started throwing around one of the Gladiator Mutants. I peppered the flats and moved out into deeper water where the weed met the sand and worked the edge. Fifteen minutes had gone by and I hadn't even had a touch so I decided to move out into deeper water (approx. 2.2m deep) and I changed to a Bait Breath 2" ShiftTail rigged on a HWS 1/40th jighead. Another 15 minutes and all I have is a pike and a chopper tailor. Time to rethink my strategy so I opt for a 1/20th jighead, hoping the fish are mooching around near the bottom.

First cast and boom, I'm on! a strong first run and then a pulsating steady pull and I know it's a Trevally. Sharp darting runs are the norm but the drag gives line when it needs to and soon number one is in the net. The next cast I'm on again and I guess I've found them! The technique was pretty simple: cast out, let the lure settle for a few seconds and then give it a little lift off the bottom and let it settle again. 

The ShiftTails were really producing the goods and my short session saw me land four of these silver bullets before I had to leave. I left them all to Andrew and Stewart and later that day I received a call from Andrew saying that he'd won the day with a 40cm fork length bream. What a beast!

With the wind backing off for yesterday, I again ventured to Towra hoping for a repeat of last weeks effort but this time I was by myself. I stuck to the same plan and used the two colours of ShiftTails that you see in the photo. First cast and I load up on a nice fish so it's good to see they are still about. I did notice that I was getting more bites on the green lure (colour no.1) so I stuck with that one.

To mix it up, I also tried a green Bait Breath 3" FishCurly which also pinned it's fair share of fish. Normally I also do well on the blades with Trevally and I cast one of the Gladiator Shiver vibes (colour 004) for a while but only managed one fish. Maybe if I'd had the green colour (006) I'd have picked up a few more fish with it. It's funny how some days fish will hit one colour and the next day they'll hit something different. It just goes to show that you have to mix it up a bit to see what they want.

The final count for the day was 9 Trevally between 33 and 39 cms. Great fun on 3lb gear and a welcome addition to the dinner table. Make sure that you bleed them ASAP and I also fillet and skin them and then remove the darker flesh along their lateral line as this is a stronger flavour than the rest of their firm white flesh. 

This week I have to fly up to Gladstone in Queensland for work and fingers crossed, I'll be able to get out for a day chasing Queenfish, saltwater Barra and any other big beastie that wants to crunch a lure. Happy days ahead! Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,

Cid