After the success of the first round, I was keen for round 2 that was on my home 'turf' so to speak: the Georges River. 27 yakkers today and I was up against two other locals that know this place like the back of their hands - Stewart Dunn and Andrew Death.My plan was to basically fish the racks most of the day with a quick session fishing boat hulls while heading back to the weigh in. I headed straight to a set of racks that I'd found some fish on a week ago and I was accompanied some of the way with Craig '450' and Andrew who is the sole member of Team Doofus!
Gladiator Bingos are my go-to lure in the racks and this was attached to 8lb fluoro which was connected to 9lb Gosen braid. Things were quiet to start with but eventually I get one into the yak. He's just legal at 26.5 cms but at least it's a start.
I move among the old rails and put a long cast along some posts. Half way through my retrieve the rod loads up and there are some head shakes but little else. I'm thinking that this is gonna be a monster bream that's just shaking his head before all hell breaks loose so I quickly lean back on the rod and crank the reel like crazy.The nest thing this big spikey football floats up and it's my first spikey puffer fish on a lure. He's absolutely mangled my Bingo and it was amazing that the thing held together for me to land him. I unhooked him and set him free to de-puff himself and swim off.
I changed the lure for another Bingo. I was getting a few just under-size so I knew they were around here somewhere, I just had to keep casting. The next fish I landed was pretty good at 30 fork and a few minutes after that I was smoked by a big brute that pinged me on one of the numerous posts jutting out of the water.
On goes another Bingo and two casts later I get another roasting and that's two big fish I've lost! Aaarrgh. The next guy is just legal for the comp (26 tip) so I really want to upgrade him. Luckily he didn't have to swim about in my live well too long and he's replaced with a 27 fork length specimen.I stay in the racks and land another few legal bream but none of them are upgrades. The fish eventually went off the bite so I started to head back towards the weigh in and figured I try some SP's under some boat hulls on the way. The only problem is that most of them have probably been worked over by other anglers, but it's still worth a try. As it turned out, it wasn't, but oh well, that's fishing for you.
Back on shore I definitely didn't think I had anywhere enough weight for my three fish to challenge for a podium spot, in fact I'd be lucky to crack the top 10. Sure enough, Stewart and Andrew have done really well and they clinch the number 1 and 2 spots. Third was taken out by Glenn Ross, a fellow Gladiator team member who had ditched the boat for the day and decided to fish out of a kayak. The winning weights were 2.045 kgs, 1.92 kgs and 1.815 kgs. I ended up in 7th with 1.325 kgs, so all up I was pretty happy with my final result.The next event for me is the ABT Hobie round up at Forster on the 5th-6th April. This year we are launching into Pipers Bay instead of from the marina, so this area is completely new to me. Should be lots of fun and hopefully they'll still be taking lures off the surface. Happy yakkin', everyone!
cheers,
Cid
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