Cooks River - 31/5/08 & Botany Bay - 8/6/08

COOKS RIVER
Keen to get into a few Jewfish, Terry and I thrashed the river to bits for 3 or 4 good hits but no hook ups! Very frustrating but with a bit of perserverance, I'm sure we'll get a few over the sides of the kayaks before too long.

An hour into it, Terry had a big hit and initially we thought 'YES!' but it turned into a big 'NO!' when a trevally (a nice one though) surfaced next to him. After a couple of hours of being fishless, I couldn't hold out any longer and turned to the good ol' bream to give me my fishy-fix for the week. First off I threw the TT Switchblades over the flats and pinned two, and from there moved onto the bridges and changed to SP's (Gulp 3" Minnow in pumpkinseed) where I managed another two before having to head home.

The tides look good for the weekend so I only hope the wind and rain will back off a bit and let us have another go at the Jewies.

BOTANY BAY

A visit to the HWO was scheduled in for sunday morning after Terry and I had heard about a

few big tailor being landed throughout the Bay. Terry was 20 meters ahead of me and fired the first cast off and promptly yelled "I'm on! Good Tailor, too, I think." I swiftly flicked out one of Mick Munn's East Coast poppers that has done really well for me in the past and as I skipped it back over the surface it was pounced on by 4 or 5 sets of gnashing teeth. In the turmoil, the bloody fish were knocking the lure every which way but failed to hook up. Terry continued to hoot and holler so I responded with a 'Shaddup...' as I fired off cast number 2. Same scenario as the first cast but half way back the popper is finally nailed and I'm on.

"Yeehah! Double hook up!", I yell and to make sure I'm well connected I set the hook again.

'ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,' goes the drag and I turn to Terry and say "Ah... don't think this is a tailor anymore" before getting the legs moving and taking chase. This thing rockets off and I put on as much pressure as the 6lb braid and 10lb leader will allow me to. I gain some line, I lose some line and so it goes. I'm pretty sure I know what this fish is now but I'm still waiting for colour. After several minutes the big runs have subsided and I slowly work this guy to the surface. My thoughts are confirmed and I eventually slip the now very small looking net under a very healthy Yellowtail Kingfish.

Oh man, how good was that! A new PB for me as he goes 79cm's and weighs in at 4.15kg's. And my first on a popper, too. The lure he took is a Splash n' Dash that I'd modified by taking out the middle treble. I removed this because I like the lure to sit right on top of the water when chasing tailor. Hook ups mightn't be as prolific but I also think it stops a lot of the damage that may occur to fish (especially around their eyes) if there'd been two sets of hooks.

By the time I'd made it back to the HWO, the tailor had disappeared so we tried for kings for another 15 minutes then moved out to The Sticks where we picked up a few bream and trevally on SP's. I had to leave but Terry stayed back and landed another 6 tailor by trolling deep diving HB's, with the biggest for the day for him going 55cm's, which is a cracker of a Tailor.

I just checked my diary and June last year was a great month for me and Kings. I landed over a dozen all up so I'm sure I'll be putting in a few more visits over the next few weeks. Still, the Jewie Fever is in my head and there is only one cure for that. Happy yakkin, everyone!

cheers,

Cid

Cooks River - 24-5-08

Banana Theory No. 3


It’s been quite a few months since I’ve put the old “bad luck Banana Theory” to the test and Saturday saw Terry and me chasing bream on the Cooks River. I’d loaded up with the biggest banana I had from home and with it sitting right next to me, Terry had a raised eyebrow or two regarding me tempting the wrath of the Banana Gods so flauntingly.

It was 6:15am and conditions were perfect, with the tide about to start running in which hopefully would put the bream on the chew. Of course, if the banana lived up to its reputation, Terry would bag out and I’d be returning to the ramp fishless with my tail between my legs. As we made our way to the canals, I pointed to a large green channel marker. “We’ve gotta have a cast at that,” I said. “I nearly always pick something off it.”

We positioned ourselves either side of the marker and fired out our SP’s. My first cast went about 6 feet. Ooh, a crap cast to start with. Not good. I retrieve and have another crack. This one is better and as the Berkley 6” sandworm in Camo colour settles on the bottom, I feel a bump. I lift the rod and set the hook into what feels like a good fish. The fight is sluggish and I’m surprised when up comes a thumper of a bream that only puts in a few runs once he’s away from the safety of the marker. 40cm’s to the tip (36 fork) and he goes just over a kilo.

Woohoo! Bananas Schmananas! If this is bad luck, what would good luck be like? Terry shakes his head as we continue on our way, looking for any old bananas floating downstream...

The last time we were up here, the edges of the canals were the productive areas but this time they were pretty devoid of fish. But as soon as we starting searching around the man-made structures ie bridges, the fish were plentiful. We both dropped some good fish but after three hours I had a fairly decent 5 bag that went 2.8kg’s. All the fish came on SP’s today with the sandworm doing all the damage for me and Terry getting his fish on the worms and also 3” pearl watermelon Bass Minnows.

As we returned to the ramp, we passed over a spot where it drops from 1.5m into a 5 meter hole. Always on the lookout for jewfish, we both have a cast and Terry is immediately rewarded with a crunching strike. His drag sings out and we’re both hoping for a jewie! But the run is short lived and he eventually lands his best for the day, which measures out at 36cm’s total length.

So how is this Banana Theory going? Well, that’s 3 trips where I’ve put it to the test now and each time I’ve had great fishing. Maybe I need to take two or three to really throw down the gauntlet.

Terry and I are pretty keen to get stuck into a few jewfish so next to we hit the Cooks, we might concentrate on those for a few hours and see if we can bring a few in for a photo or two. Happy yakkin’, everyone!


cheers,
Cid

Oyster Bay - 3/5/08 & Kurnell - 10/5/08

Regular readers would remember that during the Squidgie Bream Challenge Grand Final, Gary and I used Ecogear VX40's (metal blade-style lures) for the first time and caught a bucket load of bream on them. Well since then, TT Lures have released their own blade lure called the Switchblade that comes in 10 different colours. Managing to get my hands on a few, I gave my two local spots are quick going over with them.

The thing that I love about these lures are that they are so compact they'll cast a mile, even on windy days. They work over flats, around structure and boat hulls and are great for jigging in deeper water.

The bream in Oyster Bay were all taken from over the weed beds and I landed 7 or 8, with the three colours I had - Green Back, Golden Boy & Nightmare Red - all taking fish. And not only bream. Whiting, Flathead and Chopper tailor were also getting in on the act. In fact the flatties gave me a few nervous moments when I got them to the surface, as I saw that the buggas had engulfed the whole lure and the leader, being only 6lb flurocarbon, was looking pretty well chaffed. Some gently-does-it into the net however allowed me to retrieve my lures and send them on their way.

As the tide rose, I moved onto the old Oyster Leases and found that the Nightmare Red was getting more hits than the other colours. Digging around in my tackle box I found the River to Sea Mini Vib 43 I first gave a swim to last week. On he went as a comparison and low and behold, it comes up trumps and gets nailed half a dozen casts later. This guy zipped about in the shallows and was definately the best fish of the day so far. He made a few determined runs towards the few posts that are still in the water but sideways pressure turned him each time and eventually I eased him into the landing net. 34cm's fork length and that's another good fish to a fairly new lure!

At Kurnell I decided to try them in water a bit deeper and found a lift and drop action worked better than the rolling hops I performed over the flats. Another couple of bream and one trevally this time and I'm starting to think that these lures will work on anything. Time will tell. I'll have a hunt around for a colour chart and if I find one I'll put it up next week.

Hmmm, I just checked and there are high tides nice and early this weekend, eh? Looks like I'll have to give them a 2nd test just to make sure the first time wasn't a fluke. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,

Cid

Oyster Bay - 25/4/08

With all the comp's out of the way I could return to the ever-more-so relaxing style that is kayak fishing and my local launch site was seriously overdue for a visit. We had a few guests coming over for a BBQ to celebrate my birthday (yay!) and I boldly told the wife I'd catch dinner. At the ramp I met up with Andrew (9 Ball) who was waiting for Buj to arrive so they could play havoc with the local flathead population.

The tide was low so I headed to the mouth of the bay where the water is a bit deeper and I started by flicking around a River 2 Sea Baby Vibe 43. It didn't take long before I had my first 'guest' for the BBQ that night - a nice flathead of 44cm's. I landed 2 more that were just under legal size and by then I'd reached my first set of pontoons.

I changed to soft plastics and rigged up a Gulp 3" Minnow in LimeTiger. It didn't take longer to realise that there were a few bream about as I was getting a hook-up or at least a hit off every pontoon or jetty. There were no big bluenoses amongst them but they were still great fun. I had 3 in the livewell by the time 9 Ball and Buj caught up and I landed another 2 before it was time to head for home.

On the way back I targetted some of the jetties further up in the bay that now had a bit more water under them and I was pleasantly surprised to find that a couple more legal flatties were willing to join me onboard the Hobie. 9 Ball also had a few and his best so far was 50cm's. The boys were going to put in a few more hours and I think they'd have done pretty well for themselves as the tide rose even higher. I hope you got into a few real croc's, guys and it was great to catch up again.

Oh, and those flattie fillets quickly seared on the BBQ and finished off with garlic butter and fresh lime were just bee-yoot-i-ful! What a great way to celebrate a birthday. Happy yakkin', everyone.

cheers,
Cid

Parramatta River - 19/4/08

Squidgie Bream Challenge Grand Final

20 teams all chasing 1 species. The boats that set off from Bayview in Hen & Chicken Bay at 7am for 7 hours of exciting fishing ranged from humble tinnies to $50,000 fibreglass imports. Up for grabs was a $1,000 entry fee into the Forster Megabucks Tournament plus $3,000 dollars worth of tackle for each angler. Some well known names were amongst the teams and Gary and I were out to upset them. The first thing I had to do was catch a bream! The Lake Macquarie round was a thing of the past and I was sooooooo relieved (not as much as Gary though) when I landed our 1st bream for the day that just made the 25cm fork minimum length. We landed a few more just under size and ventured into Exile Bay to fish the flats. Gary tied on one of Ecogears VX40's (a metal blade lure) and hooked up within the first few casts. Next cast he's on again and I switch from the SP's to a VX40 as well.

And that's when the fun started. The bream were climbing all over these things and after two drifts we had our 5 bag limit. Only 8:20am and we were ready to start upgrading. Gary gets a good hit but it's a lousy, rotten flathead of 58cm's. Normally a great catch but not today! : ) More upgrades come over the side when I get our first kicker fish, a 35cm fork beauty that weighs 900 grams. We couldn't believe how good these lures were working. To the right is a close-up of the one Gary was using. All we'd do is cast them out as far as we could, then double-hop them back to the boat. Often the fish would come back 2 or 3 times if they didn't hook-up the first time.

Once the bite shut down we moved off to a few other bays. We'd take turns swapping between SP's and HB's but the VX's were snaring all the fish. At one stage Gary and I had a double hook-up and it took us a few minutes to decide which fish in the well had to be returned to the river. I only wish we had choices like that every tournament we fished in!

With 90 minutes to go, we figured we had a bag of about 3 kg's. We still needed a couple of kicker fish as we knew you'd need a bag over 4 kg's to win. Gary suggested Gladesville Marina where there was some deeper water and a chance to hook some thumpers. As we were fishing, Gary noticed a lot of water in the boat, and I mean a lot. We quickly discovered that one of the fish in the live well had it's tail over the water outlet and the water was just running over the top. Gary said, "I'll sort this out, you catch a horse."

On one of my retrieves I felt a nudge and then 'whoompf', there was some serious weight on the end of my line. "Gary," I said as this thing swam under the marina. I dipped the rod to keep the line free of the barnacle-encrusted pontoon and called out again, "Gary...net!" But Gary, who had his head down near the bilge pump, didn't hear me. Very quickly the fish swam to the surface and when he came out from under the pontoon I yelled out "GARY! GET THE NET!!!" This thing was a monster. He had huge blue lips, looked about 3 inches across the back and I guesstimated he would've been at least 45cm's. He took one look at me and with a few big tail beats he shredded me on the pontoon before I could dip the rod again. Oh, the agony! So close but not close enough.

With no time to lose, we quickly got back to the fishing. Then, it's Gary's turn and his rod bends until the tip is in the water. This time we're ready and we move away from the marina into open water. Gary backs off the drag now that we're clear and we know this is another big bream. Then woe is us again, the line goes limp and we've dropped him. Oh, double the agony. We check our watches and still have 20 minutes to fish, so cursing under our breath, we return to the edge of the marina.

5 minutes later I'm on again and this feels like another bruiser. Come on, 3rd time lucky we think and yes, Gary expertly slides the net under our biggest fish that stretches to 37cm's fork and 1.1 kg's. With 5 minutes to go, Gary lands another upgrade and we think we may have a chance. We hope we have about 4kg's and as we carry the fish to the weigh in there are a few 'Ooh, big fish' from the spectators. As they go on the scales we see that the leaders have 4.2kg's and we're shattered to only go 3.724 kg's. The old adage of the one that got away really bit on us the bum today but in reality nearly every team drops a few good fish. Justcrusin32 (Dave) from AKFF had a tough tourny and also lost some real horses, which if you get them into the boat, can really make a difference.

In the final wash-up we came in at 6th place, with the winners, taking it out with 4.3kg's, being Team Shimano, so a big congratulations to Bill and Mark on a good win. I had one of the best days fishing ever and the biggest thanks go to Gary Brown who let me join his team for the series. Thanks Gary! So back to the yak for me and I may have to chase a few more bream seeing I was bitten by the Bream Bug big time last weekend. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,

Cid

Botany Bay - 12/4/08

4 weeks! 4 long, long weeks since I'd been out in the yak. Pray that THAT doesn't happen again. In the last report I stated how Gary and I were competing in the final rounds of the Squidgy Bream Challenge at Lake Macquarie. Power boats only unfortunately...the organisers are scared of yaks! : ) To make a long story short, I was crap and thank God that Gary was there to land a few bream because all I could land were Long Tom and trumpeters. The only stand-out fish was the whiting Gary is pictured with that snaffled his popper and raced off over the weedbeds, fooling us for a few seconds into thinking it was a cracker bream. But we placed well enough to qualify for the Grand Final on the 19th April on Sydney Harbour, so at least I have another chance to redeem myself on the breaming stakes.

But Joy of Joys! Last weekend I quietly slipped into the tranquil waters off Foreshore Rd aboard my beloved Hobie. Ah, the serenity! Terry was already on the water and we quickly set off for the 3rd runway and what I call 'Terry's Corner', as he always seems to score a few fish here. We flicked SP's over the flats and were rewarded with a few nice trevally that always fight way above their size. Terry stayed with the treva's while I moved into the 'corner' proper.

First cast and the lure is hit while dropping but there is no hook-up. Next cast I give it two sharp flicks as soon as it hits the water, there's a boil and the drag starts singing. There's no real weight in this fish though and when he jumps I realise I'm connected to a small salmon. But not for very long though, as the next jump he throws the hooks back at me.

Terry has caught up by this stage and we see some bait skittering across the surface 50 meters away. We close in and fire off casts to the edges of them. I'm still using my 3" Gulp minnow in Lime Tiger and Terry is flicking an East Coast Popper. We zip them across the surface and have the lures hit 2 or 3 times buy a few fish but fail to hook up. The next cast it's hoots all around though as both our lines come tight to nice fish. The fight is decidedly different this time though and we call them for tailor. And two nice ones they are, too. But strangely enough, that was it. By the time we'd gone back, the baitfish had gone and so had the tailor.

So back to slow flicking of the SP's and we are rewarded with a few more trevally and a single bream for me. Oh, so that's what they look like, eh? I do a dance around him, chant a few 'Haya haya's', hold him up to the Gods, kiss him, and set him free hoping it'll bring me good luck for this coming saturday. Happy yakkin', everyone.

cheers,

Cid

Cooks River - 8/3/08

After such a good session last week, we had to hit the Cooks again. I was under really tight time constraints (and I mean REALLY tight), so we only fished for an hour. The tide was running in this time which funnily enough, has never fished as well as the run out. Well, for me anyway.

We started off slowly with Terry landing a few undersize bream and it wasn't until we neared one of the bridges with some nice eddies swirling about that Terry landed a keeper on his faithful SX40. I was casting a 3" minnow in pumpkinseed towards the base of the pylons when I also landed a bream, this guy going 30cm's.

Terry then hit a purple patch and landed 3 bream for almost as many casts. Lucky swine! I was still landing them but they were definately a lot smaller than last weeks bruisers. Unfortunately, the 60 minutes flew by (they only seemed to last an hour or so) and we had to head home. As we scooted back, I kept flicking a minnow in front of me towards the shore. On one of the casts, the SP landed and promptly the line shot back out towards the middle of the canal. 'Hmmm, that's not normal,' I thought, so I lifted the rod which set the hook into something that felt fairly decent.

There were a few solid thumps that came up the line and I thought, 'Oh, sweet, it's a jewfish!' but these thumps turned into a rythmical thump, thump, thump and I knew straight away that it was a trevally. But at least he was a beauty! I took my time as they have fairly soft mouths and he stretched out to 52cm's which is a new PB for me. A few quick photo's and back he goes to grow even bigger.

This weekend Gary Brown and I are fishing at Lake Macquarie for the penultimate round of the Squidgy Bream Challenges. Fingers crossed we'll do ok and cement our position for the final in April. No yaks involved unfortunately but I'll definately be keeping my eyes open for potential fishing spots for future trips up there with the Hobie. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,
Cid