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Having caught a sinus infection last week I wasn’t feeling the best but as the weather has been foul over the past few weekends I was keen to get onto a body of water and make up some ground,
After a few conversations mid week about the weather gnashing its teeth down the coast Craig450 and myself decided to hit Lake Burley Griffin on Sunday in hope of resurrecting the Redfin that had been so active over the warmer months, anything we normally catch in this lake should be well and truly shutdown by now so we met up a little later than usual, around 1:30pm when the sun would be high and at its warmest ( 11 degrees, god knows how cold in the shade ).
Following the unloading of the kayaks I spent the first few minutes checking out Craig’s new Revolution but my concentration quickly faded when I stepped into the waters edge to push off into the Lakes expanse, it was bloody cold… No wait, it was very, very cold hovering around 10 degrees in the shallows and 9 degrees when the depth hit the 4m + mark, luckily we were both prepared donning warm winter clothing, jackets and gloves to protect against Canberra’s harsh Winter element, In or on the water it was best to be safe ( Did I mention it was bloody cold?!? ).
As we headed out of Yarralumla Bay we decided to do a quick scout of Redfin land trolling along the edges of the infamous weed bed adjacent to the tip of Black Mountain Peninsula, I tied on a red and silver Viking Talisman which was deployed along with a green and yellow Craftmaster Merlin ( My two favourite English Perch lures ) while Craig trolled a larger Gold Talisman and a Storm Hot ‘n’ Tot.We covered plenty of ground but found no fortune or fame so we made a joint decision to head back via the GPS breadcrumb trail around the Peninsula and head across to Blue Gum Point, while we talked crap I felt a small hit on the Talisman as we hit the perimeter and pulled in a decent Redfin around 28cm, Craig took a couple of photographs before we moved on… Getting close to the smaller Island ( Spinnaker? ) I warned Craig that a weed bed was approaching as he had not brought his sounder, just as I reached round to grab my Heartland / Sol 2500 setup I felt an immediate take.
Not sure if it was the quick erratic dart of the lure before I hit the weed bed or not but another 28cm Redfin took the Viking with gusto, pretty happy with the days effort so far and was looking forward to Craig catching a fish or two ( He soon switched to a Storm Wiggle Wart and Daiwa Provibe to up the ante ), Blue Gum Point loomed in the distance so we instigated a paddling / pedaling technique along the ledge while once again talking crap, I was informed that Craig’s mate Alf had apparently pulled some decent Redfin from this bank and Craig himself had many tales of lost lures and unknown fish.
We fished the drop off for about 10 minutes and turned back towards Yarralumla Bay trolling the edge while trying to avoid the shallows around the 3m mark, hit a weed bed around 2.5m and tried to exit it peacefully when my rod bent in two… Was pretty sure it caught a snag but was pleasantly surprised to feel a struggle from the other end, a few small runs and some big tail beats later I saw the fish below the yak, this was the skinniest looking Yellowbelly I had ever seen! ( Or was it something else? ).
As it hit the surface I was heavily confused and it took me about 10 seconds to pick up my jaw off the kayak’s deck, ‘It’s a Murray Cod mate!‘ I said to Craig while I grabbed my Boga grips, I knew what to do and had been awaiting this day for a long time… Craig moved into position with the Camera and started firing away while encircling my Kayak, little did Craig know that his lure was still trailing behind him and I was quickly spun up in a web of braid, got some more photos and I released the fish perfectly amid a barrage of screams and excitement! ( I had finally done it, the apprentice scores a 55cm Murray Cod! ).
Nothing could top this so we pretty much called it a day, after a quick trip along the Eastern bank of BMP we both met Claire at the launch point at Yarralumla Bay and packed up our gear, helping Craig load his yak on the car I shook his hand and couldn’t thank him enough, if it wasn’t for Craig I would not have left the safety of my lounge room and ultimately not caught this cod ( Or have any digital images mind you, thanks again champ! ).
I am one happy camper folks… WOOOHOOO!
