Posts
Thursday 7/1/10
Its been a few months since my last visit to Narooma so i decided to do the trip down on Thursday morning to see whats biting. Luke (username Fishwhisperer from AKFF) PM'ed me through the week to let me know he was coming down and agreed to join me, so we met at my house at about 7:30am and set off straight away.
The whole trip down we drove through light rain, but upon arrival the lake was glassy calm with not a breath of wind. We started off in Forsters bay, i was throwing blades while luke was flicking SP's. I hooked the first of many tiny pinky Snapper about 10mins into it, then shortly after landed a decent Flattie on the edge of a weedbed with the blade, that fish ended up in Lukes fish bag for him to take home for dinner.
We drifted slowly along the edge of the weedbed with the tide, hooking up but dropping a few more Flatties. We worked the area for a while then decided to head to a point where i had a good session on my last visit, and just as we got moving i heard a noise and looked back to see a feild of Tailor busting up on the surface, we quickly spun the yaks around and flicked the blade straight into the middle of it all and started to rip it back, after about 4-5 turns of the handle i hooked up. Luke got his blade out and hooked up straight away, then while he was fighting that one i got mine back out and hooked up again.
They were only an average size of about 35cm but a bit of fun on the ultra light gear, they vanished after that last fish so we moved on to the point we were originally heading for but once we arrived i was dissapointed to find there was nothing happening so we pedaled to the south end of the inlet to pull over and have some lunch and a beer, Luke did a fine job organising lunch and after recharging we set off again to fish the shallower south end. On my 2nd cast after lunch, the blade got hit and what felt like a good fish started to pull some drag, then shortly after the hooks pulled so i opened the bailarm and let the lure drop, and the fish came back for another go and stayed connected this time, after a nice little fight i boated a 32cm Trevally which is my first Trev on a blade.
We fished pretty much as far down towards the sanctuary zone as we could, with no more fish apart from the usual tiny Snapper and both of us dropping a few reasonable fish so we chose to head north again and fish the Lake where the channel drops in, lucky we were in small crafts because there were boats everywhere so we pretty much just stopped in the only spot available and continued to catch the tiny Snapper again. I soon got bored with that so pedaled the short distance back to the weedbed we fished at the start of the day, plenty of hits, and dropped fish before i finally hooked up again, this felt like a good fish, a Flatty approx 65-70cm came up beside me then took one last dive and cut my leader and made off with my favourite blade.
I was a little cranky after that so i thought id give the flats and oyster racks a try with surface lures and after covering a lot of ground with out so much as a follow i decided to give up on that as well, but on my way back to the channel where Luke was still fishing, i put a cast over to where the sand meets a weedbed and the surface lure got smacked by a decent Flatty around 55cm. After that Flattie we dropped a few more fish but landed nothing else so we packed up and headed home after a big day on the water.
Friday 8/1/10
Today, we met up with Paddy and hit the oyster racks on the Clyde river at 5:30am and pedaled over to the racks behind Budd island and fished the last of the run out tide. The action was pretty slow to begin with, lots of minature Tailor hitting the surface lures before the Bream had a chance to have a go, but managed a few small Bream in between the Tailor. After working my way upstream about 300m, i landed a legal Bream that really wanted to get under the racks but managed to keep him out, he measured in at 26cm to the fork. I struggled for more hits so i tied on a 100mm Squidgy fish in Silver fox colour and worked the deep side of the racks where it drops off into the main part of the river, no touches after 20mins or so, so i fired a cast out into deeper water and came up tight to a solid fish.
It was hard work to get the fish up off the bottom, but once i did he did the unmistakable headshake of a good Flatty, the fight went on for a few minutes but i was confident in my 15lb braid and 20lb leader until she gave another solid run straight down and buried itself deep behind something on the bottom. I tried several different angles then finally decided she wasnt coming out so i put a bit of extra pressure on it to try lift it up, she moved slightly then the line snapped above the leader knot, so it must have got the line over something sharp on the bottom :( I was absolutely gutted and honestly felt like packing it up and going home to have a sook about it, but the day was still early so we pushed on.
We drifted back over to where Paddy was fishing so i could have another whinge about my loss, and discovered Paddy drifting in very close to the racks with a SP, landing plenty of just undersized flatties but struggling for the keeper. I moved over and fished the shallow side of the floating oyster racks and got slammed on my first cast and was busted off before i had a chance to do anything since i hooked it so close to the rack, tied on another blade and got done again on the very next cast, so i tied on another blade along with a heavier leader and tightened the drag considerably. Fired another cast and got smashed again but pulled the hooks as soon as it tried to run, i decided it was going to cost me too many lures so i moved on. 10am arrived and Paddy had to head in to prepare for his return to Canberra so Luke and i pedaled upstream to fish a Jewie hole i knew of for the slack part of the tide.
I was fishing a black gold 110mm Squidgy fish on a 1/2oz jighead and fired casts all over the deep hole with no result, until i let one drop then just very slowly rolled the lure back just off the bottom and got a good hit but no hookup. We both kept at it for around 45mins without so much as another tap, and the look of the nearby oyster racks, and the sound of Bream hitting the surface became irresistable so out came the surface lures and before i knew it i was deep into the maze of racks hooking Bream on the surface in some very tight structure, but suprisingly didnt lose a single fish or lure.
All up i landed 8 Bream in the space of an hour with the smallest 26 to the fork, and the biggest 32cm to the fork, so a reasonable average size. The wind picked up a bit which made it hard to land lures in the right spot and we were both getting pretty hungry so we called it a day and finished up what ended up being a good couple of days on the water, lots of hours in the yaks, and not a great number of fish to show for it but very enjoyable.
