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With the local waters close to home fishing slow lately, i decided a trip a little north to Wandandian creek would be a nice change so i packed the night before and made the trip up on Saturday morning to chase some Bream. The weather was horrible, dark clouds above and a decent breeze made for a very gloomy launch but areas of the creek looked sheltered enough to get a decent session out of so the yak went in the water at around 8am.
The first cast of the morning was with a Squidgie soft plastic cast into the snags and was taken aggressively by a undersized Bream which fought well above its weight. The action was consistent all morning, with most snags holding fish but nothing of any decent size. I pedaled downstream some more and saw some surface strikes deep into the snag so i fired a few casts into it with no response from the suspected EP.
A few minutes later, i saw another surface strike so i cast the plastic right to the spot and got nailed before i could even close the bailarm on the reel, the fish swam straight for the nearest snag and tied me up in it and earned its freedom. Within 10m of the first bust off, i got done 3 times all in a very similar scenario, so i upgraded from 4lb leader to 8lb hoping to be able to apply the brakes onto a few of these better fish but the only thing this achieved was spooking them and as a result, i was not even getting the hits anymore.
Frustrated, i went back to the 4lb leader and straight away started getting hits again and landing a few more Bream just on or over the legal 25cm mark. I changed from the soft plastic to a Khamsin Jr hardbody lure, and on the first cast with it i got smoked again straight into the timber and lost the lure. This happened many more times, and after the 7th or 8th Khamsin donated to the creek, i opted to go back to the SP's before it cost me more in lures than it already had.
Casting a 2" gulp shrimp at the edges i managed a few more small bream before coming up tight on a heavier fish which was a nice 65cm Flatty, which was released again after a quick photo. That was the last fish of the day, time had run out for me, so i called it quits and headed back just before the rain came down, avoiding a good soaking.
It was a very enjoyable session, and i wished i had more time up there but i will return and hopefully land some of those fish that wanted my lures so bad.
