Weekend Report - Two in one
Going to put two reports in one. Sorry they are a bit late!
Saturday 6/6/09
This was the day of the Baptist Church Fishing Club land based competition. So no boat for me. I decided to head in a totally different direction to everyone else, and went south to Alva beach. High tide early in the morning made Flathead fishing off the beach pretty enticing.
It proved a good move, with several fish landed within only an hours fishing. Club rules stipulate a maximum of 5 fish to be weighed, and a max of 2 of the same species. So with 3 flatties of about 45cm bagged, I decided to looking for something else.
Saturday 6/6/09
This was the day of the Baptist Church Fishing Club land based competition. So no boat for me. I decided to head in a totally different direction to everyone else, and went south to Alva beach. High tide early in the morning made Flathead fishing off the beach pretty enticing.
It proved a good move, with several fish landed within only an hours fishing. Club rules stipulate a maximum of 5 fish to be weighed, and a max of 2 of the same species. So with 3 flatties of about 45cm bagged, I decided to looking for something else.
I hit some freshwater on the way home, and was very pleased to quickly get onto a few Barramundi. I ended up landing a good half dozen of these fish, but most were in the 40cm range. The biggest went 50cm and another 48cm. I also managed several Sooty Grunter.
Sunday 7/6/09With good weather forecast I was keen get the boat in the water for Sunday. I would have liked to leave Saturday afternoon, but my wife was out for the evening. So we decided to wake the kids and head off as soon as she got home. As it turned out, this ended up being about 2am! We ran straight to the shoal in bumpy but good conditions.
On arrival the sounder lit up with what was looking to be a good school on Nannygai. This soon proved to be the case, with the first fish of about 45cm coming on board in quick time. Over the next couple of hours until sunup, I managed 11 nice fish, all about 45-50cm. I did hook up on some monster, but they all got the better of me. A couple bricked me on the rubble, but most simply pulled the hooks under pressure.
At daybreak I was unfortunately nuzzled out of my fishing spot by three other boats in the worst case of fishing etiquette I have ever seen. They simply anchored three abreast in the drift path I had been working for the previous couple of hours. And within meters of where I was. I tried to also anchor, but couldn't get to where I wanted to be. I had a go at them about 'not being able to find their own spot', but they just laughed in my face and hurled abuse back. I didn't need that, so I left.
A bit of troll in open water looking for new ground got me my first Spanish Mackerel in the boat for the season. Only a small fish of about 4kg, it was nice to knock that one off my top ten for the year.
We headed back in pretty early and gave the North Cardinal a shot with metal. I didn't have my heavy spin rod in action, so was using my sons little Symeter 2500. It only has 10lb braid on it. I was soon hooked up to a monster. I suspect it was a GT, as 30mins into the fight it didn't even see be getting tired! I was determined to land the fish, and took it pretty easy on light line. But eventually the hooks pulled, leaving a chunk of the fishes flesh on the end of the treble! That was it for our morning and we headed of home.