FRIDAY 28TH AUGUST.
(Took some pics this time!)
Well after the gale force winds that we had for the past week we kept our weather eyes open and decided that Friday looked like a good day. Didn’t really care that the report was for a “poor” fishing day – just glad to be out on the boat wetting a line!
We are getting good at loading the boat etc out of the door earlier than last week. Wow! The way we are getting organised we will be at the boat ramp waiting for them to open the gates at 06:00 hrs.
Thank you Jumpus for the tip about salting the leftover pillies – worked great!
Ended up a beautiful day; sun shining, gently breeze over the bay with little or no swell. Must admit on the trip across the bay I almost had my eyes closed because it was “oily” – Hey and I was driving the boat!
Had to keep the eyes open, as the bay has become one huge obstacle course! Between the yellow (DO NOT ENTER) buoys and the orange (KEEP AWAY – LINE IN TOW) drums it is a nightmare to traverse the bay
AND
some of the good fishing spots have become OUT OF BOUNDS!
We reached our ‘SFS#1’ – plenty of fish on the depth sounded and within 20 mins had a nice sized blurter (37cmc) on board.
THAT WAS IT!
Knew there was something ”wrong” when there was only one other boat there and he pulled up stakes within minutes of us arriving.
For the next hour or so all we were doing was feeding the Sweep! Little “illegitimates” they were managing to get the bait off the hooks without even a touch. Even my new bait-runner reel did not pick up the gently ‘gnawing and gnashing’ of their little jaws – should change their name to Botany Bay Piranhas. We tried to get the baits down rather quickly under the school but I think they were picking up the scent and following them down.
So I think our blurter was a fluke – must have got him before the Sweep moved in.
After being almost swamped by a tug that was doing ‘wheelies’, throwing up a metre plus wake, just to spoil everyone’s day
we decided to save the rest of our bait and have a go at catching some flatties. We headed over to ‘SFS#2’ to give this flatty fishing a real good try! By then the breeze had picked up and the surface of the bay was no longer ‘oily’.
Ed decided to give the lures a try and he used a ‘drop bear’ and I just had a piece of pilly on without getting a touch. When he missed a ‘flatty’ I then decided to use another sort of SP (12cm Wild-eyed Swim Shad) – only picked it because I liked the colours; thought it looked cute (it’s a ‘girly thing’). I thought that it might be a bit big but used it anyway. Within a couple of minutes there was a tug on my line and as I pulled it up I thought I had hit a large clump of seaweed until I saw the tail moving. Really beaut’ flathead; 50cms. The mouth on this thing was like a vacuum cleaner – he had taken the lure completely! Boy! He didn’t like giving it back either. Cranky fish! Did a few move drifts; I missed hooked another flatty and Ed had them following his lure up to the boat but didn’t land anything else so decided to call it a day.
Ed had renamed my lure to a “Flatty Flucker”! Click to view attachment
I love the trip home up river; nice and peaceful with time for a beer or 2 and stow things for the car trip home. Can also clean up bait and burly equipment etc. Saves doing it we you get home.
All in all a good day – at least we caught enough to have a fish feast.
Sorry this report is late but haven't been able to get on to post it!
