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Artificial success?

nadders

By nadders
in Saltwater

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nadders Newbie

nadders

Posted
Posted

Ello folks!

Mid last week c_para and i decided on an early morn session in the good ship lollipop (old faithful!) today.

Was a frosty 5am start, but didn't get on the water till about 6. The sun was just barely rising at this stage and it was looking good! Bit of chop in the river but thats ok lol. First stop was the reclaimed wall, as neither of us had fished it before we were keen for some bream, tailor, snapper or whatever would jump on really.

We started our drift on the straight section of the wall on the st helena side, with the intention of drifting all the way around the tip and then heading up river.

The wind picked up at this point and just like last weeks session with the electric, the poor old girl was forced to work hard again :(

First fish boated was a breambo for para, legal at 25cm so we decided to keep him for a feed. We continued the drift for a while, but with the wind blowing us perpendicular out from the wall it got too hard to stay on track so we moved around to near the point and anchored.

Plastics were getting owned by what we both decided were probably pike, which i confirmed when almost 15 of the buggers followed my 2" prong all the way to the surface lol. I made the decision to throw on a small halco slug and for the next 15 mins or so we were getting one pike per cast on slugs. Kept some for bait and then they stopped playing, so we decided to head up river as the tide was slowing a bit

and maybe hope for a jewie.

It's about 8:30am at this stage, and our first stop were the coal wharves. a bit of motoring around finding bait/structure then we threw the pick in 18m keeping the legal distance away. Both our butterflied pike got hit by something, mine seemed small (maybe squire) but paras went off, took substantial drag at a fast pace before the hooks pulled. We were thinking thready. Vibes/plastics at this wharf did not produce the goods, so we moved spot again.

We went off to claras rock and dropped the pike down again, however the tide was running a bit fast so we upped anchor after 10mins or so and then had a decision to make, pipeline or QCL wharf?

Pipeline it was, and the wind had settled a bit so we set up some drifts along the dropoff. Right decision! 3rd cast in right over the top lip of the dropoff my Jackall Tranzam went tap...tap before my 6-10 kilo barra rod loaded up almost to the butt. I knew it was a thready and was stoked as this was my first on a lure, i've hooked one before on a mask vib but did not land that fish.

The fight was pretty nervous, this fish had alot of go in him and went on several long runs. I backed way off the drag at one point as i could feel the trebles pulling from the mouth, but they found the hard bony lips luckily. I was running 20lb and was also worried about a ruboff, but after an especially long run he started coming up.

Oops wrong way! got a look at him and he was decent, but he didn't like my ugly mug so back down he went lol. another few minutes of fighting in circles around the boat (glad i wasn't anchored lol) and driving out to deeper water with the leccy and he was boatside.

All the while another fella was doing the same drift and watching, he came over to see what it was and luckily so as i couldn't find my pliers and i wanted the fish back in the water asap. Old mate threw his pliers on board and i de hooked the thready, leant over the side and put him back down.

This bugger was a feisty one haha he bit down on my finger real hard and kicked away after less than 10 seconds so i'm confident he was alright, bladder wasn't inflated as he spent pretty much the whole fight on the shallow side.

I didn't get a measurement of the fish as i was anxious to get him into the water again, but i estimate him around 110cm and in very good condition. So stoked at my first thready on artificials we tried the same drift a few more times but the wind picked up again.

From here the only action were 2 little GT's in boggy creek lol, and one more pike before home time.

PS: to the guy who gave me the pliers if you read AFO, I still have them sorry mate i forgot. If he doesn't read AFO i'll drop em off to him at BCF cannon hill (works there apparently) lol.

Thats all from me hope you enjoyed the read. Can't wait till the next trip, hopefully a windless one as now that i've crossed that box i have to cross the legal jewie on artificials, snapper on artificials, etc boxes! Had a fun time playing with my GPS too, clocked my top speed at 55kph which was a little higher than i expected :D

Cheers,

Dan

PS: Sorry for crap photos, only had my phone on board and did not waste time posing with the thready as i wanted him to swim away!

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wesfish Newbie

wesfish

Posted
Posted

nadders wrote:

heres the thready, see what i mean about well conditioned :woohoo: [img size=374]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/Photo0018_AFO.jpg
hey braddo tells me the 110cm one from last tuesday was a 6 y/o mature male that was near ready to spawn, might be that they really fatten up over this period of year!!
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