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A day of firsts

fenelious

By fenelious
in Freshwater

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fenelious Newbie

fenelious

Posted
Posted

About 9-10 months ago I decided to try my hand at freshwater fishing with lures. I'd done little bits and pieces of bait fishing, both fresh and salt, only on rare occasions since I was a kid. I'd never fished with any sort of lure, and just mainly caught eels, catfish and bream.

Anyway, after getting into a bit of river canoeing over the last couple of years I decided to combine that with some serious lure fishing. I was quite excited by the prospect of my new hobby, and dove right into it, reading front to back my newly purchased 'Fishing for Dummies', and buying a nice little rig and a whole bunch of lures, line and gear over the space of a few months. I found this site and read lots of reports.

Unfortunately my fishing experience had a very slow and unsuccessful start. I tried the Tweed River where I'd caught catfish and a little bass on bait before, no luck. I tried NPD I dunno how many times, day and night with all sorts of lures, no luck. I tried my Dads farm dams in NSW where he reckons there should be some stocked trout, no luck. I tried the Caboolture river and the Stanley river, nothing. I couldn't figure out why I wasn't catching anything when I kept reading about everyone else hooking up! I even flicked a bit at Hinze Dam a couple of months ago without luck, but by then I'd almost given up and was concentrating on using a handline paternoster bait rig to catch bass and catfish.

Well ladies and gentlemen I am most pleased to announce that today I have finally busted my drought! It's not even really a drought, it's a life first!

I won't say exactly where, but it was a very common and well known spot on a Brissy river, I hadn't 'fished' there but I have put the canoe in there before. Maybe it was the Fishfinder that I'd recently bought and installed in the canoe that gave me renewed confidence that there were in fact fish swimming somewhere underneath me, because I don't think I really did anything much different than what I'd been doing these last 10 months or so.

I paddled around what I thought would be the sorts of sheltered and deep spots where a bass might hang out, and I wasn't surprised when 1 or 2 little fish popped up on the screen, just like they'd done when I first tested it out. So I chucked in my little anchor in the middle of the creek and started casting around these spots. I honestly didn't expect to catch anything, just like all those times before, I just enjoy being out on the water.

I was using my 1-3kg line weight rod, 1500 eggbeater reel, with 6lb Fireline and 6lb Vanish leader. This is the rig I've been using to fish in all creeks and rivers since I bought it back near the start of the year. I have a slightly heavier (and cheaper/nastier) rod and rig that I use on the big dams where I assume the fish will be bigger.

The lure I was using was a red, glittered soft plastic Atomic Fat Grub (you know those wiggly tail ones) on a 1/4 ounce jig head. Now the 'pista-resistance'(spelling?), or so I'm telling myself was the little 'jig spinner' that I had on jig head. You know, those little wire attachments that you hook onto your jig head that has a silver spinning blade to make it pretty much like a spinnerbait.

I've used this exact lure quite a few times here and there without luck....

So after about 5 or 10 casts... Bang!

The shock of my reaction nearly tipped me out of my canoe. I knew it was a decent sized fish straight away, and it pulled a nice bit of line against my drag setting at times as I was reeling him in. I could hardly believe what was happening as he came up by the side of the canoe, and I was fumbling around with rod and bucket not quite sure how to go about getting him in the boat. I don't have a net, never needed one! Well I got him aboard and would you believe it, it was a nice fat Golden Perch! Not very yellow, and so it took me a few seconds to realise what type of fish he was because I was expecting a Bass. I took a hurried photo of it with my mobile phone (I never bothered bringing a real camera, never need one!) as he flopped around in the bucket, and then I de-hooked him and chucked him back in.

I so wish now that I had a real camera cos I could post the photos! My phone doesn't have a USB connection. I didn't measure him properly, but he was around 38-43cm, a much bigger fish than I expected to find in there.

After I'd tossed him in I just sat there for a minute or two with the biggest grin on my face, saying to myself I can't believe I finally did it!

After that I replaced the battered fat grub and began casting again. And only a few minutes later.... Bang again! After an even harder fight than before I hauled in a nice sized Bass, just a little smaller than the yella, probably around 35-37cm. Again a quick mobile phone photo and back in the drink.

I was in shock.

After that I tried a few more minutes then moved spots and went to a green frog lure that swims about half a metre or so below the surface. No luck with that, and so headed home on dark.

So I'm pretty chuffed as you might guess. My first fish on a lure. My first ever Golden Perch, and my biggest Bass so far.

So sorry I can't post the photos :blush:

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Davo_Dinkum Newbie

Davo_Dinkum

Posted
Posted

bet it was a great day for u m8 :)

nice going on a yellow and bass .

i haven't got a yellow yet ,but got my first bass in my first month of trying but a long dry spell since then .

u may have had to wait a long time and spend a long time trying but it payed off .now u got your firsts time to up grade :)

it will do wonders for your confidence as u will stop question what and how u are fishing and just start fishing .:)

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