Yamba big surprise!!

[tavita86]

Hey guys

Went down to Yamba NSW with the missus for a few days over the holidays so i thought id take down a rod or two. After reading a few reports on here i decided that the breakwater rockwall would be my best bet so after buying some bait from the tackle shop and putting the lady to bed i headed out targeting mainly bream and flatties. First on board was this stonker of a bream caught on squid. I didnt get a measure of him but theres a 12lt esky in the photo for reference.

other than that got a ray and two shovel nose sharks. One is pictured below and the other one wa a bit bigger but couldnt get it up to my platform to take a pic (and i didnt want to go jumping down the rocks with my phone in my pocket)

So after about 4 fish landed and numerous bust offs on the rocks i headed home.

On the next night my missus decided to come as well so we went for a pre-dawn fish and as always happens she pulled in 3 tailor on fresh prawns before i could get a bait in the water (i had to riog her up and she was catching them non stop.

Anyways i decided to chuck a live tailor out just for fun, got busted off by what i suspected to be a jew, and then a few more times by who knows what and then came a real surprise! After chucking out another live tailor i was rigging the lady up and then i hear her screaming "i think you have a fish!" i look up to see line peeling of (real loose drag with octpus circle hooks) so i tightened the drag to set the hook.

After about 10mins of playing with it it came to the surface and appeared to be a shark. Not really keen on trying to land a shark in conditions that were dangerous enough already i thought id just play with it for a bit before he bit me off. Anyways after a few more blistering runs he came to the surface again, about 20m away and i couldnt believe my eyes a COBIA!! i had no idea you could get them land based but after talking to a few locals they seem to show up every now and then - one guy told me he caught one at the mouth of lake wooleweyah.

Anyways i fought it for another 5 mins all the while wondering how i was gna land the bloody thing. it was taking runs everywhere, to the middle of the river, id get it close and then it would go deep coming agonizingly xclose to the rocks and just when i thought i had it tired out i brought it close hoping than some wash from the swell would wash it into this little "pool' of water in between two rocks. turns out he still had some fight in him and he took off again down deep and snapped me off on the rocks!!

Oh well, at least i got to see him. I would have guessed about 1.2m in length maybe a touch more (i like to think im quite objective when it comes to this). Anyways now that i know whats there i think ill be bringing some better gear down next time and a long gaff or rope gaff!!

I was fishing about 100m from the end of the rockwall on the river side using fresh prawns and squid (and live tailor) off a nice flat rock ive dubbed Pride Rock. Im not sure if id fluked a good spot because after talking to a few locals on both nights who were fishing off the end of the wall they reckon they got nothing but a few touches (but who knows).

Anyways it was by far my best land based sesh and i will be back (also i hear iluka on the other side of the river is probably better!

Thanks for reading!

[tavita86]

Sorry, heres the bream

[benno573]

juvenile cobes have a habit of turning up all over the shop - unusual to get one quite so large in close though. would have been good to land him but at least you got to see him.

cobes have a bad habit of finding bursts of energy when they get close to the boat (or rocks), usually only on the third or 4th shot will you get a go at them.

[Gregpen]

Cheers for the report. Love the bream very nice fish, unlucky about the others but there's always next time...

[tavita86]

yea maybe the water made him look a little bigger but he was definitely at least 1m. I think i learnt my lesson and next time ill well and truly wear him out before getting anywhere near the rocks. I have a video of some of the fight and you can just see the fish but im trying to get it off the iphone without losing any picture quality as you can only just see it.

[tavita86]

yea cheers mate. In the dark of the night i though i had a squire at first!!

[Old Scaley]

Nice report, thanks. I still have a scar on my thumb from trying to land a metre plus cobe about 40 years ago from the rocks at Pt Lookout using a surf rod and alvey with no star drag fishing for tailor. Thumb got mangled by the handles on the reel after 5 minutes of the fight when the fish saw the rocks and bolted. Epic fail!

[Dubbzy]

Wow well done, always great to catch fish when you least expect a good result

[qbkami]

wow great report mate, too bad about the Cobia though would have been awesome to have a photo... well at least you got the see the monster ^^

cheers q

[Angus]

Admin note: Moved to NSW Reports.

[HamishF]

sounds like an awesome session there

i caught this jewie off the opposite breakwall on the Iluka side

went 122cm, 22kg and went like a freight train on 20lb braid haha

try getting a two piece 12ft rock gaff from bcf its what we used on the trip and so happy we did otherwise we would have had no chance at the rocks. also have you tried yellow tail *yakka*

they work a treat down there if you can jigem up off the rocks

cheers Hamish

[tavita86]

WOW thats a crackin jewie!!

Thanks for the tips too will definintely give that a go next time