Let the mocking begin ........

[kmcrosby78]

Well, it's time to fess up. I 'fished' the Pirtek Fishing Challenge today down at Jumpinpin (first time there in a good 7-10 years - see how I'm starting my defense already ....) and I'll let you guess how well I did. To sum it up, when thinking of the Subject Line for this topic/thread, the other options were: - Large man pounded for 12 hours at Jumpinpin

- For Sale: One brand new, unused Pirtek Challenge Brag Mat

- Wanted to Buy: Mojo - needed ASAP

So to summarise, I managed to catch not one single insignificant, undersized or undesirable fish today!!!! Alarm clock went of at 3:40am, got to Jacobs Well about 5am, pots in and out at the bar by about 6:30am. Boat back on the trailer (thankfully because there was some SERIOUS lightning over land) at 5:30pm. So 11 hours of drifting in water that was flowing too fast, anchoring in unproductive (isn't hindsight a wonderful thing!) waters, getting the tinny back off a sandbar we'd just run aground on (only happened maybe 3 times so could have been worse ...) and collecting wonderful fresh bait (yabbies, herring, garfish, mullet) that failed to reap rewards.

So I'm really hoping to hear that EVERYONE else struggled there today (we saw a few flathead caught - none especially large) but three times we saw congregations of approximately 20 boats in a confined area and each time there seemed to be next to no activity. So I'm clinging to the thought that perhaps the fishing was unusually tough today and that I am in fact not USELESS after all.

Anyway, still had fun and got to re-familiarise myself with the Pin. And got a muddy each (fished with my brother Michael - he did WAY better than me, snaring a JUST LEGAL bream plus a throwback bream and 2-3 throwback whiting ....).

So. as the title states - let the mocking begin ......

[Seiran]

yep, I was at the pin trolling lures and pillies for flathead. I caught zero flat head.

But I did catch three tailor, one going 43cm, and 2 awesome mud crabs.

[kmcrosby78]

Were the tailor caught near the bar in the morning? Saw heaps of birds working but didn't go and investigate cause we were 'concentrating on catching BIG flathead .......'.

Nice work on the muddies too. One of ours was a good one with nice big nippers, the other one just legal. Was the ribbon weed much of a problem trolling today?

[Seiran]

We caught the tailor between Crusoe and Nth Straddie whilst working along the Straddie drop off.

The ribbon weed was a bit of a hindrance but not too bad. The main issue we had was with trying to keep in close to the shore with all the other boats at anchor in the same places we wanted to troll.

[kmcrosby78]

Yeah we had the same problem trying to drift. Think I need to add an electric to my tinny at some stage.

[big al]

the pin is r/s to many boats there now days. used to be really good a few years back. always caught plenty flathead back then and big whiting and jew . haven't done any good last year or this year . al

[dassa]

Kel don't feel to bad my day started by leaving home latter then I wanted at about 6:15 so no the water jsut before 7,no fish fof the first hour then the youngest daughter landed a small bream and then a catfish of about 42cm thinking it was the winning whitting very early LOL joke on me.

But wait my day got much better after sitting on the same sand bar for the next 2 & 1/2 hour and nothing for me but the wife landed a XS whitting we moved to drift the channel near the sand hills on nth starddie about 5 minutes latter IM on cheering this thing is a horse some where 85cm/90cm got a look at this thing twice but the last time was with me screaming like a BIG GIRL AFTER THE HOOKS on the little blade and still whinging about it to but the smart A$$ daughter landed the only 2 legal fish for the day about 1/2 before we left.

SO MATE I FEEL YOUR PAIN

BLOODY FLAT HEAD.

:ohmy:

[tomca]

I went bass fishing this afternoon, not even a catfish. 9wt fly rod for sale, like new :pinch:

[rayke1938]

Should have come to NPD we were kept busy with cricket bats keeping those pesky bass away from the boat. :evil:

Cheers

Ray

[tugger]

We all get days like that Kelvin and donut but sometimes you have that 1 cracking day and thats what hooks you to keep coming back fishing better luck next time mate

[Nog]

I went bass fishing this afternoon, not even a catfish. 9wt fly rod for sale, like new :pinch:

The greedy side of me thinks, "ooo I need a 9wt to complete the full house"; the spruiker side of me thinks, "maybe Tomca would benefit from joining a fabulous fly fishing club where he'll get the best advice around to ensure his passion for fly blossoms"; the REAL me thinks, "toughen up sunshine, I donuted on a Bass hunt yesterday too".

[Surfingant]

Yep we all have those days, I had two this weekend :pinch:

[youngy]

Hi Kel it always feels better getting it out of your system and no one should ever mock you for getting in and having a go, it just shows them up to be loosers.

It was another Pirtek Challenge another tough day on the water, these 6am to 6pm Sunday comps are probably the hardest to fish.

Busy and hot on the water, way to many people for this mid week fisherman but you just get out there and do the best you can.

Should have known it wasn't going to be one of my better days when i threw the back anchor out at the first stop and still being half asleep let the rope slip from my fingers.

It's not lost, i know exactly where it is, just need a deep diving lure to get it back.

Plenty of fish, ended up going though 50 hooks catching and releasing fish.

Final Whiting Tally was 32 with 20 of these between 35cm and 39cm, just couldn't get a big fish.

Once the storms started in the afternoon they slowed a lot which is to be expected, bit of a shame as the last 2 hours of the comp is one of the better times to fish.

Highlight for me was fishing with my daughter for the first time in 18years, apparently once your over 30 it's cool to fish with dad again.

Trained her well all those years ago, tying hooks on baiting up even said she wanted a beer at 8am "she didn't get that of me".

I told her the line of it's always 5 o'clock somewhere, she held out for a little while but not long before she had one.

My thanks to James D for bringing me a second anchor down and to the guys that gave me there left over worms to get me though the day.

My best in the photo is only 39.4, i am sure someone will have one much bigger, just hope it's one of our local

boys.

Looking forward to next year all ready, cheers wayne

[Dubbzy]

How can i MOCK you, you got 11+hrs on the water.

thats 10fishing hours more then i this year!

[Bri The Pom]

Mate, at least you gave it a good go. Try again next year.Im sure you will. I think a few people struggled.

[Shane69]

We struggled offshore yesterday mate. Tried everything to raise fish all morning. The current was hauling out there.

I was out there from 4am too 6pm. Got hit by storm half way across bay. Fun times .

We did end up a good feed in the end though. Got some good reefies around 4pm.

I dont know what it was. I tried every mark i had offstraddie.

It really annoyed me coz i tried so hard so i decided to go out in morning

i went out today at 5am and back at ramp 8am with boat up and the esky wouldnt close :whistle:

[sammysnapper]

We ended up with no comp fish either, may have something to do with giving up on flathead at 630am when we decided it was to flat on the harbour to waste it in the river and headed out chasing bigger fish. It worked well 30ish snapper from 5cm up to 38cm and a heap of smaller breeds aswell, also lost 2 large tuna( Poor planning = too smaller tackle).

We caught a few small sharks aswell, then there was a big pull on one of my rods for about 2 seconds and went slack, once reeled in i found only the eye of the top hook of my trebble left, something had big teeth.

all in all a great day, still in with a shot of all the great prizes, just not the ones for catching fish lol

[kmcrosby78]

Cheers for all the encouraging words guys - don't worry, I'm not too down, after all, like Dubbzy said, I did get 11 hours on the water.

Dassa - unlucky on the big flattie mate. Will be interesting to see what size takes it out.

Youngy - nice haul of whiting in anyones language. I'd happily have your bad days any day!!!!

Shane - good to hear the session improved and you got a good feed. What did you fill the esky with today?

Sammysnapper - nice work on the squire and unlucky on the tuna. I'm going to get out after them next week while I'm on holiday.

[dunk]

Over the last 2-3 months I've been offshore 5 times. I've felt quezy 3 of the times, and even thrown up on two. Due to my sickness, we mainly trolled. Results 2 marlin, each on for less than 10 seconds, one good sized dolphin to within 5-10m of the boat. No landed fish. Each time 120-140km of travel.

Finally, on Saturday, my (all the others were hooked by the decky) turn, and my best eating fish yet (beat my best snapper by 1-2 kg).

Also my first wahoo. I was begining to loose faith. This one should keep my enthusiasm going for at least another 6 months.

[kmcrosby78]

Nice hoo mate, that would definitely keep me going for a while!!!!

[max pwr]

I love a good fail report KM.... Makes me feel like I have some real peers on the site after all! Shane and tugger's reports can get so tiresome when all you have to read is stories of fish landed and pics upon pics of piscatorial captures :whistle: ho hum..... Good to see a report on AFO ( finally acknowledged name change :sick: ) I can identify with...

Cheers for the report KM, props for taking c&r to the next level

[kmcrosby78]

I love a good fail report KM.... Makes me feel like I have some real peers on the site after all! Shane and tugger's reports can get so tiresome when all you have to read is stories of fish landed and pics upon pics of piscatorial captures :whistle: ho hum..... Good to see a report on AFO ( finally acknowledged name change :sick: ) I can identify with...

Cheers for the report KM, props for taking c&r to the next level

You could be onto something there mate - if I continue to 'preserve fish stocks' for a while, eventually they will have multiplied that many times that it would be almost impossible for me to fail ......... I still haven't managed to say 'AFO' yet ..... Not that I have a problem with it - I'm just a traditionalist (at the ripe old age of 34 .....).