new south wales Exploring New Ground, Bream And Suspected Jack...

[Angus]

Well to see out the weekend we opted to try some brand new water once again. The creek had some potential with jelly prawns busting everywhere. Huge bit of excitement was had when a metery giant herring skimmed along the surface chasing said prawns.

2 free swimming muddies along the bottom ensures Ill head back here with pots as well. 

Anyway... the fishing...

Lots of little bream caught but probably nothing that crossed the legal mark. Pictured is typical. Not many pictures sorry as it was so muggy my shirt was sweated right through and the phone was stowed in the hatch on mates kayak for most the trip.

It was exciting enough though with hits being more common than not. Despite a lot of these failing to connect it is one of the best things about surface fishing in my opinion... the visuals that keep you focused and on game.

At one point I had also cast towards a juicy looking snag when "boof"!!!! A large surface strike and drag peeling run and well... it was all over in seconds. I hate calling a fish I did not see but I strongly think it was a jack. My drag could barely be manually pulled off the spool and it was nothing like the bream. At the end of the day we will never know and if it was a bream it was a big one! 

AN ISSUE OF HOOK UPS

Onto the next issue...

Does anyone do anything to improve hook ups surface fishing? Finer gauge hooks? Better quality? Over the course of this weekend I feel the hit to hook up ratio has literally been 15:1 with a few dropped fish as well. This is using several lure types and brands so not to be blamed on dulled one off hooks. Or... is this the clumsiness of fish (particularly) bream on a surface strike and part of the game? (The whiting and suspected jack certainly did not miss).

Cheers

Angus

[kmcrosby78]

Sounds like a fun session Angus with plenty of strikes and nice looking surroundings. I can't help with the hook up question but will be interested to read the replies.

[Angus]

35 minutes ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Sounds like a fun session Angus with plenty of strikes and nice looking surroundings. I can't help with the hook up question but will be interested to read the replies.

Yeah I will get a direct chance to put any theory into practice in a fortnights time down there so it will be interesting trial and error.

Angus

[Nog]

Single wide gap assist style hook?  I use singles on my whiting flies (for obvious reasons in the first instance) and they get solid hookup rates. I also use singles for mackerel and tuna slugs. Miss too many on trebles. 

[Angus]

13 minutes ago, Nog said:

Single wide gap assist style hook?  I use singles on my whiting flies (for obvious reasons in the first instance) and they get solid hookup rates. I also use singles for mackerel and tuna slugs. Miss too many on trebles. 

Yes I have thought about this as well. With the bream my only preference for trebles was that they are clumsy as strikers to begin with on the surface but maybe treble hooks sticking out everywhere would be good. However, this has not really proven the case so will try anything. I am also thinking some finer gauge hooks for penetration? A lot of fish committed, lure going under and all only to have it fly back out on the strike...

[Drop Bear]

50 minutes ago, Angus said:

Yes I have thought about this as well. With the bream my only preference for trebles was that they are clumsy as strikers to begin with on the surface but maybe treble hooks sticking out everywhere would be good. However, this has not really proven the case so will try anything. I am also thinking some finer gauge hooks for penetration? A lot of fish committed, lure going under and all only to have it fly back out on the strike...

Nice report mate. That water looks fantastic. What a nice place for a paddle. 

Were you using trebles? When I come with you I will put single j hooks on my poppers and we can compare? 

See how I invited myself there?

[Luke Landrunner]

Although I haven't persisted with single assist hooks, from what I've read there seems to be an increase in hook-up rate. 

95% of my kayak fishing is surface and some days hits are way more than hook-ups and other days vice-versa. 

 

[The Mad Hughesy]

regardless of the size, surface strikes are always really fun to watch. Good stuff Angus

[Drop Bear]

16 minutes ago, Luke Landrunner said:

Although I haven't persisted with single assist hooks, from what I've read there seems to be an increase in hook-up rate. 

good to know. I'm thinking i will do this more. 

[Angus]

4 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

Nice report mate. That water looks fantastic. What a nice place for a paddle. 

Were you using trebles? When I come with you I will put single j hooks on my poppers and we can compare? 

See how I invited myself there?

Problem is making the drive down there I do it inbetween kid duties which is a bit unpredictable.

Mate we could replicate this in Lota Creek I reckon with some of the places I found crabbing.