Dumpers and Dart

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all

The last few days, I have been up on the Sunshine Coast. For two nights, I was staying with my mates at Coolum. We didn't do much fishing there, but straight after that I met up with my family, who were staying at Peregian Beach. I did a bit of surf fishing here, and although I didn't catch anything too good I had a couple of fun sessions as well as a bit of swimming and bodyboarding.

The first session was with my mates in Stumers Creek at Coolum. We started off at a spot a mate had caught a jack at before, but after flicking plastics here for about 30 minutes for no luck we moved down towards the mouth. We fished here for about an hour in hope of a flatty but none of us could catch a fish, which was quite disapointting. For the remainder of the trip, we went swimming at the beach and watched some movies. When Sunday morning came around, it was time for me to go back to my family. I said bye to my mates, and after getting settled at the apartment my Dad and I went for a quick evening flick at the beach. My Dad was using my Alvey and I was using a light spinning reel, which I found quite enjoyable. The tide was quite high and running out though, and combined with the very choppy conditions and drizzle from the sky, fishing was tough. We found a couple small gutters and had a cast in these, but couldn't manage any fish. We eventually called it quits around dusk and walked back to the apartment.  

The next morning, my Dad and I woke up at about 5. Annoyingly, it was raining pretty heavily, the skies were dark, black, and the wind was howling. We waited until about 6 to see if the rain would clear, but it wasn't looking good... So we decided to go fishing anyways. We started off in a smaller gutter that was close by to the access track which we had fished the day before. After about 20 minutes with no success, we decided to head up the beach to a larger gutter we had briefly fished in that prior afternoon. The tide was beginning to rise but was decently low, and after about ten minutes of adjusting to the chop, wind, and sweep, my Dad and I each got pickered a couple times. We also shuffled out a couple of large pipis, which promptly got nibbled away by small fish. My Dad was first on the board though, with a little dart of about 25CM. Although these get pretty boring in the surf (especially at that size), it was nice to catch something off the beach - giving us some confidence. It was also the first fish on my Alvey, which we were pleased about. My Dad followed it up with another dart, on worm this time. It was about 8:30AM now, and seeing as though the bite wasn't particulalrly hot and my Dad had a couple of things to do he left the beach, just as the rain got really bad! 

Little dart

I was starting to freeze, but after getting a couple more pipis and switching to a smaller baitholder hook to keep my bait on better, I felt some nibbles. Then a bite... And then I was on! It was only little, but I as pleased to catch my first fish of the trip, a small dat.(for some reason I felt fine after that ). Over the next hour, I caught some more of these as well as some pipis, which were plentiful enough but seemed to be a lot deeper than I was used to in the sand - about 30CM down. I eventually landed a larger dart at 31CM, which I decided to keep as fresh dart is normally pretty good in my experience. I fished until about 10:30AM when my Dad and siblings came down, and in total that morning I caught about 6 or 7 dart, so 8 or 9 between my Dad and I. Not bad. I cleaned the dart on the beach and cooked it that night, but unfortunately, after one more swim in the surf (and getting dumped a couple of times  ), we had to leave the beach and come back home. 

Another little one

It was a fun but quick trip, and despite swimming when it was cloudy, rainy and putting on loads of sunscreen I still got fried pretty well, lol. Thanks for reading the report, I hope you enjoyed.

Here are the stats of the trip for anyone interested:

Statistics of Trip:

Tide: We fished both the rising and run out tide. We found the first part of the rising tide to be best for fishing and around the top of the tide to be the trickiest. 

Moon Phase: Around third quarter decreasing to New Moon, not heaps of tidal flow. The weather did make the beach very choppy and turbulent though. 

Bait Caught: Pipis

Bait Used: Pipis, servo prawn and worm

Fish Caught: 8/9 x dart

Tackle Used: I used an Abu Garcia Veritas 2-4KG on a Diawa Tierra 2500 with 8 pound braid and a ten pound fluoro leader and trace. My Dad used an 11 foot Kmart surf rod on an Alvey 6 inch 60GT sidecast reel. This was spooled with 12 pound Maxima mono, and he used a ten pound trace. We both used small swivels, small longshank or baitholder hooks, and size 3 ball sinkers. When I fished in Stumers Creek I chucked a three inch Holt Prawn and 3.5 inch Zman grub around. 

Weather: The weather was rainy, cloudy, and windy for the duration of the trip. 

Other Notes: Surf conditions were very choppy making fishing and sometimes spotting gutters difficult. It paid to find a larger gutter opposed to the smallr ones running paralell with the beach. Conditions were quite cold and wet, which is maybe why the bite was quiet at times. Otherwise a nice trip!

Overall Success Rate: 60%, caught some fish and had a fun time with my Dad

Cheers Hamish  

[ellicat]

Good work braving the conditions and sorting out a few dart from the washing machine.

[Bretto77]

You are a dedicated budding champion Hamish  You got fish and experience. Make sure you remember that the overcast days can burn badly because the UV penetrates the cloud without the heat.

Also, remember to thank your parents for opportunity

Well done.

 

[FishingCrazy]

I liked the comment " We waited until about 6 to see if the rain would clear, but it wasn't looking good... So we decided to go fishing anyways"

Been there, done that. Now I just go and not wait, because I know I will still end up going anyway.

Good report and pics. Catching dart is always a bit of fun and better than not catching anything.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

12 hours ago, ellicat said:

Good work braving the conditions and sorting out a few dart from the washing machine.

Thanks Brian.

11 hours ago, Bretto77 said:

You are a dedicated budding champion Hamish  You got fish and experience. Make sure you remember that the overcast days can burn badly because the UV penetrates the cloud without the heat.

Also, remember to thank your parents for opportunity

Well done.

 

Cheers Brett, will do  

9 hours ago, FishingCrazy said:

I liked the comment " We waited until about 6 to see if the rain would clear, but it wasn't looking good... So we decided to go fishing anyways"

Been there, done that. Now I just go and not wait, because I know I will still end up going anyway.

Good report and pics. Catching dart is always a bit of fun and better than not catching anything.

Thanks @FishingCrazy, they’re sure better than nothing.

Cheers Hamish