Couldn't quite get there

[Bretto77]

A very late notice and unexpected child free weekend revealed itself yesterday morning. While I was not happy about the circumstances, @Kat and I wasted little time in seeing the silver lining.  With a coastal wind warning current it would be tucking up a creek somewhere that didn't involve travelling great distances in the boat. Our regular haunt ticked the boxes. 

We organised some blood worms, packed the boat, some sandwiches etc and off we went to brave the wind.

There were plenty of spare parks at paradise point ramp as expected. We could have launched much closer but a better ramp with a pontoon and no cross current is worth a couple of minutes travelling in the boat, even in yesterday's wind. 

We found a spot that was sheltered from the wind and anchored up. It was less than about twenty seconds before my basically free spool drag screamed off. The catfish that appeared shortly after at the boat signalled the start of what would become a monotonously regular annoyance. 

My next bait was out a few minutes before it screamed off in a similar fashion and I think I actually called catfish again but was pleasantly surprised when a reasonable spotted grunter appeared at the boat. It had actually made a bit of a mess of my 10lb leader so I'm glad I opted for the net.

@Kat couldn't seem to get any interest on her side of the boat yet and started making noise about swapping sides. Very soon it didn't matter what side of the boat you were on it was catfish aplenty. This went on for a while before I landed a solid whiting that was frustratingly shy of the magic 40cm mark.

There were a lot of other undersized grunter, a few legal bream and tarwhine which were released, (and of course the mandatory pony fish).  Kat then landed a good legal whiting, but it was back to catfish and undersized spotted grunter straight after that.

Unfortunately it was looking like we were going to have to endure a lot of undesirables to get a feed of whiting.

We chose to move to try and escape the catfish etc but to no avail. It was the same everywhere, a couple of good fish and then we just couldn't get past the vermin. @Kat bettered me on the whiting tally again and contributed two very solid specimens that were almost identical to the first one I got. But neither of us managed to bust the 40cm mark yesterday.

Catfish OMG the catfish. Wow, to think that @kat wanted to rename her boat to "Katfish".

[ellicat]

That's a great feed, considering the conditions and vermin numbers. Quality too.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Great work Brett and Kat, looks like an enjoyable session despite the catties. 

[Old Scaley]

You have to be happy with that bag in those conditions @Bretto77 and @Kat  

[Bretto77]

1 minute ago, Old Scaley said:

You have to be happy with that bag in those conditions @Bretto77 and @Kat  

Yes Steve it's the protein for quite a few meals for us. You get the learning experience that you can't get if you buy that protein from a shop also. Was a good day overall.

[Bretto77]

1 hour ago, ellicat said:

That's a great feed, considering the conditions and vermin numbers. Quality too.

The "vermin" is consideration for a whole other discussion at some stage. I think a conversation about changes noticed in systems is warranted and worthwhile. 

It was good to get a feed for the effort. Always great to get pipped at the post by @Kat 

[Bretto77]

1 hour ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Great work Brett and Kat, looks like an enjoyable session despite the catties. 

Thanks Hamish. It had it's frustrations but that ultimately meant opportunity for learning. Keep gathering your data and use the tools available now to interpret it. I wish I had done that better

[Corry]

Looks like a great day out, making the most of the conditions. 

A nice few feeds out of it always tops off a day on the water, good job.