queensland TerryH switches to the dark side; a Borumba report

[Terry H]

Saturday 03 May 2008. A special day in history.

I arrived at Lee’s place about 30 minutes late :blush: and after picking up my new rod, and shoving everything into Lee’s car we headed up the coast to Cooroy. Said g’day to Mal at Sunstate hobie, picked up my new kayak, the Hobie Revolution; saw Beefa’s new yak, and spooled up my new 08 Twinpower 1000 with about 120m of 4lbs Platypus super braid.

Then it was time to hit the road, and flog it up the highway to Imbil, and then Borumba Dam. I say Imbil, because by this stage it was about midday and my stomach was grumbling so I needed something to eat. So after a quick pitstop and some tucker we headed to Borumba, admiring Yabba Creek in all its glory along the way.

Once we arrived to Borumba we quickly got setup and started the long 6.5km peddle to our fishing grounds at the back of the dam. Today we were trolling deep diving lures along the way. Well, I’ll let you decide if we were “trollingâ€Â, it looks like Lee was having a drink.... or was he fishing?

:laugh: I love those hobies: ) Anyway once we arrived at the back of the dam Lee and I started fishing for the ol’ Saratoga. Lee started off with a spinnerbait to fish subsurface and I threw on a Bleeding Elite Buzz Bait (those big ones). Afterall, to catch big fish, you need a big lure.. right?

Anyway, we didn’t get any hits for the first hour or so as it must have still been the middle of the day – damn warm for May, just how I like it:) Before too long though I was the first to see some action. I flicked out the bigger buzz bait and started to retrieve it. These ones are a slower, ploop plooping sound than the mini buzz baits, and it seemed the toga didn’t care if it was a mini or bigger one. Swipe! :ohmy: He missed. He didn’t even hit the lure – dopey toga.

It was a while before drinks, by the time we made it to the next inlet I heard a huge splash on the other side of the living tree that was in the water. I knew this could have only been one thing, a big toga annihilating something. I couldn’t see exactly where it was, just that it was on the other side of the tree, so I let him be and continued working my way around. By the time I was almost on the other side of that said tree, I flicked out the buzz bait and worked it past a few sticks. Then I saw it...

As my buzz bait was coming towards me, leaving it’s little bubble trail etc, I see a ripple/small wave screaming along from behind the tree straight at that buzz bait. :woohoo: This is all within a couple of seconds, it’s pretty exciting Bam! A hit, but no hook up, I stop the retrieve in a hope he comes back for it... But alas, it’s not to be, I flick out the spinnerbait in a hope he’ll hit that, but he doesn’t. I continue flicking away looking for any more excitement from the togas, but it was Lee who was to have the next activity.

“Yep, I’m onâ€Â. I turn around and can see pretty quickly that he’s not hooked up to our target species, and begin to wonder what he might be on to... A bass? A Yella? Well this nice fella showed up

And man, did he sure like that spinnerbait:

We continue to work our way around to the back of the dam, while I continue flicking out the buzz bait. Swipe! :ohmy: What’s with these toga? I’ve got a large buzz bait, moving slowly and they miss the darn thing. Maybe they’re pretty crap at hitting a buzz bait? I switch to the mini buzz baits. It’s around this time Lee acknowledges my ability to excite the saratoga with the buzz baits and asks to borrow one. Yep, chartreuse ok? Sure.....

Well, he puts a stinger on and gives it a test swim... Everything looks normal, lee picks up his rod and throws the lure into the water.

Lee...

You’re suppose to tie the line onto the lure before throwing out to test it.... :ohmy:

So no buzz baits for lee, he switches to a jitterbug instead. We continue working our way along, I get the odd swipe but no hit. Seriously wtf? Are these toga drunk or something, it’s by this stage I’m at about 3 swipes and 1 hit, 0 hook ups. Lee fires it along and bang! He’s on... After a tough tussle he pulls up this nice fish:

Now comes the time to release said fish. Easy procedure, right?

Lee opens up the trigger to release the bass. Bass gives a big kick, bass goes free. But that’s not the only thing that goes free. Somehow when the bass kicked off he’s knocked the lip grips out of Lees hand and the strap came off his wrist?

Well there’s two things successfully released, the bass went one way and then the lip grips went straight down. :woohoo: :ohmy: (Note: Bass was free of lip grips.)

Might have to hold those lip grips a bit tighter next time Lee:sick:

Yet again, we continue working our way along, must be about that 6.5km or more mark from the launch site, when I hear this splash splash SPLASH KAPOOOOOOOOOOW. Holy $#17 WHAT WAS THAT? “Did you hear that?!?†Says Lee... Gee, how can I not? It sounded like a fat kid bomb dived into a pool from 10m up. The splash is huge and we really flog it around to begin flinging surface lures in the area it was last seen. This was a BIG toga that had just tail walked before slamming back into the water. After about 20 casts in the area Lee flings one at a tree i was looking at. A few cranks of the handle and BAM... Holy hell that looked like a big hit, and... Lee mate, where’s your line?

Busted off in the strike Wow, I’ve seen Lee land a big steroid-filled 77cm toga from Ewen, without too much roughage on the line, but this thing has busted him off on the strike :ohmy: :sick:

By this stage it’s starting to get dark so we head back. I put the larger buzz bait back on so I can work it slower than the mini, I figure: BIG, SLOW lure should be easier to hit than the mini buzz baits, right? Well after a few more swipes and misses, I guess not. Perhaps one of those jitterbugs is the go? But we’re still flicking blindly next to trees that we can’t even see in the dark (you can’t see all the green leaves and branches in the dark! We both got a couple of hits but no hook up. Well yippee! At least this fish could hit my lure :whistle:

It’s pretty dark now:

We start to troll a buzz bait (me) and a shallow diver (lee) back through the sticks and around to the boat ramp.

Going through some sticks there was Lee probably 5 metres ahead of me, with me following him, when I see something leave the water on the left side splash a few times in front of me, and enter the water on the right side of my kayak..

I think I heard Lee laughing? And asking what was that... “I don’t know?? I think it was a toga tail walking in between our yaks!â€Â

I catch up to him and we peddle next to each other where its easier to talk when mother nature decides I need a shower. Well, not quite, but lee found it funny. A large toga (or lungy?) Decided being on the surface right next to my yak wasn’t good, flipped over and splashed me with quite a bit of water. Seriously, my kayak must have hit him.

The rest of the paddle back is uneventful, other than bats flying right behind my head for a little while. But we do it tough in the hobies:

So I get a new kayak :woohoo: , and a new custom rod with 08 Twinpower,

Lee gets a nice yella and bass, loses a lure and throws his lip grips overboard.

So there you have it, a big report about nothing really. We didn’t catch any of the target species.

[Bommie]

well done, good read, is that a ausspin spinnerbait garfish colours

[Rocket75]

Great report Terry, really enjoyed the read. Sounds like you two had fun, gotta get me some of that Toga action. Shame abouth the lures and grippers "donated", off to the tackle store!

Rocket

[fishyman]

haha sounds like a fun day if nothng else.

i might have to go to burumba soon, i also want to bag a toga

nice kayak terry that was the other option when i got my profish but i figured i need the uper body workout :laugh:

[Terry H]

Bommie wrote:

well done, good read, is that a ausspin spinnerbait garfish colours

Don't quote me, I think that ones a TT Vortex?

i've been using the Ausspin Guppy though - the one that's purple with white and tinsel in it

[Bommie]

I've been using the garfish-purple, silver, green and pink tinsel and doing great on them

[Terry H]

Yeah mate, good colour. Although i think the black/purple from ausspin is pretty good too, along witht he straight purple from TT Strike.

[Biggles]

Nice change to the dark side Terry, well done mate.

Regards

Al

[pcsolutionman]

:blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: Yes I threw a Lure straight to the bottom and also lost a set of lip grippers as well:blink: :blush: :blush: :blush: but it was the sacrifice the fishing gods asked for notice I got the 2 fish :P :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: and only had to sacrifice one piece of my own gear lol the lure was Terrys HEHEHE

for the record the bass went 46cm the yella mid thirties somewhere

Lee

[Feral]

Terry, maybe the fish were hitting the blade rather than the hook. Anywhere you can put a small stinger on the back of the blade?

[Terry H]

Feral they completely missed, I didn't feel a thing. We just saw them swipe behind the lure. I was thinking that's a possibility though. I dont think it's possible to put a stinger just behind the blade.

[STU]

Still all good fun fellas nice yak terry

[Dinodadog]

Sounds like you both had a good time on the water and thats what counts, fish are a bonus

[Terry H]

I was hoping Lee would have put a pic of me in the yak??

Or was he waiting for a fishy pic? :S

[will]

sounds like u had fun and and u had a few hits for the day at least it want a fishing rod/real going overboard

[pcsolutionman]

Terry mate a pic of your yak will be put up shortly

Lee

[Zim man]

nice report terry. sounds like it was a top day. what colour buzzbaits where you throwing?

[Terry H]

Zim: black. the next one I'll be testing is a custom fitted purple

[jeff f]

TerryH wrote:

Feral they completely missed, I didn't feel a thing. We just saw them swipe behind the lure. I was thinking that's a possibility though. I dont think it's possible to put a stinger just behind the blade.

maybee a gang of stingers:P

[Terry H]

haha just keep adding stingers everywhere you reckon Jeff? Until it's a giant ball of stingers, with a small blade and a bit of coloured skirt

:S

[fishyman]

trail a bit of skirt on each stinger.

so it would be a colorful ball of hooks

[Terry H]

But then they'll swipe behind that skirt, so you gotta put another stinger on :laugh: