Pep

Hi Guys, This is not a but I'm grounded at the moment with this lock down so I will recount something that happened a few months ago when life was a bit easier. We were booked in to toSouth West Rocks for holidays in March this year but due to massive flooding we were delayed by 5 days before the roads opened up to get in there. Let me tell you I was pretty disappointed as I know from experience the river and coastal waters would take weeks to settle down so I had made the decision to leave the boat at home and just take some light gear as we had the grandkids coming for one of the weeks so I was keen to find a few fish for them to have a bit of fun. Just to give you a bit of background I have been going to Southie for over forty years so have built up quite a bit of knowledge over that time.I have ticked off a lot of firsts there.First really big jewfish, first sailfish, first marlin , first cobia, first Wahoo, hundreds of Mackeral both spotties and spanish,heaps of yellowfin , kingfish & dolphin fish .So to be going up there and knowing that I would be restricted to just a bit of fun fishing in the estuary you can understand how I was feeling. But sometimes its good to have a challenge.Isn't that why fishing is so addictive. Every day is different and it is a matter of trying to crack the code for that day. So the first day I thought I would go down to the entrance of back creek and catch a few bream for a bit of fun as the conditions were pretty good ,that is a high tide right on dusk .I have found this to be quite a productive spot to take the grandkids especially if the water is a bit dirty.And the bream were there and it was good fun . However it was while I was there that 3 threes young guys came down and they were using soft plastics for flaties and they caught some really nice fish.Right towards the end the oldest boy hooked a really nice fish so I stopped fishing and walked down to see him land the fish. Mind you no one had a net as they were releasing all the fish they caughtso he needed a bit of help when he washed the fish onto the sand. The fish was about 77 cms but what surprised me was that the soft plastic was only about 5 cm long. The next day I was back with the same lure which I had bought that day from the tackle store so I was in the game.The three young guys were there again so we fished together .We were all catching fish and really good fish they were ,mostly in the high 60's to low 70's.Then one of the guys got a 82cm fish so that really raised the bar a bit.Not long after that I hooked a really good fish which went 90 cm . I was pretty happy with that ,it equalled my pb and it was just so rewarding to release the fish and see it swim away as though nothing had happened. The next night we were all there again and between the 4 of us we caught about 6 fish in the 90-95 cm range as well as quite a few fish in the 70's & 80's .The picture of the fish attached was 95 so that was a new pb for me .It was a beast of a fish , so much bigger than the 90cm fish the night before even though it was only 5 cms longer. Sadly the bite went off the next day but i was just thankful that I had those couple of evenings to experience such a run of big flathead and the best thing is that all the big fish I saw caught were released which really bodes well for the future. Sorry if I have bored you guys but it is nice when your expectations are low to get such a nice surprise. By the way for the record the fish were caught on a 7 foot 2-4 kilo rod, 10 pound braid , 12 pound leader , basically nothing fancy. Thanks for reading.

Hi Yowie, I always enjoy your reports.Good honest fishing with nearly always a nice feed of good fish to take home. Thanks to everyone who has been putting on reports since the shutdown started.Most people are not fortunate enough to live within the 10 radius of the water so just reading the reports each day gives everyone a bit of a lift until we are finally able to get back to normal once again.

Glad the motor didn't suffer any major damage, it would have been devastating for the poor guy.It would have been an expensive way to learn a lesion. One of my mates made the same fatal mistake but the result was that he had to be towed back to the ramp and had to have the motor rebuilt which wasn't cheap. We all make silly mistakes from time to time.Who hasn't forgot to put the bungs in ,in their eagerness to get out fishing. Seems to happen when you had a break for a while and your a rusty.Wakes you up pretty quick.

The best thing about this whole thing is how the fishing community have banded together as one to overturn this stupid proposal.Congratulations to everyone that has contributed in some way towards achieving this result. Hopefully it will be a long time before the pollies try this sort of stunt again.

Mate that is incredible footage.Does anyone know what type of Shark it is.This time of year is peak time.

Hi, Back Creek is not to bad for boats upto about 5 metres.The tides are good this weekend but just be sure to come back in before the tide is below half as there isn't a lot of water to come in on.Make sure you sit on the shoulder of the wave coming in as that is the place to be and also it gives you a bit of extra depth.There is generally a very small channel at the entrance so it is best viewed at low tide to see exactly where it is. Once upon a time nearly all the boats used to use Back Creek but these days with bigger boats it is not used a great deal. Regardless of whether you go out back creek or the river wait for a big set of waves to come in then cross the bar before the next set starts forming. We were up there a few weeks ago and the fishing was great so you should have a great time.Enjoy

Hey Bruce I will be back up there in about 3 weeks.We were last up late Feb first few days of March. The first part of the trip was slow because of the fresh coming out of the river but the last few days were brilliant.The last morning out we got 25 snook,10 kept 15 released.It was hard to have to come home after that. What sort of fish are you targetting?