I Caught The Only Bream On Day 1!

[arpie]

Hi guys

Well, after some really wild weather on the weekend & Monday ( a $10,000 marquee was ripped to shreds at the presentation night on Sunday night & the digital weighing machine demolished, falling from the top of the big fish tank, narrowly missing some kids who were checking out the fish!) I also got hit when a stand of fishing gear blew over in the wind, but it was only a glancing blow! Tuesday loomed quiet & calm!

6.30am & I am on the water & checking the bits ....... bugger! The fish finder isn't working!!! I ring Keith & ask him to bring the spare battery down ...... He hesitates, but agrees to bring it!! In the mean time, I get the FF working but take the 2nd battery as 'insurance'! Thanks Keith!

The yakkers approached the start line & found ........ there were only 3 of us!! A group of 18 yakkers from Sydney (who had advised the organisers that they were competing) had arrived on the weekend, didn't like the look of the weather & had gone home again, without entering the comp! Then the weather got better, bigtime!

The reality is that the Aussie Yak Champs has now been postponed to a date to be advised (possibly April next year), and we three are already 'in the next one' ...... so instead of the Aussie Champs, we had a bit of a 'social comp' between ourselves!! The pressure was still on - even tho the major prize of a double yak had been withdrawn by the sponsors, as the required numbers had not registered! We weren't surprised at that! Max Frost (top fisho & local organiser) had told us we would get a jacket in lieu of any prizes.

After 4 days of Pro Bream fishos pounding the whole lake & the rest of Forster trying for bream, flatties, whiting & blackies ........ us yakkers hit the lake - with justifiable results - NOT MUCH!!!

At least the weather was kind to us - a bit cold, but at least the wind stayed away!!

The 3 amigos Roberta, Dave & Stephen.

Dave was the 'pro' amongst us - he was keen to go in the Pro Bream event, but they reckon they can't insure kayaks! He has fished as the non boater in some bream events previously. Dave generously gave me a packet of Lobbies (Pro Squidgies new cray/lobster imitation) which I shared with Stephen.)

We were under the impression that we were not allowed to fish the lower half of the Breckinbridge Channel (one of my favourite spots!) so had to head upstream of the Paradise Marina or get across a very shallow sandbar to get to the deeper water of 'the paddock'! I took the paddock option, where I'd scored some nice bream & flatties in the last 2 weeks! Within minutes of the start, I had a small flattie on, which I was very happy to get! Things were looking good! Then I got a nice little bream & the spirits lifted! Both on chubbys!

I headed to a favourite lease, via the weedbeds, casting chubbies around with gay abandon!! Had a few follows, a few takes & lots of misses! Into the lease I go (new territory for the Hobie ...... I usually use the Minnow!) & toss a chubby at one of the racks ..... only to realise I'd tossed the 6lb leader rod instead of the 10lb leader rod ....... it landed right on top of a submerged rack that had a small gap between it & the next rack. I knew it was a floating lure, so instead of twitching it, I was waiting for it to float out of the way, before carefully tweaking it towards me & away from danger! For the first time in my life, I was praying that a fish would not take the lure! I wasn't even cranking the reel ..... I was sort of willing the lure to come back to me & had it to the edge of the rack WHACK!!! A bloody bream had snaffled it from the surface & retreated back into the cover of the rack! GORN!! I reckon half of Newcastle would have heard my "Noooooooo!" or words to that effect - just use your imagination! I was shattered! This was not only my favourite lure, it had caught more bream & flatties in the last 2 weeks than I had caught in the last 12 months! Basically I don't normally target bream & flatties that much any more, since being converted to blackies!

THen, the drought!! The next 2 hrs all I got were long tom & pike! I had gone up the main channel towards Wallis Island, lost a couple of lures to deep snags & become thoroughly depressed, thinking I'd blown it! Caught up with Dave up near Wallis & he had caught a whiting & flattie (both on lobbies), but no bream. That sort of made me feel a bit better ....... also he'd had problems with his drive shaft, so instead of pedalling everywhere in his Hobie, he had to resort to paddling, so hadn't gone to his predetermined 'spots'! Had to feel sorry for him!

The tide had now turned, so I followed the tide back towards town, casting at any structure, weed bed or drop off that I had seen! Talk about a cast of thousands!!! I'm surprised I could move my arm at the end of the day!

I approached a shed & casually chucked another chubby in front of it & WHACK!! I'm on!!! A nice fat 31cm bream is in the net & I try to take a photo of it on the yak, as it is C & R..... photo only with special tag! Continuing along the way, I have a couple of follows & swirls, before scampering past the 'non fishing area of Breckinbridge Channel' on the way back to the 'show in' & marina. I had actually put the bream in my 'bag', thinking I may get him in the Big Tank at the compound, but one of the pros had weighed in a massive 1.3 & 1.4kg bream, & I thought mine would look a bit swamped....... so just 5 mins from the marina, I released him!

As I approached the marina, I nearly had a heart attack! In my excitement, I had forgotten to put the tag in the photo, basically making it 'illegal'! I told my tale of woe to the judge (Dave Moss of Supertank Fame) & he allowed it to be included in the 'comp', as it was now a social comp, not a Championship one! Boy was I lucky!!! Dave still only had the whiting & flattie & Stephen had caught 2 nice flatties to about 40cm, but you could only submit one fish of each species ... bream, flattie & whiting!

At least I had caught the bream .... funny tho - I'd decided to try for the flatties, as the length of the fish was the criteria, not the weight or species! Normally you can get a flattie most times you go fishing .... not this time! I had only ever caught one whiting on lure previously, so wasn't expecting to catch one on Tues, so wasn't disappointed! However, I was disappointed at not getting a flattie!

We were called up on stage at the presentation & introduced as the Yakkers & were given a terrific inflatable Life Jacket! We were stoked!!! We had imagined it would be a fishing shirt of some sort! Then I won a lucky dip of a Shimano Tackle Bag! Stephen won over $100 local vouchers & Dave won a Squidgie Offshore pack .... handy, as he had just bought a boat!

An exciting day - I went home for dinner & fell asleep in front of the tv!

Up early again this morning .... took both batteries again, just in case, but the FF fired up OK! Another lovely day. I had replaced my lost lure yesterday afternoon, so was confident of getting into some fish .... but Boy, was I wrong!! Within 30 mins of starting, the FF died & no amount of fiddling with the wires helped getting it going again! It was a wire thing, not a battery thing! Also found out we'd been given dud info about not fishing the Breck Channel the day before! Talk about spew!! So Dave & I headed up the Breck Channel whilst Stephen headed towards Tuncurry, where he had caught the flatties yesterday. Very difficult fishing today - rarely saw any fish (other than some big blackies but they weren't our target species) and chucked lobbies & chubbies around, before chucking the dummy as well! Somewhere along the way, the spirit lagged & I guess the concentration dropped ....... then I saw a big squid have a go at my lure! It was a Gulp Alive minnow on a jig head & this big brown squid kept trying to make off with it! I had to laugh! Over the next 5 minutes, it tried at least 10 times to get the minnow! I kept trying to set the hook & almost got it to the net on one occasion, before it let go. It was quite aggressive in its attack & what surprised me more, is that it didn't use it's long tentacles to grab the lure at all, only the short tentacles!!! The one I caught the other day also looked really weird, as the initial photo I took of it didn't show the long tentacles either, till after I'd put it in the bag & took the 2nd shot!

The squid event was the most exciting thing that happened to me all day!!! Next time, I'll take a couple of squid jigs out as well!

Dave also had a quiet day today, getting 2 bream to 30cm & Stephen got 1 flattie just over 40cm. Doesn't sound much, but when some of the pros on Sat & Sunday came in with 1 or NO fish, it puts it all in perspective! I had a great time on the water, fishing with 2 really nice guys & have met up with a heap of other fishos (local & blowins.) It is all good for fishing & Forster - the Organisers have a 5 year DA for the comp, so I reckon next year will be better than ever & by the 3rd year, I reckon it'll have over 500 entrants! Keep an eye out for it - organise your holidays around it! They'll also be putting the yak Champs on a weekend!

Peter Mckinnin (came 2nd overall in the Bream Comp .... and a really nice guy) caught the 2 biggest bream (to 1.4kg!) on Mon & Tues, the biggest flattie on Tues & the biggest whiting on Wed! He is on fire!!! If he'd caught one of those bream during the comp, he would have won it outright! That is what pressure of fishing a comp does to you!

We attended today's presentation & Stephen won another inflatable life jacket!! How good is that?? One for the wife! Last night, he also won a one in 20 chance to win a $30,000 boat that is up for grabs! 3 names are being drawn randomly every night plus 5 on Sat - for a live draw Sat afternoon, with ET doing the presentation! The heavens opened wide with rain as the presentation finished this evening, so we hope it clears for tomorrow's fishing! I think I'll stay land based this time! Maybe give blackie fishing a go!

Just to show one of the off shore fish caught today

don't quote me, but I think it went 18kg ..... hmmmm more like 18lb??!

I caught up with Backlash at the presentation - over the weekend, the Game Fishing boats had raised or hooked 11 marlin, but were badly affected by the big swells & really nasty wind. He will be posting his report soon.

Lots of fun had by all!! Even if the fish didn't come out to play that much! And there are still 3 more days of fishing!

Cheerio for now

Roberta

Edited May 21, 2008 by Roberta

[Davemmm]

Roberta

Pity the "blow ins" ran away and spoiled your comp but it sounds like you still enjoyed the experience.

Thanks for your usual well written and interesting report.

Dave

[Tony Soprano]

Great report as always Roberta...

I'm no expert, but I'd call the cobe for 18lbs rather than kg's...

Cheers

Tony

[Hodgey]

That's a bummer about the comp, Roberta. I know you have been anticipating it for a long time, and have done a lot of preparation. Pleasing to read that you still managed to have a fish after all, and scored yourself a nice jacket along the way!

A shame about your first Chubby! These little lures are still producing fish for you . I hope to give mine a swim this weekend, but I will be land-based, as Deno has gone on another charter to Arakun for 8 days.

Best of luck for the remaining 3 days. Look forward to reading about your success on the other target species!

Hodgey

[arpie]

Thanks guys - I also lost one of my yellow poppers Hodgey but I know where it is ..... I may get Keith to go for a swim one day

The good thing is that my bream was the biggest one caught tho!!

Roberta

Bucketting with rain today - how lucky were we in the yaks?? If it had been yesterday, no-one would have started!!

Edited May 21, 2008 by Roberta

[stylo]

Great write up Roberta. Thanks for sharing ! Hope you get your lure back.

[vipernut]

top report Roberta

Abit of a shame that the comp had to be cancelled,but atleast you still fished and also managed some good prizes.

Stephen

[james7]

Great read Roberta!

Good luck for the next few days

Hope the rain stops.

Cheers

Peter