First Fish On Blades

[slinkymalinky]

Went out for a lazy day on the boat with Mrs Slinky, Little Slinky and Midi Slinky on Saturday. It may be the last time on the water for quite a while but we didn't stress too much about chasing fish... just enjoyed the cirsp morning sunshine and flat dark water on the Harbour.

We toodled out to North Head for a little look and were 'first on scene' when a small school of salmon started foaming on the surface like an espresso machine. After only covering the school twice for no result, the inevitable Saturday salmon frenzy began with boats seemingly sprouting from the water around us.

With 8 or 10 boats having appeared in only about 5 minutes we gave it up as a mugs game... I think I said in a post last year that I'd leave the salmon schools to weekdays. To paraphrase 'A River Somewhere'... Sydney weekend salmon fishing is where people leave behind the crowds, noise and stress of City life and recreate it in a marine setting.

So leaving the school still leading the crowd in its outboard powered dance near Old Man's Hat, we headed around to Bluefish where we had a half-hearted flick with plastics, spending more time checking out the sun on ochre and mustard coloured cliffs and flying fish like iridescent jewels that were gliding past us regularly.

Before I bore you to tears, we spent a couple of hours cruising up as far as Darling Harbour... sometimes flicking lures at marker buoys, more often taking 'going away' photos like tourists of Harbour landmarks. And finally we snoozed quietly into the upper reaches of middle harbour.

The sun was high overhead. It's a magic spot up in the narrows above the Roseville Bridge. The water is sluggish and promising, light sparkles on every bend, birds call from trees that hide you from the view of surrounding urban sprawl, bait fish dart around in the shallows trying to avoid the inevitable chopper tailor that decimate their numbers.

Fishing up here is almost zen-like. As soon as the motor is cut the silence is like a welcoming blanket and time moves slowly. Slow enough to be able to take joy in the sound your line makes as it comes off the spool during a cast or the way your lure drops with an inviting plop into the shadowed water beside ancient oyster covered rocks.

From out of these snaggy, dark, still holes came first on fish and then almost immediately another. When you're in that trance like zone... cast, work , retrieve... cast, work retrieve, just enjoying the feel of the sun on your shoulders, the thump of a fish transmitted through line is almost enough to scare you. Certainly, the immediate adrenalin spike broke the spell and woke me up.

That first fish was a tiny little bream. Silver chrome and fair hooked with a blade. A quick photo, back in the water and get more serious.

A couple of casts later and whack! The buzzing vibration of my lure down deep is abruptly cut off as a better fish slams it. Still not any kind of trophy at maybe 20cm but enough to feel fulfilled as we finally give in to the gravity-like pull of reality and head back the crowds at Roseville ramp.

No big fish, no wild action, nothing for the table... but in a life of fishing, these are the sorts of days that for some reason shine brightest in the vaults of my memory.

Cheers, Slinky

[NickN]

Don't despair mate, all those canals and creeks and structure on the Gold Coast will have you foaming at the mouth! Those blades will see plenty of action up there, and a few mangrove jack thrown in for good measure!

[Hodgey]

Well done Slinky. the first fish on a new lure are always the hardest

Plenty of time for you to refine your technique before you start marauding the Gold Coast breambos!

Cheers

Hodgey

ps: blades and 2000 SOL ... recipe for success

[Jake]

Nice little session Slinky and well worded as usuall.

I love going up that way myself, can feel like your many miles from anywhere yet the city is only around the corner.

Out of interest are those the Ecogear blades you used? What size?

Thanks

[no idea]

nice work mate, i am still waiting for my first fish on blades hooked a nice bream a while ago but snapped the hook, that will teach me not to replace rusty hooks lol.

[arpie]

......he thump of a fish transmitted through line is almost enough to scare you.........\

You are dead right there, Slinky!! It is enough to scare me out of my yak sometimes! I often go into that 'trance state' myself!

Congrats on your first fish or two on blades! Looks like it could be a Koolabung lure ..... is it?? Haven't got any of those ...... yet!!!

Sounds like the whole day was a lot of fun on the water!

Got a small flattie on a blade the other day - an upgrade from the trumpeter I had caught previously!!

Cheerio

Roberta

[slinkymalinky]

Yep... it's a Koolabung. They don't have as much action as the TT's I also bought... they start vibrating if you so much as breathe on them. The Koolabungs need to be worked a bit more aggressively (although still not too much) to get them really working. I only have the really tiny 35s in the TTs though and with a bit of current movement and dirty water I went with the bigger lures (45mm I think).

Not that I have any clue what I'm doing with them of course but it seemed to work ok.

Cheers, Slinky