The Basin Sat 05/03

[Jaso]

Put in at the Bayview ramp this morning and headed out to the Joey - got there just on daybreak so put a rapala magnum (rh) and a team diawa hyperminnow out to see if there were any takers.. just passed the bommie and bobby bonito came out to play.. good fun..

After a couple of more passes and no more hits decided to head across to the Basin as I had seen squid there before.. Threw the jig around for a few casts with nothing, saw a few schools of fish so chased them..

Got heaps of hits on a bass minnow but no hookups, when I got it close to the boat I discovered it was a squid that was hitting it and still following! So out came the jig again but to my dissappointment when I cast it out it wouldnt sink. I thought that was a bit funny and when i pulled it in I discovered the lead had fallen out.. This wasnt a kmart special jarvis walker jig either - was a geniune Yo Zuri so I was a bit dark

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and even tho I didnt think it would swim well I rigged the squid up 'texas style' with a bit of running lead above the lure. It seemed to swim ok and sure enough the squid came to play

After that threw some plastics around the shoreline and amongst the moorings closer to the shore. I've not used plastics on bream that many times, and I think the hardest part for me has been actually knowing where the fishy spots are and how to present the differnt types of lures. It may sound odd but I am pleased to say yesterday I dropped a lot of fish. I was very happy I was finding fish and encouraging strikes from them. I did land a couple of legal size ones also which were great fun on the 3kg gear.

I found pulling along side the moored boats I could not see many fish under them, but they were deeper under the boats out of sight. Putting the lure right beside the boat and allowing it to drift and flutter down with the current with a couple of flicks brought the most strikes. At one stage I saw a fish under a boat and I watched him follow the fluttering lure into the depths, and felt the hit, struck, had him on for a few seconds.. but he was not pinned well and I dropped him.

I landed one from under this boat, and when I did pin him well I found loads of his mates were swimming around him going absolutely crazy! The next couple of casts to the same area drew heaps of hits, but amazingly no hookups. When I got the lure to the surface it was absolutely smashed to bits (see attached pic).

The lures of choice were 2.5inch Zoom and Fin-S flukes... I got them when I was in the US in Jan. Similar profile to bass minnows, but slightly smaller. The colours that were working were the pale (albino and 'ice shad' colours) ones.

Heres the pics.

I've had bream eating the belly out of fish baits previously - I probably shouldnt have been surprised to see this happen to lures also. Is this common?

The Zoom and Fin-S 2.5inch flukes. Can they be purchased in Australia? They proved the goods yesterday The lure at the top of the zoom pack is a hacked about 3inch watermelon bass minnow (for size and shape comparison)

Edited March 6, 2005 by Jaso

[Pukka]

Hey Jaso, great report mate, aounds like you had a very enjoyable session.

The fish responsible for taking lumps out of your plastics is most likely to be either toadfish or leatheries, or maybe even the squid you were seeing.

You can tell you've had a bream 'hit' by looking closely at the lure for rows of 'dot-like' indentations, bream rarely take bits out of your plastic.

Watching what your line is doin' as your lure sinks is a must when fishing boat hulls. Bream will hit the lure and make the line twitch, or grab the lure and hold it, which stops the line sinking as if you'd already hit bottom. They can also simply grab the lure and race away and your line will subsequently race away as well. It's great when you have this happen as it means the lure's already in the fishes mouth and the fish racing away means you only have to give a short firm strike to set the hook. Sorry, if you know this already Jaso, but if you don't I hope this helps.

Pukk'

[Rick T]

G'day Jaso

They are squid bites for sure. I have done a fair bit of fishing around the moorings this year chasing kings and bream (still hoping for a legal pittwater king before the end of the season ). If u see chunks like that and heaps of missed hits it is the squid grabbing on and chewing the placcie then u rip it out of its mouth thus feeling weight for a second but not hooking up. U won't have much chance of hooking the squid with a small single hook but if u follow up immediately with a squid jig u will definately catch the squid responsible. I usually target the bream deep on the mooring rope unless u can see them under the hull. Leave long breaks (5-10 seconds) between the lifts/twitches. Have been consistantly picking up solid bream this summer using this technique.

Edited March 6, 2005 by Rick T

[the_lure]

Gday

I buy my Zoom Flukes and Lunker City plastics direct from the US (http://www.cabelas.com) cheap and delivery is about 4 days if you select air transport, you need to buy in bulk to save $$$.

As Pukka stated, the bits missing are likely to be from leatheries, tailor will also take the tails off and if it comes back all munched possibly a flatty, if you get a hit and the plastic is twisted or pushed of teh jighead, this was more likely a bream (eg no bits missing but plastic moved)

cheers

Chris

[Jaso]

Gday

I buy my Zoom Flukes and Lunker City plastics direct from the US (http://www.cabelas.com) cheap and delivery is about 4 days if you select air transport, you need to buy in bulk to save $$$.

As Pukka stated, the bits missing are likely to be from leatheries, tailor will also take the tails off and if it comes back all munched possibly a flatty, if you get a hit and the plastic is twisted or pushed of teh jighead, this was more likely a bream (eg no bits missing but plastic moved)

cheers

Chris

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Thanks guys - I think it all happenned a bit fast to be leatheries, and it was mid water (in potentially 5mtrs) so I dont know if it was toadfish also.. I hadnt let the lure hit the bottom before it was smashed.. hard to say, only that I saw all the bream school on the prior hookup and assumed it was them going ballistic.

I dont think I will make the social on the weekend as I have been fishing past 2 weekend and 3 in a row is pushing my luck. For those going its definately worth a shot at the squid in the basin. As I said my jig stuffed.. but I've now been there a few times at different times of the day, different stages of the tide and the squid have been there each time.

[Byron]

Nice work Jaso!

Hope to see you up there over Easter. I think my whole family will be up there so a few fishing adventures will ensure my sanity is maintained.

Cheers

Byron

[Jaso]

Nice work Jaso!

Hope to see you up there over Easter.

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Yes - I will be there at Easter (we should aim to head out in my craft)! I didnt actually head to Umina last weekend hence nil contact on the Byronphone midweek - launched from Bayview.

Incidentally I didnt realise there were ticket machines for parking required at Bayview (having never launched there prior). I ended up having to ask another fisho for some change so I could avoid rude shocks when i came back from fishing.

Im not going to the social but for others that are going who have not launched from Bayview prior it may be worth a mention (if not done already - must admit Ive not gone thru the whole 8 pages worth of social posts looking).

Edited March 8, 2005 by Jaso