Fishing Forster/tuncurry With Dan 'bubba' Frost

[arpie]

Hi all

I first met up with Dan last Xmas, when he was visiting family & he was fishing the shallows of Forster, getting into some terrific whiting & bream ...... and I was very new to top water lures!! He showed me the lure he was having most success with (sugapen) and then explained & showed me how to retrieve it to get the whiting 'interested in it' & then hook them! So I can now blame him fully for all the top water lures that I have collected over the last 12 months!!

Having recently taken posession of his Big Red Skeeter ..... he was keen to get onto the water & show it off to the locals!! Dan had kindly made contact to see if I would like to go out with him for a fish & we arranged to meet at 4.45am this morning , to put his new Skeeter thru its paces ....... and I reckon I was so excited last night, I don't think I slept a wink!! The alarm was set for 4.30am, I had all my gear on the ute, ready to go, along with some snacks & water - I just had to throw some clothes on & Keith drove me over! WOW! What a boat!!

Hold on for the ride of your life, Dan said!! Then we took off!! Just as well Dan loaned me a spray jacket - not that we got wet, but when 'on the move at a rate of knots' ..... the wind chill factor really does affect you - and we were moving fast,& it was only 5am!! I had my sunnies on (even tho it was only 5am & was hanging onto my hat, whilst making sure none of my gear flew out the back, never to be retrieved!! Did I mention that it WAS ONLY 5am??? I don't think I have been up that early since I was taken trout fishing on Lake Tarawera in NZ about 20 years ago!!

Dan & his Big Red Boat

We hooned over to Tuncurry & tried between some leases in the shallows & had a few follows but no hookups - Dan donated a popper to the Fish Gods, in an attempt to bring the bream onto the bite ..... then we motored further up to fish some rocky areas where there were heaps of mullet - once again, lots of 'hits' but only a couple of small hookups. Initially, we were after bream, but at this point in time, we didn't care what we got!!

En Route to our next spot - it looks like a pilot's console!

Thinking that we could do better over the weedbeds, we took off towards the other side of the lake, only to find that the dreaded Nor-Easter had come in early (normally it hits in the afternoon) but was making its presence very felt, by kicking in mid morning! It made casting the hbs & smaller sps very difficult & after only getting bites instead of hookups at one of Dan's 'favourite spots', and being blown around quite a bit, even with the leccie ....... oh yeah!! The LECCIE ....... Whilst Dan retied his leader to the braid, we were drifting 'away' from the target zone in the wind & he suggested I give the leccie a go - looks easy enough, I thought!! WRONG!! You need the dexterity of a ballerina (sorry Dan, the sure footedness of a mountain goat ....) to get the darn thing going in the direction you want it to go whilst actually getting the motor to go, without the direction going out the window!! If there had been a computer download of the route we took, it would have looked very funny in that spot! I reckon I zig-zagged all over the place, whilst also nearly falling overboard!! Eventually, I sat on the front deck & used my hands to operate the direction & the throttle until Dan (thankfully) took over again! By some small bit of luck, I had put us back in the 'target Zone'!

We both prefer to fish the rising/top of tide, so the fact that the tide had just bottomed & was now trying to come in, buoyed us a bit - hopefully with some movement back in the system, we should get some fish! By now, we were almost back at the top of the Breck Channel & started casting some bigger jigheads at the posts to try & catch some flatties as it was still too shallow to cast between the racks!! Dan pulled in a small flattie, which self released & a few hits later, I changed to a big Lobby & YES!! I'm finally on!! First fish of the day for me! The rod was bending nicely! This felt like a better fish! Dan nets the flattie expertly & it thrashes around in the net - this one is a keeper, for dinner ........ a nice 47cm

Me & my Flattie

Another angle .....

We continued bombarding the poles to no avail - and then we headed back to the main channel to hopefully fish the flats there .... but as we rounded the corner, we copped the full blast of the Nor-Easter & as the water was very choppy as well, we decided to call it quits and motored (and when I say 'motored', we sure did!!) back to the boat ramp & Dan kindly dropped me back at home as it was (almost) en route to his folk's home.

Many thanks Dan, for a terrific day on the water - even tho the fish didn't grace us with their presence in spectacular numbers - I thoroughly enjoyed your company & of course, your boat! It is SO stable & 'positive' when on the go - its a great boat! hehehe It was fun 'driving' it onto your trailer, too!!! I bet some of the folk watching us thought we were a pair of 'pros'!! Let's not disillusion them!

All the best for next week when you are out with your Dad, and especiallly in the comp with him on Jan 10th!!

Cheerio & Merry Xmas - keep an eye open for me in the yak, too!

Roberta

Edited December 24, 2009 by Roberta

[slinkymalinky]

I'm not sure exactly what you want from Santa now, Roberta?? A shiny new Skeeter, a pair of Minn Kota ballet slippers, still more poppers, or an alarm clock with an automatic snooze delay button??

Sound like an exciting day on the water in a boat like that. I'd love to see a photo of you running the leccy by hand

Have a great Christmas and I hope the quality of the fishing begins to keep pace with the quality of boats on the lake.

Cheers, Slinky

[jenno64]

Roberta,

You could have at least pulled our legs and claim that this was the new souped up Pro Angler! Sounds like a huge day but veer away from the dark side and keep pedalling!!!

Merry Xmas!

[Luke K]

Ah Roberta, how lucky you are indeed.

Now right there is a vessel I would love to get my hands on.

But I will keep yaking for now. Anyway you have to keep working if you own one of those babies

Have a great christmas!

cheers

Luke

[cut_loose]

8 days till i get to go the that beautiful place of the world - Forster

Thats a very nice flatties well done ; i'll bhapy with 1 that size

[Jewhunter]

Great to see a couple of my mates hook up for a fish together.

Bubba has been itching to get his hands on the skeeter. He was foaming at the mouth the day he picked her up.

Shame the fishing was tough but simply being in that boat with bubba would have been a hoot!

Can't wait for a run on her myself.

Cheers,

Grant.