Parra' River Mornin' Session 24/4

[Pukka]

Most of my time recently has been taken up with work and moving house, so it was just heaven to take a break from it all and hit the Parra' this morning. It was a fabulous morning to be on the water and even better that the fish were on the chew too!

The plan was 'bream', and the way I wanted to get them was sight casting to fish along pontoons. This is one of my favourite ways of catching bream and to make it even more fun, I was using my ultra light Daiwa Midge Direction rod.

I fished from about 7.30am til 11.30 but most of that time was spent in two places. I found a good number of bream in one marina and after catching a decent fish in the 30's, I left it for ten minutes, came back, and caught another. This seemed to be the pattern for most of the session. At the second spot I found an eye-popping number of big bream chewing away and if they spooked, I only had to wait 5 mnutes for them to come up again and resume feeding.

It was at the second spot I latched onto a really nice Trevally, and while the 'Midge' coped with the bream OK, the trevally was an entirely different matter. Fortunately for me, there were no nasty objects around to steer the fish away from, so it was just a matter of holding on until the fish tired while at the same time hoping the rod wasn't going to explode into a zillion pieces. When the trev' finally hit the deck I was very relieved to give my wrist a rest, but the pain was all worth it as I hooped and hollered to meeself!

I fished for a bit longer and added a couple of small fish, so decided to head for home. Final tally was 9 fish and the trev', best bream went 36 with 2 or 3 in the early 30's. Most of the bream and the trevally fell to 2 inch Ecogear Bug Ants while one of the better bream fell to a 2 inch Paramax in Plum colour.

Can't wait to get out again soon!

Pukka

[Guest Jocool]

The Pom does it again! Good stuff Joe.

Quick question. I know in different situations you would have different techniques, but what was the most successful way for you today for casting to fish you see. IE...unweighted, slow retrieve, no retrieve, twitch etc etc.... AND would the same be used while spotting fish on hulls????

[Pukka]

Cheers Guys,

Hi Joe the Cool One,

I was using a 1/32nd Shirasu jig head, which is a fish-head shaped jig and I cut some lead off the nose of the jig with a pair of clippers to make it even lighter.

The times where I could see the fish feeding I would cast the lure onto the top of the pontoon and drag it back slowly, so it would fall in the water with a gentle 'plop' right next to the edge of the pontoon, near the fish.

If you're careful and don't spook the fish, you will see the bream turn and head down after the lure. After this happens it's a simple matter of watching your line to see if your lure stops sinking prematurely, or waiting for any tell-tale twitches or pulls.

If you suspect the lure has stopped sinking before it has hit bottom, but are not sure if a fish has grabbed it, you can gently lift the rod until you feel the weight of the fish and then strike.

Occasionally I'd see a fish go down after my lure, but not register any bite on the line. In this situation I'd let it fall about 15 feet or so and then slowly 'lift and drop' it back to the boat.

Often, as you know, bream will follow the lure without committing, so working the lure back to the boat slowly with a couple of small 'long hops' is a must. The trevally I caught today was caught doing this.

Casting to fish you can see on a hull is a bit different. Generally, I think bream on hulls in clear water situations tend to be spooked easier than bream on pontoons, pylons, jetties. For this reason I think you have to be a little more delicate with your lure presentation and/or cast from a longer distance. Also, when you see a number of fish on a boat, you'll normally attract a large part of the school with your lure and if you're lucky enough to get one, it's very hard to pull another out of the same school, unless it's a big school, big boat or both.

Joe the Pommy One

[Narralakes]

Good going Pukka, trevors certainly give a nice bend to the rod.

[Guest Jocool]

Thanks Joe. Info like that is priceless!

[Ken A]

Great report Joe Well done mate. I find those 2" Paramax Plum grubs very effective also

[Rick T]

Nice work Joe, some good fish there

My largest trevor was caught on my old BR 7' rod which has a light slow action and I have to admit it took ages to land and I felt like I had no control of the fish cause the rod was bending from the forgrip. Luckily they usually just do circles around the boat, geez they go well

[EVAN]

Nice job pukka Good report , That trevally looks like it would have been alot of fun!!!!

[Lance.S]

Top stuff Joe

It's always a buz flicking your plastic to sighted bream & watching them wiggle after it as it desends, waiting for that rod to load up and set the drag singing.

Cheers, Lance.