The Bay Firing Up?

[adkel53]

Have been itching for my first crack at the spring lizards in the bay and after anxiously watching the weather on Seabreeze all week it all fell into place today. Stayed the night at my son's place in Kingsford (he made us a delicious beef in red wine for dinner) I arranged to meet my regular fishing mate at Kyeemah at 6.30 am. I arrived at 6.15 and he had beaten me there. No mucking around - loaded up the rods and crab nets and hit the water on what looked like a perfect morning. Runout tide, little wind and the promise of a top mornings fishing with a good friend.

We began around Brighton but moved on after about 20 minutes and no enquiries on the sp's. Set the witches hats off Towra Pt and fished there for about 45 minutes. Again, no sign of a lizard. Checked the hats (2 crabs) and then off to our "go to" location for when all else fails. A nice drift with the tide along a drop off saw two smallish fish landed - about 40 cm each. It has been a long time between feeds of flathead so into the esky they went. Moved a little way in towards some weed beds that often produce and very quickly two better fish came aboard. From memory we did the drift along the weeds three times and landed 10 fish in total, with four just over 50 cm and the others around the mid 40s. With a few family members to feed we opted to keep them all - 5 apiece. Unfortunately we had previous commitments and had decided that 10.30 would be home time. That was extended to 11.00 am with the fish still co-operating. Just before stumps I hooked a much better fish which tore off about 10 metres of line. I turned her(?) and just as she was about to come into view we parted company when the hook pulled and all I saw was a flash of her white belly as she struggled free. Bugger. One more crab when we collected the hats and headed off as the tide bottomed out. All fish were caught on 80 mm squidgy fish in black/gold with 3/8 oz jig heads (4 fish), Squidgy Pro range fish in grasshopper colour with a 1/4 oz jighead (4 fish) and a squidgy Pro range lobby in lava colour with a 1/4 oz jighead (2 fish). Water temperature hovered around 15.5 degrees.

All in all, a top morning out with great weather and company to share it with. Was also able to repay my son for his culinary efforts with a fresh feed of lizard fillets for he and his lovely wife. Holidays coming up so hope for more similar action as the water warms up a little more. A few of those larger models would be just great!

Tight lines.

Kel

Edited September 19, 2010 by kel

[jim77]

Good work Kel.

It has been a long time since i have targetted/had a feed of flatties. Might have to take you up on that offer of a flathead lesson in exchange for putting you onto a nice King or 2!

Only 1 week of school left mate

[brendong]

Nice feed there mate....there are quite a few lurking around the weeed beds at present, and they are always fun....

[paul.kenny]

Congratulations on a nice haul of lizards. The water was obviously colder by at least a degree at Towra compared to Woolooware Bay. Did you find that the flatties were just softly tapping the SPs when they were stationary?

[adkel53]

I'm ready are raring to go when you are Jim. I actually said to my fishing buddy this morning that I had offered to take you out in the upcoming holidays. He is trying to get the first week off from his work too so we might be able to have a session with three of us on his boat during that first week. If not we will go two up in my boat. Will keep you posted. Lizards don't pull quite as hard as kings but they are fun on light gear and what they lack in brute strength they make up for in the mouth! Using soft plastics is also a very active way to target them and something always seems to be happening.

With regard to the way they were taking the lures, two got hit before I had turned the reel handle (once due to a backlash on the baitcaster!!. Otherwise, they seemed to be hitting them on the move or while the lure was fluttering back to the bottom after a lift. I was consciously keeping the retrieves fairly slow in the cool water.

Cheers

Arthur

Edited September 20, 2010 by kel

[jenno64]

That's a very promising report. I'm looking forward to a session out there soon too!

[fish53]

The Bay has definitely improved over the past 2 weeks. Caught a couple of bream and flathead last week when I ventured out. Had some land based lure fishing yesterday at Dolls Point (2 undersized flathead) and when south easterly got up I headed over to Kurnell between the groynes. 1 throwback and one PB flathead. 80 CM estimated on a Squidgy lobby on 4lb Fins braid and 6lb leader. 10 minutes in shallow water to beach her and released to fight anther day. Had fantastic head shakes and very similar to a barra or other in shallow water when she had her head up and ripped side to side. No net or grips and 2 photo's on a lousy Nokia mobile which I cannot download.

Pete

[Ray R]

Great haul of flatties mate, they are a fun fish on the plastics. Congrats to you and your buddies, great session..