Lane Cove Friday

[hughsnews]

I am a PhD student with a month or two left before I submit. Over the last several weeks I haven't had time to breathe let alone fish. Apart from PhD, I have had to work and also had a dog who had to have very expensive surgery and constant trips to the vet! With stress levels reaching wall punching proportions , I decided it would be best to relax for a morning and go for a quick cast, hoping that I might get a fish or two and that some of the stress might bugger off.

So with my best mate we jumped on the boat and ran off to Lane Cove to try for a few bream and flatties.

The water was relatively clear despite the recent rains and with the wind doing nothing we were very happy to see no one around. Tailor were busting the surface everywhere, so for a little fun to start the day I cast near them and caught a few small ones which didn't put up a fight. After fishing around the bridge with a few massive bites but no hookups, we were about to move to a new spot when my little 1-2kg Lox with 5lb Braid/5lb leader bent over and screamed off into the distance. After a few minutes of battling the fish and keeping it away from the pylons, I pulled up a lovely 40cm, roughly 1kg+ bream.

This fish started what ended up being an awesome day for me and one that helped bury the terrible few weeks I have been having. My mate, who was on SPs, got a few hits and a massive bream follow up while I was releasing my bream, only for me to drop my lure and get smashed again by a lovely 49cm flattie(No photo) followed by another nice size guy.

As things dropped off, we headed to a few of our favorite spots and I hit another few bream including this nice 30+cm boy.

As the morning began to end, I felt bad for my mate as he only caught two on the plastics and had solid bites all day but they all dropped off including one where he was busted off by something massive. However, I was on 9 fish! However, I was desperate for one more as our boat(which we have only owned for 5 months or so) has never had someone pull up 10 fish in a session. Our final spot was a dud and literally as I said "last cast", I wound my strike pro vibe to within 2 meters of the boat only to be smashed by another 40+ cm flattie.

So, after several weeks of pain, the fish gods were happy and decided to give me my best ever session on my boat with some massive fish, including the first bream which was 3cm away from my PB. Totally stoked with the day but it was so sad heading back home to face the stress again! Fingers crossed I might get stressed enough again soon so I can claim that I need a nice fish to make me happy

Edited February 18, 2012 by hughsnews

[Guest hawkesbass]

Ah fishing the best stress release there is well done cracker bream lane cove is one area i really want to hit up

[Yaulpang]

Nice bag there, my stress levels have dropped after reading you report. Nice one!

[reeling]

and literally as I said "last cast",

Was this the real "last cast" or just one in the inevitable series?

Great report, and awesome fish! Good luck on the home stretch of the PhD!

[hughsnews]

Was this the real "last cast" or just one in the inevitable series?

Great report, and awesome fish! Good luck on the home stretch of the PhD!

Was the last cast- I released the fish and off we went home.

[bluebottle18]

Good to see the Lane Cove firing. It seems to shut down in winter. Lovely spot to fish and so relaxing.

A good haul of fish and hope you have a few more of those days.

[Robinsoi]

Great report and well done .... some nice fish in the boat

I'm sure you had some stress relief after that session and good luck with your Phd.