Lake Mac Sat 23rd

[Grantm]

Thought we would have another run here seeing as the weather looked so good. It all started out well, put the boat in and headed off.

Not far from the ramp the low oil alarm went off. No trouble I thought ill just top her up which I did. Took off and soon after off it went again. Oh shit. Had a second look and it was the NO OIL light not the low oil light. This doesnt look good. This meant no oil was getting to the motor via the injection pump.

Testamant to how good ETEC's are, and why I got one, the engine goes straight into SAFE mode and allows you to idle back to port for up and will run for up to five hours with no oil being injected. How it does this I dont know, but its a damn good trick dont you think Iain. Not wanting to lose a days fishing we idled back towards the ramp with the intention finding a spot nearby. On the way back I was determined to see what the problem was. I was pretty sure it was nothing major and felt it was something to do with me letting the oil run a bit low before topping it up. A quick call to Craig at Huetts and he suggested I winterise the motor, which meant following a sequence which drowned the motor in oil before it shuts down, hopefully purging a possible air lock from it running low. Did this trick, and BINGO were back in action Damn I love ETEC'S. Oh, of course just cause we were in trouble didnt mean we werent going to throw a couple of lures out the back while idling back and have some sort of fish, so we did. Trolled up a nice chopper to kick the day off.

With that behind us 'Oldmate' and myself decided to head for Swansae to sus out the run in tide at the drop off. We got up there and the wind kicked up a bit but we persisted. Tried four different spots including a drift of the flats in the channel for zip. Not a touch, not even a fish sighting. Very tough indeed. A quick check of the water temp and it was a chilly 14 degrees. This was enough for us to look for warmer water elsewhere believing this could be why it was dead.

Headed back towards Wangi point and the water temp lifted to 16 degrees, still cold but getting warmer. Still not a touch, not a fish to be seen in the crystal clear water. Throwing all different types of lures and getting zero. Hmmm.

Headed further south to Western side Pulbar Island, up another one to 17 deg. Decided to anchor here and burley hard, throwing grubs and whatever else back into the trail. Still nothing, damn quiet. Baited my little baitcatching 4 pd handline with a piece of tuna on a small long shanked hood and thought id try and pick up a livie for later on. After e few minutes the hand rell was bouncing all over the deck, grabbed it and felt a heavy weight. What the hell ? Whatever it was it was winning the battle on 4 pd line with me using my fingers as a drag. Some minutes later my " livie " came on board pictued below.

Shovel Nose Shark if im not mistaken, might even post it for a record. Not bad on a bitcatching rig, and quite unexpected. Good fun to catch thats for sure and lifted our spirits. Small peckers were the only takers up the burley trail after that so we headed further south again. This time to the Vales point area.

The water here was at 20 deg some 6 degrees warmer than Swansea and there was plenty of life in the water. Tailor and Long tom could be seen chasing baitfish and we were hopefull of picking up some Flatties or Bream here.

After a couple of drifts Oldmate is on. And after a very decent fight we boated this respectable Flattie, which went 56cm ans was very fat. Nice pb for oldmate.

Drifted around this area for a couple of hours and managed 6 nice flatties between 43 and 56 cm, a nice little Bream at 28 cm, a Flounder and a number of Tailor. All fish went back to fight another day. Also had a few Long toms on but dropped em all. All fish taken here were on Gulps. Im a big fan of the Gulps. Stacks of flatties here, they were scooting around all over the place.

Said to oldmate when we got there a wanted to actually see a Flattie take a lure in this clear water and my wish came true that day. The water is clear and only 1 meter deep, and on a retreaval that was nearly back to the boat I saw my lure and was watching it bounce on the bottom when a flattie came right up behind it. I had barely had time to say "theres a flattie behind my lure" when it engulfed it before my eyes and zzzzzzzzzz. No 3. Loved seeing that.

Have to say I expected fish living in the Newcastle area need to know how to fight but damn the fish we caught this day went hard for thier size. The Bream I picked up went like a rocket and I was almost suprised to see it was under 30cm. Any one who says Flatties dont fight get you backside up to Lake Mac and check it out. The last Flattie old mate caught went 50cm and had 4 hard runs taking good drag each time. Caught plenty of Flatties in my time none going as hard as these. All fish were very fat and heakthy looking which helps.

Ended up being a top day with 6 good Flatties and a legal Bream being the highlights of the fishing not to mention the Shovel Nose on a handline. Very happy with the result considering all reports about Lake Mac have have been very quiet, even the Waterways Officer on the lake said no one had fish, so we were stoked.

Also very happy my motor was OK.

Cheers

Edited July 24, 2005 by Grantm

[Narralakes]

Nice one Grant, sounds like a very enjoyable day and a good feed there as well. Glad also the motor is fine.

[Guest Jocool]

Pretty action packed day!