Long weekend Mulloway! - 3/10/13 - 6/10/13

[rjc123]

Headed up the coast with the yak over the long weekend. It's been a while since i've cracked a jewie so that was a main focus. As i arrived at the location I was greeted with heavy rains and howling winds, ruling out a late arvo session on the first afternoon. I did sneak out on dusk but conditions were just too difficult to fish in, from a yak... Conditions had only worsened by the next morning but i decided to brave it and headed out. Given the dirty water as a result of the rain, I hoped that the 'jew would be on the chew' so to speak. After a little persistence I hooked one. Im fishing seriously heavy structure here and this fish made a fool of me. Got smoooooookked.... Re tied and 5 mins later same occurrence... I knew these were large jew as I'm fishing a broomstick of a rod (Black Label 6-14lb - doesnt sound heavy but its seriously stiff). After re-tying once again i proceeded to hook another. This one was marginally smaller but still a very large adversary, around the meter mark. It took me into the structure, so i freespooled before the line would have given in. After a game of cat and mouse fishing a very light drag i got a look at the fish.... A mulloway of around a meter. Unfortunately that's as close as i got to it... Leader gave in eventually... Absolutely shattered after this. The school moved on and so did my hope of landing one this trip... After regaining some composure I head out again in the arvo. No jew were at home so i resorted to chasing some bream and flatties in shallow water. Unfortunately they were fairly shut down with the cool water from that rain (17.5 degrees) so i only ended up with a bunch of undersize flatties and 2 legals around the 41-42cm mark.

The next morning conditions had well and truly cleared. I headed out bright and early chasing some bream. They were super quiet unfortunately, and I only managed one or two sub 30cm models on the grubs. One thing had changed today however. There was no shortage of small flatties. Pulled 30odd over the day, most undersize but managed a few better ones over the 50 mark. Fishing a 2.5" grubz on a 1/8 TT head in channel edges in 4-7' of water proved successful.

On the final day i headed out early again to chase the flatties. I had given up hope on the jew pretty much so for now it was flatties an bream. The flatties seemed to have disappeared today which was odd... I didn't land a single flatty all day. In the morning all I managed was a couple of bream and tailor on the grubs while chasing flatties. It's odd how they shut down all of a sudden without warning. After taking a break in the middle of the day it was back out again to have one last crack at a jew. Boy i'm glad i made myself go. It was the back end of the run out tide at this point and I was fishing the same location as the bust offs. A squidgy 100mm fish in silver fox matched to a TT 3/8 jighead was the weapon of choice. 15 minutes passed without action then all of a sudden i hooked up solid. I can safely say this was the most intense fight ive ever had... especially from a yak... I was fishing locked up drag and the fish was pulling me in to the structure. At one point i was fending the structure off and using every ounce of strength to keep the fishes head out. After an intense minute or so i extracted the fish and we both went down current. Shortly after the mulloway surfaced and boy was it a great feeling. After doing a lap around the yak it slid straight into the net. A new lure PB for sure so was very stoked. Not massive but a very respectable fish, especially considering the extreme structure it was pulled from and from a yak. Raced into shore to grab some pics and had it back in the drink for release in quick time. It went 80 on the dot. Great to see it swim away. After this i kept persisting only to be drilled again by a bigger fish later on. I did however pick up some good bream on 4" curly tail streakz and 1/4 heads later on... They don't mind hitting a big plastic at times thats for sure. Biggest went around the 35-36 mark (to the tip).

While most fishing was super quiet this trip, I still managed to keep myself occupied and got the prize in the end. It certainly feels good to set out to do something and achieve it. While the bigger meter + jew were too good for me this time, i'll keep at em!

Cheers, Tom

Edited October 7, 2013 by mulloway man

[tom_125]

Great read and nice Jew!!

[ace]

Well done on the Jew mate and bad luck on the lost fish . It's those bust ups that make us keep going back . What system were you fishing

[Yowie]

A few nice bream and the jew as well. Also plenty of flatties, at least some were keepers.

[Scratchie]

Great read Tom. And well done on landing a PB Jew. As you said, it's always great satisfaction setting yourself a mission and accomplishing it!

The background on that bream is looking like my backyard??? Port stephens? Hawks nest?

Well done!

Cheers scratchie!!!

[bharris]

Good stuff tom you didn't tell me bout the bream last night

Sent from my GT-S7500T using Tapatalk 2

[Jewhunter]

Great read Tom & top pics as well!

Congrats on the jew landed & commiserations on the bustoffs.

I know how much they hurt.

Well done for sticking it out & getting the reward.

Cheers,

Grant.

[sam bros]

awsome report

it really hurts to lose the big fish but in the end persistence paid off

well done

[CarlRak]

Nice jewie dude, congrats.

[Robinsoi]

Terrific work Tom!!

Top read as usual and photos to match.

Sorry to hear about the bust offs in quick succession too. Good on you for persisting and well done on a magnificent catch. No doubt next time the odds will be in your favour and you'll land one of those beasts.

Congratulations on your new lure PB too

Nice bream too by the way!!

Great effort all round and thanks for sharing.

All the best

Ian