Weekend - Balmoral, Walsh bay

[SgtBundy]

I thought we had the storm hit us out west on saturday afternoon so once it passed my plan was to go in to Balmoral and try and catch some yakkas with a plan to use them on sunday. Half way on the M2 my wife rang to tell me I was wrong, and the real storm was hitting then. I had enough time once I got to Balmoral to get to the end of the jetty, ask someone how it was going and then it hit hard. As I went back to the car I found the balmoral regular, Joseph, and gave him the hooks I had bought for him, and offered for him to ride the storm out in the car. Once that was done and dusted I got the gear out and went to try for some yakkas.

I only had some stale bread and left over steak for bait, and it seems either the yakkas didn't care for that, or they were just not around until later. I got tried a few baits offered by another fisho but once I had some pilchard on they started tapping on it, but it took a while before I actually had one on the hook. In the mean time I had some steak out on my rod which I had just cast out to prospect and a little pinky took an interest in that. Set it out again and went back to trying for yakkas when the rod tried to take off. In my haste to start winding in I managed to tangle my handline into the spool of the reel - pretty dumb. I cut the line, sorted it out and pulled in a just shy of legal snapper, still probably the best one I have caught yet though, so happy with that. By that time all the kids were back at play on the beach and jetty and a number came over to take a look at the fish, so I let one of the lads take a look, show his mates and put it back.

A few other fishos setup including a nice couple with the lady catching yakka after yakka, to which she donated me all the ones her other half didn't want. Rather than muck around with my 12' heavy rod, I put one of them out live on my lighter 2-4kg rod - if a king hit it I was going to be in trouble but might as well have some fun trying. Nothing took interest in the livies and as it got dark there was not much activity, although an asian guy there was getting some nice trevally using a light float setup.

Headed home about 8ish as the wife was not feeling well - took 3 live yakkas with me and kept them alive overnight. Got up at 3:30 to head in and try to use them at sun up for a king. Setup at Walsh bay and by sunrise the place was packed with livies tangling lines but no real action. When my last live yakka fell off the hook as I cast I decided to pack it in around 7am and went to try at Bradleys head but had not counted on the wind, which was cold, persistent and generally annoying. Had no touches for a while so checked Balmoral thinking it would be out of the wind but at 8:30 the car park was already full so being low on sleep decided to head home.

Why is it when you have time to fish the weather decides to be an ass?

[ginko]

Too true with the weather. And when you don't have time to fish, it's perfect!

I happened to be near Balmoral this arvo, on the water for other business. Gorgeous day and no rod to hand. Of course, there was a huge school of decent bream, blackfish galore, and to add the full insult - two schools of kingies swam by.