West Reef and Broken Bay, no fish landed and a newbie mistake

[kiwicraig]

I took the kids out of Brisbane Water today and headed over to West Reef. We tied on a couple of lures and trolled them around the rocky headlands on the way there and then along the landward edge of West Reef, but no hits on the way there. I had one running deep and a smaller lure running shallow.

There was someboday anchored on the spot I was heading for so I went to another nearby mark that I had not tried before. The bottom seemed pretty featureless but I could see bait marking on the sounder so I dropped the anchor and started burleying up. My son had me tie on his little squid shaped lures that he conned me into buying. The package lists a plethora of species that these little lures "will" catch - including everything from trevs to sharks and a few new species such as Fathead and Shapper. Not supprisingly these didn't get any interest - even when I tried to spice them up with a little S-factor.

Meanwhile I worked a soft plastic up through the burley trail. It was pretty quiet - I had one good nudge on the SP but missed the hookup.

After a while with no activity we decided to head back in. I put the lures back out the back and worked back to Box Head along the rocky coast. One of the lures was fouled on some seaweed, but other than that there was no activity. I stopped just outside box head and pulled the lines in. I then rounded the corner to head back in. I had actually gone straight past it but suddenly I reaslised there was a large workup of something feeding on the surface. There were a couple of other boats there casting metals and poppers into the school.

This is where I made my newbie mistake. I put one of the lures back out and turned around with the intent of skirting the edge of the school. The school was ahead and to the port. Suddenly I realised that it was not just to the port - it was straight out ahead stretched slightly to the starboard as well. Worse there was another boat coming back in further to the starboard so when I realised this I was pretty much in amonst the school and couldn't manover to further starboard until the other boat passed. The end result is I went straight through one edge of the school. Basically I completely misread the size and position of the school that other anglers were working and stuffed up my line completely.

I decided to leave that school to the people who were fishing it right and headed back in feeling like a complete ar$e.

To those other anglers (Raiders or not) I can only offer my most sincere and humble apology. It definitely was not my intent to drive through the work up, but I totally admit that if I had hung back and watched for a little while rather than rushing in I am pretty sure I would have spotted some activity further off to the starboard and could of avoided the error. It was a hard lesson to learn.

I stopped off one more time to try and get some squid at Ladder Beach on the way in, but by this time I think the fishing gods had had enough of me, because there was nothing happening on that front either.

While it was a beautiful day out on the water and the kids had fun - I'm still kicking myself.

[Guest 4myson]

Don't kick yourself too hard mate ... When ever you see a school inside your always better off casting stick baits / lures at them & you'll always have a better chance of hookups than actual trolling around them ....At least the kids had a ball out there !

[kiwicraig]

Thanks 4myson - if I had my time again I would have put a metal on one rod and a popper on the other and tell my daughter time to practice some casting.

[Guest no one]

If you have a spare light rod always have a metal slug rigged up. My experience has taught me that when you are unprepared for a bust up you will panic, tie crap knots, cast and catch another rod that you didn't store in the rush you were in, tangle your lines, catch your own ear etc etc, while having a ready rigged rod for these moments requires only a deep breath and a single cast.

You also don't need to get right up to the work up, don't forget you only see the fish breaking the surface but not what's actually beneath them - again in my experience keeping them right on the limit of my casting range means I don't disturb them too much and I hook up at times a good distance from the school. Also - never troll near them - just flick lures at them. I'm not a fan of poppers, just various sizes of halco twisties! Never failed me yet!

[fragmeister]

Good advice from Ed. Don't be too tough on yourself though not only did u take some valuable experience away your well written post will also help those new to fish surface action.

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[kiwicraig]

Thanks all. Ed - what I heard was "go and buy a new light outfit" (any excuse) which I did and have rigged up with a metal for next time. Wasn't happy with how my lefty loop cinched down, so I cut it off and tied it again. That right there pretty much validates the whole approach

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[kiwicraig]

I was out by Lion Island today and saw another big bust up on the surface. This time I was prepared and my mate and I just grabbed a rod each that I had prepared earlier and started casting. No stress, no fuss, no panic. Unfortunately no hookup either for me or either of the two boats I could see working the school, but even so it was a much better experience than last time. Thanks for the advice all.

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[Guest no one]

Craig - I was there yesterday an put 200-300 casts into that huge school for one salmon. They're feeding on micro see-through fish, best thing to do is use a float with a 1 meter leader to a tiny fly that looks similar to the see through bait.