Lion Island and Ettalong

[kiwicraig]

Have been entertaining the kids in the scorching weather for the first two days of the long weekend, so I had to get out today.

It was one of those days where you look at the times you have available, then check what the tides will be doing at that time and try to work out a plan.

Fishing with a mate we put in just after low tide and popped over to a sheltered bay to try pull in some squid. The squid were not to be found, so we headed over towards Lion Island to set up a drift in towards shore. On the way we encountered a massive school of something boiling on the surface. This time I was ready for it and my mate and I grabbed the rods I had rigged for just this event. We put a lot of casts into that school, but didn't hook anything. (note - tef1on posted elsewhere that he pulled one out and they are salmon feeding on small transparent baitfish.)

Eventually the school moved away and we opted to go back to our original plan and set up the drift off Lion Island. Nothing was happening there though. We tried a mix of bait out behind the boat and cast with soft plastics. We had a couple of picker bites on the baits, but nothing significant. It was nearing the time to head back, so we decided to go back inside and drift our way home.

On our first drift along the sandbank off Ettalong I hooked a nice flathead with a 60mm curly tail soft plastic. I was in a light leader and he did not want to come to the boat. It took us a minute and several short runs to convince him to go onto the net.

Measured bang on 40cm and had really solid shoulders. Perfect fish for the table and that was where he went . Beautiful crispy beer batter -YUM!

A second drift came up empty, as did our next one further up. After that we headed back in.

Such a great day out on the water.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Rigging101]

Always good to get a feed.

Would have been a great day out on the water.

[Tag117]

I was at Lion just last week for flatty, no luck on them so good job!