Last 2 months - tough luck (now with pics)

[Dave_]

G'day everyone,

Been super busy lately as usual so I haven't posted anything for a fair while. This is a compilation of my trips during the last couple of months.

Let's just say the only way is up from here. I've had the biggest run of bad fishing luck I've ever had with the last 3 weekends in particular being absolute shockers.

Being prime Mangrove Jack season up here (and a damn good one at that) it's been my goal to get one of these brawlers at all costs. Now, the problem isn't finding these bad boys, landing them is the hard part as plenty of these Jacks are getting up over 80cms in the estuaries here on the Gold Coast. After much searching, I found a good spot on the Coomera river with plenty of bait to collect (poddys, prawns, gars, herring etc, gotta love cast nets) and I've hooked some truly unstoppable beasts...but I'm yet to land a Jack. I'm learning more every time and I definitely know I need to keep that drag super tight now, fair dinkum, it's all over in 2 seconds if you're not on the ball.

Anyway, back to my tough 3 weeks. First of the 3 weekends saw me snag my cast net on an unknown immovable object under the water resulting in total destruction of my net. $120 down the drain. Oh well I thought, this net had well and truly paid for itself many times over in the past 5 years.

The following weekend, I bought a new net at $120. Soaked it overnight in fabric softener and took it with me the next day to a very familiar spot in which I usually get 20 baits in one throw. First cast in a spot I've thrown nets 1000 times and I snagged the new net on the plug of the ocean. I went for a swim (not fun in the dark in waters with known bullies present) but I couldn't free it....brand new net gone along with another $120. Absolutely shattered. Ahhh well, the following weekend (this one) was a long planned trip to Noosa worth my young bloke to go out on a full day fishing charter...something to look forward to at least.

The plan was to head up to Noosa on the Friday, camp in the canopy of my ute and head out on the charter on the Saturday and come home Sunday. I was keen to pack up my car on the Thursday arvo so I could shoot straight to Noosa after work on the Friday...well...I got stuck at work until 9pm on Thursday so it was a frantic rush to pack the car up on Friday arvo so we could make it to BCF before it closed so we could get yet another 10' cast net.

Packed the car on Friday and rushed to BCF with 5 minutes to spare. Got the net...another $120. Just as we hot back in the car, the phone rings. Charter cancelled due to strong winds. Typical perfect QLD weather all week and rubbish on the weekend...shattered. Ahh well, we were packed and ready to roll so instead of putting our heads down, we decided to go for an all nighter chasing jacks again on the GC. Found a quiet spot near a boat ramp that was sheltered from the 30 knot southerly that is known for big Jack and Jew. Got out of the car and walked down the ramp to assess the conditions and I suddenly looked down to see a big snake that I was one step from treading on! A bloody snake on a boat ramp at night! Close call. I was really annoyed at this point to say the least. I wasn't letting this snake destroy my fishing trip after all the trouble I'd already gone to. I built up the courage to remove said snake from the ramp. I was fishing that night and nothing was stopping me. After a quick lecture to the young bloke about not messing with snakes (do as I say, not as I do) we began getting the gear out of the car. I got the tackle out and he was getting the rods out as per our usual procedure. I've instilled the old "take pride in your gear" sentiment into my boy and he's super careful with our gear.

Anyhow, I had my back turned as I was prong my shoes on when I heard the door slam. I quickly spun around to see a heartbreaking sight. My boy had the most devastated heartbroken look on his face...yep, the strong wind had blown the door shut and snapped both my Shimano T-Curve Tournament 7' 2-5kg ($350 many years ago from memory) and my G-Loomis SJR843 IMX 7' 8-15lb (still $450) clean in half. What do I say? It just killed me and I felt terrible for my son. We didn't say a word for a good 15 minutes. Needless to say, we went home shattered.

My 2 best rods are now destroyed and I'm too afraid to go fishing again for quite some time. That's about $1000 down the chute in the last 3 trips, not to mention the sentimental value held by the little T-Curve in particular.

Apart from this, I've caught a few Bream and me and a mate got some good flatties up to 70cm one night. Got my first Estuary Cod and got smoked by some unstoppables. Just need to save for more gear now.

Sorry about the long post. This sucks.

Thanks for reading,

Dave

Edited January 17, 2016 by Dave_

[mrsswordfisherman]

Shame about the rods Dave and your bad luck

Make sure you get out there again soon and take the item to photo with your fish so you can enter into our Fish of the Month. You might win a pack of goodies and change your luck

[Ryder]

Oh that's a shocker, I feel bad for you both.

Sometimes the powers that be just don't want you to go fishing.

When impossible / improbable things get in my way, like a snake on a ramp at night, I don't push my luck.