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Lesson Learned


drc2076

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Last month I told the story of a kayak trip to Narrabeen lake, fishing for flatties on hardbodies and soft plastics. On that occasion I’d forgotten my landing net and this oversight came back to haunt me when I hooked a significant croc and tried to bring him/her up onto the yak. The minute the head breached the surface massive head shakes saw the flathead wear through the 12lb leader and escape to the depths. My stupidity served as a great lesson and a number of raiders offered their suggestions for what I should have done differently, specifically I should have paddled to the shallows and beached the flathead. Fast forward to yesterday, fishing a jetty in Pittwater around sunset on the run in tide. Chasing bream with pillies suspended under an iso float I hooked a large flattie, this time on 8lb leader. Once again no landing net and the jetty was a good metre above the water line. This time I resisted the rush of blood to try and lift the fish out of the water and instead walked slowly back along the length of the jetty to the beach. The flathead meekly came along until we reached the shallows only a few feet from shore. In the shallow water it figured out what was going on and started thrashing its head. A quick final tug on the line brought the fish far enough onto the beach just as the leader finally parted. The fish was now only in a couple of inches of water and with a swipe with my foot (wearing shoes fortunately) I flicked it further up on to the sand so I could subdue it without getting spiked. Not the whopper I lost in Narrabeen but at 54cm a respectable substitute. Lesson learned. Thanks to all the raiders whose advice made landing this fish possible. Tight lines.

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Edited by drc2076
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