Hawksbury River weekend was a bit flat

[essjay]

headed out with a mate on saturday with him wanting to teach me how to fish with bait and me wanting to show him what can be done with lures. My mate always goes on about how if you want to catch big fish you need to use bait, he is , well was, anti SP up until he went out with me on saturday.

Started out a bit slow with me pulling in a 40cm dusky, followed by him pulling in a 38cm both using SP's. An hour went by with no bites as we worked our way around the shore when I decided to take a break from up front and sit down to have something to eat. My bud jumped up front and started working the bank i had been on when all of a sudden his reel started screaming as line peeled off at a record pace. The fish went straight for a big 60 foot cruiser moored in the sun, so i grabbed the remote and started to move the boat around so he could get it into the clear to land it. This fish just kept pulling like nothing I have seen before and it headed out into the open bay with us trying to guide it to where we wanted it. After a while the fish wised up and and made a run back for the big boat, it got there in the end then paused a minute or so, then made another break back towards the shore. My fishing bud is a experienced fisho where as I am far from it so he was doing a good job trying to control it but the beast was just so bloody strong. Eventually it got back to the shore and his line snapped when it got run up agains the oysters....oh man what a thrill....

we sat there laughing and he was catching his breath. We examined his line and sure enough the braid was cut ( he swears it was 10lb but i suspect it was much heavier lol). As we sat there theorising what it was, he said a rouge king and i said a monster flatty , shame we would never know right?

Once we settled about 20 minutes and a sandwich later , we started casting again around the same area when i pulled a cast i noticed i has picked up what looked looked like someones snag and i stared at it thinking " there is no way that can be his line" I looked at it a while longer and sung out to him " is that your line? " he looked over and was in disbelief and motioned to me to guide the boat over with the troll which I did ever so slowly. My buddy then asked me if I had gloves, which I did so he put them on and started to slowly winding the line onto his hand. When he got the line to a point could pull on whatever was on the end there was an almighty explosion in front of us and this monster lizard erupted from the water in a rage and then it was gone, sheered the leader on this time. Now I know you fellas are all prone to telling porkies about the ones that got away but I swear this fish had to be close to a meter long, it was massive ! We didnt get much action after that so we headed on out to flint and steel to try out luck with bait and jews.  Sadly we did not get any jews nor did we catch anything on the fresh bait he swore by but a boat new us was reeling in hairtail with seemingly no effort. They had some sort of lighting on their rigs which seemed to be doing the trick.

Sorry lads but the bait lost out on the day and my poor old buddy went home that night, forced to reconsider his position on what plastics can do with big fish lol. I got home about 10pm saturday night and was knackered after 11 hours of fishing. Way too tired to clean the boat and to sore to attempt it. Such a wonderful sleep that night. 

next day woke up with a smile on my face thinking about the days events and endless laughter. I gave him a bit of a hiding over losing that fish and the bait vs plastics lashing he had been giving me for some months now. After a late breakfast I went and cleaned the boat out, cleaned my gear off and when i went back out side around 11am I realised what a cracking day it was so against my desire to do house work and work work ( not) i decided to sneak the boat back out and so some solo casting. being the tide was so good with the full moon, I went back to the same place we got beaten up at. First fish i pulled in was a 40cm, 20 minutes later i pulled in another which measured 45cm....kept at it another 20 or so and pulled in a small grunting trev who wasnt happy about being hooked so let him on his way. Kept casting further into the area i was in and landed a healthy 50cm. I had already decided earlier on I was going to catch me dinner that day so had the 45cm in the bait tank and lobbed the 50cm in there i was. I was feeling pretty good by this point, perfect day, flawless fish and just loving life. Motored further around to where we got done the day before and had a few casts while i thought about the events of the day before....sitting there casting, smiling like an idiot to the memories when to my right i saw something big in the water hashing a bit of a splash in the shallows and it was that bloody big girl that reefed my buddy the day before, same spot had to be the same bloody fish. I did consider having a cast for her then thought to myself she didnt need more stress after yesterday so left her be.

Got back yesterday around 4.30, feet were killing me as back to back days of fishing with lures on the wrong side of 40 is not easy work as you fellas well know. Got the boat cleaned properly and got the gear out to clean it up thinking to myself I am not going to be able to make dinner as i was starting to limp quite badly ( war injuries) so had my mind moving onto time in the hot tub with some pain meds. It was then i heard my phone buzz from a msg, it was my neighbours asking if i wanted to come over for dinner. Just when I thought my weekend couldnt get any better. 

Picked up a bunch of flatties on both days with the highlight being my my buddy getting beaten up by the big lizard , my teasing the heck out of him about how you only get big fish with bait,  if he wanted lessons on how to land fish and the 50cm I bought home for dinner. I served it up with a nice kale salad tonight.

Well thats my report, hope you enjoy the read  

[essjay]

[Little_Flatty]

Nice report @essjay. I wouldn't complain about a day like that, though eleven hours is a bit long for me in my old (but comparably not-so-old) age!

These days I'm just grateful for an encounter with a couple of magic beasts like you both came across, whether I land them or not. Even though you have nothing to show for them, the memories (and heckling) you'll share with your mate will last the rest of your lives.

[masterfisho7]

Nice report love your photos well done 

[Isaac Ct]

Lovely report mate, absolute bumer you missed out on the croc, maybe another time..

Love the photos, well done.

[bessell1955]

Great Lizard day.

[Squidless]

Awesome back to back sessions with memories that'll last a lifetime. Doesn't get any better than that!

[GordoRetired]

Great report. Sounds like you had a ball 🙂

[Rebel]

Super report & Top photos.

Sounds like a great day had by all.

Well done.

Cheers,

[Bluebenbomb]

Detailed write-up, enjoyed reading it. 

Great photos and well done.

[essjay]

14 hours ago, Isaac Ct said:

Lovely report mate, absolute bumer you missed out on the croc, maybe another time..

Love the photos, well done.

I am not bummed, its a serious fish and she put up a heck of a fight. She deserved to get away and we deserved the beating.  We wouldn't have kept her anyway,  besides it wouldn't be right for bait boy to pick up a lizard like that on his first attempt with a soft plastic , she is saving herself for me on another trip and I get to heckle my buddy for years to come

There is a chance I could have hooked her on sunday but like I said above, I did not want to stress her out. She showed me she was there and she is a beauty. It was such a magical afternoon, everything went so right and as I went solo,  got to fully decompress from the week and just enjoy my time on the water exactly the way I like it. This may sound odd but I really enjoy fishing solo along the river.

Its pretty clear to me now that I adore fishing light, fishing lures and just learning how to do it more effectively. I know I could have caught and released more fish that afternoon but I was already satisfied with my results and was getting tired.

If I could change anything from sunday, i would have only kept the 45cm and let the 50cm go as i discovered last night that that one fish is a healthy feed for one person. The two of them would have fed 2-3 people. Rest easy though as I ate them both over the past two days

[essjay]

11 hours ago, Squidless said:

Awesome back to back sessions with memories that'll last a lifetime. Doesn't get any better than that!

Oath! 

Also keep in mind I only started fishing in December 2021. I am pleased with my progress and even more pleased with how much I get out of it. Not fish, enjoyment of being on the water and fishing in general. Results are starting to get consistent and more importantly I know why I am catching fish, its less luck now and more technique with the way I am targeting fish. 

[Larkin]

Well done essjay.

Gotta love the run of a big lizard!

[Squidless]

15 hours ago, essjay said:

Oath! 

Also keep in mind I only started fishing in December 2021. I am pleased with my progress and even more pleased with how much I get out of it. Not fish, enjoyment of being on the water and fishing in general. Results are starting to get consistent and more importantly I know why I am catching fish, its less luck now and more technique with the way I am targeting fish. 

Woah, started in Dec 2021 and doing so much better than me! Good stuff, keep it up.

[Rednet]

Great read, thanks for the report.