Bennyg78 Posted December 18, 2022 Share Posted December 18, 2022 Hi all, I had been talking with @DerekD about getting out for a flats session together to have a bit of comparison of our longer rods and friendly competition for casting distance. The plan was to meet at one of our spots around Manly and have a flick in the morning chasing the usual suspect like whiting and bream. Derek had planed to get there around 7 am, whilst I was keen to get there early as I was family free for a few days( that means lots more fishing time). The weather looked like it was going to be hit and miss with rain about, and this proved to be how our day would unfold with rain on and off ans strong SE winds blowing. I got down there at about 5.40am and rigged up one of two flats rods I had in the car. Rod 1 is a Daiwa infeet 752 rod paired with Daiwa infeet x reel, i went matchy matchy with Daiwa slippery dog and began casting and working the lure back . I managed to hook a smaller bream which I watched look at my lure for what seemed like 30-40 seconds before having a crack. A few casts later and bloody bird flies straight across my line and there goes my fave colour slippery dog, at this point Derek turns up and so does the rain . We retreat for cofee and talking all things fishing. After coffee and breaky we have the great cast off,to which Derek wins. I do concede that its not the equipment at fault but rather the operator (me). I was definitely close but short by a few metres. We then get pelted by rain and wind which is proving to be no fun, Derek suggests we hit Manly Dam for some bass. I am super keen as I have not fished for freshwater species before. So off we go to the Dam,whilst I am re-rigging my leader Derek lands 3 bass on a Celta. Derek talks me through how to work them which took some adjusting. After working around a little bank I land a couple of small agro bass on the Celta. I then switch back to topwater and whack on a sugapen and land a small bass. We then call it a day... well not really. We did Fish in the arvo in the saltwater too but it was super windy and the fish seemed to be asleep. I finished off the day with a refreshing beer to celebrate. P.S I may be off to the shops to buy some celta and spinners. 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebel Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 Great morning. Well done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluebenbomb Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 Well done on the session, it seems to me that @DerekD always persuades people to buy new gear 😁! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekD Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 51 minutes ago, Bluebenbomb said: Well done on the session, it seems to me that @DerekD always persuades people to buy new gear 😁! .... well spotted. I put a disclaimer in that I'm not responsible for any gear someone decides buy after fishing with me. I can only show someone the door, they still have to step through it. Be interested to see what you end up with if you and your dad take me up on the offer for the topwater lure session... 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickles Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 Great report @Bennyg78 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekD Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 8 hours ago, Bennyg78 said: I had been talking with @DerekD about getting out for a flats session together to have a bit of comparison of our longer rods and friendly competition for casting distance. Friendly competition... Is that what it was called? Argy bargy, shouting, run ups before taking the shot, arguments over position, faking out injuries, claims of cheating, blaming the umpire, yellow cards, red cards.... Oh wait... That was the world cup soccer.... I always enjoy catching up with Ben. Our fishing interests (read topwater) overlap and any learnings get raised for further discussion. Benny, recently won several fishing competitions which resulted in him getting a nice new rod, a nice new Shimano reel and an assortment of lures. Me on the other hand, got introduced to a rod (the 7 foot 8 inches 4 piece 2-8lb Crucis) by @Little_Flatty which so got my attention that I had to buy one. I then matched with a Shimano Nasci 1000 reel and some stupidly skinny but amazingly strong braid by YKG. It is 12 pound rated and is PE 0.5. To put that in context the Berkley X5 4lb (really breaks closer to 14lb on a test bed) I usually use is PE 0.6. Both of us want to extend our casting range on the flats and getting out a sugapen in 70mm and trying our best casts was a good way of doing a comparison. By swapping outfits we could see how it averaged out with our slightly differing casting styles. My new rod loads up differently and I have had to change my technique to get the most out of it. I can feel the extra line tension through my index finger when I nail it. It was interesting to see that my best cast with my own outfit wasn't that much further than my best cast with Benny's outfit. It was a really enjoyable fishing session and one I hope to repeat many more times over the summer. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bessell1955 Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 Well if Plan A does not work, then try Plan B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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