One man's trash is another man's treasure

[Little_Flatty]

So this morning I head back out with the fly rod, with the intention of snaring another flathead and getting a bit more casting practice.

On the water at six, start casting. This time I manage to land the fly in some spots where I previously would have thought impossible and also managed to keep my line between an overhead powerline and the wharf railings. Alas, it was to no avail and no fish were caught. But I was happy with my cast😎

I had noticed that someone had left a whole lot of rubbish on the wharf, so get cleaning this up before I go. Bait was splayed everywhere, takeaway bags all over the place, sauce packets and the lot, all over the end of the wharf. Start putting the bait in the water and the rubbish all in the bin, then wait a second…is that a container of live yabbies? I'm having those! Ah well, consider that good karma for cleaning up! Change the yabbies' water and go home.

My special request for the day was to go somewhere with the fam where I could fish with the yabbies. Pack the yabbies, esky, some ice packs, my trusty 1-3kg outfit and head out for the day.

After a bit of a rambling family adventure, we find ourselves at Bobbin Head. Rig up with a pea sized ball sinker, down to a size 6 long shank hook with 4lb straight through fluorocarbon. I cast a yabby out over the shallow flats. First bait gone in seconds. Good sign. Bait up again and cast out, anticipating a fish soon after. But no…ten minutes gone and not a nibble!

Stroll along the walkway a little and find some telltale flashes of fish rolling over the flats. Cast out towards them and five mins later, bang, the drag starts singing! A little but legal bream! He goes straight into the esky. If I could get a couple of these, I could have dinner.

Next cast, another fish straight away! But it was undersized and released.

Then another quiet spell. Family back from a little bushwalk and the kids want to go out on the pedal boats. Ok, let’s pack up and get out on the boats.

We end up getting quite a good workout on the pedal boats thanks to the incoming tide! Not entirely bad, always can use a good workout and the kids enjoyed it too.

I was very kindly allowed a second session over the flats while the kids went to the playground. This time the tide was higher and there was almost two metres of water on top. I don't have long, so I head to the kayak ramp to clean my bream. Cast out a bait while I do it. Almost done with the cleaning when my rod buckles over and a spirited 20cm bream is landed. Get it back in the water, then it’s time to move as a big group of kayakers wanted to launch.

My wife and kids come back from the playground and tell me they are heading back to the car. I start packing up as well. As I retrieve my bait, something snatches it at my feet. My bait is still on, so I throw it out again. Snatched again and this time the culprit reveals itself as a legal flatty. Rebait and cast out again to where I last saw it. I can’t see the fish, but I can see the bait on the bottom, then the bait disappearing as the fish engulfs it. I strike and after a brief fight to the net, Mr flatty joins the bream in the esky. I was very lucky it was lip hooked, as I only had the 4lb fluro straight to the hook.

Neither fish was particularly large, but legal and fed my family of four. Good feed.

[XD351]

Nice work ! 
I hate when I go to a spot and grubs have left their rubbish behind - I don’t call them fishos coz a real fisho cleans up after themselves ! Anyhow you got a reward for your work and a feed as well ! Great report and nice fish Mike !

[big Neil]

Well done on all fronts. A bit of family togetherness, a bit of fishing, and a bit of success. I'd call that a win/win situation any day. Great too that you're feeling good with the fly rod, they are not easy to master but very rewarding when you reach that comfort spot.

Thanks for the report Mike, bn

[bessell1955]

Your good deed paid off!

[Little_Flatty]

5 hours ago, XD351 said:

Nice work ! 
I hate when I go to a spot and grubs have left their rubbish behind - I don’t call them fishos coz a real fisho cleans up after themselves ! Anyhow you got a reward for your work and a feed as well ! Great report and nice fish Mike !

Cheers Ian, I agree, the vast majority of people like that are not real fishos, in that they aren't regulars. Unfortunately, their actions do reflect (unfairly) on our angling community and one of the ways we can protect our fishing rights in urban locations is to clean up after them and normalise this behaviour. When I was last at Clifton Gardens, a bunch of anglers had left an awful mess at the end of the wharf and I started picking it up. Another fisho took it on themselves to help me, which was nice.

28 minutes ago, big Neil said:

Well done on all fronts. A bit of family togetherness, a bit of fishing, and a bit of success. I'd call that a win/win situation any day. Great too that you're feeling good with the fly rod, they are not easy to master but very rewarding when you reach that comfort spot.

Thanks for the report Mike, bn

Cheers Neil, was a win-win indeed, and fly fishing certainly is very rewarding! That said, I still routinely curse the people who invented it 🤣

7 minutes ago, bessell1955 said:

Your good deed paid off!

Certainly did!

[Larkin]

Well done mate! 
Bonus finding the nippers and turning them into a feed! 👍

[faker]

11 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

So this morning I head back out with the fly rod, with the intention of snaring another flathead and getting a bit more casting practice.

On the water at six, start casting. This time I manage to land the fly in some spots where I previously would have thought impossible and also managed to keep my line between an overhead powerline and the wharf railings. Alas, it was to no avail and no fish were caught. But I was happy with my cast😎

I had noticed that someone had left a whole lot of rubbish on the wharf, so get cleaning this up before I go. Bait was splayed everywhere, takeaway bags all over the place, sauce packets and the lot, all over the end of the wharf. Start putting the bait in the water and the rubbish all in the bin, then wait a second…is that a container of live yabbies? I'm having those! Ah well, consider that good karma for cleaning up! Change the yabbies' water and go home.

My special request for the day was to go somewhere with the fam where I could fish with the yabbies. Pack the yabbies, esky, some ice packs, my trusty 1-3kg outfit and head out for the day.

After a bit of a rambling family adventure, we find ourselves at Bobbin Head. Rig up with a pea sized ball sinker, down to a size 6 long shank hook with 4lb straight through fluorocarbon. I cast a yabby out over the shallow flats. First bait gone in seconds. Good sign. Bait up again and cast out, anticipating a fish soon after. But no…ten minutes gone and not a nibble!

Stroll along the walkway a little and find some telltale flashes of fish rolling over the flats. Cast out towards them and five mins later, bang, the drag starts singing! A little but legal bream! He goes straight into the esky. If I could get a couple of these, I could have dinner.

Next cast, another fish straight away! But it was undersized and released.

Then another quiet spell. Family back from a little bushwalk and the kids want to go out on the pedal boats. Ok, let’s pack up and get out on the boats.

We end up getting quite a good workout on the pedal boats thanks to the incoming tide! Not entirely bad, always can use a good workout and the kids enjoyed it too.

I was very kindly allowed a second session over the flats while the kids went to the playground. This time the tide was higher and there was almost two metres of water on top. I don't have long, so I head to the kayak ramp to clean my bream. Cast out a bait while I do it. Almost done with the cleaning when my rod buckles over and a spirited 20cm bream is landed. Get it back in the water, then it’s time to move as a big group of kayakers wanted to launch.

My wife and kids come back from the playground and tell me they are heading back to the car. I start packing up as well. As I retrieve my bait, something snatches it at my feet. My bait is still on, so I throw it out again. Snatched again and this time the culprit reveals itself as a legal flatty. Rebait and cast out again to where I last saw it. I can’t see the fish, but I can see the bait on the bottom, then the bait disappearing as the fish engulfs it. I strike and after a brief fight to the net, Mr flatty joins the bream in the esky. I was very lucky it was lip hooked, as I only had the 4lb fluro straight to the hook.

Neither fish was particularly large, but legal and fed my family of four. Good feed.

I have not fished bobbin head with lures before. Mostly a bait soaker on wharf back then

[AlbertW]

Good to see that bobbin head is producing again, I grew up fishing there and had the odd little bream and snapper but a couple years ago it went silent and I’d soak a prawn for hours and not even get a bite. I should revisit it again with lures now haha

[Little_Flatty]

44 minutes ago, faker said:

I have not fished bobbin head with lures before. Mostly a bait soaker on wharf back then

I was fishing bait, but some parts look like great luring territory. Try the flats further up, especially in summer when you can wade. I'm thinking about taking the fly rod up there on a summer afternoon.

32 minutes ago, AlbertW said:

Good to see that bobbin head is producing again, I grew up fishing there and had the odd little bream and snapper but a couple years ago it went silent and I’d soak a prawn for hours and not even get a bite. I should revisit it again with lures now haha

I have to say I have never done that well there, but I only ever fish there when I'm with the family, so rarely get to fish it all that seriously. The fish are definitely there, but they'd be pressured and you'd need to think about how you go about enticing them to bite. But you know what to do 😎.

I'd be interested to see what you get there, knowing what you now know. If I had a kayak like you, I'd head upstream and prospect the flats/dropoffs. Barely anyone fishes there. Also the flats past the marina are apparently good, as @GoldenHourFishing's videos suggest. But I think you'd need some kind of water craft to access it.

[XD351]

The last wharf I cleaned up was at Bayview Park, lure packaging, bait containers with rotting bait inside and a whole heap of takeaway food packaging- not on the ground but on the bench seats where commuters want to sit . I cleaned it up and put it in the bin that was no more than 5m away 🤬. Another guy fishing there said this is a daily occurrence and he said he just gave up on cleaning it up .

This is upstream of halvorsens , fished there many moons ago and nearly got spooled by something that wanted my Mr twister more than I did ! Iirc there is a track following the creek - we used a small tender and motor to get up there .

Edited September 25, 2023 by XD351

[Yowie]

Certainly worth the effort of cleaning up - free bait as a bonus, and you did not need to pump them.

A couple of fish for the table, I think anyone would be happy with that session. Nippers may live in the sand, but any critters swimming about fancy them as tucker.

[Little_Flatty]

6 hours ago, XD351 said:

The last wharf I cleaned up was at Bayview Park, lure packaging, bait containers with rotting bait inside and a whole heap of takeaway food packaging- not on the ground but on the bench seats where commuters want to sit . I cleaned it up and put it in the bin that was no more than 5m away 🤬. Another guy fishing there said this is a daily occurrence and he said he just gave up on cleaning it up .

This is upstream of halvorsens , fished there many moons ago and nearly got spooled by something that wanted my Mr twister more than I did ! Iirc there is a track following the creek - we used a small tender and motor to get up there .

Yep there's certain locations that seem to attract litterbugs more than others. Ah well, it's part and parcel of being an urban angler. Trouble with your mate's attitude is that if it doesn't get cleaned up, sooner or later fishing will get banned on that wharf.

As for those flats, I think I have seen some videos of people walking there. Would be a good adventure, but probably easier on a kayak.

2 hours ago, Yowie said:

Certainly worth the effort of cleaning up - free bait as a bonus, and you did not need to pump them.

A couple of fish for the table, I think anyone would be happy with that session. Nippers may live in the sand, but any critters swimming about fancy them as tucker.

Cheers Dave, I pumped yabbies a few times last year and it was back breaking work! So I certainly appreciate the freebie for what it is. You're totally right about anything liking them. Forgot to mention that the flatty had yabbies in its stomach when I cleaned it.

[XD351]

Trouble with your mate's attitude is that if it doesn't get cleaned up, sooner or later fishing will get banned on that wharf.

Not my mate - just some random dude flicking lures, anyone of my mates that came out with that would be excommunicated  🤣🤣 

 

[Scooter0069]

Sounds like good deed was rewarded with a nice fed of fresh feed of fish and a great day fishing 

[Pickles]

Another great report @Little_Flatty. It’s a pity some folks are inconsiderate and leave rubbish in others backyards😡. Good on you for cleaning it up Mike. It’s a joy when you can spend family time, but still get a window to fish - and great work on the casting, it’s such a buzz when the fly (or lure) land exactly where you want it to, even if there aren’t fish there.