A Cast of Fishraiders

[linewetter]

Hello all,

Today myself and a group of raiders got together for a nice morning topwater session.  Big thanks to @DerekD for organizing this and getting the group all together, and also for his mentorship for the day.  And thanks to @Bennyg78 for the clever title 😁  I'll keep references to other raiders from here on out anonymous so that they can self identify or not if they want to 🙂

Derek swung by to pick me up this morning at around 7:30am.  I was planning to take the 1 hour+ bus ride to the location but he and Benny both generously offered to give me a lift.  Derek and I are in neighboring suburbs so it worked out well.  The day was overcast and wind was mostly on our side, perfect for topwater.  I have not done much topwater fishing at all, but have been envious of the success of other raiders after reading their reports.  We got to the location after a short drive and saw a few other raiders were already there.  We got to talking and casting and I got the chance to try out some gear that I had been interested in and some very expensive ones as well just to see the differences.  Derek lent me and a few other raiders topwater lures for the day, mixing and matching so that we could all practice our technique and also see the differences between the topwater lures.  Probably the most interesting part I found was comparing the Berkley bent minnow with the OSP bent minnow lures.  They looked the same to me but both had pretty different feel and action in the water. 

Slowly, one by one more and more raiders showed up.  Today was just as much about old friends meeting up as it was new friends being made.  I had only met Derek before this meetup so every face and name was new to me but things felt right at home for me from the start.  There was no awkwardness there usually is for me, it was just like seeing people I already knew somehow.  It was awesome looking to my left and right and seeing all these raiders fishing knowing we were all together.  Any time someone got a fish, we'd all look on.  Really awesome feeling having that sort of community feel together like that since I've only fished alone before this.  

After a few hours, we ended up moving locations to a different area.  Derek is a true expert in fishing the area.  He's got it all worked out so that he's never too far from a fishing location even if the wind changes which is perfect.  Almost all the locations were new to me.  I remember telling Derek I had trouble finding sand flats in the area besides Narrabeen Lagoon but I see that there's actually tons all around in plain view since that's practically all we fished today. 

Towards mid-day most of the raiders had gone off and those of us leftover went to have lunch and visit a local tackle shop.  I picked up a couple of additional lures that Derek and others had recommended (didn't take much convincing though 😁).  As we walked through the tackleshop, Derek and the other raiders explained the usage and details about what was in the shop.  I actually found this part really enjoyable, just learning which lures were good, what they're used for, etc.  I always walk through tackle shops and just like looking so it was really cool to actually have others there expanding and giving detail on the stuff itself too.  

After lunch and the shopping expedition, we continued topwater fishing into the afternoon.  Derek took us to a few other locations and we just practiced casting, retrieves, and testing our luck with the fish.  I had always thought that topwater fishing was limited to the early morning or late afternoon (times that I usually am not able to fish) so that's why I never got into topwater fishing.  But Derek made a good point that, that's thinking like a human.  Fish are just looking for their next meal and if you're presenting it on a silver platter, they'll take it.  I think that thinking like that really encourages me to pull out my topwater lures in the future because I do get bored of just using my soft plastics sometimes.  It'd be nice to have a different option to switch it up sometimes.  By the end of the day, I was hooked on topwater fishing.  It's a very visual activity and you can see exactly how the lure reacts to your inputs.

The end of the fishing session soon came.  There are never enough hours in the day to fish!  Derek dropped me off near home and we talked a bit more about fishing.  Talking with the other raiders today has been very enjoyable, it's nice having others to bounce off of and just talk fish.  I had just moved to Sydney a few months ago and haven't really met anyone yet until now.  Even though I just met all these people today, I'm excited to hopefully see them all again in the future for a fish.  Even though I caught 0 fish today after several hours of fishing, today will go down in my fishing memory bank as a really great day of fishing.  Again, a big thank you to Derek for setting this up and also for being a great teacher/fishing mentor.  A very kind person with a lot of knowledge to share.

 

Edited January 27 by linewetter

[linewetter]

 

 

 

Edited January 27 by linewetter

[linewetter]

[linewetter]

[linewetter]

[linewetter]

[linewetter]

[AlbertW]

Great report haha, great to see you casting improved and picking up the topwater lures scarily fast.

Cheers,

Albert

[lhan]

Great report and plenty of good catches! It's a pity I couldn't make it today. Till next time🫡

[Yowie]

      A good effort by the Raiders, a teaching and practice session.

[faker]

bummer i would have loved to join if i knew it was on

[Little_Flatty]

Nice work team!

@linewetter I see you fell victim to Derek’s sales tactics🤣 If he takes you up northern beaches way, be highly suspicious if he tries to sell you a certain travel rod…though he may blame that one on me🤣

Interesting your comment re the osp bent minnow vs the Berkeley Bender. I always thought the slippery dog looked a lot like a Sugapen yet in the water they feel and look quite different to use. I’ve never owned an OSP so I can’t comment on the difference.

[mrsswordfisherman]

@DerekD fantastic work. 
Getting small groups together is a perfect way to impart your knowledge. 

@linewetter thanks for the great report on the day and the pics. You have only joined fishraider recently but you show great raider spirit 👏

Love the photo of the crew! 
 

mrsswordie 

[DerekD]

2 minutes ago, mrsswordfisherman said:

@DerekD fantastic work. 
Getting small groups together is a perfect way to impart your knowledge.

I had a ball. It kind of grew organically. I'd promised to take out @linewetter and @lhan. @Bennyg78 was keen to get out for a flick and had promised to show Linewetter fishing gear from the dark side. @AlbertW has been in regular contact with Benny and myself and we were keen to get him his first topwater bream so invited him along. @Kirelda also is of similar age to Albert and they have fished together before. He happens to live in easy driving distance so we let him know it was on. It was also where we first met and I encouraged him to join Fishraider. @Jfish and fishing buddy reached out to me the day before and I mentioned it was happening so they decided to swing by. @Little_Flatty was leaving just as Benny was arriving. @nutsaboutfishing was coincidentally there as we have fished together in the area before. Unfortunately, @lhan had to pull out due to a recent injury so as his health is more important (just) than a fishing session he made the smart decision to put it back. I've been keen to get out with @Robbo from Sydney to refine his topwater skills so let him know the plan for the day. I did get to throw a line in this time as well as helping each of the team grow in new directions.

[DerekD]

1 hour ago, faker said:

bummer i would have loved to join if i knew it was on

Another time. Today was mostly about @linewetter and @lhan and they would have gotten most of my time with the other people there getting comments about where they could try something different.

[Kirelda]

Great report @linewetter! I really enjoyed fishing with everyone today and I finally caught my first fish on topwater. It was great meeting everyone and I had tons of fun fishing with you all. Absolute bummer I couldn't stay for the afternoon session. Any bites at Mosman?

[DerekD]

Hi all and excellent write up @linewetter,

It was an absolute pleasure catching up with you all and then seeing the group dynamics as people switched around and had a chat to different people. Between the walk the dog type lures (Sugapen & Slippery dog), popper style lures (MMD Prawns & Skinny pops) and finally the dying baitfish type lures (OSP bent minnow and Berkley Bender) I think we covered most of the topwater style lures you will encounter for this style of fishing. Once you learn to use the retrieve I try to teach with the Sugapen the same retrieve works for the other lures. You just change the cadence and vary the pauses to suit but it is the same retrieve technique.

By the end of the session I can say with complete confidence that you are all at the point you will catch topwater bream and the whiting with the level you have reached. So we didn't catch any bream on the day, but there are days when they are not biting. Really blown away by the effort you all put in to learn this lovely niche style of fishing.

Regards,

Derek

[DerekD]

3 hours ago, Kirelda said:

Great report @linewetter! I really enjoyed fishing with everyone today and I finally caught my first fish on topwater. It was great meeting everyone and I had tons of fun fishing with you all. Absolute bummer I couldn't stay for the afternoon session. Any bites at Mosman?

We canned the afternoon session in Mosman. There was only @AlbertW and @linewetter still able to play after lunch. Since they were both in my car we drove around Iron Cove to show them another fishing area and ended up at Lilyfield for a flick and then back to Drummoyne Bay for the late afternoon. The topwater was going well in the sense we were still having fun and really dialing in the casts and retrieves so we just continued. It made dropping Albert at the train station and Linewetter back at his place really easy.

We covered almost everything I can think of with topwater (but still have freshwater topwater to try at Manly dam for bass and redfin). Session at Mosman is still to come and I'll keep you in the loop.

Edited January 27 by DerekD

[big Neil]

What a top report. If that report doesn't show the benefit of this forum, nothing does. Networking at its best and the end result is all of you having fun, learning something, and taking away a whole bunch of enthusiasm to get out there and enjoy your fishing even more. So happy for all of you. Don't waste the benefits of the experience, get out there, explore, find new areas and put your newly found skills to work. Of course, post your results so that we can all share in what you are doing.

Well done all of you.  bn

[Robbo from Sydney]

3 hours ago, DerekD said:

Hi all and excellent write up @linewetter,

It was an absolute pleasure catching up with you all and then seeing the group dynamics as people switched around and had a chat to different people. Between the walk the dog type lures (Sugapen & Slippery dog), popper style lures (MMD Prawns & Skinny pops) and finally the dying baitfish type lures (OSP bent minnow and Berkley Bender) I think we covered most of the topwater style lures you will encounter for this style of fishing. Once you learn to use the retrieve I try to teach with the Sugapen the same retrieve works for the other lures. You just change the cadence and vary the pauses to suit but it is the same retrieve technique.

By the end of the session I can say with complete confidence that you are all at the point you will catch topwater bream and the whiting with the level you have reached. So we didn't catch any bream on the day, but there are days when they are not biting. Really blown away by the effort you all put in to learn this lovely niche style of fishing.

Regards,

Derek

Thanks again @DerekD for organising this outing and for your generosity in helping other Fishraiders .

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