Meeting more Fishraiders and breaking PBs

[linewetter]

Yesterday was a big day activities.  The plan was to meet with @DerekD and another raider named Ethan (didn’t catch his username) in the morning to try catching some kingfish.  Then in the afternoon, I was planning to meet @SpeedyGiraffe49 who I initially met on the new member welcome forum post!

The day started early for me.  I woke up at 4AM and couldn’t go back to sleep so I decided to get up early to have some coffee and have a head start on fishing.  I’ve been eyeing this small “beach” for a while now but every time I’ve been in the area with a rod and reel, there’s always been people so I never gave it a shot.   I say beach in quotes because there is sand…and there is water…but it’s very short and very small.  Like a maximum of 100 steps wide and 10 steps from start to finish to get to the water.  I got there and no one was around.  Perfect.  The sand was untouched and I was the first one to ruin it with my footprints aww yeah. 

 

First few casts end up with a lot of interest and tugging which got me excited.  It wasn’t 5 mins into the session when I saw baitfish start jumping right in front of me.  I cast past it and winded in and I was onto a fish!  It gave me a few  good runs before I had to tighten the drag a bit because it was starting to run too close to the snags.  I brought it in slowly with the mini waves and it was a pretty good bream. 

 

 

I had just bought a fish measurer but couldn’t find it quickly after I hooked onto this bream so I released it since I didn’t want to keep it out any longer.  After a few lost lures due to snags and trying to retie in the wind, I finally had my line long enough in the water to land my second fish of the day.

 

 

I never really measured my flatheads I have caught before because they all looked small to me.  Decided to measure this one now that I have an actual measurement tape and was actually surprised at its size since I thought this was a smaller flathead myself.  It measured to about 40cm which on a flathead seems very different in size perception to 40cm of a bream.  Thanks for the tips everyone on how to hold a flatty by the way.  I flipped this guy upside down and got a good grip on it for the photo and release. 

 

Before I knew it, it was time to meet up with Derek and Ethan.  I swapped my rod and reel to my heavier outfit and we started casting out trying different lures.  It appears that Derek has sapped all of my luck away from here on   First fish he catches is a nice sized flatty:

 

It didn’t feel like long after when he landed fish number two!

 

I don’t 100% remember what he said this fish was but I think he said it was a frigate mackerel.  It went absolutely crazy once brought on shore:

 

 

After a quick break for myself to get some drinks and a meat pie, I was off to meet @SpeedyGiraffe49 at another wharf.  Derek and Ethan also had a change of plans and were able to come with after all to meet him as well! 

 

I got to the next location first and had some casts out while waiting.  I was still hooked on slow rolling my soft plastics – I’m finding it really fun to do and really enjoy the feeling when a fish gives it a tug and I get to decide if I want to pause it, hop it, or retrieve it.  It’s a little different than the other action of hopping and pausing since it’s a bit more active.  On the fourth cast, I hooked onto a nice bream in the shallows.  As I brought it closer, I could see like a dozen fish following this bream, most were smaller.  I was kind of fascinated really. I let the fish run at my feet just to see what would happen and all the fish just kept following it.  I recorded a small clip of the fish following the bream towards the end before bringing it up because it was getting too close to the rockwall. 

 

 

 

After releasing the bream, I continued casting a mixture of on the sandflats and past the sandflats towards the drop off.  It was the cast into the drop off that landed me my new PB whiting!  The fish put up an okay fight, but once I realized the size, I was surprised it didn’t go harder than it did.  As I brought this one in, it too was also followed by two whiting.  A similar phenomenon as the previous bream I brought in.  It was interesting to see the similar behavior on back to back catches on two different species of fish. 

 

 

It wasn’t even 5 mins after releasing the whiting that @SpeedyGiraffe49 showed up.  We greeted each other and we talked and walked over to where Derek and Ethan were fishing so that they too could meet each other.  Derek began to walk through some techniques with @SpeedyGiraffe49 and I left them to it.  Derek has some great & unique analogies he gives when teaching and gotta admit, they really stick with you once you hear them so it was best left to Derek to go over it 

 

Fast forward a couple more lost lures (may be the most I’ve lost in a day really) and I finally land my next fish...  It was on this cast, as soon as the lure hit the water, I could feel something going at it.  It just kept going and missing, going and missing, going then hooked up.  As I reeled it in, I could see more fish actually swiping, not just following like.  As soon as I brought it up and saw what fish, it all made sense why. 

 

A visit from Mr. Tailor.  Quick photo and thankful I didn’t get bitten off, I recast out in the same area after seeing the school of them that was around.  Only a couple casts later, I’m onto another one!

 

I was planning to fish for a couple more hours and fish more with the guys but had a sudden change of plans here and had to leave a lot earlier than expected.  I had a couple of last casts before going, and land this bream:

 

I was looking at this photo and realized just how humanlike the eyes are.  I think it’s the brown eyes.  I’ve seen their eyes before but maybe this is just the first time I paid close attention, or maybe just the way the sun hits it in this photo.

Satisfied with catching the bream, I called it there.  I can’t fall into the trap of “just one more cast…” because I’ll keep wanting to go until I hook onto another fish.  I went and said my goodbyes to the guys and ended my day early.  Meeting Ethan and @SpeedyGiraffe49 was really great!  I can tell both are very enthusiastic about fishing and seem like really nice people to fish with.  I’m looking forward to more fishing sessions in the future and getting to know them more as well.  This was an impromptu meetup, so it felt all the better getting to meet them today.

Edited April 13 by linewetter

[Yowie]

You certainly are getting into the fishing scene, a good variety of fish pulled up. The whiting is a good sized one. 👍

Practice makes perfect as the saying goes. 

[Blackfish]

That’s a great story, well written with some great fish especially the Whiting.👍

[lhan]

Sounds like another great session! And it's a stunning whiting on the new brag mat

[Little_Flatty]

Another great report @linewetter. Fantastic to have an impromptu social. You’re getting very consistent now. I think you have got the hang of Sydney fishing😎

[SpeedyGiraffe49]

Thanks for inviting me out yesterday!! That 40cm whiting is a beast 💪 Looking forward to the next one together

[squidjigga]

@DerekD able to share any tips on surface lure fishing? Would love to hear your advice and anecdotes.

[DerekD]

19 minutes ago, squidjigga said:

@DerekD able to share any tips on surface lure fishing? Would love to hear your advice and anecdotes.

Where are you based? Teaching someone topwater with light gear usually takes me about half a day. I teach one specific retrieve with a sugapen 70mm which, once learned, works with walk the dog type lures (Sugapen and Slippery dog, K9, etc), popper type lures (MMD splash prawns, Skinny Pop Jnr etc) and dying baitfish (OSP Bent Minnow or Berkley Bender). The basics are easy to show but learning it is a bit like rubbing your head and patting your stomach - it often takes the student a while to make it look and feel natural. We then discuss about changing cadence and pace to tease up the fish. This is also followed up with discussions on where and why.

In my first light lure outfit article I've included a section further down on hardbody lures and specifically topwater:

 

Edited April 14 by DerekD

[squidjigga]

I'm based in Sydney. Is there a specific reason you prefer to teach with sugapens? I'm keen to learn poppers because the action looks pretty satisfying.

[DerekD]

15 minutes ago, squidjigga said:

I'm based in Sydney. Is there a specific reason you prefer to teach with sugapens? I'm keen to learn poppers because the action looks pretty satisfying.

Basically the Sugapen 70mm is an awesome lure in itself but they are a little harder than other lures you can buy off the shelf to get a tight walk the dog with. However once you nail it then all the other topwater lures (poppers and dying baitfish) I demonstrate, work with that same retrieve. Bit like learning in a manual car and then finding driving an automatic is pretty easy in comparison. Starting the other way round is a lot harder.

Edited April 14 by DerekD