Nice little 2 piece after work

[linewetter]

Went out tonight for a short session after work before dinner.  It was a very high tide tonight.  Decided to hit a nearby bay in the Harbour area just because I like the view at night and you can see the VIVID lights in the sky when they turn on. 

 

The area I was fishing was deeper than usual due to the high tide, but decided to tie on a 1/16th jighead instead of my usual 1/12th tonight because I wanted to work the plastics extra slow just because I have not been having much success with my usual setup.  With the higher tide + lighter jighead, should allow me a lot more hangtime than normal.  Put on a Rapala Creeper grub in Banana Prawn because I like using the grubs when hopping instead of slow rolling.

 

 

Had a cast out and after a couple of long seconds, had some taps.  Kept the lure still, then moved it slightly, but the taps didn't come back.  Very slight wind in then a couple of sharp but short hops and I was onto a fish.  It bent my rod a good amount but didn't have enough power to pull too much drag.  Brought it to shore and it was a small bream, very pokey little fella.  Much pokier than I've been used to but I also haven't touched a bream in a little while 😆🤭

 

Back into the water it went, with the tide being so high, I was able to release him into the water gently since I could reach in.  Catching a fish on the first cast...damn.  I was feeling pretty good I got a fish, but also wondered how I would fare for the rest of my short session - always feel like fish on the first cast ends up with no fish after!!! 

Thankfully that wasn't the case.  I continued to work the lure pretty slow.  I took a look at my watch and realized the crown had been pulled so my watch had stopped ticking.  I held my rod in my off hand and started to adjust the hour so that it would be the correct time - it was here while the lure had been paused for a good 30 seconds while I was fiddling with my watch that I felt tapping on the rod.  I rushed to put the rod into my dominant hand but the tapping had stopped already...darn.  But reinforced that working the lure slow was working - after all that was quite a long pause.  Though the concept is not new to me, as when I first started fishing, a lot of my success on plastics was when I would pause the lure for 30 or more seconds at a time.  Takes a lot of patience and discipline to not really move it but I knew it works.

So I did just that...did a little bit of movement again to try to capture the attention of the tapper and then paused...I felt a tap again.  Whatever was there was clearly interested still.  I gave it a hop and slight retrieve and I was onto another fish.  This time a small whiting - I imagine the tapping was because it was trying to eat the lure but had trouble with such a small mouth at this size:

 

After this I had a couple dozen more casts before it was time to wrap up and go.  Good short session and happy with the fish!  

[Bluebenbomb]

Sounds like a productive sesh, good job on the fish.

[big Neil]

Good report Linewetter, particularly the description of your interaction with the lure. Well done, an enjoyable short session.

bn