Good fortune, cheating and (barely) avoiding a donut on the luderick

[Little_Flatty]

Afternoon Raiders.

Earlier on the long weekend I was with my family on the Northern Beaches. Stopping by a beach, I noticed some green looking rocks and thought that warranted closer investigation, so I strolled over and found a reasonable supply of green weed. While the kids played I ran back to the car and scrounged a discarded sushi box and picked up a handful of weed, enough for some berley for one session:

Of course, when the universe presents you with good fortune like that, you have to make good use of it! So a plan was hatched to get out on the harbour this morning to see if I could get a feed of luderick on fly. This was to be my first session for luds for the year and I was curious to see how it would go. I requested a leave pass for a few hours out (epic session for me) and it was granted.

Messaged @DerekD on my way out to see if he was free and he said he would meet me there. Got to the water and started my berley trail. It took about forty minutes for the first fish to turn up in my berley trail. In the meantime Derek's mate Ollie joined me for a chat and eventually Derek arrived. Got some tips from Derek re depth setting and fished on. Plenty of fish in the water, things were looking good.

But try as we might, we couldn't raise a fish. I had a double fly rig on, with one green bomb fly and an unweighted fly on a dropper. Soon I changed that for just an unweighted fly on its own. Derek moved to a brown weed fly to see if the fish might take that. I then tried a cabbage weed bomb fly, with no interest.

I only had half an hour left at this point, so I got a bit desperate. I put a tiny bit of weed on my cabbage fly and cast on. Some fly anglers would call this 'cheating', but I fish all methods, including bait and lures with scent, so as long as it's within the bounds of local regulations, it's all fair game for me 😎 Anyhow, if any of that weed managed to stay on the hook through my false casting, it did the trick, and a little luderick took it. It was a cool take, because it was a silvery fish which was easy to see, and it took my fly in plain view.

At 27cm it was barely legal. I prefer my luds to be 30cm+ for the plate, so this one was sent back to grow and fatten up a bit more for winter.

We packed up and carried on with our respective days. It was good to catch up with Derek and meet Ollie. Shame the fish weren't as keen as we were, but it was a good morning all the same.

[Yowie]

One better than none. The fish may have wised up to the fly, and were waiting for the real deal.

[DerekD]

It was strange. Haven't seen them behaving like they were today before. There were plenty there. We could see them darting around but also it looks like the larger ones were aggressively chasing the smaller ones. Spawning maybe. It is the first time I've gone there and haven't had at least a down.

It was great to get out in the sun and catch up with @Little_Flatty so I was already on a win.

Edited June 10 by DerekD

[Little_Flatty]

1 hour ago, Yowie said:

One better than none. The fish may have wised up to the fly, and were waiting for the real deal.

Certainly is. Possible that the fish didn't like my fly - it was tied by myself and I think I over trimmed it.

1 hour ago, DerekD said:

It was strange. Haven't seen them behaving like they were today before. There were plenty there. We could see them darting around but also it looks like the larger ones were aggressively chasing the smaller ones. Spawning maybe. It is the first time I've gone there and haven't had at least a down.

It was great to get out in the sun and catch up with @Little_Flatty so I was already on a win.

Yep, there was a bit of aggro amongst the school. Ollie said he saw a fish head butt another twice!

I've had a couple of sessions with no downs, but both were without berley. When I have berley I'm surprised if I don't catch a fish.

[big Neil]

Fantastic that you could stumble on some weed (the fishing kind) and use it for berley for the fly fishing session with Derek and Ollie. They are both very proficient Luderick anglers so the poor results would indicate the fish being disinterested.

It appears that Luderick can breed between June and September and go off their normal feeding habits during this period.

Anyway Mike you got one, no cheating involved unless you're a purist fly fisherman.

Have to try to catch up when I manage to get to the big smoke.

Well done, bn

[Little_Flatty]

2 hours ago, big Neil said:

Fantastic that you could stumble on some weed (the fishing kind) and use it for berley for the fly fishing session with Derek and Ollie. They are both very proficient Luderick anglers so the poor results would indicate the fish being disinterested.

It appears that Luderick can breed between June and September and go off their normal feeding habits during this period.

Anyway Mike you got one, no cheating involved unless you're a purist fly fisherman.

Have to try to catch up when I manage to get to the big smoke.

Well done, bn

Thanks Neil, yes it was more challenging than I expected and the fact that we had so much trouble getting a fish between us was interesting.

It will be great to catch up next you are up here.

 

[Steve0]

There is no cheating. It feels good to fool a fish with something artificial, but it's not how you try to catch fish that matters. It is that you catch fish (legally, of course).

Adding to @big Neil's words, spawning timing is said to be earlier in Qld than Victoria. From personal experience, timing can vary more than July-September. I've caught them spawning in a far South location early in November and repeated the session in subsequent years within 50m of the same spot. It was very obvious females had just released roe and all males were leaking milt.  There were lots of belly flashes near the bottom. Location features were variable depth rocky bottom on the side subject to maximum strength tidal flow with sandy patches and a lot of plant growth clinging to rocks under the water. They were very hungry, aggressively taking yabbies floated down at an angle with a very light sinker (still needed a long pause before setting the hook).

 

[kantong]

a nice fish to save the trip. Sometimes it's the fly, other times it's the real deal. Either way, you found out, so well done!

[james Cutler]

You said you were on the Northern Beaches.

Little Manly is one of the best places to catch Luderick.

[Little_Flatty]

3 hours ago, Steve0 said:

There is no cheating. It feels good to fool a fish with something artificial, but it's not how you try to catch fish that matters. It is that you catch fish (legally, of course).

Adding to @big Neil's words, spawning timing is said to be earlier in Qld than Victoria. From personal experience, timing can vary more than July-September. I've caught them spawning in a far South location early in November and repeated the session in subsequent years within 50m of the same spot. It was very obvious females had just released roe and all males were leaking milt.  There were lots of belly flashes near the bottom. Location features were variable depth rocky bottom on the side subject to maximum strength tidal flow with sandy patches and a lot of plant growth clinging to rocks under the water. They were very hungry, aggressively taking yabbies floated down at an angle with a very light sinker (still needed a long pause before setting the hook).

 

Thanks Steve, that’s interesting. I’ve caught a couple of luds on lures in the past. Maybe I should try a shrimp fly next time things are challenging.

2 hours ago, kantong said:

a nice fish to save the trip. Sometimes it's the fly, other times it's the real deal. Either way, you found out, so well done!

Certainly did! I was in my garage deliberating whether to grab the float outfit or the fly rod. I haven’t caught a luderick on my newish fly rod so that swayed me in that direction. I might’ve had a feed if I went the float option!

2 hours ago, james Cutler said:

You said you were on the Northern Beaches.

Little Manly is one of the best places to catch Luderick.

Thanks James, I might give it a go sometime. Been there chasing squid before but this was before I got interested in luderick.

[Pickles]

Well done Mike, great fun catching Luderick, especially when you use “home made” gear - flies.

[Duffy75]

Very lucky to find some weed I went last weekend to a couple of platforms on the Nth beaches hoping to get some for a fish over the long weekend I couldn’t find a strand! 😢 

[Burger]

My go to spots are bare too!

Anyone with a Sydney spot feel free to msg me. Please!!

[44jeff]

Went to collect weed today around the rocks at Bondi. Good supply. Cabbage must be plentiful on the Eastern suburbs platforms.

[Little_Flatty]

2 hours ago, Duffy75 said:

Very lucky to find some weed I went last weekend to a couple of platforms on the Nth beaches hoping to get some for a fish over the long weekend I couldn’t find a strand! 😢 

Yes all my Parra sources are barren thanks to the recent wet weather. Must’ve been lucky!

Hoping to get more luderick sessions in this winter. I finally understand what all the fuss is about  

[jenno64]

Always a great result on fly...if I didn't work full time I think I would love to make my own and experiment:)

[TheFishyFisherman]

On 6/12/2024 at 5:06 PM, Burger said:

My go to spots are bare too!

Anyone with a Sydney spot feel free to msg me. Please!!

I need more spots too. Haven’t caught anything fun recently….

[Burger]

@TheFishyFisherman my comment was bait gathering related, not ‘catching’ related…