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Great Lakes Adventure - Family fun


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mrsswordfisherman
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"A great family holiday report Little_Flatty"

Little_Flatty was awarded the badge 'Great Content' and 200 points.

I know there's many here who don't fish weekends, public holidays or even school holidays, but that's not the deck of cards I've been dealt, at this point in my life. Instead, these peak times present me with the best opportunity to catch a feed.

To a large extent, I've accepted my fate and actually make it work quite well, getting a decent number of hours on the water whilst managing my other responsibilities. But there are some times when the wheels just fall off, and this trip was one of them. Nevertheless I had some wins and a little fun along the way.

This trip I made a conscious decision to not do any early morning trips on my own, lest the kids wake up my wife early making her cranky for the rest of the day. I sometimes need reminding that not all holidays are fishing holidays and I need to include the family sometimes. I also desperately needed a few sleep-ins...after all that's what holidays should be about! 

Bluey's Bream

Day one saw us take the Friday off work and arrive at Bluey's Beach. After an epic drive and checking into a fantastic holiday house, the kids just wanted to stay by the pool and my wife wanted to sew, so I set off to the general store to buy some dinner and a couple of beers. Walked home via the beach, and I must say I've never had a grocery run like that!

While I was at the general store, I had a browse through the fishing section and boy was I pleasantly surprised. Not a huge amount of brand-name stuff, but lots of attention to detail that suggested it was curated by a proper angler. Stuff I would use myself. Whiting topwaters, a nice collection of flathead plastics from Halco, bibbed minnows, home-made luderick floats + matching split shot, appropriate sized jigheads, appropriate sized sinkers/hooks etc. There even was a set of worming pliers AND a stocking for beach worming. Had a chat to the owner and apparently there's a couple in the region who go around the general stores and maintain the fishing stock for them. It sure looks like it's worth whatever it costs them.

Anyhow I get back home, put dinner in the fridge and suggest we all go back down to the beach. No one budges, so I think 'stuff this' and grab a rod out of the car, along with my gear.

My initial plan was to cast some shore jigs (this one's for you @lhan). The beach looked good with a number of promising gutters and minimal swimmers.

I cast along for a bit for no hits on the jig. After a while my light surf rod began to feel not-so-light, so I changed rigs and deployed a pippi bait into a shallow gutter looking for bread and butter fish. I had to try a few gutters before I started to get bites. On one of them, I hooked up but then the fish bounced off in the wash. Next hookup, I managed to land a little bream:
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Not a big fish, but notable in that I’ve never actually caught a bream off the beach before! Really should do more beach fishing. After I released the fish, it was time to head home to cook dinner and have a cold beer.
 
Tuncurry Trouble, Forster Fortunes turn
The next day the plan was to visit the Tuncurry water play park, which the kids really enjoyed last time we visited, whilst I would try for the famous Forster-Tuncurry luderick,. Visiting some op shops along the way, the kids decided they wanted to have a fish instead and I was happy to oblige. After a little berleying, the kids’ favourite sport fish turned up: the humble toad. After a few toads caught and released, it was time to grab some lunch and head to the waterplay.
 
Disaster struck as we arrived, when we found that the water play was closed for maintenance! That was the first nail in the coffin. Unfortunate timing! I really wanted a fish, so my wife kindly took the kids to buy an ice cream whilst I deployed weed and berley. I get a down and hook up almost straight away but drop the fish. Things were looking good, but I struggled to manage my line in the current and wind and that resulted in me missing numerous downs.
 
Kids came back, fighting as usual and I realised that I had a ticking time-bomb on my hands; sooner or later we would have to pull the plug. 
Then I ran into a fishing mate I hadn’t seen for some months, and really wanted to catch up with. So here I was, juggling like a circus clown, trying to manage the current + wind + trying to have a decent conversation all at the same time. Thankfully my mate, being a seasoned angler, totally got it. It was a nice surprise running into him.
 
Anyhow soon it was time to admit defeat and I have to concede that my mood was a little stinky having to leave the fish on the bite (and yet somewhat uncatchable for my skill level)!
 
Fortunately redemption came as we drove through Forster, and the wife wanted a stroll through the shops. Miraculously the kids had stopped fighting and I was given another chance to fish. I deployed berley again, but really struggled to manage the line in the wind and current again. Moved spots a number of times, sighting some good fish, but they weren’t interested in spite of multiple drifts.
 
Finally I tried the wall next to the town wharf where I found a school of luderick milling about. Put out some berley and the fish start rising and cartwheeling immediately. Good sign. Put down a bait, get a tentative down and I strike. Up comes a little luderick:
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I get one more before the family returns. They watch me for a bit, landing one more fish and then it was time to go home. I’m sure I’d have got a few keepers if I’d stayed longer, but that’s fishing. At least I was on the board, and in a much better mood.
 
Spider Scares
Back at the holiday house, I’d promised the kids I’d get in the pool with them. The water was still a bit nippy and this was the last thing I felt like doing.  Those of you who are parents will know that sometimes you have to take one for the team. So I got changed.
 
Whilst putting on some more sunscreen, I noticed something big, black and arachnid looking hanging off my sleeve!image.png.8593f98d6fb3c94d01d02da19212ae55.png
 
I would’ve gotten a bigger fright if it wasn’t for me being a bit sun dazed and tired. Thankfully it was just a crab lure from our own @Mike Sydney hanging there! Not exactly sure how it escaped my tackle bag, but I'm glad it was me and not the kids!
 
Smiths Flatty
Next day we hit the sand spit at Frothy Coffee at Smiths Lake. If there was a more perfect place for family fishing, I am yet to see it; a playground, a cafe, extremely fishy looking flats and shady places to have a picnic. Actually, in my books, a perfect spot for fishing in general :)  Also, it never seems to get completely parked out the way a lot of locations do in that vicinity.
 
We had a brief lunch and then I hit the flats with a plastic. Plan was to fish for half an hour with lures then get the kids and target fish with bread. In this time I managed to get a small flatty:
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Fishing on, I had chat to a nice dad with his kids trapping poddies. By then I had a top water tied on and had a couple of hits while we were chatting.
 
Then I went to get the kids, got a bread berley trail and started fishing for poddies and gars. My five year old is really starting to show a bit of talent. I had only shown her how to cast the previous day and here she was baiting up, casting to fish, watching the float/bait and then hooking/landing the fish, all on her own. She managed a few poddies and one gar. I had a go as well and we finished the session with a double hookup on a poddy and a small bream respectively.
 
Surf topwater flatties?
Got back to the holiday house and again everyone wanted to stay home, so I applied for a leave pass to go down to the beach. This time the beach was busier, but there were still plenty of gutters to fish.
 
I only had manky frozen bait prawns on me so after a few half hearted casts, I switched to a five inch Halco Madeye plastic on a 1/6oz 4/0 jighead. Moving along the beach I encountered another fisho who was fishing with a bream luring outfit. Wait a sec…is that a topwater lure? I asked him how he was going and he said he was getting into a few flatties! Now flatties on topwater in the surf, now THAT is something! Quite plausible given the gutter was quite shallow and calm relative to the water around it.
 
Sure enough, next cast I got a solid bump, then another, but didn’t hook up. Get the lure back in the gutter and bump then hook up to something with flatty like headshakes. It felt like it had quite a bit of weight to it, but the swell on a beach has a way of making small fish feel huge.
 
Alas, the fish didn’t stay attached for long and it was time to head home to cook dinner once again. Frustrating, but at least now I have experienced first hand that bread and butter luring off the beach is a thing. Something to explore in the future.
 
The final day
On the final day I really wanted another go at the Forster luderick, but no one was keen to make the trek over. In retrospect it was a good decision, as the one hour return trip would’ve just added to our seven (!) hour trip home.
 
After a nice breakfast we spent an hour on the beach where the kids caught a few pippis and even a couple of 5cm beach worms. This session was strictly catch and release. At the end we amused ourselves with a worms va pippies race; the species that dug itself out of sight first would win. The worms won by a few mm.
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We finished the fishing for the trip at Tarbuck bay where I half heartedly cast a slippery dog around (very promising looking surface water) but the decided to focus on the kids. My youngest caught some more poddies and toads and then we managed to catch a little mangrove crab out of a crevice on the boat ramp, which was tempted by a piece of prawn.
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The family had conniptions when I was trying to flip it over to see if it was male or female. They were terrified of me getting nipped! 🤣 Anyhow, after working out it was male, Mr crab was sent back to the crevice he came from and we went home.
 
Traffic was terrible coming back down the coast. What would've been a few ten min snarls turned into series of hour and a half affairs. But we all came back satisfied at having had a good holiday.
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That sounds like a fun trip @Little_Flatty! On top of fishing skills , you definitely excel in squeezing as much fishing time as possible hahahaha! And there re quite some fish by my standard!

Pity you didn't hook anything jigging jigging, trust me it's easier than topwater! I've been having donuts while you're away 🤮😭

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That’s an epic. I’m glad you got into a few fish when the opportunity came up.

My Grandparents retired to Forster, I spent a bit of time up there, still do, but I tend more to Boomerang and Elizabeth now.

I really felt for you when Ton’O’Fun or whatever was closed, just like Chevy Chase in National Lampoons Vacation.

Teaching the kids to catch pipis and beach worms can be very rewarding for both parties. Bodyboarding down the sandhill at One Mile can keep them entertained especially when the mullet are running in April May and big fish are on offer right there at the north end.

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Posted (edited)
8 hours ago, lhan said:

That sounds like a fun trip @Little_Flatty! On top of fishing skills , you definitely excel in squeezing as much fishing time as possible hahahaha! And there re quite some fish by my standard!

Pity you didn't hook anything jigging jigging, trust me it's easier than topwater! I've been having donuts while you're away 🤮😭

Sure was fun @lhan. Yeah it just wasn’t my day with the jigs.

Topwater season is yet to fully get into swing. Give it a few weeks!

8 hours ago, Ryder said:

That’s an epic. I’m glad you got into a few fish when the opportunity came up.

My Grandparents retired to Forster, I spent a bit of time up there, still do, but I tend more to Boomerang and Elizabeth now.

I really felt for you when Ton’O’Fun or whatever was closed, just like Chevy Chase in National Lampoons Vacation.

Teaching the kids to catch pipis and beach worms can be very rewarding for both parties. Bodyboarding down the sandhill at One Mile can keep them entertained especially when the mullet are running in April May and big fish are on offer right there at the north end.

Cheers @Ryder. Would’ve been fun visiting the grandparents. We had a look at boomerang beach but it was hectic over the long weekend 

The kids loved their pippi collecting. I did think about trying beach worming but we just ran out of time. Maybe next beach holiday I’ll give it a shot.

Edited by Little_Flatty
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Sounds like you had a fun time Mike, though the larger fish did not co-operate. Some are better than none at all. Keeping the kids happy is part of the adventure, even bait catching is different for them. Take a nipper pump next time.

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6 hours ago, Yowie said:

Sounds like you had a fun time Mike, though the larger fish did not co-operate. Some are better than none at all. Keeping the kids happy is part of the adventure, even bait catching is different for them. Take a nipper pump next time.

Almost did Dave! Probably should've. They would've loved to pump them. Using them for bait is another matter though, they'd definitely need my help!

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2 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

Almost did Dave! Probably should've. They would've loved to pump them. Using them for bait is another matter though, they'd definitely need my help!

My grandsons are not that old, love their fishing, and us oldies pumping nippers. A nip on their fingers makes them learn about the nipper's nipper, so they are more careful picking them up. 

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17 minutes ago, Yowie said:

My grandsons are not that old, love their fishing, and us oldies pumping nippers. A nip on their fingers makes them learn about the nipper's nipper, so they are more careful picking them up. 

If my kids got nipped by a nipper, you'd be able to hear them all the way from your place...when we're in Forster! 🤣 Soft city kids that we're raising here :D

 

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Sounds like a great few days away with something for everyone Mike.

Laughed at the spider/crab. Why is it everything we see unexpectedly is either a spider or a snake?

Great report and nice to see you out enjoying life with the family.
 

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2 hours ago, Green Hornet said:

Sounds like a great few days away with something for everyone Mike.

Laughed at the spider/crab. Why is it everything we see unexpectedly is either a spider or a snake?

Great report and nice to see you out enjoying life with the family.
 

Cheers Pete, yes it was a fun trip. I did think that the spider incident would give most a laugh. I really need to invest more in the kids’ fishing as it pays massive dividends. If I work at it, I might have novice lure chickens by the end of summer.

14 minutes ago, Larkin said:

Sounds like it was great to get away Mike!
and a good few fishing sessions with the kids

Enjoyed reading your report!

Cheers Chris, no notable fish but plenty of stories and memories!

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What a lovely recount of your time away with the family Mike. I know how much fun that you had just from reading the series of wins/losses/draws as you negotiated you time management to keep everybody happy. Very well deserved recognition for a lovely write up of your time away. You won't remember the traffic on the way home when you all think back  to the great holiday break that you shared.

Top stuff, bn

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Thanks for the report. The slow fishing is a common issue at the moment unfortunately.

I'm probably not telling you something you don't already know but those few sessions with the kids builds into a lifetime of fishing as they soak it up.

 

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2 hours ago, big Neil said:

What a lovely recount of your time away with the family Mike. I know how much fun that you had just from reading the series of wins/losses/draws as you negotiated you time management to keep everybody happy. Very well deserved recognition for a lovely write up of your time away. You won't remember the traffic on the way home when you all think back  to the great holiday break that you shared.

Top stuff, bn

Cheers Neil. I’m glad the kids are finally into the fishing and just being kids in nature.

9 minutes ago, Hoods said:

Thanks for the report. The slow fishing is a common issue at the moment unfortunately.

I'm probably not telling you something you don't already know but those few sessions with the kids builds into a lifetime of fishing as they soak it up.

 

Cheers Hoods, I must say that the kids fishing trips were far more rewarding than my solo sessions, especially seeing my youngest’s skills develop so quickly. I will be very glad indeed if they grow up to be capable of catching a feed.

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