Synful
10-03-2007, 09:59 PM
After the last two days we received a bit of rain so I thought the rivers and creeks would be a good chance to get a fish or at least have a bit of success and break my drought.
I decided to head to Dead Mans creek at Kewarra Beach (Palm Cove side) this morning at around 6:00am as it has always looked to hold jacks (see photos at bottom of report). Another bonus is that it drains out to the beach but never really enough other than to allow small bait fish in and out unless there is a large tide or lots of rain.
I had some mud herring that I purchased from Bransfords the previous afternoon and after some limited success with the one that I had frozen at Palm Cove Jetty the previous weekend; I figured that it would probably be a good bet given that poddy mullet (unless you want to buy frozen one and even then, they) are scarce as hens teeth.
My first cast yielded some small bites and one decent hit but with the tide due to peak at around 8:10am I figured that things would be a matter of time. After the first 30 minutes I thought that it may be worth going over to the other side of the creek as it had better access to further up the creek as well as the areas on the side I was on now.
Given that there is a croc in this creek I made sure that the water wasn't too deep flowing into the creek and found a nice section around ankle deep that I could walk over without any difficulty. After setting up here I cast out and there was nothing happening. After a while my line took off but went slack again; this cheered me up a bit and I was well and truly awake now.
I then brought the bait in and it was still in good nick so out it went again and this time I kept hold of the rod. I cast upstream towards an overhanging tree that had some disturbances around it in the last 20 or so minutes; further upstream I noticed that there was a black couloured fin out of the water and it seemed to go back underneath again reasonably slowly - I kept this in the back of my mind in case of a shark.
This cast was yielding nothing; then another guy turned up wearing a blue and white floral shirt.
Seemed that he was an employee at the Resort in front of the creek on a break; this guy was a class A tool. Despite me throwing out before him, he threw out with his gold bomber lure right over the top of my line and after three successive casts over it, he managed to snare my line.
He reeled in his line and didn't even apologise after 5 minutes of untangling the lure from my mono, he just moved off; no sorry, nothing - just "bastards courtesy". For someone working in hospitality, he needs to learn some manners... >:(
Anyway, after this twit left, I cast out again after seeing the same black fin this time in front of the tree that I previously cast to. I got a better look at it this time and found that it had a forked tail and more grey in colour - possibly a blue salmon? This thing was about a metre in length judging from the exposed fin and tail as it fed on fish on top of the water.
I managed to get the bait right into the zone and hung on.
About two minutes went by and then a slight tap, then sprint!! I tried to set the hooks but no joy and the bait came out of the mouth :(
After I reeled it in, there was a nice concave clean cut just below the bottom of the neck of the bait leaving the back and tail in tact; guess where my hooks were? That's right, in the back.
Oh well, time for a new bait.
Cast out again at the tree and after about 10 minutes another tap tap and then tug. Again I tried setting the hooks but there was nothing and the line felt really light. On bringing in the bait, I found that the fish had been decapitated leaving only the head still on the hooks just below the gills. At this point I was starting to understand how Richie feels recently with his Jack fortunes :-/
That was pretty much it for the morning, I had a few more smaller bites later but nothing that was definitely a big fish.
One thing that I did notice from the morning was the amount of small Jacks swimming around in the water; all between 7cm and 10cm long the larger ones were quite happy to swim up close to the edge of the water and see what I was doing then dissapear back to their deeper vantage points.
Another interesting thing that I noticed was that they were following a small muddie ('bout 10cm across) around the bottom that had a fish trying to steal his food. It was fascinating watching these smaller fish and how they actually attack their food and possibly a method that they continue with later in life.
Another aspect I thought interesting was that they were hunting in packs of between 3 and 5, not as individuals; indicating that they are a species with enough intelligence to organise a "group ambush".
Not a productive morning but still better than working!! ;D 8-) ;D
I decided to head to Dead Mans creek at Kewarra Beach (Palm Cove side) this morning at around 6:00am as it has always looked to hold jacks (see photos at bottom of report). Another bonus is that it drains out to the beach but never really enough other than to allow small bait fish in and out unless there is a large tide or lots of rain.
I had some mud herring that I purchased from Bransfords the previous afternoon and after some limited success with the one that I had frozen at Palm Cove Jetty the previous weekend; I figured that it would probably be a good bet given that poddy mullet (unless you want to buy frozen one and even then, they) are scarce as hens teeth.
My first cast yielded some small bites and one decent hit but with the tide due to peak at around 8:10am I figured that things would be a matter of time. After the first 30 minutes I thought that it may be worth going over to the other side of the creek as it had better access to further up the creek as well as the areas on the side I was on now.
Given that there is a croc in this creek I made sure that the water wasn't too deep flowing into the creek and found a nice section around ankle deep that I could walk over without any difficulty. After setting up here I cast out and there was nothing happening. After a while my line took off but went slack again; this cheered me up a bit and I was well and truly awake now.
I then brought the bait in and it was still in good nick so out it went again and this time I kept hold of the rod. I cast upstream towards an overhanging tree that had some disturbances around it in the last 20 or so minutes; further upstream I noticed that there was a black couloured fin out of the water and it seemed to go back underneath again reasonably slowly - I kept this in the back of my mind in case of a shark.
This cast was yielding nothing; then another guy turned up wearing a blue and white floral shirt.
Seemed that he was an employee at the Resort in front of the creek on a break; this guy was a class A tool. Despite me throwing out before him, he threw out with his gold bomber lure right over the top of my line and after three successive casts over it, he managed to snare my line.
He reeled in his line and didn't even apologise after 5 minutes of untangling the lure from my mono, he just moved off; no sorry, nothing - just "bastards courtesy". For someone working in hospitality, he needs to learn some manners... >:(
Anyway, after this twit left, I cast out again after seeing the same black fin this time in front of the tree that I previously cast to. I got a better look at it this time and found that it had a forked tail and more grey in colour - possibly a blue salmon? This thing was about a metre in length judging from the exposed fin and tail as it fed on fish on top of the water.
I managed to get the bait right into the zone and hung on.
About two minutes went by and then a slight tap, then sprint!! I tried to set the hooks but no joy and the bait came out of the mouth :(
After I reeled it in, there was a nice concave clean cut just below the bottom of the neck of the bait leaving the back and tail in tact; guess where my hooks were? That's right, in the back.
Oh well, time for a new bait.
Cast out again at the tree and after about 10 minutes another tap tap and then tug. Again I tried setting the hooks but there was nothing and the line felt really light. On bringing in the bait, I found that the fish had been decapitated leaving only the head still on the hooks just below the gills. At this point I was starting to understand how Richie feels recently with his Jack fortunes :-/
That was pretty much it for the morning, I had a few more smaller bites later but nothing that was definitely a big fish.
One thing that I did notice from the morning was the amount of small Jacks swimming around in the water; all between 7cm and 10cm long the larger ones were quite happy to swim up close to the edge of the water and see what I was doing then dissapear back to their deeper vantage points.
Another interesting thing that I noticed was that they were following a small muddie ('bout 10cm across) around the bottom that had a fish trying to steal his food. It was fascinating watching these smaller fish and how they actually attack their food and possibly a method that they continue with later in life.
Another aspect I thought interesting was that they were hunting in packs of between 3 and 5, not as individuals; indicating that they are a species with enough intelligence to organise a "group ambush".
Not a productive morning but still better than working!! ;D 8-) ;D