Mozza
23-10-2006, 09:19 PM
This is the first of 2 reports.
Took the kids down to the Ross River last Fri night while the boss was out to tea and had a ball. The kids disappeared on some mission or another leaving me to collect the bait without the bucket carriers. 3 casts and that was all she wrote on the live bait requirements for the evening so I had time to settle down, set the rods and crack a coldie. Nothing much for the first hour or so but, as usual as the sun touched the horizon the bait schools started to get a bit skittish in the big hole below Aplins wier.
I had 3 lines, one out on a balloon, one unweighted hanging off the edge of the shallows and a third on a small running sinker in the deeper section. As usual it was the unweighted greenback that got hammered first and I gave the rod to the youngest to pull in a fat little jack of around 15cm. A quick look at the stunning colouration and the fangs on the little finger-stabbing critters and back-in she went to go and terrorise another poor greenback or three.
I replaced the spotty herring on the balloon with a mullet and tossed the half-dead herring into the briney in front of me only to have it smashed by a barra! Holy Cr@p says I and the adrenalin factor rises a few notches.
About 15min later all hell breaks loose, I've never seen it like that here - barra were literally 'boofing' everywhere. I pull in the mullet pop the balloon and toss it as far as I can to where I could see some major action going on. Into the tube the rod goes and I race off to rebait the free-floater with another greenback. A quick flick sees the braid running off the calcutta nicely as the herring lands in the 123cm spot from last year. Jonty calls out "Dad your rod!", my mullet has been absolutely smashed out in the middle - there's flippin' swirls and boils all over where it was and the rod is bending over. "Oh cr@p!" says I, "I forgot to leave the bailing arm open". So it's action stations and off the scale on the adrenalin factor as I drop the rod (with the $250 calcutta) and start to head toward the rod. Jonty yells out again "Dad, your other rod!" Huh?
I look down to see my calcutta 100 attempting to mimic a submarine at 50knots with "DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!" echoing through the P.A. Here's a choice - another metre-plus barra or a $250 reel. "Bugger" says I as I rush back, grab the rapidly fleeing rod and reel and hand the rod to Jonty "This one's yours son" wasn't what I said but I think he got the drift. Splash, splash, splash as I attempt the 10m dash in ankle-deep water and believe it or not the rod is still bending over and the adrenalin helps me make a very unfortunate decision. My thought is "it's been long enough" so I go to set the hook and miss. Dammit, I've disregarded my own rule for fishing down here - the barra wasn't going anywhere in a hurry otherwise the drag would've been screaming. It was probably spooked a little by the drag and when I set the hook, it just let it go....
Result for the night: one jack, one GT at around 40cm (Well done Jonty for landing that one!!!) and one entirely scaled mullet with popped eyes and blood oozing from it gills.
Took the kids down to the Ross River last Fri night while the boss was out to tea and had a ball. The kids disappeared on some mission or another leaving me to collect the bait without the bucket carriers. 3 casts and that was all she wrote on the live bait requirements for the evening so I had time to settle down, set the rods and crack a coldie. Nothing much for the first hour or so but, as usual as the sun touched the horizon the bait schools started to get a bit skittish in the big hole below Aplins wier.
I had 3 lines, one out on a balloon, one unweighted hanging off the edge of the shallows and a third on a small running sinker in the deeper section. As usual it was the unweighted greenback that got hammered first and I gave the rod to the youngest to pull in a fat little jack of around 15cm. A quick look at the stunning colouration and the fangs on the little finger-stabbing critters and back-in she went to go and terrorise another poor greenback or three.
I replaced the spotty herring on the balloon with a mullet and tossed the half-dead herring into the briney in front of me only to have it smashed by a barra! Holy Cr@p says I and the adrenalin factor rises a few notches.
About 15min later all hell breaks loose, I've never seen it like that here - barra were literally 'boofing' everywhere. I pull in the mullet pop the balloon and toss it as far as I can to where I could see some major action going on. Into the tube the rod goes and I race off to rebait the free-floater with another greenback. A quick flick sees the braid running off the calcutta nicely as the herring lands in the 123cm spot from last year. Jonty calls out "Dad your rod!", my mullet has been absolutely smashed out in the middle - there's flippin' swirls and boils all over where it was and the rod is bending over. "Oh cr@p!" says I, "I forgot to leave the bailing arm open". So it's action stations and off the scale on the adrenalin factor as I drop the rod (with the $250 calcutta) and start to head toward the rod. Jonty yells out again "Dad, your other rod!" Huh?
I look down to see my calcutta 100 attempting to mimic a submarine at 50knots with "DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!" echoing through the P.A. Here's a choice - another metre-plus barra or a $250 reel. "Bugger" says I as I rush back, grab the rapidly fleeing rod and reel and hand the rod to Jonty "This one's yours son" wasn't what I said but I think he got the drift. Splash, splash, splash as I attempt the 10m dash in ankle-deep water and believe it or not the rod is still bending over and the adrenalin helps me make a very unfortunate decision. My thought is "it's been long enough" so I go to set the hook and miss. Dammit, I've disregarded my own rule for fishing down here - the barra wasn't going anywhere in a hurry otherwise the drag would've been screaming. It was probably spooked a little by the drag and when I set the hook, it just let it go....
Result for the night: one jack, one GT at around 40cm (Well done Jonty for landing that one!!!) and one entirely scaled mullet with popped eyes and blood oozing from it gills.