fishingnottake
29-03-2006, 11:05 PM
Was feeling restless Monday night so decided to head down to talle bridge for a quick flick around with the sp's i had been concentrating on chinderah and the tweed so hadn;t been there for about a week. Wasn't expecting anything too serious just the usual flathead, and Moses perch etc so only took my plastics bag and the 10lb braid rig. I got there and apart from a few people wetting lines on the other side of the bridge and a couple of the ever present cast netters wasn't too crowded, rigged up with a 10kg leader (you need the thicker leader to have any chance of lifting them bigger ones put of the water) and sent out a few casts with the atomics got one smallish (36cm) bar tailed but nothing too serious so switched to 65mm drop bears; sent a cast out to a likely looking drop off and BANG solid hook up plenty of head-shakes and a few nice runs and a croc comes to the surface but unfortunately I had a bit of a rush of blood to the head (or a sudden drop in oxygen you decide) and tried dead lifting it straight up got it almost to the rail when it did a big twist and shake and snapped the line, so with much cursing and kicking myself tied another jig head on rigged up the sp and sent another one out to a slighter bigger depression, another solid hook-up not as big as the first one but still nice, this time did the right thing and walked the flatty to the shore then it was the usual mad scramble down the side of the bridge to get to him before he flipped back into the water, retrieved him, measured and he went 45cm then sent him back.
I continued fishing and for the next hour it was much of the same a couple of flathead of about average size a few were kept for the bbq most where thrown back and one solitary cod that nailed the sp on the surface.Suddenly just as the plastic gets to be level with my feet it was smacked hard, as soon as it hit I knew it was a jack so I was sitting there with one hand one the spool and the other trying like buggery to muscle the jack back out of the pylons and praying to all applicable deity's that the braid holds, that the knot holds.. even that the bloody rod holds, after about a good 2 minutes of just straight trying to wear the jack down I figured it was now or never, so I slowly started trying to walk it along the bridge, which involves not only keeping him off the pylons but also having to pass the rod around light poles one handed then trying to beach it and slide down the concrete slope, but eventually I made it picked him up and carried him back to my you beaut live well (a big storage tub with an air-pump) so photo's and measurements could be taken and he came in at 41 cm. After multiple MMS' were sent out (sorry rajawolf etc.) I then got back to the serious art of catching more jacks, I then spent the next ten minutes casting and retrieving for not so much as a sniff when I realised I might be slightly too enthusiastic with my retrieve, so took a few deep breaths sent the plastic out along the face of the bridge <twitch> <lift> <twitch> <BANG> I was on again this one hit hard and fought well above his weight but when I saw him I knew he was undersized after about reasonably short and brutal fight I dead lifted him up measured him and he was only 32 cm, so after the photo I sent him back down and got back to it, but the tide turned about half an hour after that and the fish just went off the bite, well for me; there was a south African on the other side of the bridge who was pulling in monster bream hand over fist (what is it with south African's and fishing?) but he doesn't count :P I here's a pic of the bigger one you'll have to excuse the quality I only had my phone for it (always the way) and I'll upload the other jack when I retrieve my digi.
I continued fishing and for the next hour it was much of the same a couple of flathead of about average size a few were kept for the bbq most where thrown back and one solitary cod that nailed the sp on the surface.Suddenly just as the plastic gets to be level with my feet it was smacked hard, as soon as it hit I knew it was a jack so I was sitting there with one hand one the spool and the other trying like buggery to muscle the jack back out of the pylons and praying to all applicable deity's that the braid holds, that the knot holds.. even that the bloody rod holds, after about a good 2 minutes of just straight trying to wear the jack down I figured it was now or never, so I slowly started trying to walk it along the bridge, which involves not only keeping him off the pylons but also having to pass the rod around light poles one handed then trying to beach it and slide down the concrete slope, but eventually I made it picked him up and carried him back to my you beaut live well (a big storage tub with an air-pump) so photo's and measurements could be taken and he came in at 41 cm. After multiple MMS' were sent out (sorry rajawolf etc.) I then got back to the serious art of catching more jacks, I then spent the next ten minutes casting and retrieving for not so much as a sniff when I realised I might be slightly too enthusiastic with my retrieve, so took a few deep breaths sent the plastic out along the face of the bridge <twitch> <lift> <twitch> <BANG> I was on again this one hit hard and fought well above his weight but when I saw him I knew he was undersized after about reasonably short and brutal fight I dead lifted him up measured him and he was only 32 cm, so after the photo I sent him back down and got back to it, but the tide turned about half an hour after that and the fish just went off the bite, well for me; there was a south African on the other side of the bridge who was pulling in monster bream hand over fist (what is it with south African's and fishing?) but he doesn't count :P I here's a pic of the bigger one you'll have to excuse the quality I only had my phone for it (always the way) and I'll upload the other jack when I retrieve my digi.