Estuary expedition

[Maria]

Visited an estuary land based spot today with Dylan for the afternoon's high tide using live mullet. Got a few alright runs, but no solid hookups. Managed two decent sea mullet and a nice sized flatty in the net while trying to get bait. Got a nice hit on one of the livies just on the turn of the tide which soon turned into a snag, but alas, a short cold swim later had an estuary cod removed from it's haunt. Nice looking fish, but just under legal, so bad she went.

We ran out of livies just after the high, so the lures came out with only one touch but no hookup. With the net wrecked on a snag earlier, we tried to get some more livies and managed to score a few which produced nothing on the runout tide.

Sea mullet and flatty on the table tonight.

Ben

[MTpockets]

Cheers Maria, isnt it amazing how many fish fail to hook up each trip. Be nice to know what some of them are, but thats the lucky draw with fishing, good and the bad.
At least you have a nice feed mate, cant be unhappy with that [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[philip_thomson]

sounds like you had a better day than me. i hate getting nets snagged but it is life. the sea mullet and flatty should make for a good dinner better than macaroni cheese :-)
cheers philip

[Dylan_Rylatt]

thx for the day benny top effort mate. the highlight of the day for me was using half a net to still get mullet...

Dylan

[philip_thomson]

half a net to get mullet ??? hmm sounds confusing that would be an intersting sight. was it in half vertically or horizontally?
philip

[Maria]

The net had the bottom string of leads torn from the netting itself for about 1.5m of it's length, and the tope that all the leads are on had actually snapped. So, we had a net missing its leads on one third of it, and a length of rope/lead trailing out the back for about 1.5m.

Made for interesting casting, that's for sure. Was fine, just had to make sure the front of the net was the bit with the leads attached and that you ducked when you threw it, so as to save the back of your head from the follow through on the string of leads.

Ben

[bidkev]

Yeah Ben......bloody amazing how many "runs" fail to materialise into a hook-up :-(

You only have to watch fish feeding in an aquarium to appreciate just how many of them do the "suck, spit,suck spit and suck again" routine to feed, even though the food is familair to them. How to know just when they're in the middle of a suck is the key to hook-up and I don't see how us fishos can ever truly know that.

Better luck next time and hard shit with the net mate.

cheers

kev

[Dylan_Rylatt]

good point kingtin never really thaught of it like that. Reminds me of some of the girlz i used to hook up with in town. I guess maybe we gotta give the fish more time to swallow

[el_carpo]

Try using a stinger hook. That may help you get those short biters. Helped me once. I noticed my nightcrawlers were getting bit off short of the hook. I threw on a stinger and whammo! Got that pesky walleye. ;)

[DaneCross]

ROFLMAO Dylan ;D ;D ;D

[Maria]

Oh Dylan, Dylan, Dylan...did we really have to be informed of your late night antics and the patrons you serve in the valley? ;D

Yeah, very good point there Kev. Usually with live baits we don't have to worry about the fish sucking and dropping as they just hit the bait and go for it. I think the problem we're finding, is that being lazy bastards, we have our rods propped in the most appropriate tree with the drags set really light - while we stand around chatting. When the runs come, we're usually too late to get to the rod because I'm assuming the fish has felt the resistance from the drag, although it's set as light as possible, and dropped the bait. It's when they feel the resistance in the bait fish that they drop it, I think.

Ben

[cHiCo]

yeh being with ya rod is what ya gotta do to ensure a more succesful hook up rate. most of the time we are off piss farting around and talking when the ratchet screams off. what we end up with is a headless or tailless fish or nothing at all.Tough luck

[Maria]

Quite scary when you bring your tail-less bait in to find a series of large teeth wounds around the body of your baitfish. It's a tough world if you're a mullet. ;D

Ben

[Thunderbird]

Benny come on. Mullet for tea :P
use to get livies out the mouth of aquatic, prawns, gar and mullet.

[Maria]

Lol Roota....when are we goin fishin mate! Aquatic used to be sterling for bait...really died in the bum these days though. Got a fair few prawns out of their earlier in the season too.

Ben