Making the best of bad weather

[Jeremy87]

I promised one of the young fellas from work that i'd take him for a fish this week. We planned on heading down the tweed to chase some wild bass but the weather looked average and it didn't make the drive seem worth while. so to keep my promise we had a late sart and fished either side of high tide at the top of tinny creek (i figured i didn't have to drive over an hour and a half to get wet, i could do that 5 minutes down the road). When we lauched at 11ish the tide was still roaring in and my intentions to paddle downstream were swept away, literally. So instead we followed the tide up to the dam wall. Jake aked what are we likely to hook on to? "Mostly bream, but you can get bass jacks flathead cod and tarpon up here aswell". 'whats a tarpon?' he asked "try to think of them as an angry herring" i replied. So after 5 minutes of flicking my little plastic gets slammed out in the open, the silver flash from the strike was clearly visible in the dirty water. Strait away i call it for a tarpon and just as i was thinking i might land him he took to the air and sent my jig head flying. "Looks like a very angry herring to me" Jake declared.

We kept working upstream for little result until jake hooks up and pulls in a solid tilapia, good fight but not what we were after. We make our way right up to the wall and as jake is unsnagging his lure my little plastic gets slammed by another really healthy tilapia. It only went 40cm but the height and girth of the thing made it every bit of 4lb. By now the tide had began to slow and we turned around and started heading for home, we landed 2 bream, a flathead and an estuary cod between us. We stoped and gave the spot i dropped the tarpon another go only to be slammed a couple of times again but no hook up.

All in all not a bad day considering the wind and the rain.

[chief]

G/day Jeremy, Whats the go on those things, are you surposed to kill them and dispose of them.They are an introduced species aren't they? Excuse my naivety, I had no idea they had bred and established themselves in Tinnie creek. Good on ya on taking the young bloke out , Cheers

[dogsbody]

Howdy, Ive never been up that far of Tinny ck usually just to the deep hole. Good to see a bit of action up there.

Whats your biggest Tarpon from there? Did you release the Tilapia on the bank? It's amazing how fish can get a finhold in an area where they should not be.


Dave.

[Horse]

Thats a big chunk of Talapia your holding there Jeremy. Good old Tinny might be the only chance for a fish with the weather coming in

[Jeremy87]

Yeh the tilapia made there way onto the bank, with a bit of a sore head. They've come from above the dam wall. All i takes is someone to put them in a farm dam that overflows into catchment and all of a sudden they're into a major waterway. I've also seen them in the ponds at howsten golf coarse. They are well and truely established in the dam and the creek below.

As for the tarpon i've landed 2 or 3 and had another half a dozen or so jump me off. They've all been less than 40cm.

[ffejsmada]

Apparently Tilapia aren't bad on the chew.

[kingkev]

Phillipinos love Talapia. taste like *&%$#@

Smack em on the head and let the flies take care of it. They are terrorists

[theclick]

Unfortunately there are a bunch of them in tinny creek. I was having a round of golf at the course there with a few mates one day and ht a wayward one into one of the waterholes. Saw something scatter, so i went over to have a look and there are about 5-6 good sized tilapia in just one little watertrap, which is ofcourse connected to the creek.

Tis a shame really.

I gotta get my kayak down to that creek to have a go. Anyone got any hints as to where the holes are ect? Still dont have a sounder

Where abouts did you launch from mate?