great to finally have a break in the weather, was starting to go crazy. Mate (Outcast) caught and released 3 threadies on Friday night and I met him down there early Sat morning to target one on lures and then we were planing to head out into the bay to chase some mackerel.
Bit harder than usual to get the livies (backup plan) but I got a dozen good size herring and some nice gar which I kept for mackerel baits. Anchored up in the usual spot and threw lures for the next two hours or so. Few boats came and went and another mate (Lundy) of mine found it a little crowded so found himself an alternate spot. He reported 2 caught by others on lures and one by his deckie by about 8 am. None of the boats including me had caught any where I was, so I decided I would go and take his spot as he was ready to head out into the bay.
Dropped the anchor again (no 'leccy) and began casting lures again. I was using the regular jackals, a 5" shad, some other bibless lures (lipless crankbaits) mainly. I decided maybe I would put a bait out while I kept casting lures. I wanted to keep my 3 kg spin and 6 kg baitcast outfits for lures, and the only other gear I had was 1 kg ad 2 kg spin, so I rigged up the 2 kg spin with a herring.
About half an hour later it goes off with a good run. Pretty sure it was a threadie, but there are alot of similarities with the way a 'good' stringray fights in shallow water, so I was not certain and had to wait and see.
I dumped the anchor overboard straight after the first run so I could follow it and to avoid problems with the anchor rope later. It is on a buoy for pickup later. Pretty clean area where I was fishing but there was a shipping marker about 300m away so I tried to lead it/follow it out into the middle of the river where it was cleaner. It was staying deep and occasionally putting on bursts of speed and power. We were gradually heading downstream with the tide and went within 30 m or so of the channel marker. It was hard slog on the 2 kg line (pretest mono). I decided to lead it towards a sandbank to help raise it out of the depths which did gradually work. Went from around 16 m to 3-4 m deep and I finally saw colour after 45 minutes and put lingering doubts about a stingray to rest. They look amazing with their size and golden colour.
I kept this fish to get accurate weight and size measurements for a record claim. 10.00 kg 1173 mm. 950 ANSA points!!
Photo tomorrow.
Good to meet a few other ausfishers and others out on the water. Congrats on ur first threadie Marty and top work on the lure!
Jeremy
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Originally Posted by Greggo1
Keep perservering, you'll get one lurecasting.
