Twilight in Townsville

[Curmudgeon]

Met up with Mozza down the Ross yesterday evening for a poppering session.

No action to speak of until it got properly dark, when my lure got hammered by a chunky 48cm barra. Great fun on the little 4kg spin stick. I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but that is my biggest barra of the 2008 season thus far.

That spectacular lack of success combined with a catastrophic computer failure has been why I haven't posted in a while.

Hopefully, my fishing mojo may be returning (touch wood), because my very next cast was monstered by an even bigger barra! Alas, no hookup. Despite the appalling hook up rate, poppers at night time in barra country is mega fun. The surface implosion of a strike on a still night really gets the heart pumping and the nerves jangling.

Back to the story. My fishing companion hastened off to meet an appointment several minutes later, and I came tight to another fish as the little skitterpop again disappeared into a hole in the water. After a brief fight, my piscatorial opponent spat the lure back at me. Not cool.

Things went a bit quiet for a while, so I started fanning my casts around a wider area. The lure was crashed once more as it came across a sandbank in mere inches of water! A brief fight at close range and I had my first jack on a popper. Quick pic and he was released. That fish had to have been swimming on his side to get into water that shallow. Crazy stuff.

In summary, a top little session. Even better since it was such a quick, easy, low stress affair. It's food for the soul, I tell ya. Thanks for inviting me, Moz.

And here's hoping my next report won't be so long in the making.

Cheers,
Brian.

[Breambuster33]

good posts. keep them coming

[Fisher4life]

Things have been very quiet from you lately Brian, i was starting to wonder....

Good to hear your starting to get amongst them.

What size did the jack go??

Cheers
Josh

[Curmudgeon]

He measured a whole 34cm, Josh.

It was just a kick to catch my first on a popper. That, and I really wasn't expecting there to be a jack in that sort of area.

We'll have to catch up for a fish again soon.

Brian.

[Keechie]

nice looking jack keep it up.

regards,
keechie

[codz22]

Nice jack mate. Those skitter pops are the go for jacks especially that colour

[gucci84]

nice jack never got one on a popper before but barra just love them
good luck

[Mozza]

And here are mine from the night before.

It's been part of my exploration of the upper reaches of the Ross, testing out where the floods have/have not scoured out deeper holes. This one would be lucky to reach a metre deep, so with no tide and warming during the day in shallow water, the barra are fairly active in the evening. I think.

I caught 3 all around the 50cm in very skinny water. Geez they were hungry - the last hit the popper so hard, it managed to get the bottom trebles into its gullet. I clipped them off and released it in the hope it managed to loosen and drop them.

Cheers
Mozza

[Fishin_Dan]

Good on you Brian! Looks like you had a ball.