I got back yesterday from four days at fishing paradise - the Clarence River! I was down there for the Bream Pro event. It was a pretty good comp with 63 boats entered. Plenty of good fish caugth with several over a kilo, biggest 1.15kg I think. Biggest bag of fish 4.15kg.
My best day was the prefish, where me and my mate seemed to catch good fish in most spots we went. Between us we got five around 29 to 31cm, as well as another five or six legal sized.
In the comp I got 2.4kg (five fish bag) day one and 2.2kg on day two and ended up 18th.
Only the top ten get to fish the third day, so on sunday I went Jew fishing instead. I took out an old mate Robert Tombs, who was also keen to try and catch a Jew. Although we had heard that a few Jew had been taken at Middle Wall during the comp. We decided to hit Palmers Island wall so we wouldn’t get in the way of any competing breamers.
I’ve only ever caught a couple of Jewies on Soft Plastics before, both incidental catches while breaming. I’d also lost some good ones on bream gear that I couldn’t stop, including one at Maclean in the prefish. This time I rigged up spefically for the Jewies with a Berkley Dropshot 6-8kg rod matched to an ABU 804 spooled with 20lb fireline and a 40lb Vanish leader. I rigged up a Gulp 6” Grub in Sardine on a 5/8 Oz Saltwater Pro Head and I was ready to go. The big grub has an awesome tail action!
Things were quiet for an hour or so, but right on the tide change, as I was hopping the grub along the bottom in about 35 foot of water when I hooked up to something solid. Initially I though I was snagged but then there were two head shakes before line slowly peeled off the reel. I was on!!!!!!!! The fish steadily peeled line as it headed upstream. I turned the boat towards the middle of the river and powered away on the electric motor to get away from the bank and reduce the chances of the fish finding anything to bust me off on.
The fished slugged it out deep and wasn’t willing to come out from the wall initially. It felt like a strong heavy fish, but it never took any big runs. There were plenty of tell tale Jewie headshakes which got the adrenaline pumping. After about five minutes I felt I had the fish under control and out of danger of busting me off. As I worked it closer to the boat I backed the drag off a little to reduce the chance of pulling hooks.
That first glimpse of a long silver shape materialising out of the depths always gets the heart pumping. Fortunately it didn’t play up at the boat. Rob picked up the Berkley net and said, “How am I going to fit it in this?” I said, “Just get the head and I’ll grab him.” Rob did a good job and I grabbed the frame of the net and lifted the fish aboard, Woooohooooooo!!!!!!!!
It was a very nice Jewie!! and a great feeling to have targeted it specifically and come up with such a great result so quickly. The jighead was firmly embedded deeply into the top of the jewies mouth and the leader was scuffed a fair bit by the Jewies sharp teeth. If I was fishing a lighter leader I may well have lost the fish.
I put the fish on the brag mat and it measured 101.5cm, I’m guessing the weight would have been just over 10kg.
I gave Rob my Jewie rod after that and rigged up the same plastic on a lighter rod. We fished on for another hour, the only other bite was a 23cm bream that ate Rob's 6" Grub!!!
All in all, the Clarence trip was a great experience. Although I didn’t cross paths with any big bream this trip, I learnt a lot and had a good time socialising The Jewie was certainly a bonus! I’m looking forward to the next bream comp and certainly looking forward to getting back to the Clarence next year! Might have to stay for a few extra days Jewie fishing next year!
Cheers,
Matt
BTW Those that haven't experienced a bream comp, the number of big fast boats now is unreal! At least half the field were in 17 to 21ft glass boats with 115hp to 250hp motors plus there are lots of nice tinnies with up to 175hp. I'm still fishing out of my 14ft Edgetracker and 60hp Yammie (and loving it). it does about 55kph top speed. Over four days I used 60 litres of fuel. A mates boat is a 20ft Skeeter with a 200hp Etec does 110kph + and he used over $500 in fuel for the weekend!!!
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Originally Posted by matt fraser
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. Im looking to get the first billfish for my 12 foot quiny this weekend sat 1770
