Felt like having a fish today, so I imagined the wind wasn't there and headed out in search of a nice early spring jack. I've done a couple of trips lately and things have been dead. Hooked one briefly last trip, but not even any by-catch around. Today was looking fairly similar until a jack hit my big soft prawn while retrieving at speed after a good cast. I put plenty more casts in there, but couldn't get another hit. Persisted further up the creek fishing the edges and bends that were out of the wind a bit. Did I mention that it was blowing it's absolute arse off? Started casting at small snags and shady overhangs when a nice big tree showed up on the sounder. I positioned the boat for a jig with a red prawnstar and before I could even get to the tree I got the unmistaken hit of a healthy jack. Unfortunately the hooks pulled after tearing him out of the trouble. Not happy. Next jig and a similar result except this time the little sucker held on and found it's way into the net. On the board, but the score is still 2-1 to the fish. Next jig and I get the big hit. Once you've caught a few jacks you tend to know what a big fish hits like and this one was no exception. I gave it heaps but within a couple of seconds it was all over. Not wasting any time I threw that rod down and grabbed the next which was also rigged with red. Another drift and I loaded up another smallish jack only to tear the hooks out again. Ahhhhhhh! Things went a little quiet after that so I moved a bit further down and found some more structure. First jig and I'm on to a good fish. Got it out of the bad stuff and just got colour of a fish in the high 40's and the bloody hooks come out again. By this stage I'm pretty pissed off, so decide to have a couple of casts and get another hit on the prawny. This time I don't load up and that signals an end to the day as I had to get home in a hurry. Strapped it all the way out and decide to stop at a special little spot that often holds good fish early and late in the season. I've given this spot plenty of attention over the last month and haven't even scored a hit, but I had to have one quick cast. It was very open to the howling wind, but the honeypot prawn landed on the money and on the first flick it gets nailed and another little jack comes aboard. This one was pretty skanky lookin and had obviously been in a bit of a stoush before. He too went back in and the next cast drew a blank. One more cast, and it too was belted with another little jack in the net. This was the biggest fish of the day and was a real dark red. Nice looking fish! Got snagged on the next throw and pulled the pin. Finished up with 3 jacks out of nine hits with one mega bust up and the rest either pulled hooks or failure to hook up. All fish were only rats. 37, 35, and 34cm A good trip, especially in conditions like today. Cheers. Keith
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Originally Posted by Creek Vermin
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