Hi All,
Just back from a weeks family holiday at Yamba. Great spot, and we were very lucky to get some great weather, as everywhere else was copping it.
The river was filthy brown with all the fresh coming through making river fishing tough. There were a fair few small flathead around and reasonable bream. But in general not a lot of joy in the river for most people.
On the tuesday morning I headed over the bar and north to Woody Head and started drifting around for snapper. I was running two rods, one with a 5" jerkshad, and the other with a 7" jerkshad.
The wind was 10knots plus from the south, so the drift was pretty quick, i just set the rods in rod holders and freespooled the Gulps out on 3/8 Oz heads. The first bite was a nice 60ish snapper, and I was still dealing with him when the second rod went off to a similar fish. Both baits back out and a few minutes later another better fish of about 65cm. This is awesome! I continued the drift for another 500m with no more action so I headed back on my GPS track to the start of the drift. (depth 60 - 70feet). The next drift the wind was picking up, things were a bit quieter, and I only picked up one snapper in the high 50s.
I decided on just one more drift before I headed in as it was getting a bit uncomfortable. both rods I was using were 30lb braid and 25lb fluro leader. I decided to put a third rod out, but the only other one I had was a bream rod with 3lb braid, and I rigged it with 14lb leader.
The drift was very quiet, and I was just about to call it quits when the 3lb rod gets smashed and line starts peeling....and peeling, I got one of the other rods in quickly, but looking at the spool I was well into backing (which was 4lb mono). I started the motor and tried to chase the fish, but the other line went under the motor. The run finally slowed and it was a stalemate, so I jammed the rod in the holder, and got the other rod sorted out as quick as I could. As I picked up the little bream rod out of the holder I was down to bugger all line on the spool and the fish started peeling again, but I got the motor into gear and started to chase, and finally put some line on the spool. With the motor idling forward for a long way, I finally got braid back on the spool and then got above the fish. Then it was a dogged fight of give and take for a good ten to fifteen minutes, but I was gaining line slowly. It was hard to tell just how big it was on the light line, but I was giving it as much as I dared. Finally I got colour and it was a good fish, there were a few tense moments getting it to the surface, but finally I got the net under it whoooohooooo... Good fish, as I dropped it on the deck, the jighead fell out, whew! that was close.
On the mat it went 76cm, and it weighed 4.8kg, pretty stoked with that on 3lb line! I headed straight in after that, and it was a slow run home into a stiff southerly - I was only doing 10 - 18km/h and it took me ove 30 mins to get back the bar. (only 10 to get there).
Anyway I was pretty stoked with myself, and got some good snapper fillets out of that lot.
At the park I ran into a mate who only lives about 1k from my place, he was there with his two boys and old man. So the next morning I took out the old man - Tony, and Shane took out his boys. Conditions were better by far, but the fishing was a little slower. On my boat we got one each (Tony's first on SP) in Shane's boat they got four, but the size was down across the board, with the biggest two only going 53 and 55cm. Although one of the boys hooked a stonker early, but got spooled before they were able to give chase. Shane also got rubbed off after a brief fight.
The third morning Shane, and his oldest boy, Bart came out with me. Conditions were good again, and things were pretty slow - again. After about an hour we were yet to get a snapper hit, but then my big rod with a seven inch jerkshad got smashed - you gotta love the way snapper dont stuff around ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ it was a torrid battle on the 30lb/25lb outfit, and up came a cracker 79cm snapper!
The conditions glassed out, and we were getting heaps of red rock cod - Bart was the king of them, he must have caught 20. Then he got a little 38cm snapper, and I got a 52cm or so. We pulled the pin at 10am and cruised home on a glassy sea. Back home the big snap went 5.1kg on the scales. So allthough the fishing wasn't red hot there was some good quality.
Yamba is a great family and fishing destination. So many options and species to chase, plus plenty for the family to do. I only fished for 4 - 5 hrs each day, and the rest of the time we went to the beach, or walks/rides and drives to visit other nearby beaches. We've booked in for longer next year as the seven days went way too quick. Can't wait to get back there again.
Cheers,
Matt
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.....And you can even catch them off your home Turf....
Originally Posted by ddobson
