If you're one of the Iluka fans who loves to fish the main break water, but is scared you're going to break an ankle every time you stumble along it in the pre-dawn darkness, then the news is good. As I prepared to tackle it again on Tuesday morning I firstly found that the road in, which was getting pretty rough when I had been there a few times in the days before, was nice and smooth, freshly graded with new material put down and rolled in. Next I noticed that a large temporary fence had been put around most of the car park and a huge backhoe was taking up a fair part of the parking area. As I started the hike along the break water I saw that the surface had been freshly covered and rolled as well, so that instead of picking your way through a jumble of rocks and boulders there was now a wide smooth path the full width of the break water.
By the time I came back in trucks were backing along the wall to where two backhoes were working digging out the collapsed areas, then dumping loads of material for the backhoes to spread. I don't know how far out the repairs will go but they were already close to the big boulder in the middle of the path just short of the bend in the wall, which is about half the length of the wall. Hopefully they will continue most of the way and you'll be able to ride a bike along the wall at least as far as the steel post.
The weather for this trip was fine and cold most days but the swells were long and large making fishing the headlands difficult. I caught plenty of fish most days without catching anything outstanding. I tried for different species in different locations when I could but only managed two legal flathead for the week and no jew landed, although I probably lost a couple, and no tailor (bigger than 10cm anyway). I did bring a salmon of about three kg to the wall but had the hooks pull just as I was about to lift him.
My best day was my last, although it didn't start out that way. I froze my nuts off standing in the washes at the Bluff trying for luderick from dawn until about 9.00am. By the time I could no longer put the cabbage on my hook because my hands were shaking uncontrollably I had hooked four luderick and landed one. I went back to the cabin and stood under the shower for fifteen minutes until I thawed out, has some breakfast and a lie down. About midday I was almost ready to quit and start packing but I managed to raise enough energy to have one more try. I was fishing a bit of semi-sheltered water because the wind was now blowing 20-25 knots at least and the sea was pretty ugly.
I guess the fish were after a bit of shelter too because there was hot little mixed bite with a fish on almost every throw. I caught a nice lizard, plenty of silver trevally, which gave me a nice workout on the light rig I was using, heaps of tarwhine, a few dart, the odd bream and a few butter bream, just to be a nuisance. I released more than I kept - particularly the tarwhine (20cm is a ridiculous size limit) and the dart. I left them biting as the tide started to push me off the spot. It was a nice way to finish the week.
Cheers Freeeedom
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by stonecold
