Decided to head out yesterday (Sat. 25/9) from Caloundra Power Boat Club and see how we went re the swell and if it was all good go out through the Caloundra bar.
Arrived at the ramp at about 5.15am just on 1st light and we seemed to be the first boat launching so that was a pleasant surprise as a Saturday in the middle of school hols at one of the slickest ramps... things could have been a whole lot worse. Nice start I thought.
Then out to the start of the bar to scope the bar....almost no swell and with a 6am high tide it was an easy cruise out there. From there we headed across to the shallow reefs and with no bait aboard we began to toss some plastics about on the drift. We began with 1/6" jig hds and prongs on some and ZMen on another outfit. The current was gentle but strong enough in 7-12mtrs to make you wonder if you were getting down amongst them. We could see fish on the sounder and it wasn't long before Graeme nailed the first fish of the day. It was a small squire about 25cm.
A couple more drifts and Grameme kept knocking them off but all under sized.
My Son Sam (14yrs) and I were failing to get anything and I decided to change lures and jig heads. Meanwhile Sam (who's gear I left unchanged) nailed a whiptail and then a large Yakka...better than nothing I thought...at least he's getting something...unlike me!
So switched to a 4" berkeley powerbait in a stcikbait style (Walleye) and pearl watermelon colour. A few cats later and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, my line go's off at high speed after casting and before I'd closed the bail arm (note to self...don't handline line off like I'm fishing unweighted pillies) it was racing away. What do I do? In a split second i closed the bail arm and ..... ping. Bust up, braid knot and all gone! Dam I hate that! My 2-4kg Berkeley dropshot and Sol 2000 was now useless until I tied another double-uni so grabbed the heavier outfit I'd brought out to fish bait and tied on another plastic. About this time a school of Mack Tuna began making its way around us with the odd bird diving so had a crack at casting the placcies amongst them but drew a blank.
Graeme offered to tie my double-uni again and a few more drifts later and Graeme suggests we try and motor around near the school. We got in close and this time they came right around us and we kept casting around them though typically they were just out of range when Graeme comes up tight on another squire. Just as he's fighting it I cast out and only a couple of seconds later my 2nd big run for the morning. This time the bail was pre-closed as it should be and I was tight on my light gear. Wow what a run, head shakes, running and going hard with the drag on the 2000 Sol singing...love that sound. Graeme is fighting his fish and calling for the net. I couldn't help as had my own issues and Sam was wrestling the net out of the front of the boat in prep to do the first honours of the morning. After a good fight I bring a 50cm (to the inside of the fork) snapper in and Graeme sadly has another undersized.
We did a few more drifts but by about 9am decided to give it a miss and head in to try for Flatties. Headed in and was walikng the bank and Sam calls out..hey Dad look at what I found?! He comes up to me and presents a brand new Luckycraft Sammy worth about $26. Not a bad find just flaoting past him at 10amish.
Was it a sign of a change for him? I certainly prayed it would as his day had sucked thus far with no keepers.
A bit of bank casting later and nothing and we watched some guys in small tinny with an electric and they were nailing some so we figured it was time to try a drift and cast as we have no lecky.
We tried a couple of spots and Graeme (again) nails a couple of flatties one being a smallish keeper. Fish no2 in the bag. Sam at this point hooks up and has a fish drag him around the anchor. What the?? He loses a nice flattie...dam!
A few more drifts and by now it was 11.30 and time for a change.
What to do?
I'm thinking that we need to try and nail one for Sam before going home so what's the best bet?? You Dad's out there know the feeling1 You just want your lad to get that big one so he gets the full rush of that feeing we all love so much...nailing a big fish!
So we put out a couple of micro mullets and off we went. What hope? Around midday on a Saturday in one of the bussiest waterways near Brissy on the middle school hols weekend trolling with my noisy old 50 Merc 2 stroke. Hmm I thought...we just need to stick at it. We trolled for about one hour (always with the current) and always in close enough to keep the lures bouncing off the bottom.
Getting to 'that time' to call it quits and Sam is cool to knock off and call it a day but I decided to have one more run by a busy Island where loads of boats were anchored up.
Then suddenly....a call I'd been waiting for as I was driving the boat....Sam's hooked up...kill the engine!!
I threw it in neutral and meanwhile 6kg braid is peeling madly off Sam's 2500 Tierra and his 2-4kg Dropshot is in a full working curve. In the distance about 100 mtrs away a veritable crock surfaces with one of those dreaded head shakes....holy moly Graeme and I freaked....this was a big sucker...can Sam land it... I call out to him to jam his rod tip under the water to pull it down again and he does...it pulls heaps more braid off and I swap roles with Graeme who tries to beach the boat whilst I set up for the net (a new very big snapper one I'd just bought thankfully). Finally he gets it in close to the boat and it seems to be heading around the back of the boat near the motor. I short heart failure later and it turns and heads back towards us. I can finally see it now and it looked huge!
The moment of truth arrives and its my turn to see if I can net this sucker. First try was a fail and 2nd similar but Sam was cool and about the 3rd time and with loads of encouragement from Graeme.... and she's in!!!
Wow, turns out to be a 78cm flathead and weighs in at 3.75kg. See the above pics.
We were careful to handle it with the lip grips and a rag to support its body weight for the photo's and then back to breed those little flatties again. What a moment!
So with that amazing end to our day we headed back to the ramp and again whilst busy all around it, we seemd to have a free run.
How good a day??
I'm sure there are those of you who've had plenty better but that'll do me.
We ate fresh boneless snapper fillets for dinner last night and there's a cold one in the fridge waiting for me for a pre-dinner snack tonight.
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