A day out with the grandkids

[Freeeedom]

With swimming, dancing, athletics, music, gym etc, etc, etc - grandkids seem to lead far more hectic lives than I did when I was their age. But I always try to get them on the water at least once during the school holidays - and yesterday was the day for our family 'picnic on The Island'. With the help of the son-in-law we set up some shade, table and chairs on the point on the northern side of the Pine between the bridges and Dohle's rocks and then ferried the rest of the family down from Deep Water Bend in a couple of trips.
The weather was perfect and quite some time was spent exploring the foreshore, studying the wildlife and playing with dried jellyfish frisbees, but with the tide right on the turn it was time for some fishing. We ran down to the shade of the bridges and fished over a spot where I'd dumped a bucket of berley earlier in the day. There was (fortunately) a hot little bream bite and over a couple of trips they (we) caught a total of 17 bream, of which 4 were keepers. I even managed to throw the cast net over some garfish in the berley trail at the back of the boat as we were leaving and get a couple of decent river gar. The main thing was a great time was had by all and we pulled stumps after lunch before the northerly got too strong.
Cheers Freeeedom

[fisho8]

Well done mate hope to do that with my grandkids one day but that is a while off yet good to see the all had fun and you got some nice fish.

[kind_cir]

Well done, and I always find the kids will out fish you.

Interesting to note that you dumped a bucket of burley eariler in the day. Do you tie it to a weight and float ?

[Freeeedom]

Well done, and I always find the kids will out fish you.

Interesting to note that you dumped a bucket of burley eariler in the day. Do you tie it to a weight and float ?

No - After setting up the site I went down to the bridges to the spot I was going to fish and simply poured about half a bucket of chicken pellets which had absorbed about half a cup of tuna oil into the spot I was going to cast to later on. I knew that, with the run-out tide slowing to the turn, the berley, resting on the bottom, would not quickly wash away even though the pellets would break down. I know this having used the same technique in other locations where the water was clear enough to actually see the berley on the bottom - the berley collects in lines in the ripple marks on the bottom and lasts a surprisingly long time even when the tidal run gets quite fast. When I returned to fish the area about two hours later the tide had turned but was only slowly starting to run in. I put out a berley trail from the boat and was getting fish within a minute or two of starting. I'm pretty sure that the fish had been drawn by the earlier berley dump and the new berley trail lined them up behind the boat waiting their turn to make a young kids day.
Cheers Freeeedom

[kind_cir]

No - After setting up the site I went down to the bridges to the spot I was going to fish and simply poured about half a bucket of chicken pellets which had absorbed about half a cup of tuna oil into the spot I was going to cast to later on. I knew that, with the run-out tide slowing to the turn, the berley, resting on the bottom, would not quickly wash away even though the pellets would break down. I know this having used the same technique in other locations where the water was clear enough to actually see the berley on the bottom - the berley collects in lines in the ripple marks on the bottom and lasts a surprisingly long time even when the tidal run gets quite fast. When I returned to fish the area about two hours later the tide had turned but was only slowly starting to run in. I put out a berley trail from the boat and was getting fish within a minute or two of starting. I'm pretty sure that the fish had been drawn by the earlier berley dump and the new berley trail lined them up behind the boat waiting their turn to make a young kids day.
Cheers Freeeedom

Awesome idea...

Cheers

[SALTY"D"]

Just a word of warning, looks like the kids have adult life jackets,I could be wrong, hard to see well, I seen the boys in blue issue a 200 dollar fine at fishermans island.

[IRMC000]

Freeeedom - awesome mate - job well done - smiles on grandkids faces are worth GOLD!

The life jacket with "Child" on it in the photo looks like a child safe jacket to me.

Does Grandad (or Pop) get to gut the fish on his own?

[Freeeedom]

No- they are child size life jackets Salty"D". The adult size ones that I carry are still in their original plastic wrap nearly 10 years after I bought them - and I only got them when the water police inspected me and said the ones I had went out of use so long ago they should be in a museum. They were very good about it - just told me to get some new ones, which I did the next day.

I never gut fish IRMCOOO - always fillet and skin - but yes, I get to process the fish and then return them so the grandkids can eat 'their' fish.

Cheers Freeeedom