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It was one of those “ It’s a small world†kinda stories where I bumped into one of the other blokes who happened to be looking at the same lure I was after. A short chat uncovered that he knows a few other people in the fishing game that I do, so having both arrived at the seminar by ourselves ( mates all too busy to come) we stayed in touch for the rest of the evening and swapped phone numbers. Naturally, inspired by the new information we learned, after the seminar we were both really keen to put theory into practice, and when a weather forecast shows up as good as Yesterday ( Thursday) the whole world has to stop revolving, we are going fishing!!
The plan was to get out to Mud, then pan the horizon for any tell-tail signs of birds and try to understand their “ language.†We hung around Mud flicking plastics around, all training for new plastics punters John and Trevor his son who both caught fish, some pan size squire, Trevor brought in a 35cm grassy after many undersize models. He soon wore the tag of grassie king, for whatever reason that particular colour Zman curlz grub was on the menu. So Trev was on the score board, having never caught a fish on a plastic before, the account is open! Try as we might, we could not see any bird activity at all. We were considering the long traverse across to the northern bay area, by lunch time we could have water skied over on glassy conditions, but John mentioned the last time he was fishing Harries, there were bait schools busting up everywhere. The tide slowed and so did the fishing – time to move.
Arrived at Harries, what is the big yellow crane thing there at the moment, working on the arti? 1st drop, John hooks a nice 40cm snap, but I was a little surprised at how he was keeping up his tally using an overhead reel with 15-24Kg Wilson live fibre!! If it’s your day, it’s your day whatever you use I guess. Unfortunately, another punter saw us land the fish, once we drifted off that mark, he zoomed over and claimed it. It didn’t take him long at all, I thought our boats were on a collision course for a second.
Ah well, he probably thought it was his spot until we arrived! I spotted Steven78 fishing close by, thanks for coming over for a chat mate. 
As always you do exceptionally well with plastics, your esky full was evidence enough, but I’ll keep the locations a secret apart from Harries which everyone knows. But did you have to mention there were bait schools being smashed earlier? 
A short time later 2 or 3 birds were definitely onto something about half a K away, so we quietly motored over. WHAT? 
It was a bait school moving in a tight ball, it reminded me of watching a cyclone on BOM radar. But then we saw the fish all around them. Incredible! I wish I had taken a photo, but it’s etched into the memory banks forever. What a sight! What happened next would explain why Trevor was laughing so hard, we were feverishly grabbing rods out of the rocket launchers, pre rigged with pencil lures, slugs, whatever we could throw at them! We nearly jumped out of our skins watching what looked like big mackerel following our lures.... any second now.... another follow..... cast again, another follow.... What are we doing wrong? Try slugs.. Another cast, another follow.... and so it went for what was probably only 5 mins. The bait school was lapping up against the boat, I guess that was the safest place to hide, Trev dips his soft plastic without casting it beside the boat and jags one of the bait fish in the side. Bring it in, Bring it in! So out it goes wearing a live bait hook. Snip! We should have tied some wire, but no time to show him how, in all the mayhem. As quickly as we found them, they disappeared, so it’s back to trying soft plastics in what is now a roaring current. We scored another 4 fish, the tally is now 8 between us - a great feed! I hooked a 50cm Snap which was putting up a fight, Passing Trevor the rod so he could bring it in. He has never experienced the pulling power of a fish that big. At 16 years old he has a few more fishing trips ahead of him, upgrading his PB’s which now stands at 43cm Snap and the 35cm Grassie caught at Mud earlier. Fun times watching a kid experience using soft plastics for the 1st time.
But ask him if soft plastics work he will answer “ Nup†as if it’s a new found treasure he would rather keep to himself.On the way back to Manly we spot birds! What should be busting up just outside the leads? It looked like LT tuna, but what would I know? Missiles launching clean out of the water against a golden late afternoon background sky. The only thing we still had rigged were the pencil lures which were flung out in all directions, but no cigar. John caught a 39.03453cm flathead when he let the lure sink, we were in 3 mtrs of water so it comes as no surprise. It was released after we tried to stretch it out on the brag mate several times, if it would have stopped wriggling around for a second. The whole day can best be described as magical with new mate John and his son Trevor. We hope next time we will have a little more luck, we'll have to get more tuition from those who are used to following birds around the paddock. Photo of our catch on Trevors phone if I get them.
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