Frangers - Finally Cracked Them

[jackash]

Hey guys,
After months of trying with little results, me and my mate finallly nailed the b*stards. Fishing the Gold Coast Canals and finally got some fish worth writing about.
First day we arrived around midday and after a few missed hook ups, managed a smalll bream, flathead and flounder (first on placcies [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]). Not much to write home about really.
Up early the next day and my cousin nailed reasonable bream on a Berkley Powerbait 3" Dropshot in Blue Pearl. Managed 10 fish for the day. Still not that many but getting better. I also managed my 2nd and 3rd bream ever on softies that day and a decent flatty at 45 cm. Day 3, started early and after about 2 hours of barely a touch, wacked on the old Droppie in watermelon colour and things FINALLY started to happen. [smiley=2thumbsup.gif] Small bream and about 10 minutes later, jig....WAMMO, ZZZZZZZ oi DANO its a big one. After a 10 minute battle managed to subdue a 45 cm GT , my 2nd ever trev on a softie but easily my bigggest, by say about 40 cm haha. WE wrote that one off as a fluke. Fish continued to come however and i managed a few more bream and flatties. Then worked the eddies of a bridge, jig.... WAMMO..ZZZZZZZZZZZZ oi DANO its a big one. After a 10 minute battle managed to subdue a 45 cm GT , my 3rd ever trev on a sofite. Maybe the first one wasnt a fluke.
SO day 3 saw us manage 10 fish. Still not that many but still probably our best day yet on softies considering we actually caught a decent fish or two.
Day 4 saw us up nice and eaerly again. Started off a bit slow but soon managed 2 nice bream in quick succession. Worked the eddies again, wammo.. missed him, cast to the same spott... WAMMO... 3 or 4 minutes fight, 36 cm breambo my pb on softies by about 11 cm . Then another bream came aboard, managed a few more breambos. Fishing became a bit slow mid morning so back to the bridge, couple of bream b4 we finally ran out of watermelons. Nothing else seemed to be working, so we drifted the bank my cousin managing a few on a torn up watermelon and i decided why not give a hard body a go. Finally after an hour and a half of using it i got slammed(much to my surprise ) I mean what the hell, hard bodies dont work. But unfortunately pulled the hooks, then in the next 10 minutes i got slammed 3 more times, all resulting in no fish. By this stage i wasnt happy > ...I wanted my first fish on a hard body. Anyhows i was soon rewarded with one of the best moments of my fishing life (excluding the 2 GT's). I cast next to a pontoon, wound the lure down about 30cm and paused and watched a big bream swim out from the pontoon and have a look. Thought to myself jeepers that aint a bad one, but what do i do, i twitched the lure once, bream followed, twitched it again and I just stood there and watched as the bream swam up and ate the thing right infront of my eyes, played this fellow for a few minutes b4 netting a 35 cm bream, probably the best bream ive caught in my life.
Anyhow i managed 4 fish on hard bodies , all quality fish and my cousin one for himself and well as several absolutely PUNISHINGLY BONE WRENCHING HITS, u guys reckon AJ's and Kingies stretch your arms, get into some of these bream haha.
Any how we managed to get 20 fish for the day(we finally got the softies and lure thingies figured out) including 2 decent flatties.
All up we ended up with 42 fish on lures for the 3.5 days we were there. Not great yet but we r actually getting fish now so we arent complaining.
For those of you still trying to figure out the softies, one piece of advice(trust me im a pro now 8) ), we used to jig, wait for the lure to hit bottom, jig, but it wouldnt work, this time we would jig, hit the bottom wait 20-30 secs, jig, repeat the process. SLOW DOWN.
By the way buy some watermelon droppies, they are awsome, dont think ill ever fish with a different softy again. This was my first time using this colour. And 1/16 ounce jig heads and occasionaly 1/8. The hard bodies were Halco RMG Scorpion 35's in Golden Green.
Using 6lb fireline and 6lb leader. MAde some of the fights great fun and nerve racking. [smiley=anxious.gif] [smiley=anxious.gif]
So all i can say is im one of the most excited ppl on this planet [smiley=wiseguy.gif] [smiley=wiseguy.gif]at the moment . We got them DANO [smiley=2thumbsup.gif] [smiley=2thumbsup.gif].
Cheers,
Jackash
PS sorry about the length of this report (its probably a record ) BUT I AM SOOO EXCITED . Cant wait to do it again.
Pics to come soon. Very soon.

[jeffo]

good stuff ash. great to see a plan come off!! i to caught my first bream on a sof plastic last week and although i consider bream "vermin" (on bait) its a thrill to convince something to eat a bit of plastic.
well done mate.

[Chrisso]

Awesome stuff Jackash.

Thanks for the info.

Chris

[beefaman]

Great work
You are spot on about slowing down the retrieve, bream seem to jump all over them when stationary!!
AND , you can actually catch them on other SP colors then watermelon

[jackash]

Haha, I know haha but I am in love with this colour. It definately did produce more hits and fish than any other colour but obviously others work. Have caught them on other lures aswell. But boy I'm in love with watermelon.
Thanks for the replies,
Jackash.

[Girella]

Great stuff Jackash !

Every time I read a successful report like yours it helps to inspire that little bit of patience that makes the difference between success and failure on SPs.

[ba229]

great report mate.

being a newbie to the plastics too i know just how fun it can be.

there is a good moral to your story for any other new comers too. that is keep trying until it all starts to come together. now that you have caught some fish you know what you are doing and will catch many more.

keep up the good work and enjoy the fact that you can go home not smelling like bait all the time :-)

[jackash]

Decent Flatty caught by DANO

[jackash]

BEst bream- pb 36cm

[jackash]

Good breambo from DANO

[jackash]

DANO's first breambo on a hardy

[jackash]

BEst Faltty for the trip

[jackash]

First trev - looks small wasnt that bad actaully

[jackash]

Head shot of first trev

[jackash]

ANother pic of first trev (we were excited so we got alot of photos)