Descion was made to hit some Bream up on poppers just on/after dark for the Friday night and off we went around 8ish. On arriving into the 4knot zone of the chosen canal system off the main Clarence river I noticed a nice jetty right at the mouth holding some bait in close to the rocks. Mental note taken we preceded into the canal…
The Bream were every where and more than keen to take a swipe or two at the poppers and after an hour and a half of fairly consistent fishing about 20 or so Bream for each of us had made it to the boat up to about 38cm. Nothing out of the ordinary and I didn’t bother taking pics of any as the action was thick and fast and lets face it weve all seen plenty of bream before.
5am arrived way to soon and after hitting the snooze button a few to many times it was 5:45am before I slid the hornet back into the water and headed straight for the fore mentioned jetty on the mouth of the canals.
Pulling up 40m short and slipping the leccy in I was happy to see a few bust ups in close to the rock wall in front of me.
Grabbing the bream rod from the previous nights efforts and tying on a beaten up old SX40 my first cast lasted about 2 cranks of the handle before I was well and truly smashed to pieces by some un stoppable bricking me into the rocks in no uncertain terms….Hrmmm Lets try that again.
Retied the 4lb leader and on with another lure flicking back into the same area I got 4 turns of the handle this time before I was hit again by a very solid fish. He took of at a rate of knots into the middle of the canal as I lecced myself clear into the middle. Its at this point I think the fish realized he was hooked…..2 secs later he is back to the safety of the jetty and I have lost $35.00 bucks worth of lures in under 3 minutes. Time to up the ante abit, 20lb stick comes out and on goes a softy (Figured id donated enough expensive Bream lures to the river gods by now!!)
Moving back into postion the Bust ups have now moved right in behind the jetty and they are coming thick and fast!! After about 20 or so casts in behind this jetty with touches and nudges on almost every cast I am still yet to connect to anything on the heavier gear. In shear frustration more than anything I pelt a cast as far as I can out into the middle of the water and whip it in as fast as I can reel. Its at this stage the sun finally breaks clear of the clouds and I have abit more sub water surface vision. As I lift the lure from the water I see no less than about 15 Trevs all lining up for a swipe at the softie raging from 20cms upto a few that would be pushing 60-70cms….No wonder 4lb wasn’t enough :lol:
Another cast into the middle and I am connected to a nice trev of around 35cm mark. I managed a few more from about 25cm’s and up to the 35cm mark before the whole place shuts down as the sun gets higher.
My Brother in law Andrew who is yet to catch a trev of any description comes along for the arvo session which turns out roughly the same as the morning session minus the bust offs only Andrew is still left a trev virgin nailing some nice bream whilst im catching trevs. :lol:
5:00am arrives and im up and ready to roll, Andrew who was hoping to come along again to break the Trev curse has slept in so I wait for 30mins but he’s a no show so I slip the boat back in and head back to the same jetty from some more action.
After the past 2 sessions without anything too big ive decided to go back to the Bream stick and throw the other spool on the symetre which has 8lb loaded on it. Figuring the 35ish trevs should be good fun on 8lb where as on 20lb there not much of a challenge.
Same deal as the previous morning slipped the leccy in 40m short snuck up there and first cast im onto a very solid fish by far the best fish thus far. After a good 5 minute workout i eventually manage. (These bloody GT’s are a bugga to net on your own that never say die attitude!!)
to slide the fish into the net. A few quick happy snaps on the mat and he is free to go harass the bait fish again
Re-positioning myself I land another cast up against the rocks for the same result. 10 minutes later another very feisty 50cm GT is on the mat for a quick photo and im in need of a drink and a quick smoke. 8lb is just about right for fish this size you still have plenty of power to turn there head when needed but you haven’t got enough to totally dominate them if they want to run than you have to let them….
I managed another couple of 35’s before Belinda’s on the phone wanting to come out for a run in the boat and abit of a look around. We proceeded down to the walls and spent a lovely half hour following 4 very playful dolphins around. They truly are beautiful creatures and I still love watching them jumping and playing in the water.
A great weekend was had and was nice to get onto a few different fish down there. Whilst I know the Richmond very well and can normally find some GT’s and the odd jack the Clarance is still very much a mystery to me plenty of Bream and flatties to be had but until now that was about all we could ever manage. Sure made a nice change.
Wow thats abit longer than i intended it to be lol
Will post up a few pics tomorrow evening.
Reply With Quote
ll and the Yamba rock wall at times and we have even had a run of Hair Tail. AHHH wish I was there now 
and good pics too 
Originally Posted by kingdog
