I often wonder if I need a fishing coach just as Greg Norman, Tiger Woods, Leyton Hewitt etc all need their coaches on a continuing and ongoing basis.
Well - er - actually I am not in that class of anything, let alone fishing but perhaps I do need to refine my techniques.
This must be the case as I have seen some terrific fish on Ausfish caught by the soft plastic brigade on a pretty regular basis on some pretty light gear and they actually land them. They must know what they are doing!
On the other hand, I have lost count of the number of times that I have hooked up with freight trains and have not been able to land them. >>
Take the past two nights at Mud Island. Sat on the Grazier at sunset for some wild action 5pm – 5.30pm following sunset at about 5pm. After being attacked by some savage squire bites right on sunset last night I thought that I would be bagging out and would have to go home early.
But time after time, I had break-offs (40lb trace), hooks spat out, dropped fish at the boat and I am ashamed to say it but a couple of losses due to gear malfunction.
Well I can fix the latter one with a bit of TLC and as for fish dropped at the boat, well I should use a landing net a lot more but on a dark night as a solo fisher, I cannot see the fish that well to get them into it anyway. Even when I can see them, there is no guarantee that whilst I am messing around grabbing the net that they won’t swim themselves into slack line and drop the hook just like the nice flattie hat I lost at Mud on Tuesday afternoon did. Bugger!
I also started to frig around with hook sizes and shapes last night to improve my chances. You see, I was getting lots of action on half pilchards which were quite thick and made my 1/0 hooks look a bit small in terms of how much hook was actually exposed. Add to that that they stayed pretty well frozen most of the night and I suspect that there was not really enough softness in the bait for it to collapse around the hook when the fish chomped at it.
Ah well I guess that I shall just have to keep practising three or four times per week.
As seen below, the catch from last night is a feed but that is all. The smaller squire is just legal. Also caught a legal tailor from my floater out the back of the boat.
Tuesday evening’s effort yielded just a couple of good sized tailor but once again lots of dropped opportunities. Did not bother taking pix of any of the tailor – legal but not inpiring.
On Tuesday, I drifted around the eastern side of Mud from about 12.30pm through to sunset with only a dropped flattie worth talking about. Anchored on the Grazier for sunset and enjoyed hot action for until about 5.30pm and then slowing action for the next half hour after that.
Last night, I just went to the Grazier at sunset and fished a couple of hours . Once again, hot action 5 – 5.30 pm, slowing for the next half hour and then totally shutting down when the dolphin came around soon after that.
Caught lots of crabs on my line on Tuesday and although I am not really a crabber, I did drop one pot at Mud last night just to see what might appear. Alas, just four undersized females.
Gorgeous nights on both occasions but the holistic experience shows me that there is so much to take in when fishing. For instance:-
• Why is it that I had the Grazier totally to myself on Tuesday evening but there were seven boats out there last night?
• Why is it that there can be such micro-climates on the trip home at 8.30pm. Flat seas between Mud and St Helena, slightly choppy down the west of St Helena, then absolutely flat sheet glassed out conditions from St Helena to the Manly leads and then a slightly rippled surface from the leads into the boat harbour.
• Why is it that it is a lovely cool but not cold temperature all the way back from Mud until reaching about 1km from the Manly leads when It gets quite cold?
• Why is it that out on the water at night ther are so many un-sea-like smells to be enjoyed. On Tuesday night I could smell barbecues between Mud and St Helena. Last night, for a time I could smell freshly cut timber, then charcoal smoke , then a smell like hair conditioner? Fascinating.
• What do the guys sitting in the radio room at the Moreton Bay Trailer Boat Club do between calls. They sub for the Manly Coast guard and other VMRs mid-week until 9.30pm. I was the only person that I heard talk to them on Channel 88 all afternoon and night over the past couple of days. I hope that they have a library of good books there.
Ah, there is just so much to learn and so little time…
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