PHP Warning: Use of undefined constant VBA_SCRIPT - assumed 'VBA_SCRIPT' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in ..../includes/functions_navigation.php(802) : eval()'d code on line 1 Gold Coast Estuary Flick - Tuesday 22nd October
JT and I decided to go for a flick before work in an attempt to grab a Jack. That meant meeting at the ramp at 4am to be on the water for first light. We trolled lures for a while with no luck then decided to cast at the snags and rock walls. JT lands a Giant Herring on a plastic (his first) - don't those fish jump when hooked! He then follows this up with a few Bream and a Silver Trevally.
As this stage I am starting to question my own fishing ability as I have tried a few of my fave lures with no success - so I turn to the Prawnstar. Why I did this I have no idea as I have never caught anything on one of these! Anyway, not long after that I hook an undersize Flathead - wow these really do work. Of course I stick with it and manage to pull two small Estuary Cod out of a deep hole - three fish on a Prawnstar in 30 minutes - is this my new favourite lure?
JT straightens the hook on a big fish, then gets busted off on another 10 mins later at the boat - he starts to wonder why he didn't upgrade his leader earlier! But he redeems himself shortly after with a 40cm GT that puts a nice bend in his rod as it does a lap around the boat.
At this stage we are watching the clock as we need to get to work soon, so we go for one last run along the deep bank. JT hooks another Giant Herring that also puts on an great acrobatic display before coming into the boat. I then drop a 60+cm lizard at the boat, but land a 59cm specimen two casts later. JT pulls a small dusky off a snag (was supposed to be a Bream). Then as we are 20 metres from the ramp, we both hook up at the same time. He lands a 51cm flattie, while I score a 30cm Jack (my first ever lure caught Jack).
Overall we end up with 13 fish from 7 different species. Turns out to be a day of firsts - JT 's first (and second) Giant Herring - my first (and fifth) fish on a Prawnstar, and my first lure caught Jack. Not bad for sacrificing a few hours sleep. We were on the water for a little over 3 hours and used every minute of that to land our original target species.
All fish were caught on lures (Prawnstars and 3 inch stick baits) and all released to fight another day. Great way to start the day - although we are now feeling it!
(this is the smaller of the Giant Herring - we dropped the bigger one over the side before taking the photo)
nice little session fellas, i've got some prawnstars just like that but have never used em for some reason, that'll have to change, and yeh that's a tarpon
Good to see such a variety of fish coming out of hard-fished waters.
Hmm the prawnstars ARE hard to build confidence with, aren't they?? Used em a lot up north but hardly use em to fish the Goldie waters ....... till now!
Top stuff guys quite a prouctive little morning session there. I have used the prawnstars a bit myself for no result, without going into to much detail what sort of action do you use on them? do you jig them as described on the pack or do you use a "soft plastic" sort of retrieve?
don't have the packet anymore so can't remember what it said!
there were two techniques that caught fish this morning - first was vertical jigging the prawnstar under the boat in deep water while drifting, lifting it a foot or two and letting it fall back to the bottom - caught both the cod this way
the other technique was casting it towards the bank and gently hopping it along the bottom back to the boat - caught the flatties and jack this way
as I said this was the first time catching anything with them - was probably a huge fluke (planets in alignment or some other force of nature) but will definitely give them another go next time out. I am real keen to try them along kalinga bank and similar spots (especially leading up to next year's flattie classic!).
I was using the prawnstar junior and I removed the front treble to reduce chance of snagging. I did drop/miss a few fish, but plan to increase the size of the rear treble to try to improve this (may even experiment with using the front treble too)
look forward to hearing about your results with them, and any other lures that don't come out of the tacklebox as often as they should
Reply With Quote
