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    Re: Where are the fish? Archived Message

    Posted by Jase on 17/6/2012, 7:41 pm, in reply to "Re: Where are the fish?"

    Kane. I have a week off in a couple of weeks so may go exploring. With the cost of gas at the moment I have to be careful where I go since my surf is a pig (V6 petrol).

    Well, the evening started well. We (Caitlin and I) got there at 2:45pm. A short walk to our spot had us fishing by 3pm. As I said I was going to, I had 8kg mono, 40lb fluorocarbon, and 3/0 recurve hooks. No sinker.

    First cast, whack! Didn't stick. Caitlin still has trouble casting any real distance so I cast for her. Her line barely hit the water, and with the rod in her hands she was into a scrappy little fish. That one didn't stick either, so I rebaited both rods and with them both out Caitlin was in again (I contemplated swapping spots with her then ). She landed a little snapper of 29cm. We had agreed nothing under 30cm would go home, so back it went. I had my baitrunner on while helping Caitlin try and release her snapper and it took off. I grabbed my rod, and a short little battle netted a nice 37cm fish.

    We spent the next hour catching and releasing 11 more snapper under 30cm. Only 2 were under 27cm, so we could have taken them, but the fish here looked a little out of condition compared to the ones we were landing off the beach a couple of weeks ago.

    I was trying to tempt a fickle biter to take my bait when Caitlin just about stood on me with fright. I cracked up laughing as I saw what had scared her. A bloody great freight train over a meter wide had come to feast on the bait scraps she was throwing over the side of the rock.





    It was starting to get darker since we were on the sheltered side of a hill. I deliberately chose this side because it worked well with the idea that late afternoon shade in winter brings fish on the bite. Caitlin was into another fish that turned out to be another 29cm snapper that bled, so we kept it. Then I got another one which I released. Caitlin yelled at me to help her as I looked over and she was into a strong fish that was giving her some stick. This water is full of rocks and weed, and with 8kg line she did really well to land her best fish to date. A scrappy 1.52kg fish plopped onto the rock with a very happy little girl who just had to call mum and tell her she caught a bigger fish than me.



    Just after dark we packed up and I filleted our fish. We took just enough to feed the family, but what a fantastic calm, cool winter evening out fishing.



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