On Monday and Wednesday I spent many hours fishing up the Pumicestone Passage… I worked my butt off casting and retrieving poppers for whiting.
I never even saw one on either of those two days!
Today, I ventured out the front at Scarby, braved the wind and waves that were forecast, and after doing a fruitless jewie run, I decided against drifting my usual haunts for snapper where the wind and waves were just a bit too iffy, and headed down to Queens Beach for a little snapper drifting in waters not so affected by the Sou Sou Westerlies.
Doing my usual trick with the 1/8oz 3/0 TT jig-head complete with Electric Chicken Snapback, (little one) I drifted merrily away, pleased to be out of the worst of the wind at last.
I felt a bite, gave a little line then eased back with a little pressure, and fish on! Not sure just what type of fish, but to be sure, it wasn’t huge! I was stunned to see that after two whole days fishing specifically for the buggers, I’d accidentally caught a summer whiting!
Isn’t that ironic?
On Monday and Wednesday, I’d have had a grin all over my face if I’d caught that same just legal sand-whiting on poppers!
Today? I just sat there, incredulous!
A little further down the same drift, I picked up a very undersized bream, again on the 3/0 rig… it went all of 12cm.
That’s it!!! The Fishing Gods were up there, sitting back in their easy-chairs, laughing their tits off at the little mortal in the SIK! I guess after a while of their merriment, they relented and decided to get back to work and allow me some real fish… besides… they know I’m going to release them anyway!
My next two fish were both snapper… 54 and 46cm respectively. After at least a month of not catching a fish bigger than a reasonable flathead and nice bream, finally a fish that took drag from the reel!
I’m stoked! Plus… I’ve blooded my new Stradic 5000FJ! I’d forgotten that I was fishing with a new reel, until I felt the bulky handle, so different to the older reel handle.
It’s a good feeling to catch a nice fish on a new reel… good vibes all around, eh? Get that up yer, Fishing Gods!
Conditions at Scarby right now? water clarity’s coming back slowly, and it appears to be quite a lot better colour now… however, there is still quite a bit of weed about.
Hell, you can’t have everything, can you? (Sorry about the picture quality... cheap mobile phone camera!)
Cheers, Jimbo
oh well the winds look like they should be almost gone on tuesday so i might try and get out after work in the arvo.
