Like most places along the east coast, the last few days have been wet, windy and cold. My initial thoughts of having a day of indoor activities went out the window just before lunch when I decided the crab pots I'd put out 48hrs ago before the rain had to be checked. I unfortunately had to cut up some of my own internal roads to get to where the pots were and it was almost worth it. I got a feed but not what I was expecting after 48hrs.
After cooking the crabs and cleaning the kitchen my young fella started asking me to take him fishing. He did have to ask a few times because I was weighing up the various options in my head after the initial ask. He was beggine by the time I had it all sorted out.
"OK, who's coming fishing to a new secret spot?" I got two "Me!" replies from the twins so I grabbed a couple of rods and off we went. I was basically driving about 5 times the distance to get to a spot that I could access by kayak by just paddling across the river. The wet weather made negotiating the river bank a bit exciting but the sand was nice and compacted and easy driving.
We arrived at our destination and I got my son set up with a little spin stick before I got my own baitcaster out. I was using the soft plastics rigged on the weedless jigheads I'd bought from Anaconda for about $1.50 a packet and hopes were high. After landing one right over a snag and retrieving the line quickly to get the hook onto my side of the snag before letting it sink again, I saw the line tighten up on the surface of the water. A few cranks on the handle and I felt some weight, didn't hook anything but that was enough to get me casting at the same snag over and over again. Any cast that landed right on the snag got a bit of interest but anything that was more than a metre away got nothing.
I lost count of how many casts I had trying to land one just in the right spot. The light lure weight meant I could only reach the snag if everything went right, every other cast either fell short or too far either side. Would you believe I had the lure land right over the snag with the line running across the top of it when I got the hit. Luckily the fish went to the side and I ran along the bank to get into a position where the snag was no longer directly between me and the fish. To my surprise it was a reasonable barra about mid 60's so I got it ashore and ripped it's gills in the absence of a knife (wasn't supposed to catch anything!)
The kids had a ball and didn't want to go home and I was stoked that I had finally busted the weedless jig myth with something I could eat. We're all heading to the same spot as a family tomorrow just for kicks, any fish will once again be a bonus.

