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Smith's Lagoon, The Basin

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Sunday, 03 February 2008

No monster flathead... but look at this bream!

I'd like to be able to claim this fish as my own, but alas, it was not

Well, I failed miserably at trying to hook up on that gargantuan lizard-like flathead that I was meaning to try and catch today. Truth be told I only managed to get a couple of casts at the spot where I hooked up last time because the wind was just blowing too hard at that particular area. So instead I paddled off to find some cover, which I found (once again) at Smith's Lagoon. When I got there I spotted another chap fishing from a kayak so I paddled over to introduce myself. Turns out this gentleman (Michael was his name) was a bit of a local who had been yak fishing the basin for over a year. This was a good chance for me to pick his brains and luckily he was quite willing to part with some useful information.

Unlike myself, Michael - who was fishing from a small 'sit-in' kayak - wasn't the least bit interested in flathead and was targeting bream instead. And it was only about 10 minutes after he told me about some of the 40cm+ bream he'd been getting onto that I heard him holler from a hundred metres away. Sure enough, he'd hooked a beauty of a bream that would have gone right on 40cm at a guess. Michael doesn't eat fish so he held it there just long enough for me to get a quick photo before releasing it. How generous of him to leave it there for me to catch later on!

I did manage to catch a bream myself this evening but it wasn't even half that size, so of course it to was released. I also landed a handful of undersized flatties as well and only one worth keeping, which measured up at 36cm. Feeling mildly experimental today, I used a larger green coloured Stealth prawn (instead of the 2" black and gold version) and didn't get quite as many bites as I had been getting previously. It did, however, attract the attention of large Tailor while trolling, which was the biggest I've hooked in the basin so far. Sadly it spat the hook before the fight really got underway, but for the few seconds it was on, it was really on.

This was the best I could do today :-(

Today I was fishing out of the Hobie Quest, which is another one of the paddle-only models and also the fastest of the Hobie paddle kayak fleet. As such I spent a brief time figuring out where (if I was going to) I'd rig extra rod holders, GPS and sounder. It didn't take me long to work it out really and I'm looking forward to the day that I get a chance to go forth and rig one up to the max.