|
|
Trip Reports NSW Popping around the basin | Popping around the basin | | Print | |
| Saturday, 22 March 2008 | ||||
Fishy frustrations 48cm flathead, fell for a small popper It wasn't my intention to fish with a popper all day long, but in preparing for an afternoon fishing the basin I grabbed 2 of my Hobie 'gear bucket' tackle tubs that were in fact filled with tackle suitable for larger off shore fish. They look exactly the same as my other 2 (that are obviously set aside for bread and butter fish) but I really should have known by the weight of them. At least I had a small popper already tied onto one of my rods, so rather than heading back to grab the right gear buckets, I paddled out with what I had. There are plenty of popper-worthy spots in the basin, so I headed straight out to an area I hadn't tried before. Popping my way around the 1st spot I tried did result in several hits, one of them from something with some size to it. Pickings were slim, however, so after a short while I decided to try another spot. It was a few km away from my current position, however, and decided to try trolling for a Tailor on the way. Despite grabbing the wrong tackle tubs, I did have something there well worth trying.  It's called a Blade Dancer from Berkley and for all intents and purposes, it's a lot like a chatter bait. The jig has a nice long spoon-style blade protruding from it, which as you might imagine, imparts a rather vigorous action that makes that plastic tail wobble like soft jelly. I got to see one of these in action at the 'travelling fishing show' at both of the caravan and camping shows I attended recently and was impressed at how much more interested the fish seemed to be in that than any other lure demonstrated. Upon seeing it move through the water I figured that an Aussie Salmon or Tailor simply wouldn't be able to resist it. I proved myself right today when I used it for the first time. I had trolled about 500 metres to no avail, noticing that the blade was making it fly out of the water a fair bit. So I grabbed the rod and wound it in at a slower pace to see what it would do. I'd only cranked the reel a few winds before I saw the biggest damned greenback I have ever seen leap out of the water. I didn't feel anything in the rod at first, but I knew it was focused on the lure. Then it leaped out again and this time I knew it was on. I started swimming away and line began peeling off... and then everything just stopped. There was always going to be a fair chance that a Tailor of that size (almost a meter long I'd say) would chew straight through 8lb tracer line and thats exactly what it did. Bugger... that was a good... no, great fish. Oh well... now that I know there are Tailor like that in the basin, I'll start targeting them more. Unfortunately, Blade Dancer lures come in a pack of 3 - but with only one jighead (as far as I'm aware, the jigheads aren't sold separately either). So that was about as much blade dancing that I could do for one day. It was far too early to pull stumps though, so I continued on with my popping ways and did manage to boat 3 more fish. One of which was a small bream, another a tiny tailor and last but not least, a nice plump flatty (my first on a popper) that measured up at 48cm.  Dinner!    
Only registered users can write comments. Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.6 |
||||
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
