Fish Maniac

The one that got away. Went fishing this morning with my mate george on the hobie yaks with the foot pedal system makes for a hands free great fishing kayak. Left home at 5.30 and on the water at 6.30. Due to the weather we decided to go to a sheltered area ,grays point on the port hacking river south of sydney . I started off using the new white gulp lures with the new rod I bought from bcf last week its a 5 foot shimano catana 2-4 kilo spin stick matched with the shimano 2500 solstace spooled with 8 pound line perfect bream killer. Around 8.30 and after finding the lure slowly eaten by microscopic snapper and watching george catch baby snapper all morning using bait (at least he was having fun )I decided to join in the fun and rig a small whole pilchard with a small split shot sinker direct to the hook hoping to catch something bigger other than gold fish size snapper, had a few bites even catching a small snapper a little bit bigger than 10cm but that was all. 10am and decided to head out to deeper water to try our luck for some keepers. I found an area around 1km up from our original spot and where the water rounded a bend, we were able to stay around the bend and out of the 20 knot southerly wind that was blowing. The tide was running out and I was able to cast just at the point to my left and watch the line drift in front of me (perfect spot and conditions) 10.30 and Right on slack tide I casted a whole prawn out and let the line slowly drift leaving the bail arm open. It was hot so decided to have a drink of water and a bounty chocolate and Whilst half way through my chocolate I cracked the bail arm over into the strike position not even 2 seconds later my rod starts bending and the line starts peeling really slowly,"woohoo fish on" i scream. Why is it i hook up every time whilst im eating but never hook up when im trying to actually get one ? I will never know. I put my chocolate down and picked the rod up and start to apply pressure to the fish, it started running slowly and I came to the conclusion early that it must have been a stingray of some kind (bummer I thought). About 10 seconds into the fish slowly running I definitely thought ray , 20 seconds later into the run and losing line I decided to start following to retrieve some line back and whilst winding I unmistakably felt a tail beat (this is no ray must be something else . I caught up to the fish after paddling really hard and winding fast at the same time and then the most amazing thing happened, the fish took off faster than a freight train i scream to george sh#t sh#t its not a shark or ray this thing must be a kingie? It ran for 10 seconds stripping around 80 metres of line and then started with the slow and steady run this cant be a kingie I thought its swimming to slow kingies dont do that! But whatever it is its big and worth catching , could be a monster flathead? This changes everything technique , concentration is elevated ive gone into a heightened sense of thought, just casually fighting like I dont care is thrown out the window and now im in concentration mode thinking to myself with how much line is out ? how much drag pressure did i have on the solstace? How much pressure am I applying ?where am I in the bay? what obstacles are around? im thinking too myself remember dont apply too much pressure however dont leave any slack i scream to george "get the net ready"ok think "how does it go again" pump rod now wind make sure you have pressure on the fish the whole time dont leave too much slack , im talking to myself quietly saying you can do this. The fish decides to go for a long and slow run and im allowing it to run hoping it will tire out, I have to let it run and dont have a choice I remember ive only got 8 pound line set up for bream not for a fish of this size. I started thinking why this rod when ive got my 8-10 kilo set up just sitting behind me in the spare rod holder?but thats how it goes. 10 minutes go by 20 minutes go by and im still fighting with george holding the net out eagerly keen to land it and following close , I look up and found that ive moved more than 300 metres from where I hooked it and im paddling hard every 10 seconds or so and winding. Ive had all my line disappear off the spool and back on the reel at least 3 times it decides to turn and head for the rocky oyster shore f@#k oh no i scream out loud and I quickly paddle over to get between the rocks and the fish, it works the fish turns and heads for the deeper water.This senario happens on at least two occasions over the next 15 minutes and im now tired my legs are aching from the paddling my throat is dry im thirsty, sunburnt my hat fell off ages ago and i havent put it back on , who cares f@#k it ,keep going i whisper to myself I start to think about the knot I tied , the fact that there is no trace, (idiot why didnt I put a trace!!!) is the line starting to chafe from the jaw of the mouth? Am I even going to get a chance to see the fish? no time to start thinking negative ive got to continue and land this fish but yet none the less this fish is not tiring. Its now been 45 minutes since I hooked it everything is going well the knots have held I havent been reefed and im in the middle of the channel but im not winning , the fish runs and i retrieve the line. I look up from where I hooked it and now im 400 metres away and now see where the fish is heading !!! A pole marker!!! WTF No No I scream out loud , im tired my legs are trembling from trying to always get in front of it but cant give up now so i quickly paddle up to get in front again before it gets to the marker my legs are now burning in pain my throat is even dryer as anything but it works the fish turns and starts heading back the way it came and i also manage to gain some line back at the same time . I know the fish is close and im gaining line back fast in fact so fast that in a minute its directly under the kayak so i look down and i see it! This was not a kingie a ray or a flathead but the unmistakable run of the most elusive fish that ive fished for before with many cold and lonely nights spent with nil results and almost started believing that they were extinct a myth something that when fishos talk about it everyone listens hoping to learn a trick a secret a way to catch them i spent months years trying to even see one until one night when I was rewarded with a decent specimen fishing with my mate johnny. The elusive game fish of the bays the mighty jew fish. There it was casually swimming in the current alongside and 2 metres under the boat the unmistakable silver body with yellow tail and a big eye looking up at me .It was the most beautiful thing ive seen for a while and im in awe of this magnificent creature, I just sat there looking at it for (probably 10 seconds) but felt like it was ages, it was well over 90cm in length I scream woohoo jewie, it seemed to have given up i thought but I was wrong it turns and heads directly under the boat with the line now touching the boat there was nothing I can do so I release the bail arm and try to turn the boat as quickly as I can the line running under the boat oh no I scream im just waiting for that sound dreaded p@#g noise when the line snaps . But it doesnt I turn the boat around and start chasing again constantly applying pressure with rod bent the whole time until I feel that rod go loose and snaps in the air.........................everything at that instant goes silent...i can now hear my blood pumping through my ear canal , time slows down everything sounds muffled and you cant really hear anything you know its gone and there is nothing you can do. Its gone I said to george who was never more than 10 metres the whole time of the fight and always ready to land the fish.The dissapointment in his face said it all, he was devasted just as much as I was . At the time I didnt say much in fact i just said to george i think i had enough and im going back to the boat ramp and started my long and slow paddle back and just to top it off less than 5 minutes later it started to rain , I didnt talk the whole way back. As im writing this I realize that the battle lasted just under an hour with the fish winning it was a well deserved victory for the fish but i started to think how a fish of this size let me stay on for so long ? Was it sick ? Maybe I hooked it in a painful area? Why didnt the line chafe and snap earlier in the fight was it maybe hooked in the corner of the mouth was I just lucky? I had mixed emotions all night almost a depressional state you can say, I keep saying to myself I would have released it anyway so dont worry but I didn't at least get a photo to show everyone reading this story. Next time ill be more prepared so watch this space jewies here I come ive got the bug back again. The end.

peeled prawn.

Went out for a couple hours this afternoon in georges river opposite baldface and caught 2 bream one 38cm another 30cm not much else around.

HI to all this is my first post after reading the reports for years I thought I would contribute some of my experiences. I woke up yesterday at 5.30 a.m as I was itching to get out out on the water all week,I headed to macs bait bar to grab some prawns as I was predominately using lures all day but thought It wouldnt hurt to get some anyway. Today I was fishing out of my Hobie Kayak.So I headed to taren point near the Captain cook bridge and launched the yak of the shore quickly peddled across to the old oyster leases around wolooware bay by this time the sun was poking over the horizon and shinning into my eyes it was a welcome site because it was quite cold. I rigged a new metal vibe and cast it around the leases,after 10-15 minutes of casting I tried a soft plastic, half an hour later without a bite I started to think that I had to change tactics (bait) lucky i bought the prawns.So I rigged a peeled prawn on a small jighead and cast it under a pontoon (looked like a oyster work platform)I watched as the line started to get taught and thought you beauty I struck and the fish took off and started to peel line off I tried to pull it away as it was heading to the pylons but my 4lb line was no match it busted me off. My heart was pounding as the adrenaline started to travel in my blood stream I quickly rigged up again but this time different rod and now I was using 10lb,I casted in the same spot waited 10 seconds ,It felt like a minute and bang ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ the rod goes off I strike and felt the weight of the fish its big really big its stripping line off like no tomorrow so I tighten the drag and start fighting the fish its taking the line away from the timber poles that make the up the oyster leases and im loving every minute of it im in the main channel as you come into the leases the fish is dragging the kayak around about 3 minutes later it starts to come up and I see what I thought I was going to see a massive bream I net it and measure it came to 41cm took a photo of it and then did the right thing and released it. All up i caught 6 bream at the leases but they were all around 25 cm except for the massive 41 cm bream and they were all caught on peeled prawns. The Bay was very brown and dirty thats why I released all the fish but I will be back with some more reports stay posted.