Hi Raiders,
As the weather was looking good last Sunday and Monday, my BiL and I decided to take my boat outside and try a bit of bottom bashing. Our last few trips on the lake have been really trying with only a handful of legal Flathead between us. On Saturday the plans changed as his mate was up for a flick too. We decided to take my BiL boat as it’s easier when three of us are flicking SP’s.
So, alarm set for 4am on Sunday, meet up at his house at 5am so that we could hopefully be on the water by 5.45am. We put in at Balmoral boat ramp on Lake Mac. All went smooth as we were first there apart from me forgetting that I’d left my full thermos coffee cup on the rear bar of the ute pre launch. A quick search with my phone torch proved fruitless so we’d search for that later when there was more light. We charged north to Fennel bay, still dark, chilly with a head-on norwester, the bumpy ride took charge of the lost coffee and I was soon feeling wide awake. We arrived at our spot east of the bridge in about 8m of water, temp 14.5 degrees. As soon as we set our drift the wind dropped off and we became virtually static.
3rd cast and my BiL’s mate is on, up comes the first Flathead around the mid 50’s and straight into the esky. Things were starting off good and within minutes my BiL is on too, he calls it another good fish and in the net is the next at 62cm. By this point I’m starting to get hopeful and think that it’s my turn next. Well obviously the banter starts, mostly in my direction and then I feel a knock, miss the hook up, leave the retrieve and feel weight again. Great, now we’re all equal I think but I know it’s nothing to brag about at only 38cm.
We were now about an hour in and another couple of bites were missed. Still on our first drift it felt like we’d only gone a couple of hundred metres when I feel a weight on the drop. I’m thinking that this has to be the biggest of the day so far and everyone calls it a good flatly when this thing wakes up and makes a run. Again, calls go out for a big girl when the second run happens....Jewy calls my BiL. Well I’ve targeted Jews from the beach for over a year now and only landed one 50cm on my beach set up. This was another ball game, 1-4 kg rod with 10lb braid and 12lb leader, take your time I’m told. After the third run I made some ground and soon in the net was my PB Jewy at 82cm. High fives all round! Zman MinnowZ in opening night did the trick here.
note the obligatory socks and thongs!
After a little while to compose myself, we reset our drift and began again. We’d obviously found a hot spot because another 2 Flathead were netted around the 50-60cm mark. It was now about 8am and the bite seemed to drop off as quick as it came on. It was now just before slack tide. We moved further east towards Valentine with only one more touch between the three of us in over a couple of hours. Still on a high we nearly called it a day but decided to give it one more bash near the boat ramp in Secret bay. The water temp was a little warmer at 15.5 degrees.
First cast and my BiL’s mate is on to a 65cm followed by a high 50’s, his weapon of the day was a 4” Gulp curly tail in pumpkin seed. Again, minutes later my BiL is on, big girl is called again and netted is a 70cm on a 5” Zman streakZ curly tail in red and green. This was his most productive SP of the day.
One more drift and a few more were caught, released or dropped. All in all it was a very memorable and productive day for us all. Between the three of us we kept 8 Flathead, one flounder and my first Jew fish. The biggest Flathead kept was the first of the day at 62cm, all the bigger fish were released. Friends and family have shared in the feed and I’ve now got my first Jewy jewels as a reminder of good times with great guys. Needless to say, the banter, for now is in my hands!
And just to top off a cracker of a day was when I found my full coffee cup one metre from the edge of the ramp nestled in the weed!!
