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Plastic Mulloway


nbdshroom

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Lately, I've been trying to catch another landbased jew but this time I've been trying new spots along the Parra and Georges systems. The reason for trying new spots rather than the tried and true places is because I had hoped to develop a better understanding of these fish's movements and behaviour according to the tide/moon cycle and effect of rain. This is still a work in progress but hopefully one day this may bear fruit. Anyway, back to the story. I got a tip from a friend to try a new place which he thought would be worth a shot and last week I struck it lucky! The general area was in the upper Parra.

Right on the turn of the tide, my rod loaded up with the fish which I thought was a flathead at first.

It was a powerful and short first run with the fish taking off toward deeper waters. Then came a sizable second run... punctuated by an even bigger third run.

I was a bit perplexed at this point namely because I was no longer sure the fish was a flathead. Firstly, there were barely any recognisable headshakes and secondly it kept running!

My heart rate suddenly shot up and all of a sudden I was conscious of my pumping and winding. I was not feeling as fluid as I was just a minute ago. I tried not to get my hopes up and calm myself down for the sake of landing the fish. Even though I was fishing solo, I audibly let out a few words under my breath that it 'surely must be a ray'. Surely...

Well that worked momentarily. I calmed down and continued for another 5 or 10 minutes fighting the fish which was swimming with the current. I could feel it tiring but it was getting the better of me because it was starting to go around the bend. If the fish was to manage another several metres, I would surely have lost it due to the unreasonable angle required to fight the fish.

So I locked up the drag, and battled against the fish and my machinery. When the fish was in safe waters again, i loosened the drag once again. By now, the fish was nearly in but it kept low in the water so I still did not have any idea what it was. In my mind, I was imagining a ray sucking onto the sea floor. After a few more weak runs, I saw a white belly flash and it was then I knew it was a jew. The pulsing heart, clammy hands and scared look in my eyes came back!

I've lost plenty of good fish in close so I decided to make a quick landing. I pumped it in as quickly as I could and grabbed the fish out of the water!

If you've ever seen the old John west salmon commercial where the guy hoists a fish above his head letting out a loud roar, that's what I was doing! ...actually that's not true, because it was more like a weak and hunched over position due to the weight of the fish. :074:

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So there you have it! 95 cm of ghost caught on the turn of the high tide on a Squidgie fish. She was released for the future enjoyment of others! :sun:

Edited by nbdshroom
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Just awesome Pete! That was a great write up and I felt like I was there in the moment. It made me hang onto every word.

You've been quiet of late but have come back in a big way! Just short of the magic 1m but a cracking fish none the less.

Good on you my friend, I know how much you've targeted that species and your persistence has paid off!

Cheers scratchie!!!

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Thanks for the comments guys! I try to make the reports a bit interesting and glad you liked it.

Not sure how I forgot to put that in Jeff, but I was using a 7'3" 6-14lb Majorcraft Crostage hard rock rod with Sustain 2500FG spooled with 1.5PE Unitika Shore Game (equivalent to 8lb Fireline Crystal in breaking strain) and 14lb Sunline FC Rock leader. The lure was a squidgie fish in silver fox.

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Keep up the good work. Your studies of where when and how you caught the fish will bear fruit when you have a peice of the puzzle.

People have cracked the code but understandably keep it a secret, for it's something that's been worked towards... Would you give the money out of your wallet away?

Great report.

Harry

If it's to good to be true, it usually is...

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Mate what a fish. And such a great report. I'll put in a vote for you to compile your reports into a leather bound tome please :)

Nice work on the release too.

Cheers

Witha

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk

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Congratulations Pete on a magnificent capture :clapping:

Exceptional angling skills to wrestle the beast out of the depths.

Great write up as well, very descriptive and suspenseful. As mentioned above I also felt like I was there too.

You put the effort in and you reap the rewards.... very well done.

Thanks for sharing and keep up the tremendous work.

Ian

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Awesome report and what a monster!

What sort of technique were you using with the plastic to get the jews attention ?

Hey RichieR, the technique was the generic and disjointed double whip. I've also got interest when I've varied the method, in particular a triple whip. The key is to pay extra attention to the braid, more so than for flathead fishing which don't usually spit out the plastic when they hit. That is the fundamental difference I have noticed. Hope that helps!

Congratulations Pete on a magnificent capture :clapping:

Exceptional angling skills to wrestle the beast out of the depths.

Great write up as well, very descriptive and suspenseful. As mentioned above I also felt like I was there too.

You put the effort in and you reap the rewards.... very well done.

Thanks for sharing and keep up the tremendous work.

Ian

Thanks Ian for your kind words! I don't think I'm doing anything special in particular except persevere and constantly trying to refine my methods. I'm very satisfied it has paid off. I would have been stoked even if it were a 25cm model! All that bream fishing has given me a good platform to improve upon. Hope you get into some decent fish and looking forward to your future reports.

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