Gosford Rail Bridge

[Lucky Thirteen]

G'day Guys,

Funny twist to this story,

Set out in my tinny under Gosford Rail Bridge on Saturday for a long and patient fish with my best mate.

Day was grand, little wind, no swell in the bay and the fish were cracking. Set up opposite side of bridge to the bay fishing the last 2 hours of the run in and sitting in the deepest part

of the hole about 20 m from bridge and casting whole squid in lure of a mulloway sitting around the piers.

Anchored up underneath the  bridge I hear a YOU BEAUTY!! we look up and the bloke under the bridge is just about to net this massive Lizard when suddenly it lets go and the bloke

starts cursing and yelling in frustration with his head in his hands. I know that feeling and instant empathy sets in. 

With a squid on one line and other rods set up for catching live bait for the yakkas which  starting appearing behind our burley trail, My squid suddenly takes way and a nice tailor hooked up perfectly in the lower jaw. Decided to rig up the tailor on the squid set up and throw him in for a swim in the deep hole. The guys under the bridge moved on as the slack of the high started turning and roaring back out to the bay. Checked on the tailor and he was still good after 1 hour and decided to throw him where the guys lost their flatty.

Bang!!! the rod starts dancing and the reel starts screaming. Switch the bait runner to gear and I yell out FISH ON! LOL like that guy from Chasing Monster Cyril Chaquet. little chuckle to my self as my mate starts laughing. Slowly bring my catch in and heart stops as I see it get wrapped around the anchor doing circles. Quickly my mate lifts the anchor as we orchestrate not to loose  this thing which we have not seen yet. As the anchor ascends towards us, we see a Solid flatty on the end. We net her and untangle the mess she created. You Beauty!!!! as I remembered the poor bloke yell out couple of hours ago. The head on this thing looked like it was breed with a pit bull. I think I just caught old mates Flatty. How funny is that!!! 

Later that night as I,m cleaning the Flatty, I find a 2/0 hook stuck in its gut with 20 pound leader cut 6 inches from the hook. The one that got away and got caught again!!!!

Its amazing how aggressive this thing was to strike a 38 cm tailor, and get hooked on a 8/0.

More tailor caught on dead low slack about 7pm. Thrown out on bay side of bridge fishing the outgoing and slack when we see this big eddy current form in front of us realising the live tailor we had rigged up was being chased and this eddy was being created by the fish, rod keeled over ,reel screaming the heart pumping, my mate takes the rod and ....... nothing!!!!!. Retrieve the line and see half of the 40 cm tailor missing from the tail up.' Where's the second hook' I ask my mate? 'I only put one through his shoulder' he answers. Maaaaaaate!!!!. Oh well good lesson learned, use two hooks!!!!

Always another day I say, learn from mistakes and catch that big ONE!!!

Cheers guys!!!

 

 

 

 

[drc2076]

Great report. An underrated spot under that bridge. Spent many hours fishing from the old bridge (years prior to demolition) as a kid. Great memories. Cheers.

[big Neil]

Great story, great catch, great karma and a great lesson learned for next time. cheers, bn

[masterfisho7]

Top report that's one top Flathead .

[Rah]

Thats a nice flattie there. Lesson learnt hey.

 

Cheers

Rah

 

[MainframeJames]

I've fished the rail bridge once from a boat and once from the shore. Saw loads of fish but they weren't biting. Same for the other blokes around those days. You've given me hope to try it again.