Finally got the mystery fish...and what an anticlimax

[Little_Flatty]

A month ago I posted looking for advice from fellow raiders about losing fish around structure. This morning I'm glad to report that after following all the advice, and a bit of experimentation, I have successfully landed one of the mystery fish! Not all that exciting though; it was a...bream.

The latest bustoffs started at Meadowbank wharf . On a number of instances, before I was able to get the rod out of the holder, a fish had taken the bait and snagged me on some underwater structure a bit further out in the water. Other times, my leader would have been sliced through like butter. Long story short, I gradually upped my tackle but still kept losing fish.

This morning I arrived at 5:30am to fish the high tide with my Raider trusty travel shore spin (normally my beach tailor rod), with 15lb braid and 20lb flurocarbon leader. Had a take on a salted pilchard cube within ten mins and as usual, I could feel structure rubbing on the line and felt snagged. However, with the 20lb fluro, I was more able jiggle and skull drag the fish out, and continue the fight. Then the mystery fish materialised on the surface - a bream! Not even a big one; I measured it and it was only just legal! Quick pic and it was returned to the water to keep the fishing line industry in business.

After that, the leader was a writeoff and needed a change. Quite a bit of damage for a small fish. Didn't get any more fish of note for the rest of the session, which allowed me to focus on chasing baitfish as I was running out of bait. Unfortunately I donutted on that front, in spite of berleying and putting bait on the jigs (think the current was messing with me - any tips to deal with this?). Thankfully I still have some herring salting in my fridge from a previous session. Still have a bit to learn on that front; have previously seen people at this wharf do ok on the baitfish.

 

[tunanocrust]

 Great work mate! 
 

Glad to see you finally caught the bugger!