Lurers Tempted By The Dark Side

Nowadays really shit luring man. Don't know why. Too much baiting with pillies that's why I reckon me and Chen are being 'lured' into the dark side (baiting). It was pissing rain for so many days for the last week or so that's why needed to go cure the lure itch. Asked Chen for a 1st light operation and he gladly obliged, with the intention to test his new Revros with Seaguar 8lb egging braid. My intentions was to test run the 2 new lures I recently acquired.

Summer is coming to an official close. The first light seems to be coming on later. When we reached the designated time, it was still a little dark. Nevertheless, we still could see shit and rigged up soft plastics 1st. The tide was at its highest and we both casted the camo worms. On a few casts later, I got a small flattie which thankfully didn't thrashed the worm. But it was still eaten up by the infamous toads later on. Got fed up and changed to a bloodworm grub. I moved further away from the drain and tried some really snaggy terrain. On the 1st drop, closed the bail arm, and when turning the handle, I felt a weight. Didn't even need to strike and I was on. The fight was not bad, but not spectacular. It felt heavy and I thought it might be a good size bream. Indeed, it went 32cm.


Continued with the grub for some hits but no hookup. Then seeing that the time is passing fast and tide was receding, I went with hardbodying. Attached the ANRE'S Rapid 45DSP and was disappointed with the swimming effect. Only fast cranking can produce the wiggle but it wasn't in tight action. Still, it produces many hits and twice I had a hookup but they threw hook! Thought I changed the default hooks to Owners will improve but guess that's the risk of using a single treble. The rapid was scratched badly on its 1st outing despite it's crap swimming action! I'll definitely continue giving it a thorough workout. Gave a try with the Megabass Baby Griffon with absolutely nothing. The action was superb but guess the fishies probably liked streamline minnows instead. Chen got a small bream while he was almost reeling in his Smilin' Jack! Gave him some cheap thrill as well on the Revros. At the last part of our luring, we saw a school of big and small mullets swimming on the surface. Tried every means to get them but to no avail. If only we had bread or Rocky with us.. haha!

Ronald

Bonito Fought Like A King

Finally our Brooker is back from his heart surgery. The Evinrude had its powerhead totally busted and so a replacement had to be fitted. It's like having a new engine. Bloody hell we still had to be charged for this work though the mechanic says he's doing it half price for us. Well, as expected, these 2 fishmongers had to take it out for a thorough spin to make sure that the warranty of 3 months is well worth it. The early morning saw me woke up at 4.30am to drive up Kyeemagh for baits. Chen had been squidding the previous night with his mate. He actually got 2 squids and briefly tried for jewfish only to give the rest away to some fishos there! Those are gun baits! Oh well, that's just the good of him. Had contemplated to try launching at Rose Bay but still opted for our usual Tunks Park.

Reached Tunks at 6am during first light and already I had to park elsewhere. That's the thing about weekend boating. Thankfully no drama whilst launching only to experience the battery playing up a little on us. Off we motor away and I prep the berley. The new heart performed well, even when we punished it with full revs. It was outgoing tide but as Jialiang said to me once, "low tide also got fish one lah". Well, one thing for sure, the session was non-stop for 5 hours being there. Yes, 5 hours, this shows how crazy we are when you only had 2 hours of sleep for both of us. Went cubing straightaway and breams kept climbing on board. It was easier to 'strike' them ala GTK-style, don't know why, maybe it was the Gamakatsu/Owner hooks that Chen supplied or the fish simply too hungry. I definitely lost count of the breams till we set ourself only to take enough for the bbq and release them ala AFC-style. But bloody hell we tried very hard to 'upgrade' the fishes, however, they were all in the 25cm range.

The best part of the session soon after came when we got onto a few small snappers and whilst reeling it in, a kingfish will follow it. It got us pretty much excited, if only we had squids. That was it, I told Chen we had our "teasers". True, whilst reeling in my snapper, a bonito was circling around it near the boat. They were not as shy as the kings. Chen quickly dropped a pillie and within seconds, the Revros zzz a bit but missed. Lucky the bonnie was still circling my teaser and Chen try again. This time took longer but soon he managed to entice it and then the hookup begins. However, this 1st bonnie wasn't running hardout, but still, it was Chen's first Bonito. Well done bro.

The anchoring was shit. We kept drifting slowly but it didn't affect the fishing. The breams were biting throughout the morning with maybe a few 10-15 minutes break. I brought the blackhole junior rod and thought might as well use it. Used the same old rig and did my "one-third" style. Not long later, the rod bent and when I picked it up, the reel screamed. The line was vertically down and I thought it might be a king. Up it came a 32cm bream foul-hooked on the side of its body. Champion man! No wonder it fought almost like a king. The next action came from Chen when he got another Bonito. This time round, it gave him a good run of his money. His Revros was equipped with a new Seaguar egging 8lb braid. The braid kept making a funny rubbing sound on Jialiang's lure rod but his rod is damn nice to fight these light sport fish. Finally, Chen said "respect" to this bonito cos' the 1st one didn't gave him much fun.

By then, it was almost late 'morvo'. We almost gave up till some points I was just chilling out in Brooker and lazy in baiting up. I still continued my '1/3' style and suddenly, Chen saw the junior bent again and I went to pick it up. This one was absolute mayhem man. The little daiwa samurai reel with limited 8lb braid and 10lb vanish was punished to da max. The stamina of this fish running suddenly makes us wonder if it was a king. The little torpedo run and vertical movement of the line makes me call out for a king 1st. Usually for my own stamina I would have subdue or pump the fish up after 3-4 runs. This one was not the case. I was already draining and Chen could see my utter helpless look on my face. The blackhole although rated as 8-14lb still couldn't cushion the strain on my left arm. I thought 10lb vanish most likely cannot hold but with constant adjusting the drag to almost max, we could finally see what it was at surface, bloody hell, it's another BONITO! Damn it, this time, my turn to say "RESPECT", and to da max! If it was on a 4-8lb, I might contemplate letting the gear slip out of my hand, yeah right!

After that action, it was still breams after breams. We set out a timing to leave as we couldn't take it anymore. My 1/3 had no more customer and so back to tunks. Got wet on the way back as there was too much chops on the water. Brooker did well and we were pretty impressed. Chen was a very proactive boater, he makes sure that the bonnies are bled and iced immediately after landed. We've heard that they can be sashimi and so I tried cutting sashimi the 1st time. Never did precision cutting before and it was a long 1.5 hours to do it! I had to constantly sharpen, wash the cutting board every single time when I start on a side of the fish, that means, the shoulder part, stomach and on both sides of the fish. One side was done not that pretty but it improved on the other side. In the end, the bonito was rated a good eating sashimi by Team StMike and associates. Personally, I found that it tasted better than tuna and hiramasa (king).


Total tally: Breams (must be over bag limit), 3 kept, the 32cm dropped into sea whilst cleaning it. 3 X Bonitos.

Ronald

New Lures

Fishing is shit, so what to do? Buy lures loh! Had been eyeing to get a Megabass Baby Griffon for a long time and manage to came across one seller in eBay selling it cheap at US$9.99 a pop. In oz, it'll go for like AU$29.95! But then there's only one colour available which is called GG Golden-Lime. Megabass lures are one of the most expensive jap lures around and I don't know why the hype but I guess all jap tackle stuffs are ridiculous expensive yet appealing to get.

Then, came across another lure that looks the goods for breaming. It's a Angler's Republic (ANRE'S) Rapid 45DSP. Tiny little deep suspender that goes 45mm. Apparently it's a 2nd hand lure and after including postage, it costs me $13! Shit, this hobby is really getting way out of hand but too addictive to pass up. Better than gamble it away in a Lotto megapick right?

Must find some free time to mod them before they see the drink.

Ronald

No Longer A Clifton Jinx

Yes, finally I'm not a jinx at Clifton Gardens. Everytime I went there I catch shit plus maybe making the session so dull that the rest of the crew with me suffers. Seeing that the tides are good this week plus Chen is keen to fish hardout before he starts his full-time work, I suggested Clifton to see if I can break the bad spell, plus giving a full trial run of the squid spray Egimax. Luckily I concussed early last night (valentines day, diew!) and got woken up by a call from Chen. Both of us looked fresh in the morning and we opted a 6am start due to the late 1st light conditions now. The day before we rushed to Drummoyne to get our pilchards but alas we arrived 5 minutes late and the shop was already closed. So no choice but to change our plans and squidding (egging) was supposed to be the main priority for bait.

Went to the 7-Eleven servo at military road and got a 2kilo block of WA pillies. Shit, it cost us $16.95 man! We can get 2 packs at Drummoyne! No choice lah. Reached there and already 2 fisho at the front end. We took the side and I began cubing and trying to get yakkas on handline. Chen with only one rod went to squid instead. He bought a new yamashita squid jig and armed with the egimax, he caught a baby squid and a fiesty cuttlefish that inked indiscriminately! It got my jacket but luckily didn't get onto other fishos. Chen was practically hooked on squidding, and apparently he found some of his favourite sure-fire spots which was good. While he was busy squidding, I kept getting breams after breams which were all just legal sizes. At one point, there were sudden surface activities around the jetty. It was bonitos terrorising the bait schools. How I know is because one asian guy quickly used his metal and got onto a small bonnie. By the time I brought my rod over to the surface commotion side, they disappeared! Damn! Anyhow, I continued my usual job and suddenly, I got a huge take. My cheapo ET combo screamed and luckily it was rear drag system and I could quickly tighten it up. I was so tight till even when I try pulling by hand the line won't come out. But this biggie was tough. At first I thought it might be a kingfish but having experienced how rats run, I doubt this was. As usual, my line will go and tangle other rods but luckily that bunch in Clifton were friendly and cooperative. They quickly shouted to each other to keep the lines. I was so thankful. In the end, Chen quickly came over after hearing the loud drag. He armed himself with our special Clifton long net and managed to net up my 1st ever BONITO! I was so happy to have finally landed this specie. I thanked and also apologise to other fishos whom I have inconvenient.

After that fish, Chen decided to cube as well. I was still getting breams but it was still good fun. Then Chen decided it was time to use the squid and so he cut up the baby into 2 strips. I brought another rod which Jialiang gave it to me. I changed the reel to my friend's daiwa samurai which I had landed my 1st king with. Chen casted it but being a stiff tip, it didn't go far. After awhile, I re-casted it and within 1 minute, I noticed the asian guy besides me had a hookup on his big-ass rod. He brought up his bonito in double quick time. Being courteous, I quickly reel in my Et stick and when I reel in the blackhole rod with the squid strip, I felt a weight and strike. I thought it was double hookup since the asian guy got a bonnie. The 1st 2 runs was short and straight forward, making me truly believe it was a double hookup bonnie. But the third run was stronger and longer. By then I didn't have anymore time to tighten the drag on the samurai and in about 7secs run, the 10lb vanish broke... FAAARRRKKK!!! Chen was behind me with the net and I concurred that was not a bonito, it was definitely a king, since we were using fresh squid. But still, that 7secs was mind-blowing on 8lb braid.

Kings 3, Ronald 1. That was my kingfish tally in sydney so far. With a broken ego, I still continued cubing. Lucky thing is the squid was still there, only 70cm of leader and the hook was gone. Re-used the squid only to have pickers raping it. By then, our squids were gone and chen cut up the cuttlefish. During cubing, while I was talking to an aussie bloke, I felt a take and striked. My ET loud reel sang the usual 4secs burst. This bloody bonito ran from the right hand side to the front and then to the left of the wharf. Luckily there wasn't much rods left around and so I could follow that bugger. Chen my bro helped me net yet again this bonito and by then I really felt tired using the ET stick to steer them. This $30 cheapo is magic, although got busted by 2 kings previously on our boat, Brooker, it still can land 2 bonitos. Gotta be happy with that, and plus the fact it was all fun on 6lb fireline, I really love fishing light to da max. Later, Chen got a hookup on cubing and initially he thought it was a bream. When I see the line and heard the drag on his new reel, REVROS, I said "bream my ass lah". True enough, the zzzz and stamina can't be bream run. It was another bonito. But after around 2 minutes of mayhem, it 'piak'! FAAARRRKKK!!! He was gutted but later he said it was 6lb leader. I was like, "Chen, you very 'diao' leh"! My disciple want to impress me by downgrading his leader. I really respect him man, NOT! Still, he controlled his Revros drag well and fought it on Jialiang's luring rod.. hehe..

After getting about 9-10 breams, I took one home for a feed. It measured 28cm but was fat. We ended up using the whole bag of pillies before calling it quits when the bites were gone. For the entire 4 hours being there, I never had a chance to sit down and wait for bites. We left and went to get a bottle of drink for $3.50 to quench our thirsts.

Total tally: 2 bonitos (50 & 52cm), 1 squid and 1 cuttlefish, 9-10 breams, small snappers, 1 bonito (got smoked) and 1 king (got smoked).

Ronald

ps. Blog dedicate to my Clifton grand master Mr GTK.

Bullshit After-Rain Theory

All those don't know what 'after big rains the fishing will fire' theory is all bullshit one. Well, for this outing I had of course. As Sydney was raining hardout since last weekend, it was absolutely pouring like mad over the last few days. Finally it gave it up and the following days shows totally good kind winds. The tides in the afternoon were shits from last week and only the morning tides these coming days look more promising. Supposedly was to go luring with Chen during 1st light but he got commitment in the last minute. So I went by myself reaching hen and chicken bay just at 6am. Even 1st light nowadays come more later, well, good news is I can sleep more.

Parked at 'poor-mans' stretch and tied on a used gulp sandworm. Was also field testing a new fluorocarbon leader called Nitlon DARM which we got from Nippon. This time we really play with fire, using only 5lb and extremely thin diameter. After rigging finish, I walked to 'egged' curve. Why I called it 'egged' is because once when me and chen were there luring in the night, we almost got hit by eggs from a passing car with those bastards. Anyway, 1st cast with the used worm and there was already ferocious bites on the drop. With the current lines we have now, I can straightaway know that my rig is lighter, meaning the worm must have been reduced. True enough, I didn't even bother to jig it back and I already guessed it right. Rerigged with another used worm I had and few casts later, scored a maybe-just legal flattie. This flattie ran a bit when it was near the bank and when it was on land, it kept thrashing around the leader. Good thing is that this expensive Nitlon is quite abrasion resistant. Continued there for awhile for another small flattie on a Mojo grub.

Walked back to poor-mans stretch and on the 1st cast with Mojo, I got a hit and strike. Fish on.. Good feeling with this bream even though it did not run. I must say the Nitlon is pretty DARM good. Wait, not yet.. when I lift the fish up on the bank, just when I steer it onto the grass patch, it drop straightaway! Apparently the leader gave way at the knot with the jighead! What the! Poor breamie just kept thrashing on the grass and ended up being dirty.

Was tempted to continue there but since some idiot told me after big rains must try the drains and I opted to change to snaggy drain. This time, I changed the jighead of Mojo to something lighter than my usual 1.5g squidgy. Used a 1/32oz and it was virtually snag free, well, I hope! But then totally no bites at the drain mouth. See, cannot believe those pros one. (then why the hell I still go? Doh!) Then went down the stretch and go with hardbody seeing that the tide is receding fast. Put on pak rat only to see a good size bream follow the lure up and U-turn! CB! Next, changed to the eBay lure which haven't caught bream yet (actually a lot of eBay lures still haven't catch bream, KNNBCCB!). Suddenly while cranking slowly the ZipBaits Rigge, my Kix did the zzzzz for like 2 secs. Fwah, this bream orgase me while I was on the verge of falling asleep. But it only made that 1st run straight after hookup. Only a mere 26cm bream.

When I released that bream, the big house behind me had an asian old couple watching the action. The old lady praise me for releasing and did a hand jesture like praying to Sky God that I did good. Shiok man.. I thought after blessing me I will land more big fish but end up got blessed with big donut. The sun was by then too strong and I LL gave up.

Ronald

Caught Me 1st Mullet!

Finally no longer a mullet virgin. But it was just only a small little one. The night before, went out for dinner with Phil. Stupid me chose to take Gardeners road to get to Kingsford Dan Murphys liquor store to get our new case of TED. Then, some ang moh's driven up to me and told me I've a flat tyre. So we quickly pulled up near the South Juniors club and what do u know, a bloody flat tyre because of a freaking screw! So no choice but to change tyre ourselves. Went to Dan Murphys customer parking lots and try doing it ourselves. The nuts came off easy but then there was this really stubborn one. Phil tried to kick it and suddenly the nut came off with the broken screw! Shit, we ended up driving the spare with only 3 screws! Damn, I'm gonna be so broke, my scholarship has already been cut for a month already. KNNBCCB!!!

Anyway, it still didn't deter me from going for a lure with Rocky. He went Wolli Creek 1st while I went later to join him. Got to the Y-junction spot and used my mojo plastic. Caught a super duper small flattie on the 1st cast. Then, we spotted heaps of big fat mullets cruising just beneath our feet! Tried using white colour hardbodies but only got 1 follow. Then I told Rocky let's stop mucking around and get some bread. So I drove to the nearby bakery and got a expired loaf of bread. Rocky opted to go float while I just took out the lure and tie on a small blackfish hook. Do the unweighted style and luckily the bread sometimes float on surface. We berleyed hard and the mullets were feeding frenzily on the surface. Luckily my piece was investigated and after mucking around for awhile, this innocent mullet got hooked when I striked. Though small and not a hint of line peeling happen, I'm no longer a mullet virgin! Woohoo!

Later on, it was chaos. We get like hookups and bustoffs non stop and practically used up all the bread! Mostly we ended up getting breams while the bread sink. Rocky got a few good runs from the breams and he caught a fair bit of good size ones including this.

All in all it was a good session. Rock was sure a happy bloke by the end. Though we didn't get the good fight or landed any of those monster mullets, it sure is exhilarating to experience the bust-offs. zzzzz.... piak! FAAARRRRKKK!!!

Ronald