First LRF session of the year

I would have like to have kicked off the new season with a few fish on the fly, but the tides haven't really worked in favour of that so last night owing to a drop in the wind I decided to have an LRF session at a local pontoon with my two boys and my fishing buddy. We haven't really fished this venue properly before, just an odd quick dabble a couple of times so it was a pleasant surprise when we all started getting bites and catching fish from the off. There were clearly a number of small Pollock present and none of us really struggled to catch fish but my spot that I picked seemed to be the killer spot where the majority of the fish wanted to be. I ended up with over a dozen fish to a selection of different lures but the one that shone through was a small bright orange curl tail grub which the Pollock kept nailing time after time.

This one took a liking to a Reins Aji king 2", and was my first fish of the new Saltwater season.

 The majority of the fish however fell to this little orange curl tail grub from AGM products.

Youngest son snapped Dad and big brother concentrating on catching the next fish !

It was a great little session to get the season underway and I was like a kid in a candy store even though the fish were small it felt that good to be back catching fish from the salt on the ultralight gear. Seeing my two boys catching fish gave me a lot of joy as well, and they had a lot of fun which of course is always the ultimate aim !

Youngest son showed his artistic talents by taking this photo of one of big brothers fish !

Festival disruption causes fishing chaos !

It's Festival time over here on the Island at the moment and thanks to the disruption it causes, my eldest son had the day off school today....so naturally he and his mate wanted to go fishing!
I said o.k I would taxi them to where they wanted to go, and decided to throw my gear in the car as well, just in case...as you do !
Things started off slow and the first half of the session leading up to high tide was a wash out with very little evidence of any fish present. A few nibbles from tiny Wrasse and Gobies all of which resulted in zero hook ups. I suspected that all this could change on the ebb and as I had to leave and go and pick up my younger son who still had school today I left my eldest and his mate to carry on. I returned about an hour or so later and found that my prediction had been correct and the fish had switched on during my absence. My eldest reported two Bass and a Pollock and lots more fish present, this being bolstered by a large flock of gulls working nearby too.
I parked the car up, retrieved my gear from the boot and re joined the boys on the Pontoon.

The water was full of pin fry which the Bass and other fish were merrily gorging themselves on, The trouble was, despite having my best selection of LRF lures with me, It was hard going matching the hatch due to the miniscule size of baitfish that the predators were preoccupied with ! In the end a 5 gram metal was as near as I could get and I managed to hook a little schoolie in short order but it was still hard going despite large numbers of fish present, the problem being the overwhelming amount of free food available.

In the end though we managed a few Bass, some Pollock and a Mackerel between us and my youngest son did me proud by being photographer for the session ! 

 

Action as a Schoolie takes the Metal !



 

The Mackerel were happy with Plastic !

 

Number one Son bags a Pollock

Still slow

A couple of recent LRF sessions have yielded a few fish, though it's still been hard work for the time of year. The fish just don't seem to have established themselves in any numbers yet as in previous years at this time.
Anyway the first session saw me take my kids to a little pontoon the other night that is generally a great little venue for LRF. We managed a few Pollock between us during a dusk period in the tide, though the window and feeding spell was very small and there didn't seem to be any real numbers of fish like there can be here.

The second session was the same story really, visited another normally fun little LRF venue which is the entrance to a harbour mouth where large groups of schoolies gather at the right stage of tide and we have had some hectic fishing here at times on the ultralight gear. Last night however it was again hard work. There were obviously some fish present as the first bite came just on the dot of the flow picking up but this proved to be a false indicator and the bites were few and far between though both myself and my mate did manage pound plus fish each which was nice. Didn't get a picture of those one's though as the light was fading by then and I didn't want to spook any more potential fish with the flash as we were wading waist deep in the water and it had been hard enough work as it was ! So here's a pic of the first fish, only a half pounder but fun nevertheless...

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