No struggle to decide which is fish of the day this session...
Two sailings today. And they were as different as chalk and cheese... First sailing my merry crew (Richard, Ross and Paul) headed out into a rather brisk NE wind. Coddies were the plan, but the plan was not a good one. The wind pushed us across the tide on most drifts, so lots of zig zag adjustments across the rocky patches. We found fish, but nothing that we were after. And by the time the session was over, my three guys had recorded zero fish. I had managed half a dozen but nothing of note. Small bass, small bream and pouting. Such a poor session I do not wish to dwell on it, so there it is... except one interesting happening, that really might have turned this poor session into something special... We were drifting one particularly heavy rocky patch, when Paul's rod bent over solid... "Rockfish" I said. Brighton rocks are always happy to feed. He managed to pull out of the "rock". On retrieving, the shad told a very different story. Something big and toothy had been attached, although briefly. Only two things spring to mind. A big cod, or a conger. Had either surfaced, I would be putting a different slant on things. And it goes to serve as a reminder. An excellent session, is often, just a single bite away...
Whodunnit?
Ross left, and was replaced by Mark. Because the cod hunt in the morning had failed so spectacularly, I decided to do everything differently. I agreed with my guys that we would go chase bass for 2 hours, and if we have reasonable fishing, finish with a cod hunt for the last hour.
One for skipper...
Because the codding has been distracting me from the bass, it was a bit of a blind stab. Not completely blind though. September there is a 2nd peel of velvet swimming crabs. Perhaps the favourite food choice for big reef bass. So, we headed for some reef where there are plenty of these pretty crustaceans. And what a result!! We found exactly that. Very few schoolies, but a dozen quality fish, including a beast for Richard of 10lb 4oz, which revealed its huge shoulders as it made repeated lunges for the Heddon one knocker spook. Perhaps on its fifth attempt, the reel screamed as a successful contact was made.
For the last hour, we went back on the cod hunt. Very first drift, Paul's rod hooped over to the distinctive nodding of a codling wanting back to its rocky home. Any size cod on the 35gm gear becomes a very different beast from the ones on 30lb down tide gear. You really can appreciate the power of these beautiful fish. Sadly though, this one came adrift about half way up. Some solace in the fact that fishing for these creatures in such shallow water, means the fish has no decompression issues, and dropped fish simply swim back home and continue feeding. Or, swim back home and tell their mates not to eat the big orange things... (HTO Arctic eel)... as that was the only coddie contact of this session.
