It would be so nice to come back and pick up with bass catches in three figures. But truth is, it is still very early in the bass season, especially inshore. That some are around is absolutely the case, and not all are small. However, luck would really need to be on your side, as the big fish are few and far between. First sailing, with Mark and Armando on board, saw us do a little bit of everything, to get a feel for what was happening.
First. a drift for squid. Nothing doing. Then, onto a bass drift. Mark nailed his first of the year, a small schoolie, right where they should have been. But more drifts found no more bass. We hunted around, but nothing doing. Eventually, we settled down to try for plaice, but even they played hard ball, with perhaps half a dozen falling to our rods.
2nd sailing, and we only did the first hour on a bass hunt, Mark once again doing the honours with a small fish. And then we settled on the plaice, which were feeding just a little harder, and Bruno (who had replaced Armando for 2nd sailing) and Mark managed perhaps twenty between them, and plenty more dropped.
Final sailing, and Mark, nephew Damo, and Mackie were on board. And we didnt even bother looking for a bass. Straight on the plaice, and all of us were hoping for table fish. The timing was perfect, the plaice feeding really well. You must remember, all of this is on artificials. No worms were harmed, unless perhaps from some petro chemical spill at source in the process of manufacturing. We killed 19 between the 4 of us, which sounds horrific, but actually is less than 5 fish each. And we released at least as many again, and dropped plenty more. It really was fast and furious at times. And enough to round off a most pleasant, if absolutely bloody freezing, day.
Fish of the day, should be the biggest plaice. However, I forgot to mention the Undulate ray tally for BIF1 increased by one today. A cracker falling to Damo...
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