Decided to try the East Coast today. Set off from the Fort Road end, but had a bit of bad luck. As I was setting up, I noticed a black mark on my pump. Now where did that come from? Oh no! Looked down at my feet and they had black crude oil between the toes and on the sides of my feet! After wiping that off, I noticed small balls of oil scattered on the beach and in the water! That was a bad start, but what to do? Keep fishing.
I trolled a couple of lures along for about 1km, but with no takes. The fish-finder was quiet, with a level bottom of around 20ft. As I passed one place, the bottom looked different. Beep, beep..beep..beeep.. FISH! I'd been seeing fish last week, but they weren't taking anything, so I thought I'd bling things up and try some flashy apollo rigs I'd had kicking around for years. On the very first drop, FISH ON!!! Ooooooooh BIG FISH, BIG FISH!! My rod is a PE2-4 and bent over nicely feeling violent shakes, but very rapid. The water was quite clear and spinning round in the water I could see fish - 3 fish!! One on each hook!!!! This has been my dream for so long - first drop and fish on!!
Thrilled to bits with these three, I tried again, over the same spot where the fish-finder showed the fish.......
BANG - FISH ON AGAIN!!!!
WOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!
This time with a grouper!!!
Bye Master Grouper, see you again when you grow up - if I'm lucky!
After this, I tried a different rig - a normal apollo with 20lb flourocarbon hooklengths, one with squid and one with dead prawn, but no takers. Had a bite on the prawn meat, but only small.
Put on my super flasher and another take - straight away!
These fish are soooooo beautiful! I caught 9 of these, before deciding to leave them in peace and try another spot.
Paddled over to the Marina Barrage, but no takers there. The yellow bouys have a sign on them restricting boaters from going any further in. The bottom here is flat, with no fish showing, so I decided enough was enough and enjoyed the paddle back to base.
Don't need to stop at the filling station today!
HAPPY DAY!!!
