MacDougall
21-09-2012, 03:51 PM
It's rare that you are as happy as I am when you lose a fish of a lifetime but the story and the circumstances are so funny and the story so good that I'm not that cut.
I was fishing off the bank in Lawrence in the Clarence today and having good fun on bream (yes the bream are on in Lawrence big time). I hooked what I called for a picker bream, really nothing to write home about, maybe the weakest take I had all day. I was winding it in and got it just about to the bank when it turned around on me and took off for deep water. I am convinced that it was swallowed on the bank by something because I felt the weight of it change drastically.
Line started peeling off and I was fishing very light. 6lb fluoro spooled all the way on with the same as leader fishing with bait so I came to attention pretty fast. I was concerned that it would spool me for a while but it slowed down and stopped in the deep water. Just stopped cold in the water. I put weight onto it and it started coming towards me. So I pumped and wound it back in. It was HEAVY as but just let me wind it in. When I got it back in to about where it first took off, it darted off to the side and down and snagged me in something I guess. Fishing so light I just backed the drag right off and held onto the rod and waited for it to swim away. After a minute or so it took off for deep water again so I repeated the process. It did the exact same thing. Just stopped about 50 metres off the bank and sat there. I wound it in again and it did the exact same thing AGAIN. Just stuck me in behind a big rock or something. No direction I could move could get it around this rock and I thought it was done because I waited for a while for it to swim off again but it didn't. So I did the only thing left, which was to strip off and dive in. I swam the line out to the other side of the snag ... and then it all went awry.
I had forgotten to turn the bail arm. The line rips out of my hands and I turn back towards land to find my rod screaming towards me. I luckily grabbed it. Meanwhile I am treading water and this fish is taking off for open water AGAIN and I am in about 8 feet of water with no idea what to do. I turned the bail arm over and swam the rod back to sure. Climbed out. Turned it back. Checked weight. Nothing there. Wound in a hook.
My deductions. It was a flathead all along, and a big one at that. It was the biggest bream of all time. Or, most likely, a big flathead that inhaled a small bream. What you reckon?
I was fishing off the bank in Lawrence in the Clarence today and having good fun on bream (yes the bream are on in Lawrence big time). I hooked what I called for a picker bream, really nothing to write home about, maybe the weakest take I had all day. I was winding it in and got it just about to the bank when it turned around on me and took off for deep water. I am convinced that it was swallowed on the bank by something because I felt the weight of it change drastically.
Line started peeling off and I was fishing very light. 6lb fluoro spooled all the way on with the same as leader fishing with bait so I came to attention pretty fast. I was concerned that it would spool me for a while but it slowed down and stopped in the deep water. Just stopped cold in the water. I put weight onto it and it started coming towards me. So I pumped and wound it back in. It was HEAVY as but just let me wind it in. When I got it back in to about where it first took off, it darted off to the side and down and snagged me in something I guess. Fishing so light I just backed the drag right off and held onto the rod and waited for it to swim away. After a minute or so it took off for deep water again so I repeated the process. It did the exact same thing. Just stopped about 50 metres off the bank and sat there. I wound it in again and it did the exact same thing AGAIN. Just stuck me in behind a big rock or something. No direction I could move could get it around this rock and I thought it was done because I waited for a while for it to swim off again but it didn't. So I did the only thing left, which was to strip off and dive in. I swam the line out to the other side of the snag ... and then it all went awry.
I had forgotten to turn the bail arm. The line rips out of my hands and I turn back towards land to find my rod screaming towards me. I luckily grabbed it. Meanwhile I am treading water and this fish is taking off for open water AGAIN and I am in about 8 feet of water with no idea what to do. I turned the bail arm over and swam the rod back to sure. Climbed out. Turned it back. Checked weight. Nothing there. Wound in a hook.
My deductions. It was a flathead all along, and a big one at that. It was the biggest bream of all time. Or, most likely, a big flathead that inhaled a small bream. What you reckon?