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View Full Version : Gold Coast Estuary Flick - Tuesday 22nd October



keen_as_mustard
22-11-2005, 11:23 AM
JT and I decided to go for a flick before work in an attempt to grab a Jack. That meant meeting at the ramp at 4am to be on the water for first light. We trolled lures for a while with no luck then decided to cast at the snags and rock walls. JT lands a Giant Herring on a plastic (his first) - don't those fish jump when hooked! He then follows this up with a few Bream and a Silver Trevally.

As this stage I am starting to question my own fishing ability as I have tried a few of my fave lures with no success - so I turn to the Prawnstar. Why I did this I have no idea as I have never caught anything on one of these! Anyway, not long after that I hook an undersize Flathead - wow these really do work. Of course I stick with it and manage to pull two small Estuary Cod out of a deep hole - three fish on a Prawnstar in 30 minutes - is this my new favourite lure?

JT straightens the hook on a big fish, then gets busted off on another 10 mins later at the boat - he starts to wonder why he didn't upgrade his leader earlier! But he redeems himself shortly after with a 40cm GT that puts a nice bend in his rod as it does a lap around the boat.

At this stage we are watching the clock as we need to get to work soon, so we go for one last run along the deep bank. JT hooks another Giant Herring that also puts on an great acrobatic display before coming into the boat. I then drop a 60+cm lizard at the boat, but land a 59cm specimen two casts later. JT pulls a small dusky off a snag (was supposed to be a Bream). Then as we are 20 metres from the ramp, we both hook up at the same time. He lands a 51cm flattie, while I score a 30cm Jack (my first ever lure caught Jack).

Overall we end up with 13 fish from 7 different species. Turns out to be a day of firsts - JT 's first (and second) Giant Herring - my first (and fifth) fish on a Prawnstar, and my first lure caught Jack. Not bad for sacrificing a few hours sleep. We were on the water for a little over 3 hours and used every minute of that to land our original target species.

All fish were caught on lures (Prawnstars and 3 inch stick baits) and all released to fight another day. Great way to start the day - although we are now feeling it!

(this is the smaller of the Giant Herring - we dropped the bigger one over the side before taking the photo)

keen_as_mustard
22-11-2005, 11:24 AM
40cm GT

keen_as_mustard
22-11-2005, 11:24 AM
59cm Flattie

keen_as_mustard
22-11-2005, 11:25 AM
30cm Jack

Gbanger
22-11-2005, 11:33 AM
good report and fish... keep em coming

scuttlebutt
22-11-2005, 11:39 AM
that's a great day on lures. I think that Giant Herring is actually a Tarpon though.

cheers,

steve

1337
22-11-2005, 11:46 AM
Sounds like a great session guys. And yeah the GH looks like a tarpy to me. Which ramp did you guys launch from?

NeMo84
22-11-2005, 12:21 PM
nice little session fellas, i've got some prawnstars just like that but have never used em for some reason, that'll have to change, and yeh that's a tarpon ;)

Carlos.

keen_as_mustard
22-11-2005, 01:04 PM
thanks for setting me straight guys - yes it is a tarpon (or ox eye herring)

...however, I do know of giant herring being caught from the same spot

cuzzamundi
22-11-2005, 01:43 PM
great session mate! bloody awesome. what creek were you in? great stuff.

cuzza

flickflack
22-11-2005, 02:09 PM
Top report guys,makes me want to go fishing again. MMM whats with this work thing that we all have to do.

Franco
22-11-2005, 03:57 PM
Love it fella's!

Good to see such a variety of fish coming out of hard-fished waters.
Hmm the prawnstars ARE hard to build confidence with, aren't they?? Used em a lot up north but hardly use em to fish the Goldie waters ....... till now!

Looking forward to more reports.

bidkev
22-11-2005, 04:53 PM
Well done fellas. Top report and nice pics. Seeya later......I'm just popping out to buy some prawnstars ;D

kev

flattymattyb
22-11-2005, 06:04 PM
Hi Marty & John,

Top stuff guys quite a prouctive little morning session there. I have used the prawnstars a bit myself for no result, without going into to much detail what sort of action do you use on them? do you jig them as described on the pack or do you use a "soft plastic" sort of retrieve?

Cheers
Matty

keen_as_mustard
22-11-2005, 07:34 PM
matty,

don't have the packet anymore so can't remember what it said!

there were two techniques that caught fish this morning - first was vertical jigging the prawnstar under the boat in deep water while drifting, lifting it a foot or two and letting it fall back to the bottom - caught both the cod this way

the other technique was casting it towards the bank and gently hopping it along the bottom back to the boat - caught the flatties and jack this way

as I said this was the first time catching anything with them - was probably a huge fluke (planets in alignment or some other force of nature) but will definitely give them another go next time out. I am real keen to try them along kalinga bank and similar spots (especially leading up to next year's flattie classic!).

I was using the prawnstar junior and I removed the front treble to reduce chance of snagging. I did drop/miss a few fish, but plan to increase the size of the rear treble to try to improve this (may even experiment with using the front treble too)

look forward to hearing about your results with them, and any other lures that don't come out of the tacklebox as often as they should

JT
22-11-2005, 07:49 PM
It was a great little morning session, I am sure there will be many more before the summers end, as well as a few afternoon ones on those stinking hot days with pending afternoon storms.
Bugger about the bust-offs, why is it the bigger fish will always strike when you are using the gear least able to handle them (bloody Murphy and his stupid laws >:( >:().

Hopefully many more reports to follow.

Cheers

John

Here is a close up of Marty's Jack

Burley_Boy
22-11-2005, 11:28 PM
Great report and encouraging to see in our waterways. I certainly enjoy reading it. :)
BB