bidkev
20-07-2004, 06:02 AM
25 yrs since I fished with me boy and he said that he would like to catch a "big 'un" before he went back to Pommy Land so I decided to take him to my "shovelly spot".
Left Manly and arrived at the spot off Chain where I usually pull some big shovellies in time for the last two hours of flood. Noticed that Harry's looked like flies on a cow's arse and felt happy that we were about to fish on glass in absolute silence.
Anchored up and baited 10/0s on 3 metres of wire with whole medium to large squid, and a floated pilly on ganged 6's and immediately hooked into a stingy weighing about 8 kilos which were followed by 11 more (bigger) over the next couple of hours the largest, a leopard ray, weighing in at 14 kilos. Not a touch on the float.
I had handed the rod to my son each time I hooked into something big and the wuss was knackered by now :-) so we moved into the bank to try and pick up the odd whiting or lizard as this had proved successful before. Immediately got into the grinners and after an hour of slack water decided to return to previous spot with nothing (yet) to take home for the night's barbie.
Again, almost immediately hooked into something that shot off at a rate of knotts and then returned at similar speed to circle the boat twice (with the resulting rod passing under anchor warp and bimini [smiley=furious2.gif]and my mind had me to thinking that we were finally going to get something for the pot [smiley=laola.gif]........then it went to the bottom and stuck there for a good 15 minutes amidst line twanging, slack line giving, puffing and blowing, 2 chicken sandwiches and a swig of coke. I'd've bet all I'd got that this was a leopard ray as these buggers can go at a much faster pace than the Brownies or shovelnose. I gave it plenty of slack, waited, and eventually, just as I was thinking I'd be settling down for the night, it took off. I tightened the drag to keep it off the bottom and pumped like buggery....shit or bust!.....I wasn't bothered by now, I just wanted it over. Got it to the boat and just as I thought, it was a leopard that went about 6 foot from tip to tip and must've weighed over 30 kilo......released at side.
My son was gobsmacked and grinning from ear to ear......he'd never experienced anything like this :-)
Out went the bait again and within 5 minutes, that characteristic slow run of the ratchet told me that I was into a turtle :-( On the last 5 trips I'd hooked one of these beautiful creatures and I still fell guilty every time I get into one. Luckily it was tongue hooked and I snipped the wire as close as I could whilst Ross, me best mate, held it's flippers for me. At one stage it locked onto me pliers and I thought how lucky I was that it wasn't me hand :-)
Ross was fishing uptide at the bow and had taken 3 Wobbies over the previous hour on live grinner bait. Whether it was the bait or his fishing up from the bow I don't know, but it seemed strange that he caught wobbies and we didn't? I had also caught 3 blind sharks in succession, about 5 kilo each, that went into the esky (there seems to be a lot of 'em around lately) and the guts into the berley.......at least we had a feed now.
A couple of more big stingies and a "video shoot" resulted in a tear in me trousers and me thinking how lucky I was to be wearing 'em.
Just as we decided to call it a day, the float finally went off and a hammerhead of 6 kilos was put on video and released.
First time I've ever missed getting a big shovelly at this spot but we'd had a fantastic day's sport.
Unfortunately, I had forgotten the digital camera but we had a laugh at my son later that evening, on video, struggling with the fish. He is left handed and all my reels are right hand overheads so that added to the humour :-)
We returned to Manly and a word of warning here. There were 3 blokes aged about 18 to 20 watching the trailering. I noticed that on each occasion they would walk to the rigging area and engage each boatie in conversation. I thought nothing of one of the blokes asking Ross and I, had we had any luck (whilst I was at the front of the boat) till my son told me later that he had caught one of the other two blokes at the back of the boat with one of my rods in his hand. He had asked them what they were doing and one had replied, "I'm just looking at your reel as I am thinking of buying one". My son repled, "a Shimano?" and the bloke said, "yes"...........It was bloody Ambassadeur he had in his hand!........dead suss if you ask me....beware.
cheers
kev
Left Manly and arrived at the spot off Chain where I usually pull some big shovellies in time for the last two hours of flood. Noticed that Harry's looked like flies on a cow's arse and felt happy that we were about to fish on glass in absolute silence.
Anchored up and baited 10/0s on 3 metres of wire with whole medium to large squid, and a floated pilly on ganged 6's and immediately hooked into a stingy weighing about 8 kilos which were followed by 11 more (bigger) over the next couple of hours the largest, a leopard ray, weighing in at 14 kilos. Not a touch on the float.
I had handed the rod to my son each time I hooked into something big and the wuss was knackered by now :-) so we moved into the bank to try and pick up the odd whiting or lizard as this had proved successful before. Immediately got into the grinners and after an hour of slack water decided to return to previous spot with nothing (yet) to take home for the night's barbie.
Again, almost immediately hooked into something that shot off at a rate of knotts and then returned at similar speed to circle the boat twice (with the resulting rod passing under anchor warp and bimini [smiley=furious2.gif]and my mind had me to thinking that we were finally going to get something for the pot [smiley=laola.gif]........then it went to the bottom and stuck there for a good 15 minutes amidst line twanging, slack line giving, puffing and blowing, 2 chicken sandwiches and a swig of coke. I'd've bet all I'd got that this was a leopard ray as these buggers can go at a much faster pace than the Brownies or shovelnose. I gave it plenty of slack, waited, and eventually, just as I was thinking I'd be settling down for the night, it took off. I tightened the drag to keep it off the bottom and pumped like buggery....shit or bust!.....I wasn't bothered by now, I just wanted it over. Got it to the boat and just as I thought, it was a leopard that went about 6 foot from tip to tip and must've weighed over 30 kilo......released at side.
My son was gobsmacked and grinning from ear to ear......he'd never experienced anything like this :-)
Out went the bait again and within 5 minutes, that characteristic slow run of the ratchet told me that I was into a turtle :-( On the last 5 trips I'd hooked one of these beautiful creatures and I still fell guilty every time I get into one. Luckily it was tongue hooked and I snipped the wire as close as I could whilst Ross, me best mate, held it's flippers for me. At one stage it locked onto me pliers and I thought how lucky I was that it wasn't me hand :-)
Ross was fishing uptide at the bow and had taken 3 Wobbies over the previous hour on live grinner bait. Whether it was the bait or his fishing up from the bow I don't know, but it seemed strange that he caught wobbies and we didn't? I had also caught 3 blind sharks in succession, about 5 kilo each, that went into the esky (there seems to be a lot of 'em around lately) and the guts into the berley.......at least we had a feed now.
A couple of more big stingies and a "video shoot" resulted in a tear in me trousers and me thinking how lucky I was to be wearing 'em.
Just as we decided to call it a day, the float finally went off and a hammerhead of 6 kilos was put on video and released.
First time I've ever missed getting a big shovelly at this spot but we'd had a fantastic day's sport.
Unfortunately, I had forgotten the digital camera but we had a laugh at my son later that evening, on video, struggling with the fish. He is left handed and all my reels are right hand overheads so that added to the humour :-)
We returned to Manly and a word of warning here. There were 3 blokes aged about 18 to 20 watching the trailering. I noticed that on each occasion they would walk to the rigging area and engage each boatie in conversation. I thought nothing of one of the blokes asking Ross and I, had we had any luck (whilst I was at the front of the boat) till my son told me later that he had caught one of the other two blokes at the back of the boat with one of my rods in his hand. He had asked them what they were doing and one had replied, "I'm just looking at your reel as I am thinking of buying one". My son repled, "a Shimano?" and the bloke said, "yes"...........It was bloody Ambassadeur he had in his hand!........dead suss if you ask me....beware.
cheers
kev