CHRIS_aka_GWH
27-11-2003, 11:11 AM
What a storm !!!
Put in at Jacobs Well about 4pm Monday. Sat at the top of Jacobs Well channel watching the storm build over the Tweed but picked it as heading hinterland so continued on - I was a bit wrong :o.
Imagine me as George Clooney in that movie " A Perfect Storm" & you'll get the picture.
After pumping up my quota of yabbies the sky was rumbling & seemed to be getting darker but the direction was still inland, so I headed up cobby cobby. When I got to my creek mouth the first bolt hit ground to the south near the gold coast -then the next & the next - " holy blazing boats batman might be a good idea to head in ", I thought.
It was a good idea but should have been thought of at least an hour earlier. At the mouth of Wally's Gutter the 0.5 - 0.75 metres of short chop followed by a black green sheet of driving rain heading up the Gold Coast & Tipplers channels soon made me change my mind.
Back to Cobby Cobby. You have less chance dying purely from lightning strike than from Lightning strike & a swamped boat. The last part of the journey around Short Is was a liitle intense - lighning strikes on straddie & around the powelines area, a blanket of driving rain that cut vis to less than a boat length -thank christ for GPS & the sheer speed that the storm moved thru at.
Once inside Cobby Cobby & back at the creek mouth the rain eased & I started fishing by the light of still more lightning strikes. Caught a dozen or so whiting most around 30cm - biggest 36 cm in the couple of hours before the tide stopped coming in - only throw backs were one rat bream & two undersize whiting. Good strike rate.
I don't knoe if it was the storm bit the phosphorous in the water was unbelievable. You could see the drips fron your line into the water & the fish seemed to be painted a patchy fluoro green.
The whitng bite shut down on the turn as I expected it would so I about faced & went to the hole on the eastern side of the Cobby rock wall for some predator action on the runout. The sounder showed the hole was alive with action. After getting some burley down, I floated a squid down into the action & sat down for a coffee. Half an hour later, the ABU 7000 blurted out to stabs of line, after about 5 secs on the next longer run I grabbed the reel & sunk the 6/0 hooks into what I hoped was a jew - it certainly had some weight.
After a 10 min struggle in the pitch black, a big swirl lit up the water behind the boat with a dull green glow. The creature that emerged was just as freaky - it wern't no jew. A 2 metre pike eel - as thick as my bicep, as long as my transom, full of teeth & nasty attitude - needless to say I cut the line - I wanted no part of that in the boat with me. The rest of the wait in the hole was all vermin - rays & shark - not surprising considering the ruckus made by th eel.
At 2am with the tide just about out, I negotiated back along the now exposed mud cliffs of Cobby Cobby to the point of Short Island. Put down the burley again, floated out 2 fresh squid 3 metres under a float & put out a nice 30 cm livie toward the ledge. Just as the sun was kissing South Straddie good morning the livie went off, I'll never know what it was because when I picked up my end, I could feel that horrible main line aroung a snag / mud clumps rub. Despite my best efforts to give it line, I lost.
After the storm it ended up being a beaut nite on the water & to catch a quick feed of whiting using fewer yabbies than I actually let go a bonus. Shame about the lack of jew, maybe next time.
seeyainthesurf,
chris
Put in at Jacobs Well about 4pm Monday. Sat at the top of Jacobs Well channel watching the storm build over the Tweed but picked it as heading hinterland so continued on - I was a bit wrong :o.
Imagine me as George Clooney in that movie " A Perfect Storm" & you'll get the picture.
After pumping up my quota of yabbies the sky was rumbling & seemed to be getting darker but the direction was still inland, so I headed up cobby cobby. When I got to my creek mouth the first bolt hit ground to the south near the gold coast -then the next & the next - " holy blazing boats batman might be a good idea to head in ", I thought.
It was a good idea but should have been thought of at least an hour earlier. At the mouth of Wally's Gutter the 0.5 - 0.75 metres of short chop followed by a black green sheet of driving rain heading up the Gold Coast & Tipplers channels soon made me change my mind.
Back to Cobby Cobby. You have less chance dying purely from lightning strike than from Lightning strike & a swamped boat. The last part of the journey around Short Is was a liitle intense - lighning strikes on straddie & around the powelines area, a blanket of driving rain that cut vis to less than a boat length -thank christ for GPS & the sheer speed that the storm moved thru at.
Once inside Cobby Cobby & back at the creek mouth the rain eased & I started fishing by the light of still more lightning strikes. Caught a dozen or so whiting most around 30cm - biggest 36 cm in the couple of hours before the tide stopped coming in - only throw backs were one rat bream & two undersize whiting. Good strike rate.
I don't knoe if it was the storm bit the phosphorous in the water was unbelievable. You could see the drips fron your line into the water & the fish seemed to be painted a patchy fluoro green.
The whitng bite shut down on the turn as I expected it would so I about faced & went to the hole on the eastern side of the Cobby rock wall for some predator action on the runout. The sounder showed the hole was alive with action. After getting some burley down, I floated a squid down into the action & sat down for a coffee. Half an hour later, the ABU 7000 blurted out to stabs of line, after about 5 secs on the next longer run I grabbed the reel & sunk the 6/0 hooks into what I hoped was a jew - it certainly had some weight.
After a 10 min struggle in the pitch black, a big swirl lit up the water behind the boat with a dull green glow. The creature that emerged was just as freaky - it wern't no jew. A 2 metre pike eel - as thick as my bicep, as long as my transom, full of teeth & nasty attitude - needless to say I cut the line - I wanted no part of that in the boat with me. The rest of the wait in the hole was all vermin - rays & shark - not surprising considering the ruckus made by th eel.
At 2am with the tide just about out, I negotiated back along the now exposed mud cliffs of Cobby Cobby to the point of Short Island. Put down the burley again, floated out 2 fresh squid 3 metres under a float & put out a nice 30 cm livie toward the ledge. Just as the sun was kissing South Straddie good morning the livie went off, I'll never know what it was because when I picked up my end, I could feel that horrible main line aroung a snag / mud clumps rub. Despite my best efforts to give it line, I lost.
After the storm it ended up being a beaut nite on the water & to catch a quick feed of whiting using fewer yabbies than I actually let go a bonus. Shame about the lack of jew, maybe next time.
seeyainthesurf,
chris