Elliott River - 05/10/2013-07/10/2013

[morphias]

Hi all,

First of all, a big thank-you to the guys for the tips in the 'Elliott Heads Yabbies' thread - they paid dividends.

What a beautiful part of the world - with starts to the day like this... (click for bigger pics)







I probably spend 22hrs+ fishing over 2.5 days, but a chunk of it was spent doing ' speculative prospecting' and scouting as it was my first time fishing the area. I would start at 4:45am each day, fish till top of the tide, go have some brunch and a rest for a couple of hours and then go fish the 2hrs before low and one till dark.

It wasn't till Sunday afternoon that I started to get a handle on how the fish moved in the area and then following them.

I found that as it came onto the top of the tide, during the top and for a few hours after, it was DEAD - not even the pickers would touch a fresh yabbie.

I spent time with a variety of poppers as well, but not so much as a touch, even when I could clearly see bream and small trevally working schools of baitfish.

I have never seen sand flats so massive in my life...nor have I been in close proximity to so many stingrays - had a couple of very close calls and those buggers scare the #$*# out of me! Especially the 1m+ across one that swam right up to me right on dark...

What I can say is, having been my first outing on super light gear; what have I been doing all my life?! This stuff makes fishing 10x more amazing and enjoyable! I am on a Gary Howard Envy 1-3kg, Shimano Stradic Ci4 2500, 6lb braid and 10lb fluoro leader. I was using 15lb mono for the poppers.

32cm whiting feel like a horse and 28cm bream feel like a decent snapper and pull drag - even just under legal flatties feel huge. Can wait to get onto a decent flattie or a big bream on this outfit. Sorely which I had hooked up one of the trevs. Ah well...next time.

Plenty of undersize whiting and flatties were caught with half a dozen undersize bream over the weekend. Man I burned through some yabbies, even with really small hooks on.

I did some sight fishing a small creek where I could see some whiting schooling in 2m of water. Heaps of undersize, but a few horses amongst them. Finally got the biggest one to hook up and he tore off. Starting reeling him in and the line went slack...thought the hook had pulled, but found out the knot had failed.

My 2yr old girl loves anything to do with fishing and she got to wind in her first fish. It was 30cm and jumped out of the water after coming up from ~3m+ of water - quite spectacular.



My 6yr old boy , who also loves everything to do with fishing and collecting yabbies, but this trip he decided he preferred to terrorize the local soldier crab population.



I would have like to fish more at night, but forgot my bag with my portable lighting. Fishing until dark when you are over 1km from land on the edge of a sandbank with epic tides that absolutely tear in, combined with no moon meant a safety call had to be made. Very easy to be cut off from the mainland and I had no desire to wade in the dark with the sheer quantity of rays that were around!

The wind blew it's arse out yesterday morning from ~7:00am, and a few small bream and a solitary whiting were all I managed to put together before it got out of control. I still persisted for another few hours, but barely got so much as a nibble.

I managed to put together a good feed over the course of the weekend for the family, which we will be enjoying tonight...can't wait!



Anyway, it wasn't about the numbers, it was about getting the HELL away from work and spending some quality time with the family. I know where and when to go next time and have a good feel for the new setup which I am absolutely wrapped with.

Can't wait to get out there again and REALLY want to get my first hit on a popper, but for now, it is back to being a wage slave.


Ben.

[Giffo65]

Great report, glad you had a good break.

[manta man]

Anyway, it wasn't about the numbers, it was about getting the HELL away from work and spending some quality time with the family. I know where and when to go next time and have a good feel for the new setup which I am absolutely wrapped with.

Mate and that"s the way the Family life should be.

[Sevric]

The Elliot is a magic place; I am so please the weather turned it on for you and all the holiday makers. It looked crowded over the weekend so I will leave it to your imagination what it is like on a normal week day. You seem to have done well with your light gear as a regular Whiting fisho I know who also fished it over the weekend struggled a little and gave up due to the boat / jet ski traffic.