What horse race? - I was fishing!

Biggest horse race in Australia today - the horse race which stops the nation
Not for me as I had time time to go fly fishing
Late onto the water this time as......

Got up late as I promised to help get wife and kids off to school, bought a few things from the shop for a class I didn't want anyone else to teach during my long service leave - a year 10 Marine Studies subject where we collect and document marine species (that is 'fish' for specimens on high tides, search on rock platforms on low tides).

one of my students with a fish she 'collected' (caught) today

But that class was at 10:40am - conveniently held at East Arm boat ramp and its high tide at 10:30am today. I had arranged the school bus driver to have them at the ramp at just the right time.

So prior to that I had 2 hours of SWOFFING time - yes!!!
A fast run to Wickham Point had me seeing fish - these around the sand/gravel bar behind the couple of trees amongst the furthest rocks from the shoreline.
They didn't take or show interest in the fly i was casting -

Then I see a disturbance about a 100m out from the trees on the mud flats north of Wickham Point. So use the electric to move closer and investigate

The water was super smooth, zero wind - so easy to see things happening
Once I arrived, it was a few large manta rays, 10 or so feet across - wing tip to wing tip
They were looping over and over back-flipping in the process
All the while they were scooping thousands of bait into their mouths

And guess what was hanging of them eating the dregs - a few hundred small trevally

A cast across the back of the flipping rays with a silicone surf candy or a small white clouser resulted in a hookup most casts. So with the two hours I had over 30 trevally to hand. A few sub thirty centimetres , most 40-45cm. Absolutely awesome fun

Then the alarm on my phone went off to tell me time to head back to ramp to take my class
bugger!
So hard to leave fish biting in such awesome conditions and circumstances.

The students were enthused to see me as I tied up my boat to the end of the floating platform at the boat ramp and bagging me out about my dress style (sun smart!)

We had a good time with students collect several specimens

a small jellyfish that was collected - yet to be identified - homework for students

Until the wind came up from the north-west
This wind would bugger my options for the afternoon given its steady increase in speed

While I was waiting for the class to end, my constant thought was the question of whether to take boat out of the water or go fishing?
So at 12:30pm despite the white caps I head back out of the harbour to find some fish

It is a slow trip past East Arm Wharf with a good sized chop slamming into the boat, every lift and fall has wind assisted salt spray hitting me.
But I keep going - eventually getting to Stokes Wharf and begin to search for fish along the foreshore with the idea to eventual head towards Kaitlyn Bay. The water here while still wind swept only has a riffle of chop.

About halfway to Doctor's Gully, I see some birds working the up current side of a little rock bar that juts out from the area off from the derelict water tank. The wind was opposite to the tide flow, so trying to drift into the working birds would be difficult.
  
None of that matters when I spied the golden ball of fish about the size of my boat working under the birds. What a rush of excitement I felt stripping line off the reel for that first cast at the golden ball of fish harassing the baitfish school.

I cast quickly, instantly hooking up - the fish tries to stay with its mates and really goes hard. Awesome!!!
It breaks me off - bugger!

There seems to be three packs of golden trevally roaming the area.
I soon worked out that if I cast late and the fly sank in front of the moving packs I would get a small golden but if I cast 4 or so metres in front of the writhing mass of fish letting the fly sink right to the bottom (about four feet deep) and hope the pack continued on its original path (not always!) - then as the fish moved over the fly start my retrieve - I would hook up to the the bigger fish

The small ones were 35-40cm, with most around 50cm. While the biggest I caught went 67cm to fork and put up such an awesome fight as it tried to stay with the school - twice it took me well into my backing trying to stay with its mates.

17 golden fish came to the net, and 6 bust offs for the afternoon session - what a great day I had experienced - the mantas-trevally in the morning and the goldens in the afternoon.

When I got back to the ramp, some lure tossers were complaining about their wasted day with no fish to hand and that they should have watch the big horse race.

I replied "What horse race? = I was catching fish!"
           - horses don't take the fly (or could they? - a hay fly maybe)

So after that outing (and the other 5 trips in the last 9 days) - and even though some say I am spoilt -
          I still need one more trip before the weekend - Thursday or Friday

Then there's Sunday at Bynoe with Canadian Pete (not that name for much longer he tells me he got 100% for his citizenship test - well done Peter!)
Better tie some more silicone surf candies as I have none left in the fly box!

until next trip report

GO SWOFFING - no better way to catch a fish