20160910 DFR Saltwater Challenge Day2

10 minutes later than yesterday we launch and are on our way to bluer waters and hopefully fish more on the chew than yesterday

We drove straight out the front of Bynoe hoping for some mackeral

After three bite offs we were starting to look at putting on wire traces but instead we use the garfish flies I tied recently. Which was really cool to have a fly tied for a specific purpose (one of not using wire) and see it all come together – the macks went nuts of the fly. Pity they cut me off most times! 

The fish were very flighty and sporadic in their appearance but eventually Peter hooks up and lands the first, mine took a fair bit longer and you can see the garfish fly pinned in the tip of my fish’s mouth.

The macks went very quite - so with time always critical that was the Macks done, so we head off to find more species on the target list….

On the way back into the harbour we spied some long fringe finned trevally attacking the surface in 80+ feet of water (26m plus deep) but they proved harder than mackerel to approach and catch. Every time we got close enough to cast they would dive, Peter managed one cast into the feeding fray when we drove close enough to cast but no hook up –  after several attempts to get closer enough to cast, we left them - cursing their existence@!

Regardless of their average size of 20cm, we only needed a couple (one for each of us) to count as a target species, measured for points and take a photo for proof of species before release -  5 minutes tops, out of the water– why didn’t they understand this????

Then it was off to find some other species – hoping for Barra and Salmon I went to a spot I hadn’t fished a lot but it had too much water over the flats and it was dirty water too.

But the rock bar nearby the flats I wanted to fish, provided us with Queenfish and Snapper – two more species to make it three species by 10am woo hoo! Things were looking better but we were still low in numbers of fish and size. But plenty of time to hopefully catch a few more to add to the scores

The tide was still rising, so the flats would be out for a while still, and there were other places to catch species - so we worked our way into the harbour towards Knife Island.

On the way back into the harbour to find some more flats or rock bars – the wind was picking up considerably and casting proved more and more difficult with flies slapping the hull, motor casing and me!

At one exposed rock bar that in the past had yielded heaps of trevally for me - Peter kept persevering cast after cast for nothing but eventually got his trevally, which inspired me to stop being figuratively in a foetal position in bottom of the boat and get casting myself - and four casts later I get a butter bream, not a target species but still points and such a pretty fish, and then the very next cast a small but quite significant trevally.

Significant because with this small fish it was now four species for me, Peter had already got his – both of us one species better than yesterday.

I have caught 5 species a few times before (no barra, no salmon each time - need to spend some serious time on these species) and once caught six of the target species for this comp (no barra like always for the last few years!) but all caught in pre-fish practice times. So this is the first time for Peter and myself to catch four species in a day during a competition – well done to both of us!

We then tried to catch more, hoping for a tarpon, a barra and or a salmon to further increase our bonus points for target species count

We tried Kirra Rock where I get a few snapper but wind and tide are in opposite direction to each other making staying there hard, let alone casting in safety. The flats where we saw the Threadies yesterday were almost visited but it was too shallow and very dirty. We then tried a gravel patch for snapper to catch our max number for a species (20) –sadly no fish again, Peter caught a pretty blue bone at one rock bar, then to went the back of the Annie Arm for one of the last three species on a flat that has worked previously and it was out of the howling wind – sadly nothing we wanted – however I did catch a pikey bream and a flathead that I would happily catch on the east coast. The pikey came from a classic Barra snag and for a few brief moments I thought I had broken my hoodoo with Barra as the fly slipped under the snag and I came up tight to a struggling fish, so my nemesis fish remains elusive!

After that is was a long, wet and rough ride back up the harbour into some fierce wave chop for several kilometres, from china wall to Crab Claw, then side on to the waves and wind as we crossed behind Knife Island and then wallowing in the waves as we travelled with the wave action into Milne Inlet.

Back at the boat ramp we thought we found some tarpon near the ramp, whatever they were they didn’t take the fly, though Peter did pull an Archerfish out from the school of them rolling, flashing us their silver scaly sides from the water’s edge.

So after Day2 even though we thought we did well others did a lot better so the team and individual standings were……….sad!

Team wise - we dropped 3 places

Individually – we both dropped one place (Peter 13^th, me 11^th)

It had us wondering how it could be so – but although we got more species - we needed more fish of those species.

In the positive - we were the only ones to catch Macks, with Peter getting the largest Mack so far (only two being caught over the last 2 days and those by us - lol). A few of the other teams asked us where we got the macks – while I usually like to share what little I know this was a competition, so I told them I will tell them tomorrow – haha! (it's how to keep an idiot in suspense because tomorrow never comes)

So tomorrow the plan is to do what we did today but more of each species along the way.

Scorecards in by 2pm and presentations at 4pm.

So here’s hoping we catch more fish of the target species!

See Day 1 report - here
See Day 3 report - here