Weekend Warriors- Victors and Vanquished

The weekend had been forecast for strong winds, rain and rough seas for the Saturday afternoon fishing session so we realised that some coordinated planning was in order. As I was working and bringing Graham with me we organised with Allan to act as our vanguard and check out some of the options that we had in mind.
First checks showed that the beach of choice was all weeded over and not fishable as were a few others. Still undeterred Allan, Norm and Milz finally settled on the Anglesea beach. Whilst comparatively shallow the beach had a number of reports of Gummies, Snapper and salmon coming from various sections of it. With this in mind the guys set about tackling the first task of getting the salmon as our prime bait for the evening battle.


( Relaxing on the beach )

It was a great afternoon and when Graham and I finally lobbed down it was good to see the three guys getting a few Salmon though Allan did miss a few due to the other attractions on the beach.



I had decided to take the two new reels that I had being the Penn Torque 100 and the Shimano Albrid and pair them up to my Century Kompressor S and Tip Tornado LD Super match respectively. The Albrid had been loaded up with some of the new Ultima braid and I was throwing a two hook clip down rig with a 3 oz grip lead .



( Albrid and TTLD SM )


On the S I had the Torque loaded to the gills with Ultima Red Ice and throwing my regular two hook pulley rig running 8/0 circles which once I got a few Salmon would be running that as bait.



( Penn Torque 100 and Century Kompressor S loaded with Ultima Red Ice )

The fishing was relaxed during the afternoon session and everyone was just enjoying catching the baits and talking with some of the passer bys. The tide was still to bottom out and we planned on fishing through to the top which was scheduled to occur in the early hours of the morning.




( Yes Graham does take his fishing seriously :roll: )


The action was good on the salmon but there were a number of small fish in them so I decided to put a few baits out wide behind the breakers to see if I could get a few Snapper or possibly a shark even though it was still daylight as the better fish are generally hanging back in the deeper water waiting fro the incoming tide to give them access to the beach and smaller fish on which they feed. The end result was a few Pinkies that put a smile on my face and hope in my heart for what could eventuate as the night progressed.



( Pinkies from Behind the breakers )

What transpired in the evening was a combination of victories and defeats with Graham being the top dog of the session taking the only Gummy for the evening as well as another snapper. The other guys also took fish in the form of banjo’s and salmon with Norm taking a supprise bream which given the close proximity of the river and the recent floods shouldn’t have been that unexpected.



( Graham Playing a Banjo )

Mick had fun with the rod that I had lent him and the new rigs were also proving to be of use too him. He finished the session with a good sized Banjo which whilst not what he wanted still proved to be a bit of fun on the outfit. As the tide started to peak the fish spread out and the bites slowed down but I was still hopeful of getting stuck into something bigger than what we had to date.



( Mike and his Banjo )



( The smile says it all )

What then transpired for me is where the title for this report comes from



The sound of the Penn Torque 100 screaming out line was the signal of the beginning of the battle, picking up the Century Kompressor S and leaning back into it very quickly told me that this wasn’t going to be easy.
A request from Mike to see if I wanted his line cleared from the battle area was met with a polite “yes mate” as I felt the power of the fish as it stripped of 70 meters of Ultima Red Ice from the reel.

There were no head shakes or sudden direction changes so I knew that I had hooked the death Star ( Bloody great big ray ) and that it was going to take me to the dark side and beyond.
The other guys were quite amused to see the old guy first trying to give the ray a bit of a bashing with the rod loaded up and looking like a big “C” curve and really leaning back on it . Only to have me pulled to my knees as the fish simply powered away down the beach dragging me in its wake. At this stage there was a fair bit of line off the reel and the strain of fighting the fish saw me being unable to pump the rod and wind down on it.



( The begining of the beat up )

The beat up was dragging on and with me not wanting to back down and the ray showing absolutely no sign of tiring. The end result was fairly predictable as the line finally parted at around the 30 minute mark. This left me and a few of the guys a few hundred meters further down the beach than the original hook up point and with the task of now trudging back up the beach to consider just how big it must have been .

I may have lost this round but it’s only fuelled the desire to get back out there for another round of battles both with the weather and the fish.

All in all a great session

"the one that got away" hard luck, great report as usual well done lads


brian

well done lads ,its looks the business what part are ye in,whats the fishing like from the shore anything like here,good luck

Always amuses me to read about salmon being caught for bait....


Yes, yes, I know they're different species. It still amuses me, ok?

this has to be south aus otherwise u wud be attacked on the beach by crocodiles

some really tidy fish there man

Great read there man, pity about the big ray, you'll get her next time....

Super read there JPS, fair play for taking the time to post that.