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Defying the Weather
By Sean Bekkers
So many times I have geared up for a mad fishing trip, only to have my hopes dashed by the weather. So, with the wind howling and the rain squalls pelting down on my favourite fishing spots for a week, while I had time off, I decided to change tact. Instead of throwing the same bag of tricks I chose to mix up my lure sizes, jig weights, leader weight and experiment a bit.
Day 1
I started by watching Willy's Weather like hawk and instead focusing on the tidal movements, I focused on the lulls in the wind, which for day one there wasn't any LOL! It was blowing a solid 35kmh, with gusts pumping up to 40kmh, and on days like these you need to find shelter. The bends of the river and estuary systems, the upper reaches of the creeks and also canals provide awesome shelter from the weather. It's no secret that canals are chocker block with fish holding structure, bridge pylons, rock bars and walls. Even back eddies, due tidal movement are well worth a throw.
In the creeks I scoped out some deeper holes and worked the edges of the shallower banks. As I don't spend heaps of time in the creeks it was awesome to see huge amounts of baitfish and prawns that were getting punished by bream and trevally. The humble flathead was smashing some bait hanging around the drains as well. Game on!? ?
My usual bag of tricks consists of throwing a ZMan 3" MinnowZ and 4" DieZel MinnowZ, with jigheads ranging from 1/6oz to 3/4oz, but with the dark gloomy and windy day I decided to work some well-presented ZMan 2.5" GrubZ to imitate the prawns that were getting hassled. I also threw some hard bodies around just to mix it up.
The prawns seemed to be getting hassled hard up on the edges, so the plan was to cast my GrubZ hard up on the bank and work it slowly back into the deeper water. As you've probably seen everyone seems to be getting on the Ned Rig movement, so this was my rig of choice. Slow hops, with long pauses seemed to bring the bream unstuck and also the flathead, once the grub hit the deeper water. Running a Bagley Deep Diving Shad 07 down the edges of the deep water, with a slow roll, also worked a treat. I didn't end up with anything to write home about but it was a great way to try some new rigs out and have some fun, while defying the weather that I had been presented with.
Day 2
My second day on the water wasn't as windy. Rain squalls were consistently hammering down, but the wind was down enough for me to hit some of my usual spot X fishing haunts. The plan was to throw some ZMan 6" SwimmerZ around, rather than my trusty 3" MinnowZ. I also changed the colour up. Most of the time I try and match my 3" MinnowZ to hardy heads, basically using the green colours. On this particular session I decided to use a 6" Golden Boy coloured SwimmerZ, rigged on a 6/0 TT Lures SnakelockZ weedless jighead, to imitate a whiting feeding on the bottom. The Golden Boy colour is loaded with gold glitter, which was extremely effective in catching and reflecting what light was available in the gloomy conditions. I downsized the leader, which is a little risky but would hopefully tempt a strike. My retrieve was a slow subtle hop, with a long pause in the hope that it would get nailed by a big flathead or the ever lurking silver ghost (jewfish / mulloway).
Moving into my favourite spots is a 'hurry up and wait' approach. I use the electric to sneak into position, which takes time but allows me to not spook any fish. Once in position I started casting and for the first five or six casts nothing, not even a bump. I had to resist the urge to change back to my favourites. My next cast was on point, a couple of small hops and the unmistakable take of a jewfish. It was a tense battle, keeping it out of structure and after a few killer runs I managed to land my new PB 86cm?jewfish on plastics. It safe to say that I was stoked.
The terrible weather should have been enough to keep me from fishing at all... instead I decided to head out and change up locations, tact and lures to come up with the goods. I'm not saying head out to sea in the worst conditions possible but if you've got itchy feet to hit the water and land some fish, find some protection from the wind and a likely place that hold fish. You're going to be in with a chance and it's a good opportunity to experiment and learn. You never know, you might just land yourself a PB fish!
Gear List for the Sessions -
Okuma Expior XT 40 with 15lb braided line
Okuma Expior XT 30 with 10lb braided line
ZMan 6" SwimmerZ and 2.5" GrubZ plastics
TT Lures SnakelockZ and NedlockZ jigheads