Articles
Four men in Hobies: Upper Brunswick River
- Category: Brunswick Heads
- Published on Tuesday, 04 May 2010 19:01
- Written by Jay Penfold
On another textbook Autumn morning in the Northern Rivers, the upper Brunswick River beckoned. Plans to fish offshore had to be shelved. Swell was just too big. Hollger, Bailz, myself and the cheeky yak angler to watch, Webber244, gathered at the boat ramp with a plan to push against the incoming tide and fish “the footy club”. I arrived to find Hollger setting up and Webber244 already on the water with half a dozen undersized flathead in his account already. After brief introductions, we set off, casting tight to the bank in search of bream, flathead and trevalley.
After a pretty quiet start. Holger and Webber244 both took some nice bream, meanwhile I was plagued by bust offs and bite offs on 2lb leader. Then knot failure. Since downgrading my braid to 4lb from 10lb, I have had some issues with knot integrity. Slippery stuff is braid, and my improved allbrights seemed to have too few wraps to hold well on decent hookups. I upped my leader to 8lb fluro and had no trouble after that. Not only did all my knots hold, I managed a fish that almost pulled the hook straight.
The first decent fish to come out of the water was about a 1kg GT boated by Webber244. I left the pack behind, wanting to head for a patch of eel grass that I knew held good fish, during which time Hollger had to head for the airport, and Webber244 joined me.
“Outstanding!” he exclaimed as a bream took a walk-the-dog style lure from the shallows in broad daylight. He then made the call to push back up into skinnier water where fish were more concentrated, as the action on the flat we were fishing was sporadic and too hard to pin down. Glad we did. We managed a double hookup: a nice aerobatic tarpon and 52cm of hook straightening Jew, followed by a nice bream. Time was getting on so I had to head home. A couple of last throws at Spot X, the fish were still biting but I had to call it quits. Dropped by the Fish n Chip shop on the way home (must get some scales) and weighed the Jewie in at 1.3kg. It filleted up beautifully and became this dish.
Funny thing was, the shallow flat we sought flathead, trevalley struck. The bend we sought trevalley, we found Jewfish and Tarpon. The upper Brunswick river never fails to surprise and amuse me. Always has, always will.
Conditions: Textbook gorgeous glass.
Launch: 10:00AM Retrieve: 3:30PM
Tide: High 1:04 PM
Moon Waning Gibbous 75% full
Lure of the day: Berkley 3” minnow, watermelon pearl,
1 hour ago
