storms72
06-02-08, 08:47 PM
Went on our annual holiday to Yamba mid January.....Fishing was a little disapointing compared to previous years but all had a great time....
We drove up a day after the Pacific Highway at Grafton was re-opened due to flooding so plenty of fresh to flush the system, unfortunately this was great for the catfish, bull sharks, stingrays and a couple bream and whiting.
First few days was catfish for me, My wife caught her first fish and was pretty chuffed to land a large catfish of some 4 odd KG....Many more catties were captured including one my son couldn't get in and after dragging it up the bank we could see why, it was bigger than our small dog and would've weighed twice as much....buggers of things, ugly, barking and with a fight similar to that of a sea slug!
Had a great little session off a little beach just inside the breakwall where Mason outfished me and wasn't holding back as he brought in fish after fish using the fresh prawns I was putting on his hook, my soft plastics were responsible for a couple undersized bream and whiting and one flathead....Mason caught dinner for us with 3 bream one flathead and a whiting.
Final day saw myself and my son hire a boat for a bit of drifting around the sand flats....a couple of bream came in for dinner, 1 legal whiting and numerous undersize...we were happy with our efforts and decided to anchor up at a well known jewfish spot and relax with some fresh mullet slabs waiting to get smashed....My son was at the back of the boat as I was re-baiting and sending out a fresh bait when I heard his drag going hard....He has the habit of reeling in fast when snagged so I asked him to ease up on the winding and he yelled at me "its not me dad, I'm not doing anything" I'v gone back to see line rapidly disappearing from his Bart Simpson combo and the rod bent as far as possible before breaking....I tightened his drag a couple of clicks and watched him over the next 10mins or so get line, lose some, and finally we had colour and a stingray with a wing span of round 3-4ft and 5+ft long(inc tail) surfaced next to the boat, took one look at us and took off again, Mason was a little tired from his fight and was satisfied he had gotten it to the surface so handed me the rod to get it back up and remove the hook.....The look on his face for the next few days and every time he re-told his stingray tale was worth more than all the fish in the sea! My big rod finally went off and the 6500 got a solid work out for a few minutes then leader bitten through, was using 100lb and suspicion was a bull shark took a liking to my bait....
Overall a great trip, still getting reminded by the family how I was outfished by my son, can't wait for next year and hope Mason can out-do his top efforts this year!:wiink:
We drove up a day after the Pacific Highway at Grafton was re-opened due to flooding so plenty of fresh to flush the system, unfortunately this was great for the catfish, bull sharks, stingrays and a couple bream and whiting.
First few days was catfish for me, My wife caught her first fish and was pretty chuffed to land a large catfish of some 4 odd KG....Many more catties were captured including one my son couldn't get in and after dragging it up the bank we could see why, it was bigger than our small dog and would've weighed twice as much....buggers of things, ugly, barking and with a fight similar to that of a sea slug!
Had a great little session off a little beach just inside the breakwall where Mason outfished me and wasn't holding back as he brought in fish after fish using the fresh prawns I was putting on his hook, my soft plastics were responsible for a couple undersized bream and whiting and one flathead....Mason caught dinner for us with 3 bream one flathead and a whiting.
Final day saw myself and my son hire a boat for a bit of drifting around the sand flats....a couple of bream came in for dinner, 1 legal whiting and numerous undersize...we were happy with our efforts and decided to anchor up at a well known jewfish spot and relax with some fresh mullet slabs waiting to get smashed....My son was at the back of the boat as I was re-baiting and sending out a fresh bait when I heard his drag going hard....He has the habit of reeling in fast when snagged so I asked him to ease up on the winding and he yelled at me "its not me dad, I'm not doing anything" I'v gone back to see line rapidly disappearing from his Bart Simpson combo and the rod bent as far as possible before breaking....I tightened his drag a couple of clicks and watched him over the next 10mins or so get line, lose some, and finally we had colour and a stingray with a wing span of round 3-4ft and 5+ft long(inc tail) surfaced next to the boat, took one look at us and took off again, Mason was a little tired from his fight and was satisfied he had gotten it to the surface so handed me the rod to get it back up and remove the hook.....The look on his face for the next few days and every time he re-told his stingray tale was worth more than all the fish in the sea! My big rod finally went off and the 6500 got a solid work out for a few minutes then leader bitten through, was using 100lb and suspicion was a bull shark took a liking to my bait....
Overall a great trip, still getting reminded by the family how I was outfished by my son, can't wait for next year and hope Mason can out-do his top efforts this year!:wiink: