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The
best day ever.
As
told to Jim Lee by Wayne “Hollywood” Keene.
Wayne “Hollywood” Keene and his good fishing buddy Morgan “Morgs”
Lindley had been up for the “Big Fish” competition at Port Hinchinbrook.
They had done so well in the money stakes that they decided to come back
for a couple of weeks in the school holidays with the rest of the
family. Wayne picked up a lazy $600 for the best Barra and Morgs the
same for the best Jack, not bad money if you can get it. My thoughts on
the competition is that it should be “Catch and Release”, whilst you are
only allowed to weigh in one fish of each species, lots of Barra (and
other fish) could get there throat cut along the way! You gotta fish for
the future Mr. Williams!
They were up (from Moranbah) for two weeks and met some ordinary weather
at first, but the Channel really turned it on for the last week or so.
Anyway we were at my place having our usual Saturday BBQ and as usual
the conversation turned to fishing. Wayne’s words to me were that if
Raelene (Wayne’s lovely wife) ever manages to catch a Barra, I want you
to write a story for Fish & Boat!
Well some weeks later I received a garbled email (I see now why you want
me to write it Wayne!) and some pics, which took and hour to download by
the way and some instructions to impose the story on Harry and see if
he’ll print it. I think Wayne is trying to get a few “ Brownie Points”,
for whatever reason.
The day was shaping up to be magnificent, very little wind good fishing
temperature and more importantly the water was warming up. The plan of
attack was to head for the Bay, each taking their favorite creeks and to
keep in touch via the two-way. The water was glassed out as we left,
causing us little problems as we planned out to the Bay. When we reached
our respective creeks we split up, a quick thumbs up and look out Barra!
The fishing started out slow, and we worked hard for no reward, we were
now down to the bottom of the tide and hoping things would improve with
the turn of the tide.
Raelene was bored witless by now and had taken to reading her book
whilst trolling her lure as Wayne worked along on the electric. The look
on her face was worth bottling as the rod flew up knocking over the
book, a quick grab and she was into a useful fish! It was soon sorted
out when a Barra started tail-walking all over the place, a few
instructions from Wayne and the lovely Raelene soon had her first Barra
in the boat, 57cm not quite legal but a good fish just the same. A few
pics and it were released to grow a few more cm’s. She was stoked and so
was Wayne.
The turning of the tide had really turned the creeks on; we motored up
to a big snag with some big logs deep, and decided to anchor up. This
snag was in about 3m of water so we needed a lure that was going to get
down, Wayne is a big fan of “Lucinda Lou’s” lures, particularly the
orange and yellow ones. These lures will get down quite deep but the
secret is long slow pulls, with a stop now and then just to see if you
can get an enquiry on the way down.
No sooner said than done, a nice fish of around 55cm was boated. This
snag was to turn out a ripper; it produced four Barra all about that
size, three good cod, three Silver Bream and a lone Flathead. Not a bad
effort! At one stage a lazy Barra followed the lure to the boat and
swung off, only to take station under the electric using it as a snag.
We worked all the snags in that creek hooking cod, more Barra 50-55cm
and plenty of Jacks from 45 –52cm, nice Jacks in anybody’s creek!
As it was getting late we called up Morgs on the two-way to see how far
away he was from the mouth as we had agreed to meet there, turns out he
was about ten minutes away. He and Saby (the wife) had a good day also
with Morgs the fisherman and Saby the support team. Its rumored that she
even reach’s over and wipes his brow with a cool towel as he’s fishing,
some guys have all the luck, I usually get out fished by my wife. Morgs
had the points on the board as he had boated a nice Barra of 80+ cm plus
some nice Jacks around 47cm, and fairly giving Wayne a ribbing about the
nice Barra.
Not to be out done and with ten minutes left, they decided to give the
big snag another flick on the way out. One cast at the snag, two cranks
and its smashed by a nice Barra, this fish was a good fish working deep,
not jumping and after some powerful runs, this fish is at the boat,
measured a few pics and a quick release. It was also an 80 plus fish, so
that soon put Morgs back in his box.
Everybody who was fishing caught fish, with Raelene’s tally for the day,
being 2 Barra, a couple of nice Jacks, some Silver Bream and a Legal
FingerMark! As she aptly put it, one of the best days fishing ever!
Jim (Jimbo)
Lee - www.un-reel-sportsfishing-adventures.com.au
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