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The Raw PrawnStar !

 
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The Raw PrawnStar !

My good mate “Lumpy “ Milson had invited me out to fish the Murray River, well invite is using the term loosely. I provide the boat and usually the lunch (but since I’ve switched to Vegemite and cheese sambo’s he’s been bringing his own!) I meet him at the ramp; he jumps in the front and shouts, ”lets go Jimbo”. But I usually get a bit back as I’m straight into his tackle box to see what goodies I can snaffle. I didn’t have a chance this time as he’s thrown me a fawn Prawnstar and said have a play with this! I didn’t use it that day but kept it for a certain creek I reckoned it would be excellent in. Lumpy used a medium sized one for the day and had some real fun hooking nice sized Bream and Cod and a small Barra, I persevered with my “Leads” for some Jacks and a nice fat Barra, which spat me out near the boat.

I hadn’t seen the dynamic duo of James and Ashley for a while they’d been playing Footy for the Tully Tigers (u/14’s) and had finished up winning the final. It wasn’t long before they were around checking out the tides etc and keen as to go fishing again.

I was keen too as I wanted to try the Prawnstars out in 14b over in Missionary Bay, I thought they would be just the thing in the deeper creeks, the weighted lures able to get right down to the snags and I wasn’t wrong they were dynamite. Ashley and James were using the “Flatratz” they preferred but I could see they were checking out the “Prawnstars with envy.

Every thing was in our favor for a good day, no wind; nice sunny day doesn’t get any better. We had worked a small feeder creek for no luck, just letting the tide drop, when I was hit hard, after dropping the Prawnstar down deep into a nice snag. Not a big fish but putting up a decent sort of fight. Turned out to be a horse of a “Pikey” Bream measuring 34cm,nice fish. We headed right up the creek intending to fish the tide out which seemed to be the go as we were catching plenty of Cod and small Jacks but no Barra, we’d rolled a couple and jumped a couple of but nothing to the boat.

Ashley had work his lure passed a nice snag on a bend when he was smashed and nearly pulled of the front of the boat (he’s been taking lessons from lumpy!). This fish was giving him no end of trouble, really pulling and diving deep. I’d tipped it for a large Cod but when we finally saw some color it was a juvenile Groper (I think!). Something different, nice fish we measured it at 58cm but it was thick as and with a big Groper type mouth, Ashley was stoked but I think he realized that his rod was a bit light on in the back bone department.

James mean while had had his chances always seeming to be talking or stuffing around when his lure was hit, missing quite a few nice Jacks.

We were having some fun but still no Barra, even catching a small barred Mackerel and a Wolf Herring. I had dropped the lure passed a decent sort of snag and was reward by seeing that gold flash of a nice Barra, finally, and its missed the lure! I flicked it back and felt the hook up, nice fish and it had the decency to swim out to the middle of the creek. I decided to let this fish do what it wanted for a while, I’d been guilty of being a bit hard on the last couple of good Barra and pulled them (in my favor they had been heading towards the timber!). It tail walked over the creek, swam deep did every thing possible to dislodge the lure but this one was destined for the table. A nice fish at 68cm and I’d like to show the pic but James took the pic cutting of his tail (Duh James!).

Well that got the boys back concentrating, with Ash hooking some more Cod and James finally boating a Jack worth mentioning. We decided to call it a day, having one of those days worth remembering.

The tides were now neaping, traditionally not a good time to go lureing, but a good time to try out a medium size “prawnstar”, I thought. I rang Glen out local tiler and reluctant fisherman (Glen spends most of the time reading or rolling Durry’s) to see if wanted to hold the front of the boat down for half a day. He was keen so of we went to one of the local creeks to try our luck.

I was using the Prawnstar and Glen was using a D.O.A. shrimp so here was a chance to see the comparison. As there was no movement we just cruised around on the electric from snag to snag or drain as the case maybe. I soon had plenty of cod caught and released but not much else, Glen was doing his” She’s all fished out mate there’s no fish here”! The surprising thing about this smaller prawn was how much the Bream loved it, just flick the lure into the snag, where they are hanging out in the stream and they are knocking them selves out to get to it. I just wished I’d scaled down a bit but I was hoping for a Barra.

I had hooked this Pikey about 20cm near a snag on the edge of a drain and was bringing it to the boat when out of the depths loom a massive Barra! It was easy 1m+ and it was trying to grab the Bream! Talk about frantic! I’m holding the bream in one hand, it was going ballistic trying to avoid the Barra and I’m trying to flick a “leads” Lure close to see if it’ll take that. No chance, it just wanted the Pikey, in the end it swam a bit to close to the boat and swam of, some of the things you see in the Channel are amazing. I’ve had two Barra on one lure, two Cod on and one time a big Cod came out of the depths trying to swallow the smaller one on the hook. She’s dog eat dog out there!

After the excitement died down Glen hooks into a nice Jack, which gave him a bit of fun and will look good battered up.

Well, the “Prawnstar “will be in my tackle box (or out of Lumpy’s as the case maybe!) It certainly works well in deeper conditions and I think you get a better hook up with the Barra on them. On the down side Cod love em, so be prepared for plenty of them, I hooked twenty in the four-hour session with Glen! Worth while addition to the collection, out of 10 they get an 8.5 from me.

Jim (Jimbo) Lee  -  www.un-reel-sportsfishing-adventures.com.au