Hi Guys.
Had part of the afternoon off and was a lil bored and itching to give my new luvias a try. So I spooled the Luvias with some 8lb flouro I had and popped down to some local bays with flats and mangrove shoreline. I had fished the spot earlier in the week using ZipnZiggy's and noticed bream were interested in the surface action, so on went the River2Sea Bubble Pop 35. The gods were working against me with the usual stiff breeze, lowering tide and no braid overkill 8lb flouro on the spool, but it didnt seem to matter as I landed a few small bream within 15 minutes of blooping. Not a bad start and having spoken to some locals I wasn't expecting any big bream as it's not quite warm enough yet.
A quick change to a Zipbaits Rigge 35F and a move down to the point of the bay saw me casting at some oyster covered structure. Not expecting much I wasn't paying enough attention when my lure was working awfully close to the structure...and as is always the case...a good fish decides to hit when I wasn't ready!!! I managed to see the strike still, but as most know, Mangrove Jack don't give you a second chance. He snuck into a small nook and left me feeling his tail beating on the end of my line for 5 minutes as I tried to tease him back out! Grrrrrr there goes another Zippy!!!
Mustn't complain, it was my first encounter with a Jack since arriving and means I now have some spots to try next time!!!
I tied on a Strike Pro hard body (name forgotten, but it requires a bit of tip work) and popped down to the channel that runs out of the harbour. Managed numerous whiting on hards (another first for me) in consecutive casts and some small bream action before the wind annoyed me enough to give it up.
All in all I had some fun, but I guess that can be expected when you nailing bream on poppers!!! Must thank MadPhil as it was his recent article in a local mag about bream on poppers that inspired me to give it a good crack again.
Oh and my Luvias/S4 Egrell outfit is incredible!!!
Dave