School Camp

With the end of the school year approaching, the year 11 camp was scheduled with a beachside venue. While the majority of the attending teenagers packed their prized IPhones and technology, my mate and I wasted no time packing our fishing gear into our swags and backpacks. My gear of choice was an Okuma Travel spin rod coupled with my Okuma Flame 30 reel, then my tackle box stuffed full of Storm twitching nippers as there was a lot of snagging rocks at the beach. The camp had no designated spare time throughout either of the two days, so we used our lunchtimes to our best advantage.

On the first day it was the peak of low tide by noon, so the exposed rocks, at the end of the beach, formed many large rock pools that were sometimes over a meter in depth. Our location on the edge of a large pool allowed us to cast over the seaweed at our feet into the open water and twitch our lures back. The little Storm Twitching nipper proved to be on the money by producing adrenaline pumping strike at the edge of the weed by a nice sized cod. The same happened to my mate who also failed to set the hook. I repositioned myself just up from my mate and cast out over a deeper sand flat. As I twitched my lure back I could see a darker shadow behind it. I gave it a few sharp twitches then a pause. As the lure sank my line went dead so I quickly lifted my rod. In no time the Sufix Duraflex line was peeling off my spool and into the rock pool. As the fish tired I lead it into the shallows where it was lip gripped. By supporting its body it was lifted out of the water and taken to the rocks to be tagged.

Tagged and ready for release.

The fish, a lovely sized Dusky Flathead, measured 55cm in length and was tagged then released after a few quick pictures. By the time he was tagged lunch was nearly over so we ran back up to camp and prepared for the afternoon’s activities.

The next fishing session was at 4:45am the next morning and even though it was a little dark the soft plastic nipper was still the lure of choice. In only a few more casts another flathead was soon at my feet on the beach. The fish was tagged and released measuring 48cm in length.

With the tide fairly high, and still coming in, it wasn‘t at all the prime tide for flathead fishing. As the sun began to rise over the horizon I moved up the beach.At the new location I managed to hook up on a little long tom that took the nipper at a slightly faster and more erratic retrieve.

By lunch time the tide had rolled out leaving the rock pools full of water. Being keener than ever we ran down to the rock pools, without any food and began casting. After a few casts without any bites I moved to a new spot and cast at a small rock pile surrounded by weed. As my lure slowly twitched past I gave it a long pause and then continued. As soon as I lifted my rod I saw a little cod dart out of the weed, grab my nipper and try to dart back. I cranked up the drag to keep him out of the rocks and pulled him back to the edge. When we landed him we noticed he had completely engulfed the lure.

The completely engulfed nipper

 

He was tagged and released as the last fish of the trip. I can’t wait for my next camp so I can try out the Rapala Ultra Light lures on the local fish and hopefully see those fish again.