# SA - Price of Snook



## RobC (Jun 13, 2010)

SA - Price of Snook

My wife's maiden name is Price, and so it was that on Sunday morning, at a very amenable and leisurely 10am, i found myself at the boat the ramp of the town with the same name that I had often driven past on the way to bigger and better things. The track to the boat ramp went past the caravan park where I could see the mossies forming an orderly Q from the adjacent mangroves. They must love the summer in Price. Five minutes later, and all thoughts of the movie Deliverance were unfounded, as the three local fishos wetting their lines turned out to be a friendly crew, and there is nothing actually wrong with Price at all, except that my wife comes from an extremely large family and therefore there is a slightly higher than normal chance that I am related to at least 3 of the 29 people in town. Possibly. :lol:









_A gratuitous self-portait shot_

In a demonstration of my machismo to the locals, I hoisted the mini x off the car and carried it down the ramp. Three steps down and the croc and mud combo forced me in to a slippy balancing jig with the yak still above my head, and I was forced to step in to what I thought looked like some solid sand, only to find myself stuck in calf high mud - with the yak still above my head, and wobbling. I only escaped because my shoes stayed in the mud as I managed to lift my leg up and just reach solid ground just before teetering over in to the mud. It stank as well  Never mind, I was also very close to face-planting in the water, yak still in hand, so always look on the bright side, eh?









_A view of the launch spot/boat ramp - looking down in the direction we headed off in to open water_

When OldDood arrived, bang on time, I was still faffing around, so then we both faffed together. Launching off was pretty painless and quite dry to be honest. That's always good. The plan was to head out on the ebb, then hang around out in the open for a while, check out a few sandbars etc. and come back in on the flow. The place reminded me of Garden Island a bit, due to the mangroves and the local guy said the currents could be worse here than around the Port, but that we'd be OK getting in and out, regardless of the state of the tide...The channel out wasn't too obvious, so that may have accounted for there being no boats out that day and us having the place to ourselves 

Halfway down the channel and I was on to a greedy little Salmon Trout that picked a fight with my hard body that was half his size. I'd almost forgotten what it was like to catch a fish after the Donut at Aldinga beach a couple of weeks back...not that this one put up much of a fight. I think he knew he was just under and he was going to live another day.

As we neared the open sea, OldDood drifted off somewhere. I was slightly suspicious as he had been muttering about some secret berley recipe. ;-) I found what I thought was the channel - or it found me, I'm not sure, but either way, I anchored up in a very fishy looking spot and settled down. For the first time in my short yak career, wind and tide conspired together to provide a hassle free fishing platform...the ebb was flowing in the same direction as the wind was blowing, so with anchor at stern I was pointed in the right place, able to cast either out in to deeper water, or along the drop off, which is what I started out doing. I am starting to impress myself with how much of the lingo you can pick up in a short space of time...

When OldDood returned, he duly set up anchor as well, and I think he brought the wind with him... But it was still 'comfortable' out there. I guess a couple of hours had passed...and we were now all set up to wait for the tide to turn. While still on the ebb, the secret berley came out...I had prepared a deadly cocktail of madras curry-powder-infused berely and OldDood had his own fresh stuff as well ;-) A couple of nibbles on the plastics gave me hope during the wait for the tide, and OldDood got busted off with what he thought was a ray. We both agreed that this was, indeed, a very fishy spot...and so did the pelicans up ahead of us who appeared to be waiting for their lunch.

As the tide turned, or thereabouts, OldDood started getting some Salmon Trout action...and then all of a sudden there was a fishin' to be done. I picked up my first, and therefore by default, my biggest ever snook! OldDood called out with some sage advice,
"Don't put your fingers in its mouth" just before I was going to give it a big snog. I cut his head off so he could get in the coolbag, but he must have come in at about 75cm. At this point I was a very happy man! Then I got another snook, and another, and a few salmon trout...agh, heaven on earth. Sort of 8)

OldDood tied on with a 4" Gulp minnow in smelt - and pretty soon he landed himself a couple of good sized snook as well as the salmon action he'd been getting. We were both guilty of loosing a couple of salmon from out of the yak...well, they are slippery, aren't they? I have a soft spot for them, good little fighters that they are.

The action slowed down a bit, and the wind picked up a bit, and was now blowing in the opposite direction as the flow, so we both ended up sideways to both. On the plus side, there was no real swell going on. After I lost the biggest snook I never caught ;-) in a tangle with OldDood's anchor line, I decided to up anchor and move, and OldDood followed suite, as we drifted around for a while. Well, I was busy tying a knot and all that. All the action had tired me out to be honest :lol:

We decided to seek shelter from the wind and headed to the mouth of the creek. Good shout OldDood! Once again, the current and tide combined to set us on a nice and easy drift back down the channel, and OldDood did a rather decent thing, waving me down to let me know he was having some action... Sure enough, a couple more snook for me and more salmon. These guys all went back in to fight another day - plenty in my bag for a feed. I think OldDood had some of the same. By this time, I'd run out of smelt minnows, and was using a 3" watermelon one (I think)









_OldDood on the way back in, still fishing after 6.5 hours...lovely and calm, but nice current underneath us_

OldDood then got the "Jew Fever". He tied in to his secret plastic weapon of choice and set on off a drift. This promptly got gobbled by...a snook I think it was?! I tagged along behind, not really knowing what I was supposed to be doing to catch me a mighty mulloway. I started off with a Sqidgy pre-rigged shad with a huge hook on it. This was a bit hopeful considering the 6lb line I was running, so off it went on to the other heavier rod. OldDoods 'Jew Fever' was further stoked by him hooking up a mullet, and discovering a new way to catch them for a future visit... ;-)









_"Jew fever" takes hold....  _

There were three mermaids fishing off by the boat ramp as we returned, and they turned in to seagulls at the offer of a couple of snook for their dinner, bless 'em. I think their men-folk were at home doing the chores... I don't know what the fish count was at the end of the day, and I don't care to be honest. Had a great day out with OldDood, in a quiet and peaceful place I wouldn't have ever gone to normally...and picked up loads just from watching him do his thing - thanks again mate! Life is, sometimes, all about timing isn't it? And this is what I took away from this trip out. And, of course, secret berley helps you catch fish. Oh, and Berkley Gulp 4" Minnow in smelt work.









_We staggered on to dry land after a 7 hour day out...and here are our yaks 8) _









_The part of the creek we never paddled - ie paddle right from the ramp_









_The PVC-Wing MkI - Held together with pure friction, zip ties and velcro  _









_The Malibu Mini-X sans milk crate & pilot_


----------



## MikeG (Jun 16, 2009)

Good write up RobC, Price is one of those places I keep meaning to go to for a flick and never end up getting there, I must make mentle note to go there when the weather clears.

Keep up the good work.

Mike


----------



## Drewboy (Mar 18, 2008)

Rob, you sound like you really blitzed it in all regards.
I like your attitude. ;-)


----------



## solatree (May 30, 2008)

Great report Rob. Well done on the Sts and Snook. Great fun on light line - and glad to hear you survived OldDood's secret berley - it has quite a strong scent. :lol:


----------



## RobC (Jun 13, 2010)

Hey Drew & Andrew. BTW Drew - what an awesome tale of yours...I heard from Mark, but didn't realise you'd already found a rod as well? That's got to be something that doesn't happen often, and is the stuff legends are made of - and magazine articles ;-)

It was an awesome day out, and summer's coming, so hopefully more to come?! I think we were just lucky the snook were on...right time, right place and all that. I reckon you could have thrown an old sock out and they'd have taken it...and they were all keeper size, bar 1...for me anyway. ST's are great fun, and I'd love to get a big one hooked some day...6lb fireline mind, so perhaps not really that light ;-) but some rod bending stuff for sure! But yep, any time Mark is out with you, make sure he, err, gets some of his 'secret berley' out. Downwind, of course. :lol:


----------



## Drewboy (Mar 18, 2008)

RobC said:


> But yep, any time Mark is out with you, make sure he, err, gets some of his 'secret berley' out. Downwind, of course. :lol:


OldDood has *balls* of berley


----------



## solatree (May 30, 2008)

Drewboy said:


> OldDood has balls of berley


Yep - Great balls of Berley :lol:


----------



## OldDood (Nov 6, 2008)

That was a great report Rob,
I had a great day yesterday and am looking forward to doing it again.
I am really impressed with the channel that goes from the mouth of the creek to the ocean proper. I would suspect that you could catch anything there including snapper at the right time. The sandbars are extensive and should hold a lot of yellowfin during the summer run in tides.
My big discovery of the day was that the Mullet will attack any lure in "Nuclear Chicken" even a 5 inch gulp!  
I tried every other colour and size of SP's I had for about an hour without a touch. As soon as I put on a Nuc Chicken colour of any size they were hitting it like a machine gun! Camo worms were also getting a few hits, they are a similar colour to nuc chicken.
Why I find this interesting is that some of us also found out that Mulloway also have a preference for Nuc Chickens.
The big question is what naturally occuring food source is nuc chicken coloured?
Is it tube worms or perhaps it is some form of weed?
Anyone got any bright ideas?


----------



## RobC (Jun 13, 2010)

> The big question is what naturally occuring food source is nuc chicken coloured?
> Is it tube worms or perhaps it is some form of weed?
> Anyone got any bright ideas?


Hey Mark.

Weed in the berley - that's a thought :lol:

But if I'd been eating roast meat & two veg for 180 days straight then I'd be very tempted by some tutti frutti ice cream for sure ;-)


----------



## OldDood (Nov 6, 2008)

RobC said:


> > The big question is what naturally occuring food source is nuc chicken coloured?
> > Is it tube worms or perhaps it is some form of weed?
> > Anyone got any bright ideas?
> 
> ...


You are a very smart chap Rob!
Nuc chicken coloured berley chunks is exactly what I was thinking! Tutti frutti berley, you could be on to something. :lol:


----------



## jezcol (Aug 28, 2010)

wow nice


----------



## Samboman (Sep 6, 2010)

good stuff guys, that water looks very fishy  might have to venture there real soon.....

*****


----------



## AJD (Jul 10, 2007)

Top report RobC. A great read and it sounds like you had a great day out as well with OldDood. Keep it up!


----------



## sandyfreckle (Feb 17, 2009)

Great report. Thanks for taking the time to post it.
Cheers.


----------



## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

An excellent account Rob. Thanks for taking the trouble with the pics and words.

"_The PVC-Wing MkI - Held together with pure friction, zip ties and velcro_"  Love the handiwork, please show us Mark II if it ever evolves

Kev


----------

