# NSW: Tuross - A pb breaking day (and a very long read)



## Chemacky (Nov 30, 2011)

So this is my first trip report... mostly because its my first trip worth reporting anything. I think I got a little bit excited, but hope some of you manage to get to the end! Please excuse any swearing/do not continue if you don't like strong language.

I ambitiously set my alarm for 5am, and with grand plans for a massive day paddling on Lake Tuross I tossed and turned as I tried get to sleep. Like a child on Christmas eve, I made the mistake of dreaming big&#8230; big like shark sized flatties, and flattie sized bream&#8230; maybe even a human sized jew! However, my plans took a bit of a hit when at 5am the alarm went off and I just rolled over. Maybe a 8am wake up is more on the cards.
After setting off from my girlfriends mum's house in Broulee, and made a beeline for Lake Tuross. I was to set off from my mates house right on the edge of the lake about a 1.5km paddle from the little take away there. By the time I'd driven on the private dirt roads, unloaded the kayak and rigged it up, it was pretty close to 10am - so much for an early start! It was tough to complain though, as it was a warm overcast day&#8230; not too hot, not too cold. Just perfect in fact. I could complain however when I dropped the kayak as I was unloading and managed to rip one of the bolts holding the rudder down clean through the plastic of the hull. Well, today is shaping up to be a great day so far I thought - a late start and a broken rudderless day ahead. As I manoeuvred the yak to the edge of the water to finally set off though, the back handle did exactly the same thing. The screws holding it in ripped straight through the hull. "FUCK!" echoed though the entirety of Lake Tuross, and probably even the Eurobodalla region. I almost packed up there and then, but thought well this day couldn't get any worse&#8230; so I may as well have a bit of a paddle.

I set off heading towards a small island not far from my friends house where we used to pump nippers and catch an assortment of fish including some decently sized bream, flatties and whiting on occasion. I chucked out my newly acquired sebile koolie minnow, and my trusty (and rusty) old diving minnow bought a few years ago from aldi. It's easily been my most successful lure, and is a frequent go to. Especially when trolling. I got to the island with no interest in my offerings, and so I reeled them in and put on a blade to work the small drop off and weed beds in the area. I was casting for about 20 minutes without so much as a follow when I went for a really long cast. I guess my leader must have been a little frayed or something, but I watched in awe at my ridiculously long cast as my blade hit the water a good 40-45m away only to discover that my 4lb fluoro had broken and my blade was now on the bottom of the lake and completely unrecoverable. Ahh, of course this day can get worse, lucky it was just a cheapo kokoda blade.

I decided to paddle away from the island a little and then paddle back trolling the edge of the deeper channel between the oyster racks and the sandy shallows. I swapped the koolie minnow for a very small shallow diving minnow as I thought one side might be too shallow for the other two divers. I paddled at a pretty lesurley pace along my chosen path stopping every few strokes to keep my speed slow and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. Fish were jumping, and schools of baitfish were constantly erupting on the surface after being attacked by an unseen predator. I admired my new scotty rodholders out the front, and loved being able to check the action of my lures was continuing with just a quick glance. So much easier than using the rear flush mounts. Suddenly the rod with the trusty (rusty) aldi lure hada big hit and the drag screamed off! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ&#8230; I was on! And it was big! In only about 1 metre and a half of water I assumed probably a flatty, but of course it threw the hooks about 10 seconds into the fight and before I could see it. After examining the rusty hooks, and cursing my laziness and luck, I decided to repeat the same trolling run. Reeled in the lure, paddle back to my starting point, straightened up and chucked the lures behind me. In almost the exact same spot, the drag went again. I didn't notice a hit, so I thought I'd snagged, but as soon as I touched the rod I knew I was on again. Could it be the same fish? Probably&#8230; as it just threw the hooks again! "FUCK!" echoed throughout the lake again. I looked up to spy another kayaker about 250m away casting at the oyster racks. Shit, how embarrassing&#8230; I've just disturbed this guys peace&#8230; maybe he didn't hear it, or the 5 echoes. One more time, I thought, and paddled back to the start of the run. I didn't expect a lot, figuring that this fish would surely not hit a rusty hard body from aldi three times in as many minutes, though if it was a big female, perhaps I could get one of the males hanging about. Here goes nothing&#8230; aaaaand&#8230;. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ off goes the drag for the third time. I set the hooks quickly and left the drag pretty loose making sure as to keep the line as tight as possible at all times. This fish was hooked. It put up a good fight, and when I got it to the surface my heart started to beat really fast - it's a horse! Certainly by my standards anyway. My previous biggest flatty was 55cm, and this was muuuuch bigger. Quick, stop gawking and grab the net. Shit, you forgot the net&#8230; you idiot. After a couple of touchy moments, I got the grips into it's mouth but really didn't know what to do from there. It was too big to lift onto my lap as I have a tendency to attract flathead spikes and swollen hands. Eventually I settled on attaching the grip rope to the anchor trolley and slowly paddling the 20m to shore. After a quick photo and measurement on the bank, the 72cm flatty was released. I absolutely smashed my pb! I was a little disappointed though, as I was keen to get a feed for the BBQ in the evening. If I didn't catch fish, it was imported marinara mix for me, and I wasn't very keen on that. Still though, I thought I'd better let this one go&#8230; and was it ever worth it. I always hear people say it's the best part, and to be honest, I thought what a load of shit&#8230; I've released plenty of small fish and never though "wow"&#8230; but this was different. Very different. What an amazing feeling to see them swim off slowly.










In all my awe the other kayaker had peddled over unnoticed by me. "That's a nice fish, mate" he said from his sandy coloured hobie. "It's great to see them swim off, isn't it". "Yeah" I said nervously as it sat at my feet sulking&#8230; "This one's not going very far" Shit&#8230; have I killed it? I thought for a second. I took a step towards to and it started to slowly meander away before it disappeared into the depths. Wow I thought. I chatted briefly with the guy who had said he'd yet to catch anything large and had also given up on the whiting he was chasing. He continued casting nearby, and I decided to give the trolling run one more crack&#8230; perhaps there was something of eating size hanging about there? I decided I troll this channel and then swap the little minnow back for the koolie as I turned the sharp corner into the deeper channel and head out towards the mouth of the river. There was no interest in my offerings from the previously successful run, and as I rounded the corner I swapped the lures. Off I set towards the river mouth, still grinning about my new pb&#8230; WHACK, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ&#8230; this time something had taken the koolie! My first fish on the new lure! The fight was noticeably shorter, and the fish was definitely smaller - a 59cm model came aboard this time. Still bigger than my previous best, but I decided this one was probably a keeper. Paddled over to the shore, gutted and cleaned the fish and was just taking back to put in the bag when the other kayaker peddled passed. A few jealous comments later and we wished each other luck for the rest of the day and he peddled off (sing out if you're an AKFF member?). I felt I could really relax now, maybe even try a few different techniques, as not only did I have a feed, but I'd already smashed my flatty pb.

I paddled out towards the mouth and found myself in a larger basin in which I'd fished the shallows and drop offs before. The tide was much higher than the previous time, and I found it really hard to find any of the drop offs. The entire section appeared to be shallow&#8230; with the deepest section I found was around half a metre. I could see the channel markers, but they were quite some ways away, as I decided to let myself drift over the shallows while I tried throwing surface lures at whiting I'd sighted. I tried standing for the first time, and on the kingfisher, it wasn't easy. I rocked around and nearly went in&#8230; which isn't a massive issue when the water is shin-deep. After drifting some way and having little to no interest in my surface offerings, I decided maybe to call it a day. I'd accomplished much, and was feeling a bit tired and hungry, so that'll do. I paddled back through the same channel I'd caught my feed, and the current had slowed significantly, it must be around the turn of the tide I thought. There were fish jumping and breaking the surface everywhere, and this excited me enough to give it a bit of a crack. I thought why not thrown in a small soft plastic and see if I can tempt a few. Now I've been filling up my plastic wallet for a while now, and never even really caught a fish with one. I thought that this was the perfect time to try new things, so why not give something a bit of a work out. I chucked on a squidgy bug in natural colours and a fairly light jig head and started casting upstream and on both sides of the yak. One side was quite deep, up to 2m in parts, while the other was a shallow sandy bank riddled with nipper holes. The surface explosions were happening on both sides and very frequently, so I more or less just cast towards those. I had one follow from a 20cm flatty from the deeper section, felt a hook up as I wound in the slack. It was definitely little. But something was up. The flatty came aboard fouled through the belly, and was quickly released. I continued to slowly paddle upstream and cast in a similar manner, just about to give up and paddle straight back to the car when I saw and unusual sized bow wave in the water right up tight to the bank. The water was so shallow that there were even a few mangrove pneumatophores sticking up around the bow wave. What's that I wonder? Probably nothing&#8230; but I'll cast at it anyway. The cast landed just next to the bow wave, and after one short twitch of the rod tip, there was another bow wave and a slight tick in my 6lb braid. Before I even had a chance to set the hook, my line started to dart towards me very quickly. Something's got this! Something good! I wound in the slack and set the hook! The drag screamed off and my rod buckled over significantly. The yak quickly turned 180 as the fish swam straight passed me, and I knew I was onto something big. In that amount of water Ifigured it was either the biggest bream ever, or another big flatty. After a decent fight, the latter was that case&#8230; and this flatty was even bigger than the first I thought. Could it be true? A triple pb breaking day?! I took a quick photo of it in the water next to the yak, and put the camera away. Unfortunately it had swallowed the squidgy bug very deep, and I just couldn't get to it with my pliers&#8230; which were just a cheap leatherman. After a quick measurement and ignoring the advice of a few blokes (who also didn't have any longer pliers) that paddled past in big canadian canoes suggesting "That I should eat the cunt", I decided to cut the line, leave the lure in there and release this 76cm fish.










Can anyone give me any advice here? Was the fish doomed, or might it digest/eject the lure? I thought about keeping it under the circumstances as I figured there was no point letting it die for no reason&#8230; but alas the guilt got the better of me. I'd not have enjoyed the meal, nor did I need the meat, already having a feed under the hull. So I figured I might at least give it a chance to live, and she swam off surprisingly quickly.
After this I paddled straight for the car, do not pass go do not collect $200, and packed up my stuff. What a days fishing! But unfortunately with the damage to my kayak, I could only describe the day as bitter sweet. That said, can't wait to get back out on the water after I do some maintenance!

Hope some of you managed to get through all that!

Cheers!

Ps. If the other kayaker is an AKFF member, nice to briefly meet you!


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## anselmo (Aug 26, 2008)

Great report

sounds like you had an excellent day on the water after appeasing the mojo gods with a sacrifice or 2

Without seeing how deep the lure was, it's a good guess that the flathead will be fine
You'd definitely have done more damage by attempting to rip the lure out
The hooks will corrode enough within days and chances are the fish will expel it naturally anyway


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

What Nick said. Actually fabulous report. You have captured the emotions admirably.

I like.

trev


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

G'day Chemacky

Well I had no trouble getting to the end and enjoyed the read. That was an excellent description in the bow wave incident, having seen such things myself, and an appropriate outcome. I'm sure the big flatty would recover after a couple of days discomfort.

It's a pity it has taken almost a year for you to file a trip report. Presumably we've missed out on some potential good reads but we look forward to hearing more from you. One small thing, your images are too wide to fully display on an iPad. This is easily fixed if you set the pixel width to no more than 700 before uploading to your favourite image server. The pics will display beautifully then on most devices and will also upload and download quicker. If you take a look at one of my TR posts you'll see what I mean.

Hope to hear more from you soon.

Kev


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## Wrassemagnet (Oct 17, 2007)

Superb report and first of many I hope as I really enjoyed it! Thanks for the tip Sunshiner I think that's been happening with my photos too.


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## john316 (Jan 15, 2009)

one of my many "favourite places...

I totally agree that there is something about releasing a big fish and watching it slide away into the deep and it sometimes takes a while to appreciate that feeling. Like the others, I enjoyed the read and had no trouble getting to the end. Hope you manage to get the yak fixed quick and easy

cheers

John


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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QlpoOTFBWSZTWbKlVJwAAA9fgAAQQIMACACAFAA/794gIABqKaMmp6mmmQZHlNCJ6KPTKNqABo0EKEtlF1ItNTjLAQ5RYuzWV0tYnXwaB4DMb23vGTNpqhoCqHScnQ1ICUUQ3hOACnDLeSt9QZbY4VgyzyNdEIUCcH8AZPO0Byn4u5IpwoSFlSqk4A==


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## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

I think the big girl will be fine, fish are remarkably tough. They have an uncanny ability to be able to dislodge a lure whilst we are keeping tension on it with our lines, so I think she will have no problem getting rid of one that is just sitting there.

Good read and keep the reports coming.

Kev


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

Long? LONG? I write longer reports than that when I catch nothing (not that I'm a good example).
That was a great read Chemacky. I dream of catching just one of that size one day (and one of any size from Tuross). To hook three in three trolling runs in water to shallow to troll without scaring them makes a mockery of all that I've tried (and failed) to learn. Well done on the catches and more so on the releases. I'm glad you got one that was simply big to take home.


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## RekFix (Dec 30, 2011)

> but I watched in awe at my ridiculously long cast as my blade hit the water a good 40-45m away only to discover that my 4lb fluoro had broken


I Know that feeling brother...

Great read mate.


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## Sibbo (Aug 11, 2012)

A quality trip report. Great use of expression - something I fear the public service has sucked out of me.

Sounds as though you lucked in on Tuross. Although I have only ever fished it a few times it has never been kind.


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## SharkNett (Feb 20, 2006)

Great read. Looking forward to your next installment.


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## AJD (Jul 10, 2007)

Top read. Thanks for sharing the lows as well as the highs. We've all been there!
Make sure that trip report isn't your last! We want more.


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## Chemacky (Nov 30, 2011)

Woah, thanks everyone for the kind words! I didn't expect that! I just reread my report... I'm not sure how any of you got to the end with all the spelling and grammar mistakes in there! Well done to all of you!

And I promise! next time I've got something worth reporting, I'll write up another one.

Thanks again guys!

pat.


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