Venue River Yare
The day started with a session in the boatyard trying to catch a few livebaits. This is something i normally do in advance so on the fishing days we can get away as early as possible to reach our locations up or downstream. For various reasons i had not been able to get there on the Saturday so this was our first job on the Sunday morning. The boat dyke was fairly heavily coloured from another Two days of rain during the week and after around an hour we had not had a single bite on anything. We tried Maggots,Bread punch and even chopped worm all to no avail. We decided to go out with just our dead baits and see if it was any better on the main river. The water was a horrible chocolate Brown and pushing hard. With that in mind we also thought it would be pointless heading into the city swims as the river being much narrower there would also be bombing through..
The outfall was our choice and we set off around 8am for the 10 minute trip.
As we turned the bend our plans were scuppered again as another boat was already moored tight onto the outfall with rods spread out around the river.
Another quick decision was made to fish the natural bank 500mts downstream of the outfall an area we call Cormorant bay... The name came from the fact a pair of these Black Fish eating machines used to have a roost overlooking this tiny bay. The roost has been empty so far this year so we tied up close into the bank on an old dead tree.
As we plumbed up and set up just one dead bait each, we saw the other boat at the outfall was on the move.. We thought we may just as well give this swim a try now we were settled in. By now its just gone 8:30am and we both fish off the back of the boat "uptide" style. Amazingly Neils bait is picked up within 10 mins and he soon has a 4lb jack boated and returned.
This proves to be a false dawn and two and a half hours later that remained our only take. The outfall was looking like our next move and after another 15 mins we are tied up on the wall overlooking the white water of the outfall.
Our baits are soon in position and this time my dead Bluey is taken and as always in this swim, the fish kites across into the flow of the outfall and feels much bigger than it actually is. After a brief fight we slip the net under a lovely 10lb 15oz scrapper. Can only wonder what a big fish would feel like in that flow...
That fish has come just before mid day so once the rods were back out we started cooking our lunch. It was quite a nice day now if not a little bit too bright for fishing. With the river still pulling hard and and the tide rising fairly quickly, we agreed to stick it out here today rather than another move. The lunch went down a treat and the kettle went on for a brew. From out of nowhere, suddenly my reel started hissing and line was pouring off. I was using an Abu 6500 multiplier set on free spool with ratchet on so the sound was like you hear on those Shark fishing films. I picked up the rod, locked the spool and leaned back... Nothing ! I could not believe it.
It came back minus the bait but everything else was ok, no bent hooks etc.
We could not believe something could have picked the bait up so quick and without warning, screamed off but not been hooked. We were both looking out over the river when it happened and had not seen any birds etc surface afterwards but neither of us was convinced it was a Pike. An otter maybe ?
who knows.
That was the last bit of action on the day and we packed up around 2pm and headed back in. We should have guessed the day was not going to be too successful when we failed to get any live baits first thing. Still at least we both caught and went home wondering.... Did i hook Jaws ?
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