On Sunday 2nd August 2020 at 6:30, I
launched “ABF”. There was a bit of a weather window and I wanted to target my
first Garrick of the season. All my mates were working or had prior
engagements, so I went it alone. There was a good Samaritan at the club that
assisted me with launching and soon I was heading to the bait spot. There were
surprisingly few boats out, but I assumed it was due to the poor catches the
day before.
 |
| A few light spinning rigs for garrick |
I scrounged around for bait and managed some
maasbanker and shad. I was not planning to fish for a long time so I thought a handful
of bait would be fine and headed off to the South Pier to try my luck. I rigged three light 6kg spinning rigs and slow trolled around looking for some life. It didn’t
take long to get a pull. This time it was a live shad rigged deep.
Unfortunately, after hooking up and fighting the fish for a while, the hook
pulled for no apparent reason. Not the best start. About half an hour later, I
had another pull on the surface shad but again the hook pulled. Hopefully it
was going to be 3rd time lucky.
I trolled along the pier and into the backline,
being pushed slowly by the NE wind. The swell was building with the tide change
so I had to keep my eyes open. Luckily it didn’t take long to get another pull.
This time I made no mistake and managed to release my first Garrick of the season.
Continuing down the line, I managed to get a few more pulls and caught a couple
more Garrick before the bait ran out. I was thinking of looking for more
bait, but the wind had picked up and it was becoming a bit bumpy. Not wanting
to have a late boat cleaning session, I headed back at 12:00.
It was great to have some light tackle fun with
these fish. I will hopefully get a few more in the weeks to come.
