Easter weekend breaming

[Ducksta]

Courtesy of Active Angler Express Courier Company, I am the new owner of an Egrell S1.
I picked it up from Apollo after buying it from LostNearBribie's brother.
Not a whole lot to report, but I thought I'd post to let Red know I received the rod, and am happy, and I told Steve I'd have something to report.

So Friday, picked the rod up from Steve and headed to our accomodation for the weekend in Warners Bay (Lake Macquarie). Considered having a flick, but the weather was nice so went for a walk to explore with the mrs. This was definitely not to make up for chatting with Steve for an hour while she sat in the car... Definitely not...

I'd had my mind set on tackling some surface bream, and some jew on hardbodies for the weekend. I'd also set myself a challenge for the weekend that wanted to catch on lures I don't throw regularly anymore.

Friday night, matched the S1 to my Luvias 2000 running 4lb braid. Felt nice. Tied on a Smith Towadi for a first light surface assault. Interestingly - this is a lure I don't throw purely because they are so difficult to cast compared to a 50mm popper or a Sammy 65.

Saturday morning came and I started a bit later than intended. But, it was a nice morning and there seemed to be a bit of action on the lake. And after my first cast shot out twice as far as I expected to cast the little towadi, I figured I'd have an interesting one. A lot of early hits seemed to fall short of the lure by a few inches. You could see the fish hit and turn, as the lure pulled away... Longer pauses? Once I had my rhythm, first to hookup was an unbelievably greedy little bream, no more than 7cm. Followed by a couple undersize and then one just legal which had blood gushing out the gills from a deep hook. I'd been thinking I should start eating bream again after a few years off - and a bleeder seemed an omen. Got another slightly better to make a nice pair for breakfast. Gave it up once the wake boats and jetskis turned up.

Saturday arvo saw the wind pick up, blowing back at the shore I could access which didn't bode well for the next 2 days.

Sunday morning got the earlier start I wanted and headed for a similar route as previously. Only undersized bream this time, joined by one undersized tailor. Again all, on the towadi.
Sunday afternoon I headed down to Swansea to fish the channel and look for some jew. Unfortunately the wind was howling. I tried to perservere but lost about 30m of braid to wind knots before giving it up.
Went back to the top of the lake and decided to try to get some creeks out of range of the ski boats, and a bit sheltered from the wind. Another session on undersize bream, tailor, and a little whiting. Again the towadi was the pick of the batch, with a couple of little bream coming on strike pro pygmy's. I still don't rate the pygmy's. Should have aimed a couple of casts up a tree so I could 'replace' them with sx40s...
Had to do a runner to get out of the wind and rain Sunday. Got quite nasty.

Monday morning thought about another session but the torn up weed was blown all over my shoreline and I would have been defouling hooks every cast.

Only a couple of pics. 1) Greedy little bream: First fish on the S1. First fish in my AA shirt. Interesting crossover is the fish was a 'saddleback'.
2) a pic my mrs took on Sunday from her bench having a coffee.

[BR65]

thats a greedy bream all right - youd have to say genetic with the saddleback?

[BR65]

nice shirt to

[Ducksta]

thats a greedy bream all right - youd have to say genetic with the saddleback?

Got to lean that way when small fish are effected and this system hasn't had commercial netting in several years. Can't imagine a 7cm would be making big migrations. But you never know.

[Two Utes]

Enjoy catching them on your new Egrell.

How good are the members here on Active Angler

[LostNearBribie]

Awesome. Glad you are happy with it mate.
Thanks also to Steve, a top effort to courier that rod to Sydney and hand it over!
I look forward to some more reports...

[Ducksta]

Next stop, Lake St Clair ABT round in a fortnight.

[Apollo]

Greet to catch up with you and Cindy, John. Glad it worked out alright and you had a good break with the bride.

Hope to see you at the Jack off.

Must admit that I wish i had brought the S2 down with me as I saw a big tailor bust up within casting distance of the shore in front of my brother's place and then later that night, when we were feeding the fish off the jetty with left over prawn heads with the kids, some started busting through the floating prawns and feeding baitfish. Could only get a glimpse of it in the dodgy torchlight, however I would loved to float a livie or flick a lure about for a while.

Steve

[ffejsmada]

Hey John, I know the S1's are a light stick, but that bream put a bend in it?

[Ducksta]

That one didn't. It was kind of like retrieving a weed fouled lure through other patches of weed. Even though it was obvious I had a 'fish' on. If you get what I mean?
Also interesting, the greedy little bugger was clean hooked through the jaws too. He was hungry.

The 2 legal fish got a bit of an arc going, but didn't really trouble it in the shallow water.
Honestly, I'm stoked with the rod. Cast the towadi on 4lb like a bullet, much better than other rods rated at 1-3kg anyway. Half expected it to fold like a wet noodle, even though I had been assured it wouldn't. But it did the job on the 26/27cm fish easily as well.
Looking forward to testing it on the bass though. Should put it through a workout and have a better idea then.