Light tackle insanity!!

[Shortlite]

How far would you go to land a fish?

Yes folks, your crazy UL fisho here. A little while back it was decided that life's hassles needed a fishing session to sort them out, so off to a local bridge we went. Tidecheck said nice outgoing, and on arrival the water was clean, full of bait, and flowing nicely.

To cut what could be a long story short, nothing happened for quite a while. We started fromthe bank under the bridge, casting towards the pylons and into the channels, all to no avail. The conditions looked too good though, so we persisted. After a few more minutes the action livened up, with some good sized boils, splashes and boofs coming from the middle channel. As time progressed, however, the fish did not move any closer, and with them being out of range from both banks, a tactical decision was made to shoot from the top of the bridge.

From the top we were greeted by the sight of a couple silvery swirls, then some big bronzey flashes. Barry Mundi in da hizzouse!! Would they bite? No joy for another hour and a bit. Friday night, town going off, and here we are tossing plastic to fish that weren't playing ball.

The tide started to slow right down, and with the window of opportunity closing fast I moved to the upstream side and cast to a pylon. As the lure sank I twitched it gently, and once it hit bottom I gave it two lazy flicks. A quick tap, and I set on air. Reeled up to find the bass minnow folded over the hook point, so I fixed it and cast back to the same spot. Same drill, couple of flicks off bottom, then let it drift back, when the tap came again. This time the hook found a hold, and some serious weight put Laura's custom All Star into a deep bend. The fish started upstream, away from the bridge, then stopped, did a quick 180 and sprinted back under the bridge, racing downstream and jumping. The gill rattling and the substantial splash on reentry screamed barra. In seconds the fish was 30 yards downstream and jumping way on the other side of the bridge.

After much indecision, hmming, ahhing and WTF do i do know? talk, a clear vision popped into my head, the one thing I'd been threatening to do if it ever came to this. Now for those who haven't heard before, I have issues with these bridge barra. I've only ever landed 2, out of probably close to twenty hooked, 63cm and 73 cm. I've lost fish close to a metre in there on heavier gear, and since switching to light stuff I've hooked and lost heaps more, to bustoffs on snags and pylons, leader abrasion and spat hooks. Yes, using ultralight braid may be a bit of a recipe for disaster, but a lot of the time that's what it takes to deliver the small plastics and light heads that garner the strikes from the fish that run there. So what did I do? I stripped off, climbed over, and JUMPED!!!!!

5 metres of air, then cold salt water. I popped up, kicking, spluttering and reeling like mad, then as soon as I had reestablished contact I kicked downstream after the fish. I hauled up on the downstream bank to find my luck was in and the fish was sulking over a shallow gravel bar, close to the bank. I put the heat on, and after a few more runs and jumps she was mine. My iron fist lip grip death grip was locked on, and I slid the beauty up the bank.

The rest of the night was punctuated by resounding "@#$% YEAH"s as we stretched the tape out and took pictures.
81 cm of wild saltwater barra, for a new PB wild fish, and my biggest bridge barra (from that particular bridge).

[Shortlite]

Was I a happy boy?
@#$% YEAH!!!!

I couldn't stop smiling for days. Even the barnacle and oyster cuts on my bare feet couldn't kill the vibe.

[blacksnake]

well done mate, suprising what adrenilin will do to you!

[JiggyJigs]

hahaha that is wild man. Best post I've read in a long time!!!

[HyperTackle]

Great post Ted good to see your out and amongst them again.

Hyper Tackle

[Beevor]

Great story Ted!

Had me crackin up there old buoy

[gianttrevor]

what a great read - nice moves there too with the VICTORY DANCE.

u cracker.

[ActiveAngler]

Ted,

Brilliant read mate and such a terrific battle on light gear - especially around a bridge.

Your story takes me back to when I was fishing the popular St Johnston Railway bridge (which I fish this place every time I go back to Cairns).

I was using a small 2" Berkley Power Hawg, on 3kg Spiderwire, with my trusty 2-5kg G Loomis rod and the Daiwa Capricorn, and managed to hook a 20 pound plus barra. The 4 other blokes fishing with me saw the barra jump and shake its head erratically before self releasing!! With 4kg leader, it is no suprise. Gonski.

When I look back and think, what I could of possibly done to try and even attempt at getting this fish in was to freespool the line to avoid friction of the fish jumping and me angling the rod to keep connected, whilst the fish was jumping. Either way I believe I would of had been hard to get this fish in but would of been worth a go. It could of resulted the fight being a 10 second battle rather than a 4 second battle lol.

Nice fish mate and glad to see other people enjoy FNQ BIG FISH on light tackle!

Cheers

Active Angler Crew.

[TinarooTriumph]

Excellent read man... really good stuff.

Ultra-light is the way to go eh? Couldn't agree more!

Theo

[Shortlite]

4 kilo (8lb) leader in a spot where things like that happen? Man, that's optimism!!! Up here, with all the surprise fish swimming around, I don't usually fish anything less than 6 kg leader (also 15 or 20 pound), and most of the time I roll with a short, heavier bite section of 15 or 20 kg leader material, either in hard mono o fluorocarbon, on the end of that. Also, any leader wear depends on how deep the fish has gotten your lure in its mouth.

A lot of the time in such structure the fish will actually head away from the pylons if you aren't putting too much pressure on them. Backing the drag off a bit and letting them run with current sometimes works. There's not too much you can do duelling on light tackle in ruff stuff: success relies on a lot of luck and significant "mistakes" by the fish. After that you have to worry about leader abrasion during the fight, from lips or gill plates. That's something else that backing off the pressure gives you: an unexpected advantage in that less tension slows down the abrasion of the leader. There's a fine balance.