4 Afternoons - No Donuts

The New Year saw me on the tools and back onto my never-ending house-building project. Duncan (The Knave) kindly ventured down the coast to lend a hand for 5 days, the promise of 4 afternoons fishing may have been the deal clincher. In the cool of our first afternoon we hit a stretch of creek not too far from home. A few fish in the low to mid 30's and one mid 40's kept us amused until the days toil, need for dinner and a beer sent us home. Sadly my trusty camera let us down, note to self - batteries need charging if they are to work.... Following afternoon we hooked up with Peter and hit a lovely section of river with high expectations. It was a real Alpacka packraft gathering with all three of us in our little blow up toys, They are well suited to the tight waters and stealth approach and it was not long before the first boofs came. The afternoon was a little cooler than I would have liked and the fishing was a little slow but it was pleasant being out, chatting as we cast our way along the cover. A tight bit of casting produced a good surface hit for Duncan. The little bass played hard and pulled above its weight. On closer inspection it had a deformed lower lip unlike any I have seen before. A few more fish came our way, nothing huge but enough to keep us fishing into the dark, always hope of bigger fish. Peter had paddled upstream a little and had just landed this little bronzy when I caught up with him. As always he was pretty stoked. Satisfied with a few bass and a pleasant arvo we headed home for a feed, a few beers and some shut eye before facing another day building and fishing. The usual Christmas family obligations had meant that Jeff and I had gone a few weeks without fishing together so Jeff’s email titled "PB-EP" stood out amongst work stuff and offers of Viagra.....it had this pic attached and a few scant details. A true stonker and brilliant capture for Jeff, suffice to say there was a desire to chase EP's the next afternoon. We hit the water late afternoon and within 10 minutes I pulled my first EP from deep down in the water column. Another fish followed a few cast later, nothing huge but I knew I was in the ballpark and the game was looking good. Duncan nailed a decent flathead bouncing a Berkley soft vibe down deep then shortly after headed up the creek with Peter to explore a few snag sections with the hope of a big EP. It was almost dark, Jeff and I had switched to surface and where casting at a snag that the last flood left. A boof and miss, then I hooked up on a fit 42cm. Not to be out done Jeff nailed a similar fish a few casts latter. The action pretty much stopped after that so shortly after we called it a night. We had really wanted to get into the upper reaches of one of my favorite creeks but the cooler weather, bit of a drive and walk pushed us to fish a lower section on foot as we thought our efforts would not be rewarded. As predicted it was a little slow, but again it was pleasant to walk the banks, watch the birds and platypus and get some casting in. Duncan and Peter where getting amongst a few fish here and there on surface lures. My mojo was a little shot after a dodgy cast saw me leave a Sammy 65 up a giant Cassurina tree. I then proceeded to drop the only 2 fish that I had hooked, one of them felt a decent fish and pulled a little line (I usually fish pretty locked up) Duncan had gained the nickname "Duncan Donut" on past trips owing to...well... it is kind of self-explanatory.... he had however redeemed himself by landing fish every day for the last four days. By the time it was getting dark I was looking at taking his "Donut" title, so a solid hit on my 'after dark spinner bait' saved me the indignity. We finished getting the last of my rafters up onto my roof the next arvo and Duncan headed off back to the big smoke. We'd had a really enjoyable week despite the fishing being a bit slow for this part of the world, although on my past experience fishing with Duncan we could have had a donut.