On Saturday Morning I went exploring and fishing the shores of Chanel Island.
I hadn't been there in a long time, and certainly not on the side that I wanted to fish.
I had set my eyes on a spot near the boat ramp.
So early and happy I drove there, managed to get lost on the way, but finally arrived at destination.
Once there a bit of a walk on the rocks and through some mangroves, to finally arrive to a place that looked the right kind of fishy to me.
So i started to fish.
First with a standard Gold Bomber. But for no hits.
So I changed to a white Storm, for nothing better.
Changed again for a small Bomber in the Tiger Lily colour, and got two small hits.
So decided to change lure one more time and went for a small soft plastic, in black.
Not much more at first...
But I suddenly saw a very nice Barramundi swimming towards me from my right.
I tried as discreetly as possible to cast my lure a bit forward of where it would pass, just in front of me.
That was not a bad cast, for once, and the lure on the retrieve, passed a few centimetres in from of the Barramundi... Who immediately bolted sideway and went for the high sea as fast as it could.
I had spooked him.
Yes, I was a bit disappointed with that.
But, it looked that I had found just the right spot, as not long after, another one came from the same direction, and it was an even better fish.
Same thing, flicked the lure in front and a bit past it.
Reeling nice and slow to arrive just in front of him...
And this Barramundi, turn behind the lure and swim closer and closer to it.
The lure was now just a few centimetres from him, now it is just about one centimetres. The Barramundi seems to swim in perfect line with the lure, I am waiting for the strike...
And with in a rather nonchalant way, he turns away and calmly swam away.
Why?
Why did this fish came that close to my lure, and turn away from it like that?
Did I really deserved that?
Well apparently I did...
Oh well, Better luck with the next one, or so I thought...
The next one surprised me by suddenly appearing facing me just at my feet, and vanished in the same way. These big chrome fish, can sometime be very good at camouflage.
Yet I still had my hopes high. After all I had already seen three Barramundi, just in front of me, so I was in the right spot and this was going to pay soon.
Right?
Well, life has some mysterious way, hard to comprehend at time.
Because the fourth Barramundi, Not only I didn't see it coming, not only did it really surprised me, but I missed it too...
I was standing on my rock, with my lure retrieved and waiting in the water at my feet, scanning the water to try to spot another fish. Not seeing any fish, I lifted my lure out of the water to do a blind cast in hope to meet my elusive prey. Just as the lure came out of the water a big boof at my feet made me jump! Looking down, I saw the boil in the water with a big yellow tail saying bye bye to me, before I could fully realise what had just happened.
Yes, I had just missed another Barramundi.
So far it was Barramundi: 4 VS me: 0
You my boy, you have had some better fishing day, the little voice in my head was starting to say...
And I was starting to wonder what I should do to catch a fish?
With a little colour change happening on my left, I send my lure straight in it.
This is when I finally got a good smack on the line, and a Barramundi started to dance on the surface.
You beauty !
It was smaller that the other ones before, (because as you certainly know, the ones that get away are alway enormous) but it was on my line and seemed to be above the minimal size, this was going to be my delicious dinner, just right there!
I got it to the shore, and dragged it on the mud.
Got my brag mat out and put my prized catch on it...
52cm... 3cm short of a nice dinner... and full of mud...
A little mud mullet.
Yes this fish was a bit too short and I had to release it. Still after all the ones that I missed or just saw swim past, I was rather happy to catch one. To me it was the confirmation that my little exploring wasn't in vain, I had found a good spot.
Here is an image of the little colour change where it came from:
Colour change along the rocks.
You can see that it was muddy terrain, even the rocks had a fine covering of mud.
Now out of this I had to try to catch a bigger one out of the receding tide.
Alas what was to follow was indeed a good little session, but without anymore Barramundi.
First I got my first little cod of the day...
And the key words here are: First and little...
First small Rock Cod of the day.
It was a cute little fish and I let it go.
Then a second one came along:
Second Cod of the day.
I couldn't help but think that Barramundi are often found on the same grounds than Cods.
So I persisted, and got another cod. But this one came with a surprise:
Third, and wounded.
This one was my third little cod, all caught within no more than 3 cast between them.
But this one must have had an encounter with a watery predator, before meeting my lure.
It really deserved to live, and I put it back in his element as quick as I could.
Here is where they all came from:
The Cods honey hole.
This spot had to me looked a perfect ambush point for Barramundi, but it was in fact Cod's Heaven.
Before fall of the tide, while the water was clearer, I did saw a few Barramundi swimming in there. So when the colour of the water started changing with the outgoing tide I thought that I was going to be Jack on the Spot...
Well on the Cod's spot yes...
Still it was definitively a fun way to pass time in the outdoor. I was having a ball catching all these little fish.
I finally caught my last fish of the day, and it was a new specie too. I had just seen some bait being smashed by an hungry bigger fish, and flicked my lure a bit in front of the fleeing bait.
The hit came but the fight wasn't huge...
Baby Barracuda on the lure.
It was just a little one, but for this one, I still decided to use my pliers to get the lure out of its mouth...
And by then, I had finished my two litres of water, and started to think about the walk back to the car.
With a dry mouth...
So I walked back through the mangrove and rocks, dreaming of an ice cold soft drink.
Just as I arrived at my car a scooter rocked in and parked a few metres away.
It was Hiro from the very famous blog Secret Barramundi. It was great to meet again, after not seeing him for a long time. He has always been very kind and helpful to me, in sharing good information about land based fishing spot and technics for Barramundi.
And now it was time to head back home, without a feed of freshly caught Barramundi.
But hey, It could be worse.
Have a good day,
Me.
