A blast from the past.
March 2007 saw the local fishing club have a competition at Brushy Lagoon. The Lagoon had not been stocked for 4 months & only low numbers in those stockings. In the September previous I had had the misfortune to slip on a rock on the dam wall of this water breaking my skull
as well as a few other bones. Brushy had the reputation of a very high catch rate of redfin perch compared to trout or the quickly caught stocked fish.
My mate Dave & I hit the water at daylight hoping to catch at least a trout as there was $450 up for grabs in 3 prizes in the comp. After a bit of dodging around we decided to have a drift along the dam wall when ol mate asks “where was it you fell off” to which I replied “Hang on I’ll cast to it”. It was a shocking cast that landed .5m off the wall but the lure had massive air time on its way resulting in a heap of slack line.
Slack was frantically retrieved to a tight line, snagged ….bugger!. A couple of bow & arrow flicks to release to no avail, so lay the rod down grab the line to bust off snag and all hell breaks loose….massive bow wave takes off from the dam wall, rod bends to the left…shit I’m on, well hooked, know what I’m doing
. Reel screaming and a racing heart. Fish comes to the top with a half a#rsed effort for a jump then just comes across the top with gob wide open straight into the net. Once on the floor of the boat it went ballistic until the attitude adjuster quietened him. The biggest fresh water fish (Atlantic) I have caught 5.3 kg clean.
We landed another 2 for the day Dave 3.0kg & me 4.2kg taking out all 3 prizes in the comp $450.
1 very unlucky fish.
