Lolipopping

Just when you think you've got a fish figured out, they go and do something new. It was an interesting couple of weeks at the Shorncliffe pier since they had the lights on the pier shut down probably due to the repairs or whatever they're up to around/underneath. This weekend though the lights were back on so I was gunning to check to see if squid have started moving in yet. Sure enough they had, but the few tigers I saw weren't much too keen on my novice jigging ability. I did manage to interest one, along with 3 arrow squid, but for the most part I decided to start chasing the Bream again.

These last two evenings the Bream were behaving quite different to normal, and for the most part, fairly consistently. Normally Bream will be in one of two moods, hungry and not-so-hungry. This means grab fast and run, or picking at tasty morsels. However this was something new. There was virtually no wind, which is really good because it means I can go with the lightest sinker, and can feel the lightest nudge on the bait. And it turned out I would need to feel the nudges. The fish were grabbing the bait only they weren't running off with it. It was as if they were sitting there, sucking on it, like a lolipop. No picking, no pulling, all I felt was a slight bump if anything at all. This was with the line pretty much taut, so it wasn't a matter of a lot of slack and not feeling the grab. When I don't feel anything I typically give the bait a "bounce" on the bottom to feel if the bait is still on the hook, and not snagged. Quite often this "bounce" was setting a hook or causing the fish to give a couple shakes and spit the hook.

Still, all-in-all it was a smashing evening for Bream. I only pulled up one "rat", and caught at least another 5 or 6 around 25cm that I let go. The keepers were 35, 31, 29, another 4 over 27cm, and 1 25cm that swallowed the hook. Still with their odd behaviour I had to retrieve hooks while cleaning four of those fish. (#4 Long-shanks.)