Australia Day at the circus

Planned a late (6:30am) start today because the forecast was for low cloud and to make it easier for someone to make it on time. Guess who couldn't find his car keys?

Anyhow, had a quick chat to Wigg who launched ahead of me then headed out to join the throng - lots of cars in the car park. There was some mist and low cloud around, negligible breeze and very slight swell. Paddled past a cluster of craft to one of my usual marks then had a brief chat to Paul and Phil before heading off to a quiet spot to drift and cast.

Water was very clear but alive today with all manner of creatures evident. When the cloud cleared the bottom could be seen in 12m and was vivid at 8m. Saw a sizeable gar skip across the water, dolphins breaching, with one surfacing very close to paulb while we chatted, a small bronzie on the surface, tailor leaping clear of the water, some school of unidentified fish finning on the surface (yakkas?) and loads of sweep and mados below.

My first drift produced a couple of throwbacks and a couple of missed hits by which time I seemed to have been joined by half the fleet. Even more annoying was that most of them were hooking up, with Wigg getting a beauty of about 4kg. Henry got a nice one too. Headed north where I got more missed hits, but I kept drifting back to the crowd.

Headed south for some solitude and some deeper water as it was now sunny and hot. Finally got a rat to stick to a power minnow, but, of course, it was only around 60cm. More missed hits and rubbish and I called it a day.

Frustrating seeing the bait fishers doing so well, but I will persist with the lures until I get a legal