This short piece by Neil Schultz shows how keen observation of what's happening around you can lead to fishing success.
I took the kayak over to the local lake for an early cruise for some exercise, bird watching, oh, and a little fishing too. Not far from the boat ramp I heard terns chattering, unseen through the fog, so I pointed the kayak in the direction of the sounds.
A typical morning glass out allowed a clear view of scores of small fish dimpling the surface as the terns came into view. Silver flashes showed the fish to be juvenile bony bream of 60 to 70mm in length. The little basic sounder pinging the hidden world beneath the surface exposed the full picture.
A sizable school of bony bream was holding just under the surface but extending right down to six metres. The reason they were so tightly packed and so high in the water column was the handful of large arches under and around the school. The dark coloured lure I was trolling passed through untouched so I made a quick switch to the most bony bream-like lure one could imagine, a Predatek B65D Boomerang in Poddy Mullet.
Just as the action was in my wake on a return pass, the first strike came, a chunky bass of 44cm. Like an Indian circling a wagon train I skirted the bait school, its position marked by the diving terns, hooking and releasing another five bass in the same size class. Leaving the bass biting, satisfied with a red hot session courtesy of the ever reliable 65mm Boomerang, I kicked away towards a different sound, a pair of white-bellied sea eagles.
Neil
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