How fishing always has a way of reminding us how good it can be…
Let’s face it, sometimes fishing takes the backseat in our busy lives. Where it be the weather, job commitments or just looking after the family, our time on the water might not come as much as we would like.
The thing about fishing, however, is that when it does finally squeeze its way into our busy schedules, it has a habit of reminding us how much we really miss it.
Whilst this is something that even the most fair-weather fisher can agree with, it is perhaps no more relevant to Cass Price, our Director of Habitat Programs, who was acutely reminded this weekend about how much she misses getting out on the water in her own backyard.
Describing it as a “unicorn day”, Saturday presented Cass with the ultimate trifecta: the wind had dropped, Covid Lockdown had ended at midnight, and the kids had other plans for the day.
Whilst most might use this as a chance to put the feet up and wind down after another busy week at OzFish, Cass had only one thing in mind – call her father and prepare the boat for an early start on the old snapper grounds.
Eager to find out if the fish were out to play, we caught up with Cass to chat about what went down.
It couldn’t have been a more magical start to the day; bright orange sunrise, flying fish everywhere, dolphins and whales a plenty and a light north easterly wind.
To kick start the session, we pulled up on a school of bait fish not far from the Ballina Bar. We kept a handful live in case we wanted to drop a ‘livie’ down and the rest we kept for fresh cut baits – which are our favourite.
Once equipped with fresh bait, we headed off to some of our favourite marks which holds everything from snapper, trag and pearl perch!
It’s a grand feeling fishing with the clearest view of Lennox Point, the Byron Bay Lighthouse and Mount Warning in the background – a reminder that you don’t have to go far to score a catch!
A nice pan sized snapper was our first fish in the boat.
But as that live bait hit the bottom it wasn’t long before we had a freight-train hit the other line. After about half an hour battle and some exciting runs, a spectacular netting job, a nice sized kingie was safely in the boat. He came with a gift too, delivering us a lost bright pink jig that was caught in the corner of his jaw, what a bonus!
It just goes to show how resilient these fish are…
As it turns out, that was the prized fish for the day. We were certain we had a second larger one about half an hour later.. but it turned out to be a 6ft shark, much to our disappointment after another fair fight.
We ended up with a nice mixed bag of fish – which is typical for this time of year.
Upon a last count we had plenty of good sized snapper, a hand full of eastern black-spot pigfish (lovely eating), another couple of smaller kingies, a few flathead (marbled), a maori cod and some lovely sized trag.
Apart from being OzFish’s Director of Habitat Programs and her drive for healthy fish habitat, Cass has two young kids and supports and encourages women and families to take up and experience fishing together.
If you want to to get involved in fishing or habitat restoration, or just have some questions about fishing in your local area, reach out to your local chapter or get in contact at 1800 431 308.