Epic Paddle

Today I went to Coronet Bay to pick up some rods for the weekend, as I will be hitting some freshwater over the weekend. My brother was there so we decided to have a fish. I informed him about the great results at Reef Island of late so we agreed to head there. As I was about to put my kayak on the roof he asked "What are you doing?". I told him the Soldiers Rd launch was as close to the spot as you could get, but he wanted to paddle there. As it turns out, we launched at Coronet Bay beach and pushed into a stiff SE wind with a fair swell for what seemed like forever, probably close to 45 minutes though. This was only a 3km trip!

When we finally got to a spot that looked like it could hold a few whiting we each dropped our anchors. Immediately we were into some bites, but only from small fish. My brother landed a small pinky and I managed 2 size whiting (30cm) along with heaps of undersize whiting and flathead. As it seemed like a nursery a move was in order. In the next spot he started getting a few bites and picked up a 30cm whiting, and I couldn't even manage a bite.

We moved again and my brother was immediately into a few grass whiting. I was about 50m away and in a much sandier area, which accounted for another 6 quick KGW in amongst many smaller fish. My brother managed 1 in amongst the grassies. Unfortunately that was when the bass yabbies ran out! Tried fillets (Of a yakka I caught with my final bait) for a while with no success, but we finished with 10 whiting. The wind had dropped and the paddle back was much more pleasant, although still much further than had we launched at Soldiers Rd!

Here is my first entry for the 2011 vyak pairs comp (@36cm):


Today where were many undersize fish around (2 undersize whiting to every size one), so let's hope that in the future we can get onto some bigger ones!

Reef Island - The return

After cleaning up at Reef Island late last week Dad and I decided that another trip was in order. As Dad had his knee replaced less than a month ago it is still boat fishing for us, however this didn't seem to stop him hitting Coronet Bay and pumping about 60 bass yabbies yesterday afternoon at low tide before I arrived!
I got to the house about 8pm last night, set up a couple of rods, got some other assorted gear ready and hit the hay. We awoke at 5am and had breakfast, packed the boat and were off. Corinella ramp was definitely not what you would expect when we arrived. Although it's the New Year's Day holiday there were about 5 trailers in the carpark (And this was at 6am, by no means early for that part of the world). We launched without incident and headed to our spot near Reef Island (See previous post).
First baits in the water were bass yabbies on a twin hook paternoster and they got smashed almost immediately. This happened for quite a while and after about half an hour I had 11 whiting... Dad had managed 2. Even managed a couple of double hook-ups. Dad then started to fire by pulling in a couple of gars and then some great whiting. Already thinking big catches we started letting most of the smaller ones (Under 32cm) go. One of my rods got tangled so I was rerigging when Dad pulled in a good whiting. It was followed by what we thought initially was just weed but it turned out to be a big calamari. Forgetting my #6 long shank hook I tied a number 3 yamashita (Green with a white belly and red feathers - Not sure what it's called?) on and dropped it down to the squid, who was now just cruising under my side of the boat. It hit the jig immediately and after a short battle I had a 1.5kg calamari (An absolute monster compared to my usual Mornington squid) in the boat. We then got back into the whiting and the odd gar, brought on by the burley we were deploying.
One move for the day saw us catch our bag limit of 32-42cm whiting, 7 gars and the calamari. I also caught 2 nice size leatherjackets which were released. By far the best bait were the bass yabbies, and they also seemed to account for the bigger whiting and many more bites. Pipi was pretty good, but with the price difference (Free Vs $20 per kilo!) I'm definitely using nippers from now on!
Back at the ramp it was pretty busy with many more people having launched, although oddly not one of the 6-8 boats we saw come in had any fish. I think people have decided that as it may be their only chance to fish for the year they want a big one so are sitting in the channels hoping for the best, but that definitely isn't where the majority of the fish are at the moment!
Again I forgot my camera, but Dad remembered his. After some big whiting and the calamari I asked him to take a few shots and he went to turn it on..... And had left the battery in the charger at home. More pics next time!

Fishing hotspot - Reef Island

Another boat trip the other day, but one where we only took whiting rods and decided to have a bit of an explore. Dad and I headed first to Coronet Bay, but couldn't find many whiting at all, I think we managed 3. After that we headed to Reef Island, about 4-5km south of Coronet Bay.
After motoring around the island we finally stopped right near the edge in about 1.5m of water. We cast back towards the edge of the weed and as the boat yawed around it moved our baits, which I think also helped. We caught 25 whiting between us in the end, nothing massive but all 30-36cm which are great eating. We only left as the boat was in about 60cm of water, but the fish were definitely still firing so I believe it would be a great area for kayaks!


In the image above, the "Launch here" section indicates the end of Soldiers Road. There were a few people launching car-topper tinnies there and I believe they would have also done well on the whiting. We have launched there before but never fished the area we did - We have always headed straight out towards Reef Island. Not only is this spot closer to the launch area, but much more productive!