Apollo Bay "Big Catch" 2012

Well, officially there was no “Big Catch Competition” in Apollo Bay this year, but as Dad and I enjoyed it so much over the last couple of years we decided to have our own, this time with the family in tow. The prize was that the loser has to restock the boat tackle box – Hooks, leader, sinkers, swivels, etc. The rules were the same – The total length of each of our bream, whiting, snapper and flathead.

We arrived late Friday night due to a crash on the West Gate Bridge, and had to get ourselves settled into the apartments. I was settled in and ready for bed (Not an easy feat with 4 of us in the same room, including an almost 2 year old and a 3 month old!) and I went to see how Dad was struggling – He had found the movie “Piranha” on TV to psyche himself up! We arranged to meet at the car at 6.45 Saturday morning.

When Saturday morning came around we met at the car and hit the marina to catch a squid for bait. 45 minutes later, and with no squid (A first for me at the Apollo Bay marina – They are usually thick there!) we headed to the servo and picked up some Californian squid and launched at Marengo beach.

I headed out to the left and found some weedbeds whilst Dad stayed near the shore. First cast of the plastic I hooked a barracouta, and second, and third. They all went back. Deciding now was not the time for a flattie I anchored and cast out some squid strips. Straight away I hooked and landed a 25cm pinkie, then another, then another. Unfortunately, despite being a competition fish, they were all undersize! Shortly after I had the characteristic tap-tap-tap of a whiting, and soon had a nice 35cm model on board. The annoying thing was that a massive calamari followed it in and sat under the kayak for a few minutes – I had left my jigs in Dad’s car after the unsuccessful trip to the marina! However, within 15 minutes I had 7 more whiting, all between 35-37cm before the wind picked up and I couldn’t hold anchor anymore (The rope to my brick wasn’t long enough to give me any slack!).

At this stage Dad moseyed over and had not had much luck. Unfortunately for me, his 2 fish (Apart from numerous wrasse) were a 42cm whiting and a 30cm flathead. This meant that despite me having 8 nice whiting in the bag, he was winning the competition 72cm to 37cm! I did manage to hook and land a flathead on a nuc chook 4” jerkshad on the way in, but let it go without measuring it.

That afternoon was spent taking my son fishing to the Barham river. Due to his age, we couldn’t go far and sat just under the main highway bridge. We were there for about 1 and a half hours and we managed 1 15cm bay trout – At least he had fun playing on Pop’s blackberry!

A quick stop at the marina on the way back in and after a few casts of a black yamashita jig I was into a good calamari. Whilst my Dad went to get the camera Ben was very interested in it and patting it etc until it squirted ink. Although it didn’t get him, he didn’t go to close to it again!

We called at a day after that and set Marengo again for this morning’s session. This meant that we wouldn’t be adding a bream to our bag, but hopefully I could manage a flathead and a bigger pinkie. The swell was much greater today, which made launching very hairy, particularly as I launched when a set was coming in and went straight through a few waves that had just broken or were just breaking – I found that the only way to stay on board was to paddle paddle paddle!

Once out there I had a cast of the nuc chook – It was hit immediately and this thing ran and ran, then jumped and spat the hook. Maybe a salmon? Then when we got near the reef I hooked and landed another half dozen couta, with Dad doing the same. I trolled the plastic around a bit and got a really good run, which started heading out to sea. By the time I had landed it – A 50cm couta hooked in the gills, I was out past the seal colony. It was getting shallow (Not to mention, as I found out on the sign later – A marine park!) which meant that the increasing swell was rearing up and nearly breaking. A very hairy situation and I had to paddle directly back to shore to avoid being swamped side-on. Once back into the deeper water I found Dad who had managed another 37cm whiting. I started drifting the sand flats and finally hooked a flathead. I landed it but had no measuring device so put it in the keep net. Then I anchored and managed a 37cm whiting, and Dad managed another couple, to add to 2 leatherjacket he also caught.

By now the swell was up so we headed in, managing to avoid the main breaks on the way back in but still having an interesting experience!

Back at the car we had the final measurement – Dad did not add to his overnight tally of 72cm, but my flathead measured 34cm, which gave me a total of 71cm, making the inaugural winner of the family “Big Catch” competition Dad. I am currently lobbying to get squid and barracouta included for next year’s event!

Here are the totals:

	Trav	Dad
Bream	N/A	N/A
Whiting	37cm	42cm
Flathead	34cm	30cm
Pinkie	25cm (Undersize)	N/A
Total	71cm	72cm