The calm before the storm

As I'm staying at the house in Coronet Bay this week, I am trying to make the most of the snapper season. Unfortunately the weather was predicted to turn last night. Earlier in the week I had put the call out to some friends and Brad responded, bringing his father in law along with him. Although the weather was meant to turn, they were both very keen to get out so we headed to a desolate Corinella ramp about 6.45. We motored around in front of Coronet Bay and it was a very different story to last time - Only 2 boats in sight, and nobody within 1km. Also, dead calm water with no wind! I sounded around a bit and almost immediately marked up some fish.

I dropped the anchor and threw out the burley pot. As we threw our baits out I informed the guys that it may be a wait as last time the reds didn't come on until dusk. As I finished saying this all 3 rods took off simultaneously, making a liar of me! Rod and myself landed ours, with Brad missing the strike. 2 good fish, about 2.5-3kg.

In 15 minutes we had bagged out, with our pilchards getting smashed basically as soon as they hit the water. It was absolutely amazing fishing. By this time we had to release any fish over 40cm (Which most were - About 55-60cm the norm). My Dad called 6 times for a report and I was on a fish every time. The boys were still having fun and I grabbed my bream rod (It had come along to try and catch some salmon for bait!) and threw an unweighted half pilchard on a 3/0 gamakatsu. Within 30 seconds the 4lb line was screaming off my reel, and 5 minutes later the following red came along:


This continued for some time and was great fun. Rod remarked that he never caught fish this big, let alone released them! We kept quite a few for a feed for their families, but in order to stay within limits we threw many more back than we kept. I estimate we caught 45 reds in an hour and a half. Then the wind hit hard and some dark clouds were coming in, so we headed back to the ramp to clean the fish and get back to the house.


It was the most amazing snapper fishing I have ever had - It wasn't just a school every 30 minutes or so; it was non-stop! The whooping and hollering from Brad and Rod and the screaming of the reels did attract a couple of other boats, but it was an almost empty 'port and excellent conditions. A great evening on the water.

Think Pink

We finally bit the bullet and in an attempt to make us better at reading the conditions of Westernport, and get a better understanding of how to fish it we booked a charter on Think Big. It was to be a mulloway charter (In the middle of snapper season!), leaving Rhyll at a very early 4am yesterday.
A few days out seabreeze had winds at 20-30 knots so a bit of a worry, but conditions were great and we launched without incident. Casey was our skipper, and Dad, myself and my uncle were all on board. We went to a spot seemingly in the middle of nowhere but there was some reef on the bottom on the sounder and Casey said that it was the best jewie spot in Westernport - But before this he made sure that we had all GPS enabled devices turned off!
Nothing for the first hour and a half until the last hour or so of the run in then we each caught a banjo shark and Dad landed this massive wobbegong:


Casey got a call from a mate in another boat who was catching heaps of snapper and we had the option of going to fish for them. Although the fish were coming on the bite the lure of the reds was a little too much and we headed off, armed with some knowledge of how to find jewie spots.

A short time later we arrived at a spot near the Corals and almost immediately got into the reds, although nothing massive with fish up to about 3kg, most being 1.5kg-2.5kg. This even included a triple hook-up at one stage.

At 10am we had to head in, as a bleary eyed Casey had to take out another charted that evening and didn't look like he had slept much at all. Ah to be a guide in snapper season!

It was great catching the reds, so it probably would have been easier (And a few hundred bucks cheaper!) to just book a snapper charter, however we did learn some great techniques for rigging, spot selection and bait presentation.