It'll never be beaten!

I couldn't make the trip yesterday, but Dad and a mate went out from Coronet Bay.They fished most of the day, landing about a dozen nice whiting and a large calamari during the day, As dusk was settling, they threw some fresh calamari strips out in 6.5m just out from Coronet Bay.

Dad had an almighty run and was nearly spooled. A short time later this absolute beast came to the side of the boat:

94cm, estimated weight of just over 9kg. They managed a few more nice pan sized reds and a keeper gummy, but this was the story of the night.Oh - And despite the fresh calamari strips wafting seductively in the current, it was caught on a dirty old servo pilchard!

I don't think we'll ever get one bigger so I'm back to the jewie quest!
 

Cup day trifecta

Although it has a happy ending, to fully tell the story I should start by saying that we had the family at the Coronet Bay house on the weekend, and in between playing cricket, wimming, weeding, painting  and mowing we managed a couple of trips. Once again, it was in the boat as we had a bit of a full house a few times - You can't fit 5 kids in my poor kayak!

I was under the strict "You're on kid duty until they go to bed", and my children have never had an earlier bed time than the past 4 days! We arrived saturday afternoon (03/11) to beautiful glassed out conditions - Conditions that would stay with us for basically the whole of Cup Weekend. I checked the records and we haven't had a wind-free Cup weekend since 1837!

After putting the kids in bed at  about 7.30, Dad and I were at the Corinella ramp at about 8, and in a channel near Freeman's Point at about 8.30. We sounded a few promising arches in bout 7m of water and dropped the pick. Then we waited. And waited. Weed, weed and more weed - It was terrible! Dad managed a small port jackson and I managed an even smaller westernport cod for the night - From our only bites. We dejectedly headed in at 1am.

The next day I had a troop of kids down at the beach around midday for the low tide pumping bass yabbies. We got quite a few and launched the boat at Coronet Bay around 4pm. We anchored in about 3m of water and I baited up and cast out Ben, my 2 1/2 year old. As I was baiting mine up his rod buckled over and I pulled it out of the rod holder and gave it to him, assisting him to pull in a 36.5cm whiting. I told him it was a "horse" whiting and he repeated the phrase ad nauseum to my Dad who was fishless for a lot of the session, and he wasn't overly impressed with this. My first cast I hooked another one and gave it to one of my nephews (We had 2 nephews, my son and my Dad on the boat!) and he expertly pulled in another whiting of similar size. We did miss a lot of bites and lose a few mid fight, but the kids had a ball and Dad even managed a couple of whiting soon after. As I was winding in at one stage the biggest pike I have ever seen grabbed my bass yabbie and I got him to the surface before he bit through the 10lb flurocarbon leader. We also got a small banjo shark, but ended up keeping the 4 whiting.

On Monday Dad had to work and I was again followed around by 5 kids. By the time he got back about 7pm I was ready to hit the water, and he had brought Graham, a mate of his along with us. We launched just after 7 and hit the whiting mark armed with the day before's bass yabbies, looking a little worse for wear as the aerator battery had died some time during the day. Nonetheless, we started well and managed 8 or so really good whiting, a few pinkies and one lonesome yakka before dark. When dusk came, we headed out into about 7m of water where we immediately sounded up a solid arch. We threw the rods out with an assortment of yakka fillet, pilchards and whiting heads and sat back. We didn't have to wait long as my rod baited with yakka fillet started bouncing in a fashion that was definitely a gummy shark. I waited for it to load up fully and set the hook. After a very lively fight I brought aboard a nice gummy of approximately 1m in length. It was good to have the relatively tide free (And therefore weed free!) conditions of Coronet Bay back again!

 Although not our quarry in the first snapper trip of the season, it was a very welcome bycatch. I re-baited and threw it out again. About 2 minutes later my other rod, baited with a pilchard screamed off. I picked it up and the fish had spat the bait, but this was unmistakable: I had just missed a red. Again I re-baited with a pilchard and threw it back out. Ten minutes went by and the same thing happened, however this time I struck and was rewarded with some solid head thumps. After a tense fight I brought aboard a very plump 68cm snapper - Not huge, but our first for the season.

It went a bit quiet, then Dad had a nice bite that turned out to be a port jackson shark. He had been getting very excited for a little while! My rod baited with yakka went off again and there was a sense of mutiny on the boat as so far I had had all the luck. Luckily (for me) the culprit turned out to be a massive skate, that took a lot of coercion to get off the bottom and to the boat, where he was cut off and released. We waited a little longer, and at 11.30 we headed for home.

Only then Dad reminded me that I had done what we call the "Westernport trifecta", which is a snapper, gummy shark and whiting in the same trip. I wasn't quite as lucky in the Melbourne Cup the next day!

Day 4 - Sunday 30/09

As we had to be off the water at 10am today, we thought we might launch at the Nelson boat ramp in the hope of getting out to "The Poles" for a final crack at the mulloway. As we launched, we knew this was hopeless as the wind had not abated so we went back opposite the ramp and anchored up (As we were drifting too fast). First cast I hooked what felt to be a nice EP, however the hooks pulled. This was a good sign, however after another hour of fruitless casting it may have been a fluke!

A few moves, and all I had was one small bream so we headed upriver, trying to sound up some fish. We found a few solitary fish, but none of the schools of EP's that we had located further up near Donovans/Dry Creek so we tried to head out near The Poles. It was very choppy, windy and intermittently raining so we called it a morning and headed back to the shack. 

Below are the final results:

Despite me managing about 25-30 EP's for the week, Dad struggled and didn't get one. We decided that they seem to like it if the vibe is left on the bottom for longer periods then worked slower. The other boys were fishing bait and got one size bream between them for the week, however they were in an open boat and didn't get out as much due to the inclement weather. This meant that I actually came out on top for once (78cm), Dad second (33cm) and Mauro third (With a 32cm bream he caught off the landing at the shack!).

I have to say that bait is no longer going to make it into the kayak/boat for any future bream fishing trips, as we had too much fun flicking vibes at the fish!
 

Day 3 - Saturday 29/09

Another start about 6 this morning, and again it was very windy. We started fishing opposite the ramp at Donovans and almost immediately I got onto a couple of EP’s around 30-32cm. Dad managed a small bream, then I caught a healthy 32cm bream as well.

The wind got up and intermittent rain was coming through and we headed south from Donovans against the bank. I cast the cyber vibe out towards a snag and on about the third lift it was absolutely smashed. We were drifting into the bank and things got a bit hairy, but I managed to get the fish’s head up and a lovely 38cm bream hit the net, making it the biggest for the trip. 

Just after I released the bream, Dad hooked up to what seemed to be a very big EP, and it would have been his first for the trip. However it headed for an underwater snag and the line came up tight, then to add insult to injury Dad had to break the line, losing his second vibe of the day.

We kept heading south and sounded up a nice school of fish. The wind was right up by this stage so we anchored and cast at the school rather than drift at over 2km/h which was making casting difficult. I missed a hit on my first cast and my second and third casts were rewarded with a pigeon pair of 32cm EPs. A few casts later I hooked another EP which gave a far better account of itself, and it came up to the surface – All 34cm of it. Although we were yet to get any big EP’s, this was so far the biggest of the trip.

Another move, another half an hour of casting and the wind was really roaring and the rain was horizontal so we went back to the shack for some bacon and egg sandwiches and to view a bit of the AFL Grand Final preview. As it turns out, this was a good move because the rain set in and didn’t let up until during the last quarter.

After seeing the Swans win, we pulled out the boat at Donovans and re-launched at Nelson. We went straight across from the boat ramp where Dad had a hit almost immediately. I cast near where he had the hit (Much to his displeasure) and was soon into a nice EP (Which added to his displeasure) which went spot on 40cm. 

 Fifteen minutes later Dad had a hit and missed it. Then the fish hit again and he missed it, then a third time and he hooked up. It turned out to be a bream of 33cm and the last fish of the night, as dusk was approaching so we called it a night.

Day 2 - Friday 28/09

Another night with no mulloway, and another early start in wet and windy conditions. Dad and I went out and headed down towards Taylor’s Straight. Quite quickly, I managed a tiny bream and then 2 very small EP’s. It’s good to see so many juvenile fish around – Surely this is a good sign for the system! We went back to the car that was parked at Donovan’s Landing, and drove to Nelson where we re-launched. Dad hit the scoreboard with a 32cm bream, an upgrade for him. 

I followed this with a couple of EP’s at 34cm each and we headed to the mouth. As the tide was incoming some really nice blue water was coming upstream, but it was way too exposed with frequent squalls and driving rain. We went back around the corner to opposite the ramp and I snagged a nice 32cm perch. 

We went back in when Paul arrived and had a coffee and got some bigger plastics from the shop, however the owner warned us that there was a lot of water between mulloway at the moment. Back out there the fishing was slow, and despite a lot of casts we only got some small bream.

When another storm hit we went back to the ramp. Then we drove the boat up to Dry Creek to check it out, and we launched the boat to moor it at the shack. After the storm had passed we went out again for the afternoon session, however not only was the fishing incredibly slow (Dad got a tiny bream and that was it for a couple of hours) it was also very windy and every few minutes driving rain would pour in. We decided this was a sign and called it a day to head to the pub for dinner, where we found that even they couldn't get any mulloway so it was off the menu!

Day 1 - Thursday 27/09

After the rest of the night went by without further incident, Dad woke me up just before 6am and we launched the boat and headed upstream. About half an hour later, Dad hooked up on a Berkley Gulp 3” fry in banana prawn. He lost it near the boat and it was about another half an hour until I hooked up on my Strike Pro Cyber vibe, and I landed an estuary perch of about 30cm. 

We covered a lot of ground, and after another quiet half an hour I caught a small bream, my first in many months, and as you can see I am highly excited by 15cm bream!

After moving further upstream I managed another nice EP of 33.5cm, which unfortunately had swallowed the lure and was bleeding profusely so he made the trip back with us for dinner. Then we decided it was time for breakfast so headed back to the shack for some bacon and eggs. Below is the view from the shack where we are staying, and as you can see my swag is set up in prime position!

In the afternoon, we launched again just after 1pm. We stopped about 500m upstream from Donovans and immediately I was into a nice EP of 34cm. About half an hour went past and I had 2 more, however they were both incredibly small!

At this stage Dad was getting despondent, as he hadn’t troubled the scorers for the day. He put on a black strike pro cyber vibe and first cast was onto a nice bream, that went 28cm. As he was unhooking it he somehow managed to not only keep the fish hooked but also embed the back treble in his hand. This took quite a while to extricate, and we were almost considering a visit to the hospital to get it out!

 We then motored right upstream about 10km to find the other boys tied up to the side. After hassling them a bit we moved about 100m away and first cast I managed a 31cm bream on a black ecogear ZX35. The disappointing thing for this was that at $24.99 the first fish I hooked ripped off one of the back hooks, and it wasn’t even big!

We went back towards the shack and couldn’t sound up a fish for basically the entire length of the river, so went back to the shack and threw around a few unweighted cubes. 10 minutes in I had about 5-6 undersize bream and I hooked a nice one, but trying to lift it up to the top deck it fell off. This inspired Dad who also started fishing. I then hooked another good one who was running a fair bit, so I sent Dad to the bottom landing. A few minutes later he netted a 37cm bream.

At the end of the first full day this bream gave me a total of 71cm (37cm bream, 34cm EP) and Dad and Mauro were each on 28cm (A bream each). Paul was yet to trouble the scorers….

Glenelg begins - Wednesday 26/09

After spending the morning packing the boat, we headed towards Nelson, the venue of the next fishing challenge about 3pm and arrived after an eventful trip (Most of Australia’s coat of arms are now closer to extinction) at 10pm. We immediately deployed some rods off the balcony and started to set up. The target fish for this trip were bream, estuary perch and mulloway. The totals would be the combined length of the biggest that we caught of each species. 

When we arrived, I set up my swag on the deck as the alarms weren’t working (We usually have some rods out for mulloway and they have an alarm system for when you get a bite, but it seemed to have rusted over). We started having some bites, but nothing of major significance. A couple of decent takes on some half pilchards, but that was it so we completed the set up. 

At about 1am Thursday morning when I was heading into the swag to sleep my rod, baited with a whole squid took off. I could hear the ratchet of the charter special screaming and then it stopped. I got to the rod and the line was slack but I saw the line swimming steadily upstream. I waited until the line loaded up and struck, and missed! My first mulloway bite and I missed it. I brought the bait back in and the squid was perfectly intact, however had been moved up the line about a foot. The mulloway had spat it out with some aggression it seemed. I think if I have another chance I’ll let it fully take it, as the theory that generally works on gummies of waiting for it to load up didn’t seem to work.

Trip on the sweetwater

Since we got the kayaks and the boat, freshwater fishing trips have been few and far between. Today we decided to change this, and got up at the way too early time of 3.15am and headed to Eildon. When we arrived about 6.30, it was still quite dark and we went to the Upper Pondage, coming down Cemetary Rd. This has been very productive for us over the years, however I had to carry Ben through the marshland and when we got there it was all mud and the old goulburn riverbed was flowing extremely fast. After an hour we gave up and headed into town. I had managed to get some powerbait and maggots yesterday, but Dad wanted meel worms so we checked out the fishing shop. The extremely helpful owner told us that (Apart from not having meel worms) they had released 10,000 yearling trout into the Pondage about 2 weeks ago, plus 200 ex brood stock from between 2.5-4.5kg. However, as the Pondage was up and down like a yoyo, the fish were very uncooperative and since their initial stocking they had become very sluggish and not willing to take bait or lures. We decided that even with the fish put off with that many fish stocked recently we had to catch one! We picked up some mudeyes and went back to the Pondage (With a brief 30 minute stop at the bakery/cafe for bacon and egg rolls and coffees/OJ for Ben).

We looked in Nursery Corner and some other spots in the Lower Pondage (Trying to get out of the current flowing through!) and talked to a few people. None had even sighted a fish so we went to Burke St, as even without a fish there was still a lot of space for Ben to run around.

It was very slow, and Dad and I each had one on the bottom, one under a float and Ben had one on the bottom. I was using maggots on both and Dad and Ben both had powerbait on their sinker rigs. Ben was having much more fun actually putting the maggots into the berley cages than fishing, so at least he was having fun!

About 11am when Ben and I were messing around, Dad yelled that I had a bite (On my rod on the bottom). When I arrived at my rod a fish had run with the bait and was a good 50m away to my right. Dad obliged by pulling in my float rod and then the fish decided to run the other way. I could tell straight away that it was a big fish, however my 15 year old (Bought during an NZ trip in 1998) no-name reel is quite sick. It has old, very untrustworthy 6lb mono on it and the drag is the jerkiest thing that you have ever felt. Fighting this fish made me happy that I usually fish with my nice stradics! As I couldn't put much pressure on it at all, the fish ran about 50m the other way and Dad had to reel in the other 3 rods. A couple of minutes later a nice rainbow trout came in, however with me not being able to put much pressure on it, it constantly took off again. By the time I got it near for the 5th or 6th time a couple of people were watching, and to get it in I had to walk backwards and beach it, surf fishing style.

It turns out that it was a nice rainbow (Probably my biggest for 10 years with the dearth of freshwater fishing I have been doing). It measured 64cm and weighed in at 5.5lb in the old scale (Or 2.5kg, but pounds sounds bigger than kilos!). More importantly Ben enjoyed his first encounter with freshwater fishing, despite the fact that we continued fishing until about 2pm without another sniff (However, we didn't see one other angler land a fish all day so we didn't feel too bad!).

Note: It had warmed up significantly since the start of the day, and by the time this picture was taken Ben had stripped to his thermals and "Bob the Builder" gumboots, hence the outfit!

A necessary purchase

Things have been a little quiet since the Wonboyn trip. It's cold, windy and Winter so the fishing for me has been in hibernation mode. That will all change soon when Dad, myself and a couple of the boys hit the Glenelg River at Nelson for some bream, EP's and (fingers, toes and everything else crossed) a mulloway.

With 3 and a half weeks to go I have been reviewing my tackle situation and remembered that just prior to the Wonboyn trip I misplaced all of my vibes and hardbodied lures. I think I left them on the edge of the boat when I drove it to get some new tyres. Silly, silly man. On the plus side, for my birthday recently I have received some vouchers for motackle.com.au so I think I'd better put them to good use!

Below is my current order:

I haven't really replaced any of my hardbodies (Ecogear SX40's, Atomic hardz, etc) as I have never really put in enough time with them to do well, but I think that I'll concentrate on vibing, hence the strike pro cyber vibes. I have also got some berkley gulp fry as these accounted for a lot of EP's last year and some squidgy pro critters just because they look plain enticing.

Hopefully this is a good start to restocking my new tacklebox and a sign of things to come when we head off on another jewie hunt!

Lake Wonboyn, NSW

The challenge was on – Dad and myself had to catch flathead, bream, whiting, estuary perch, trevally, salmon and tailor (Or as many of them as we could) and add together the total length of the biggest in each species. Our location this year was Lake Wonboyn, on the southern NSW coast.

Day 1: Sunday 8^th July

After arriving at the house on Lake Wonboyn and settling in on the Saturday, Sunday morning was spent readying the boat, and we also went in to Eden to get some supplies (Including NSW fishing licenses). This meant that Dad and I didn’t get to launch until about 3pm. We managed to take Ben with us; however he was more interested in the biscuits and cans of soft drink than the fishing. We went up into the river mouth and started flicking some plastic around. I was trying a turtleback worm in pumpkinseed on a 1/24^th jighead and we cast rather unsuccessfully for about half an hour before I hooked up to a nice 40cm flathead. We crossed to the other side of the river and I managed a smaller model and Dad latched onto a 30cm one. The duskies here in NSW need to be 36cm, however we imposed a boat limit of 40cm. I hooked up to another really nice fish that was taking line, before it spat the hook. With darkness descending on us, we called it a night and headed back in.

Day 2: Monday 9^th July

On Monday we had an early start and headed right up the river. We sounded up one school of what we assume were bream, but even after casting vibes, hardbodies and plastics at them for no result, we moved on. There were a lot of good areas up the river, including steep banks, overhanding trees and a lot of structure. However, a distinct lack of fish was notices and we didn’t get any hits for the couple of hours we spent up there. We headed back into the lake and drifted along some oyster leases. I hooked up on a 3” minnow in the peppered prawn colour and pulled in a nice flattie. Next cast I caught another one that measured 50cm. Dad then caught one about 34cm on a 3” fry in the banana prawn colour. I started pulling in quite a few between 34-36cm which call went back. When I was up 10 fish to 1, Dad decided that his lure wasn’t working so we swapped rods. He did hook up immediately, but so did I. In order to keep the peace back at the house with the family we returned home. At this stage we had only caught flathead, and I was up 50cm to 40cm.

In the afternoon we took Ben to Baycliff, the surf beach for a spot of surf fishing. It was dead low tide and we didn’t manage many bites, except for the sand crabs which were abundant and stole all of our baits. The surf poppers didn’t do any good either. Just before dark Ben’s rod went off and we pulled in a double header of salmon. One of these was converted to fillet baits and just on dark my rod went off, with everyone’s favourite shark, the draughtboard shark coming in. It fought similar to a log and was big and ugly. We went home for dinner with neither of us adding to the competition scores.

Day 3: Tuesday 10^th July

We had another early morning on Tuesday. Immediately we headed to the oyster racks. A bit more of a breeze was blowing which gave us a drift which was way too fast. We motored back up to them and anchored. First cast I was on, with a 34cm duskie coming aboard which was quickly released. Dad then hooked a nice fish which gave a good account of itself and measured 44cm, bringing his total for the competition up. Over the next hour we got a few more flathead, all between 34-38cm. To change it up, we headed towards the entrance. On the way we flicked around a few leases and likely looking spots. I managed one more flattie about 34cm which went back and we continued on to the entrance. Dad got some burley going as we tried to attract some other species, like salmon, trevally or tailor. After about half an hour I had a hit on my turtleback worm which had made its way back on. 

It ran about 30m before I even got to turn the reel. I was dreaming about my first mulloway as the system used to be full of them (So the locals say), however it was heading in the wrong direction so I had to concentrate. My poor little stradic 1000 with 3lb line was having a massive workout and for the next few minutes I didn’t get any line back. After a while (And a nervous lap of the boat and almost anchor rope) I finally got up a silver trevally, which eventually slid into the net and measured 42cm. 

We each managed a few more average flathead before heading back to the ramp. The trevally added to my largest flathead of the previous day had me at 92cm for the competition, with Dad having 44cm for his biggest flathead.

Day 4: Wednesday 11^th July

Wednesday was a day where the girls wanted to go into Eden, Pambula and Merimbula to do some shopping, so we only managed to venture out twice. These sessions were short and sharp, first thing in the morning (Well, 7.30-8.45) and in the afternoon (3.30-5.15). In the early session we hit what was now our usual flathead spot. I managed 6 flathead (On the 3” minnow in peppered prawn) and Dad caught 4 (On a turtleback worm in pumpkinseed), with all fish being released. Dad upgraded his PB for the week to 44cm. We decided to try a new area with about 20 minutes to go and motored over a shallow sandy patch and found a dead flathead upside down that I netted. It went 86cm and was by far the biggest fish of the week.

As it had definitely turned and was a bit on the nose, we released it in the same condition in which we caught it. In the spot we then had a couple of really good, hard runs but no hookups.

In the afternoon we got out again and tried the last spot from the morning session. Almost immediately Dad caught a flathead, then I managed one to level it at 1-1. I brought another one up on the next cast but dropped it as I was lifting it into the boat. We motored back to the spot that we had drifted away from and started the drift again. I quickly managed 3 more to make it 4-1. Just before dusk Dad cast out then turned around to put some burley out. He picked up his rod and a flathead had swallowed his 3” minnow, which he reeled in and it was a new PB for him for the week of 47cm. This made the session 4-2 to me, and we tried unsuccessfully for about another 10 minutes but the fish seem to shut down when dusk comes. I think they are far more active with some sun on the water when it is colder.

Day 5: Thursday 12^th July

Another day, another start where we were on the water about 7.15. Today Ben came with us again, although once again he was less interested in the fishing and more interested in the “chicken in a biscuit” and looking through all of the soft plastics. By 9.30 Dad and myself each had 3 flathead on board, with 2 of them above 40cm. 

We dropped him back at the pier where he was picked up and tried some new ground. We had heard that the tailor were around so started trolling – Dad with his rebel fasttrack jointed minnow (The “Glenelg river special”) and I had a good old Berkley FS6 in the mullet colour. As soon as the lures hit the water Dad was on and pulled in a tailor of 42cm, which brought the competition to equal terms. We started trolling again and Dad hooked up immediately. As he was pulling it in I stopped the boat and began pulling my lure in, when it was also hit by a tailor. Dad lost his halfway in and I managed to get mine to the boat – 39cm and extended my lead overall to 42cm. We started trolling again and again Dad hooked up within 10 seconds, and had a very large tailor boatside quickly, when it made one last dash for freedom and bit through his 10lb leader. Needless to say he had to put a new lure on and we trolled unsuccessfully for another 15 minutes or so.

We then decided it was time to stop and drift. It was quiet for a while before I hooked up to a flathead, then the next cast a nice trevally of about 38cm. Dad and I then both landed a couple of tailor each and it went quiet again. We headed back near the oyster leases where we have had success over the past few days. Dad soon managed 4 flathead in 5 casts, including one of 50cm which became his new biggest flathead and meant he was now only down by 39cm. I finally managed a couple of flathead, but my biggest was only 42cm. Then Dad had a good hit almost as soon as his 3” fry hit the water. It took quite a bit of line and then came back towards us and headed for the oyster leases. He managed to turn it at the last minute and after a few more frantic moments it was safely in the net. It was a 37cm yellowfin bream, which was a new species and closed the gap to 2cm overall. We moved down the leases a bit and I put a cast in towards them and had a good hookup. 

The fish ran and stayed deep – I was hoping for a bream (As I had yet to get one) but when it finally came up it was another trevally. We both snared a few more flathead and then it was time to call it quits just before 3.30, with the total fish count 14-13 (My way) for the day but Dad with the nice bream. Overall there is a 2cm difference in length for the overall bag for the week which should set up an interesting Friday’s fishing – Dad still is yet to catch a trevally and I am yet to manage a bream. 

Day 6: Friday 13^th July

Another early start this morning – To look after the two boys as my wife woke up with a bit of a cold. Although it was meant to be stormy, we awoke to clear skies, no winds and Lake Wonboyn looked like a millpond. Itching to go fishing at about 11am we finally got permission to take the eldest (Ben, 2 ½ years) to the piers to throw around some plastics. On the first pier we found some absolutely enormous bream cruising below it. Despite a passing interest in the turtleback worm I dropped down first cast, they refused absolutely every offering, including all of the plastics in our arsenal plus some vibes. After seeing the disdain that these wily old bream showed to the lures, we continued on for a while around the piers and moorings, but with no success. We went back to the house for lunch.

After managing to get both boys to sleep we snuck out for another session that lasted for about an hour and a half. Dad got a flathead early, and then I managed one as well. He then got another two and I dropped one boatside as I was lifting it in. As we were releasing all fish I may have become lackadaisical and probably should have used the net! Dad cast towards the oyster leases and hooked up straight away. The fish ran and ran and nearly went back to where it came from in the leases as Dad’s 4lb leader was stretched to capacity. As he led it towards the boat it stayed deep and he called it for a trevally, which would have been a new species for him for the week. As it came up into the net, a 36.5cm healthy yellowfin bream came aboard. Whilst Dad was releasing it I cast in again and hooked up, unfortunately not to a bream but managed a 38cm flathead. This meant that Dad was up 4-2 and we decided to try a troll for a tailor. Within a couple of minutes we got a call from home that the boys had woken up and we needed to resume our babysitting duties. As we cleaned up the boat Dad dropped over his ever-reliable 3” fry in the banana prawn colour and again hooked up. As we were now over the deeper section he called it for a trevally but once again after an extended fight he pulled in another yellowfin bream, this one measuring 37cm. Dad won the day convincingly 5-2, but this doesn’t change the overall standings with me up by 2cm. We do have an opportunity for a final 2 hour session tomorrow morning before we pack up and head for home, so will have to wait one more day for the final results!

Day 7: Saturday 14^th June

An earlier start today and we were on the spot by 7am, as we had to be off the water by 9am to head for home. After Dad landed a flathead within the first few minutes we moved closer in towards the oyster leases. I was still motoring the boat in when Dad had his first cast - And hooked up as soon as it hit the water! It was a cast right into the leases and we expected to see a good bream come up, but a 39cm trevally was soon netted, which meant that Dad now led the competition by 37cm. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it as we released it before I thought of taking one in my shock of being behind! A few more flathead and by 8am it was 4-2 Dad's way, with all bar that one fish being flathead. In the deeper section (About 5m)  that we ended up at we started flicking the plastics for not much luck until I hooked a nice tailor. It was almost at the surface when it bit through my 4lb leader. Dad then cast into the same spot and managed to land one, meaning that he had boated 3 species for the morning and led 5-2. I put on another plastic and cast out again.... For the same result. My leader was now so short I had to use my other rod that I had pre-rigged. I then finally managed to land one, and just before 9am Dad and myself each landed another tailor which made the final score for the day 6-4 to Dad, and the overall competition was won by 37cm, by Dad:

A hard fought competition all week, but the winner of the inaugural Lake Wonboyn Fishing Challenge was Dad by 37cm. I'm already plotting my comeback at Nelson in late September.... 

Last trip's pics

Here is the squid from earlier in the evening (Note that it was still shorts and t-shirt weather at this stage!):



The squid above was definitely too big even for strip baits and would have been far better in the frypan!

Below is the current bane of my existence, just about to be thrown back into the water in disgust. It had cooled down a bit by then, as you can see from my attire.


Again, nothing really to report from this but hopefully we're getting closer to the elusive jewie....

Another Corinella donut

After hitting Mornington in the morning, we launched at Coronet Bay (Yes the tide was high enough!) just after 5pm yesterday arvo. As I only had 4 squid from the morning Dad thought we should get more, so we started flicking jigs around, and both put out pilchards on squid spikes under floats. We had a few moves between Coronet Bay and Reef Island for not much, and just on dusk we were about to pull the lines in and my float went under - A fairly lengthy fight ensued and one of my biggest squid to date was brought to the boat. I remarked that it would be too big for bait so rather than cut it up it should go to the table but Dad disagreed, so into the esky for bait it went!

I pulled up the the ramp and dropped Dad off who drove the car and trailer around to Corinella and I motored around and met him at the ramp. We headed straight to our spot and as it was high tide did not have to negotiate the web of channels in between which significantly reduced the travel time. As we got nearer a light came on - Yep a yakker was there again! The same guy who has been there the last 2 times. We gave him a bit of a wide berth and fished below him, however within 10 minutes he drifted past - He was on to a monster! I've gotta give it to the PA boys as he was standing up fighting this fish in absolute darkness with no worries about losing his balance. We asked him if he needed assistance as he was drifting quite fast but he said he had a net and a gaff and would be fine, also that it was kicking so it wasn't a ray. About 10 minutes later he came back past to anchor again - Turns out it was a big eagle ray!

Within the next 30 minutes Dad and I both landed smallish gummies that went back to grow bigger and things went quiet. We moved up the channel a bit at about 11pm (The yakker had long since returned in) and tried there where we were harrassed by elephants. Dad had a good run on half of the big squid's head (Which was still massive) and his reel started going backwards - He had somehow turned off the anti-reverse - Rookie mistake!

After too many elephants stealing our good baits we dropped a small rod in and I landed 3 small bay trout, which were to become livies. All of the banks were exposed now and it was back to our spot in 3m of water and out went a livie on one of my rods and a squid strip on the other.

After an hour or so of nothing we packed up at 2am and headed in, again not taking anything home. It was also interesting to see that even the snapper didn't turn up as they have been there every other time.

A couple of lessons learnt:

#1 use your anti-reverse Dad! We sit out there long enough without decent bites to miss one like that.

#2 Big squid aren't as good bait as little squid. The strips seem very fat, however they would probably be ok for somthing like gummies.

We took some pictures on Dad's camera, so they'll be up soon!

Quick Mornington sesh

Launched at just after 6am at Mornington this morning. An onshore breeze made conditions a bit lumpy, particularly over the shallow reef that I fish. About 3rd cast in I snagged and lost my favourite jig - A little 2.0 yamashita in the natural colour. I went out to the outer edge of the reef and anchored to get a new jig on and dropped my black yamashita 2.5 over the side whilst I was rigging up.

After retying on the leader to the braid I put on a 2.5 yamashita in the natural colour and as I was cutting the tag off the end at the knot my stationary rod went off - The first time that I have actually caught a squid dead sticking it. I brought it in and dropped it down again, then made a cast with my natural one. As soon as I had cast the one straight under the yak went off again, resulting in another nice squid. Both of them were a very good size for this area.

A boat came near me just as I hooked up on the rod I was casting, so naturally they stopped about 15m away. They were drifting very fast so deployed a drogue but still didn't manage to hook up. As they were motoring back to the top of their drift I hooked up again so they went on the other side of me (Where I was now casting). I now had 4 squid in the box (The last 2 being quite small - A great bait size!) and it was quite rough so I called it a day and went back to shore. To top it all off I was home by 8.15 to keep the family happy!

Now to try to convert these squid to a secret silver tonight in the boat!

The trout are about

Ok so usually this is about fishing from my kayak, but today we tried something different..... The Rhyll trout farm. As it's Easter Sunday, it was jam packed with people but it was my son's 2nd birthday yesterday and we bought him a fishing rod, so I thought we should probably put him on to a fish! It was quite steep prices at $9 each just to walk through the gates, and at $19 per kg of fish, so I was hoping for a small one!

There were lots of people around the lake, and we couldn't see anyone getting bites, so we rigged up a bubble float and fished casting with the wind so it stayed out there. Ben had a lot of fun getting out the worms and assisting with baiting up, however he may have consumed one or two in the process. As soon as the float hit the water it was bobbing up and down, and I gave the rod to Ben but by then it was gone along with our bait. My Dad baited up and cast out for us with Ben sitting on my lap, and within 30 seconds he was on again. I had the drag loose and whilst trying to come to grips with reeling it in he had taken out 2 other lines and a poor little girl near us thought she had a fish on for a while!

The fish swam away from the lines and we slowly got it into the bank, where Ben walked backwards like a pro surf fisherman and beached it.

At about $40 it was the most expensive 500gm trout I have ever seen, but the smile on Ben's face was priceless! When we left we had only seen one other person catch a trout, so my tip if you go there is to use a float!

Jewie quest

Last night it was time to use the squid that I had caught the day before, so off to Corinella for a jewie hunt! We were meant to be there and launching by 6pm so I got there early and rigged the rods and readied the boat, obviously it was 8pm before Dad showed up.

After launching, we made our way to Tenby Channel and went right to the end of it, casting in our fresh squid and some pillies towards the old jetty. About 20 minutes later, some yakkers quietly motored up and anchored right on top of our baits - It seems that us yakkers can be just as stupid as boaties!

Five minutes later, one of Dad's rods went off and he landed a 3kg snapper, not what we were after but better than nothing. Both my rods then screamed off for no result. This happened a couple of times, and over the next 5 hours I must have missed 8 bites (Definitely all snapper - They smashed the baits but always missed the hooks!) and Dad didn't get another bite. I did manage a small school shark as a consolation prize.

At about 1.30am I woke Dad (Who had been asleep in the bottom of the boat since 11.30) and we headed in. When we arrived back at the ramp we were greeted by a gentleman who had fished landbased near where we were, using dirty old smelly servo pilchards for bait. He was cleaning the 25kg mulloway he had just caught. I guess God really does have a sense of humour!

Crazy calamari

Well it was an early start this morning, leaving just after 5.30 (However now that daylight savings has finished the boys are waking up at 6 anyway) and headed to Mornington. Launched the kayak in pristine conditions (Forgot the camera) and first cast had a hookup but lost it. Felt small, but a bad omen as I was targeting bait size models for a jewie hunt off Corinella tomorrow night.

About 4th cast in I hooked and landed a small one, then a boat came along as I was at the end of my drift and anchored in the middle of it! I couldn't do the drift again so went slightly south of the boat and couldn't generate any interest for the next half an hour, whilst the boat (In "my" spot!) pulled in about 5 between the 3 of them, however they let a few go as they obviously didn't want the small ones.

I went over the other side of the boat and a bit closer to shore and started casting. I was using 2 rods - One with a 2.5 black yamashita and one with a 2.0 natural yamashita. I worked them both at once, casting one, then the other and alternating giving one a whip, then putting it down and doing the same with the other. About 4th cast all hell broke loose - I got a decent squid hooked up on one. As I was pulling it in I put my other rod in a vertical rod holder and every now and then wound the handle to stop it getting snagged. The squid must love this because within a few seconds I had a double hook up. This happened 4 sets of casts in a row, so I had another 8 squid.

After about 3 fruitless casts I hooked another what I thought was small squid, however it turned out to be a cuttlefish - A first for me. I hear they're good bait and kept it, which gave me 9 squid and a cuttlefish. I know 10 squid is the bag limit, and as I believe they're both cephalopods I thought it was better to be safe than sorry and came in, confident that I was within my bag limit!

As we are using them for the jewies tomorrow night, I decided to individually bag each squid with a bit of salt water and use a tie to seal the bag. Hopefully this will keep them fresh!

When I got home I then put them all into tupperware and chinese food containers (Don't tell the wife!) and into the fridge.

To the victor go the spoils

Ok now that I have had to come to terms with Dad's victory last weekend, I placed the order for some gear to restock the tacklebox.

As you can see the order includes a bulk pack of 5/0 gamakatsu octopus hooks, a spool of 40lb jinkai plus leader, a couple of packets of swivels and a packet of 4" nuclear chicken GULPs for Dad, as he always seems to be borrowing mine......

I'm looking forward to the next competition at Lake Wonboyn, and have already put together a committee to structure up some rules on other types of fish species and what should be included!

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