Glenelg River Holy Grail 2013

This year was our third trip to the Glenelg River. Over the past trips we have caught some amazing estuary perch, great bream but never a mulloway so that was our target species. I was also keen to actually land a fish in my new Hobie Outback. We headed there on wednesday afternoon and arrived at the shack near Donovans Landing about 8.30pm and unpacked. I quickly threw a couple of rods off the balcony baited with the fresh squid from last week's trip and within half an hour I had about 10m of line stripped from the reel. Last year I struck here and lost the fish, so I played out more line. I knew he was still there so reeled in the slack and struck, and by this stage the mulloway had swum under the next door neighbours shack and got me stuck amongst the pylons.

When I lost a mulloway at this early stage in the trip last year it turned out to be our only opportunity for the entire time we were there - Luckily this was not to be the case this time!

The next morning we awoke at 5.30 and headed to Nelson. The boys went in the boat and I took out the new kayak. As vibes were successful last trip when I got to a spot I flicked them around for 5-6 casts. With no hits I turned to my rod with a 3" fry in the peppered prawn colour. Second cast with this and I was onto my first fish in the new yak - And after a spirited fight on my 3lb line up came my first ever mulloway! Although it measured at 49cm and was well undersize, it was a massive thrill and a culmination of hundreds of trips!

 

Shortly after that I flicked the plastic near the old jetty and was on again - This time to a 30cm bream who was also quickly released to fight another day after a quick picture. I managed one more bream and it was time to head in to the general store for a coffee and egg and bacon roll (The highlight of each day's sessions, mulloway notwithstanding!).

 

That afternoon it was decided to launch the boat at Donovans and head up river. I took a seat in the boat for this trip and didn't get onto anything myself, but watched Dad pull in his first ever mulloway, which was caught on a turtleback worm and measured 51.5cm.

 

Friday morning saw me back in the kayak near the mouth at Nelson and it was time for an explore, so I headed right up towards the entrance. There were a few boats collecting bait and I threw around a 3" fry as I explored and managed a small bream and half a dozen salmon. The guys in the boat weren't successful and we again had the standard coffee with egg and bacon roll at the General Store.

Back to the shack for a rest and then once again we took the boat upstream. We played with the new sounder (Lowrance HDS 7) and figured out some settings so we sounded along as we went. We marked up a good school of fish and I threw in a 5" jerk shad in peppered prawn (Recommended by Brett and the boat hire place).This resulted in another mulloway (My first in SA as it turns out because Donovans is over the border!), and despite sounding up a few more for the afternoon there were no more hook ups.

  

Saturday morning I took up the offer of heading out in the boat (It was windy, raining and I am a bit soft!) and it turns out that it was quite a good decision. We sounded around "The Poles" area and marked up a tightly packed school. Upon casting into them I had a hit and managed another mid 40's mulloway. It went a bit quiet then so we went to meet some mates who were staying at the shack with us for the customary brunch.

We then headed back to "The Poles" and had only just rounded the corner of the river when the sounder lit up with fish. We quickly anchored and in the next 10 minutes myself and my Uncle nailed 4 between us, including a double hook up at one stage. It was chaos but died off after this until about half an hour later I managed another one. With 4 for the day I was pretty confident, however all fish we had caught were between 44-55cm, and although great fun on light gear we were after something bigger. 

My Dad (Unusually quiet through all these fish and had not troubled the scorers at this stage) finally hooked up. As you can see below he was quite excited.

  

This excitement lasted about another 5 seconds  when he realised a couple of things:

1. This was a bigger fish.
2. 3lb line with 6lb leader may be underkill for a big mulloway.
3. A Stradic Ci4 FML does not hold nearly enough line on its spool.

This led to me upping anchor and backing up on the fish as Dad could now see his bare spool. This continued for about 10-15 minutes, during which time the fish decided to head into the shallow bay (Rather than around any of the poles near us) the back into the main channel. It finally came up and was gleefully netted. The plastic had just pinned it in the corner of the lip meaning that it didn't manage to bite through the 6lb leader, and at 77cm was our best (And only legal!) mulloway of the trip. We headed in shortly after for a rest.

Saturday afternoon saw us back in the same spot, sounding until we found the school again. In the two hour session I managed another 2 mulloway, but both were around 45-50cm yet again. Dad had switched off a bit by this stage and was messing around making coffees and flicking a turtleback worm up the banks catching small salmon!

Sunday morning was the last opportunity and we had to be off the water by 9.30 so a quick session was the order of the day. It was quite uneventful, with the only capture being my 9th and final mulloway of the trip.

All in all this was our most memorable trip to Nelson and in our 3 trips we have experienced the river holding its 3 main target species in a variety of different locations so I think that local knowledge or a little bit of luck (Preferably both!) are the order of the day if you intend on paying the Glenelg River a visit.

Mornington 04/04 - Squid vicious!

A quick report for my first fishing session from the Outback. I absolutely loved it, however over the short distance managed to feel cramped (I'm 6'1" so I'm sure there are taller blokes in Outbacks - Suggestions?) but it more than made up for itself with the hands free fishing!

I awoke at 5.45 and ate a quick breakfast and arrived at Mornington about 6.45. It was still a bit dark (Forgot my light) so I messed around setting up for 15 minutes or so then launched at 7am as the light was appearing. First cast was nailed as soon as it hit the water. As was the second, third, fourth and so on. No massive squid, but the perfect bait size (Heading to Glenelg next week so will have some "million dollar bills" for the jewies). They were attacking anything that I threw at them. I kept my bag, probably caught 15-20 in all with many released and was off the water by 7.30 (Half an hour) so that I got home before 8.30 in order to keep some brownie points with SWMBO and possibly negotiate another trip on sunday.

I don't think it mattered what I threw at them, but the yamashita naturals in 2.5 did the damage - One with the light brown stripes and the jet black one was the other jig.

In the half hour session I think I had 4 casts without hooking a squid, and I even forgot the net and still didn't drop one for the day. I think you only lose them when they are scarce!

An interesting side note is that when I got home I had to spend longer cleaning squid goo off the yak than the time it took to catch them all!

Now to attempt to convert one to a secret silver......