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!