Docklands
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- Rank: Premium Member
- Joined: Wed Sep 11, 2013 8:35 pm
- Location: Maribyrnong, Melbourne
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Docklands
Changed tactics last night and decided I'd run and gun a number of spots if needed. Previously if it was a hard session I'd frequently switch lures and flog the water til its frothy. This time I decided - after 20 mins if no touches or signs of life then on to somewhere else.
Was like a Melbourne winter last night. Got to a cold wind-swept Nong, very high tide lapping the banks...... murky about a foot of the bank. Hmmm.... twitched the productive spots. Nothing. No bait fish around either. Had a half-hearted flick with a plastic around the pylons and decided to call it. On to the other river.
Rocked up and my spot's been taken by vxcalais :D Always good to catch up with other members so we had a good old chinwag and whilst doing so I had what I thought was a pinkie follow my plastic to the surface. Was a bit sloppy of me to be honest as I'd decided I'd finished my retrieve and just burned it in without checking for follows or given anything a last second chance to grab it. Oh well.
More chin-wagging and this time my slower retrieve let me come up tight. Nothing special but I think possibly first bream on a wriggler (I'm still on a mission to ensure every lure I own has caught fish for me).
Had a bit more of a chat lol (real social fishing) and then vx called it a night and I went off to prospect some favourite spots.
Wasn't long until I came tight again. And what a fish. I honestly thought this was my PB smashed out of the water. Embarrissingly I actually thought its a 40cm +. This thing pulled string like no-ones business from the outset. I thought jewie, then it burst again and I was "BIG BREAM!!!". It got me under the wharf for a while but I managed to extract it and a big old chunky head came to the surface. At this point I still thought it was massive. So much so that I walked it along the wharf until I got to a pontoon where I could get down to water level to net it. 32cm tip :o Hahaha - wtf ?!? Ah well. Unfortunately no pics of the mighty midget as with all the faffing around it was pretty knackered and by the time I'd unhooked it needed a good minute of swimming to come good. Couple of kicks and it was off to grow into what it thinks it is. Guess its the size of the fight in the fish, not the size of the fish in the fight. Or something :rolleyes:
I then found a nice pontoon bridge and where the bridge went out from the wharf there was a lovely line of light and shadow along the water parallel to the wharf. That to me says predators. So I stood on the pontoon arm and for the rest of the night cast parallel and retrieved along the shadow line.
First cast I was on .... and dropped it. Felt like a pinkie. Bit crazy.
Second cast. Very slow .. lift drop .... bump ... strike ... on :D Bit Crazy
Ok ... good fun but time to switch lure ... and after asking about hummers what a better time to do it.
First cast
OMFG. Its inhaled it, this is going to be a mess ( I got down on my knees, opened its top jaw and peered in. What the? It's swallowed it. How can it have swallowed an entire hummer !?!
At this point I looked underneath. And there it was chin-pinned but right back at the gill plates :D A bit of forcep magic and off it went.
All in all a bit of a fishermans basket but a nice little melbourne estuary session for a couple of hours
Was like a Melbourne winter last night. Got to a cold wind-swept Nong, very high tide lapping the banks...... murky about a foot of the bank. Hmmm.... twitched the productive spots. Nothing. No bait fish around either. Had a half-hearted flick with a plastic around the pylons and decided to call it. On to the other river.
Rocked up and my spot's been taken by vxcalais :D Always good to catch up with other members so we had a good old chinwag and whilst doing so I had what I thought was a pinkie follow my plastic to the surface. Was a bit sloppy of me to be honest as I'd decided I'd finished my retrieve and just burned it in without checking for follows or given anything a last second chance to grab it. Oh well.
More chin-wagging and this time my slower retrieve let me come up tight. Nothing special but I think possibly first bream on a wriggler (I'm still on a mission to ensure every lure I own has caught fish for me).
Had a bit more of a chat lol (real social fishing) and then vx called it a night and I went off to prospect some favourite spots.
Wasn't long until I came tight again. And what a fish. I honestly thought this was my PB smashed out of the water. Embarrissingly I actually thought its a 40cm +. This thing pulled string like no-ones business from the outset. I thought jewie, then it burst again and I was "BIG BREAM!!!". It got me under the wharf for a while but I managed to extract it and a big old chunky head came to the surface. At this point I still thought it was massive. So much so that I walked it along the wharf until I got to a pontoon where I could get down to water level to net it. 32cm tip :o Hahaha - wtf ?!? Ah well. Unfortunately no pics of the mighty midget as with all the faffing around it was pretty knackered and by the time I'd unhooked it needed a good minute of swimming to come good. Couple of kicks and it was off to grow into what it thinks it is. Guess its the size of the fight in the fish, not the size of the fish in the fight. Or something :rolleyes:
I then found a nice pontoon bridge and where the bridge went out from the wharf there was a lovely line of light and shadow along the water parallel to the wharf. That to me says predators. So I stood on the pontoon arm and for the rest of the night cast parallel and retrieved along the shadow line.
First cast I was on .... and dropped it. Felt like a pinkie. Bit crazy.
Second cast. Very slow .. lift drop .... bump ... strike ... on :D Bit Crazy
Ok ... good fun but time to switch lure ... and after asking about hummers what a better time to do it.
First cast
OMFG. Its inhaled it, this is going to be a mess ( I got down on my knees, opened its top jaw and peered in. What the? It's swallowed it. How can it have swallowed an entire hummer !?!
At this point I looked underneath. And there it was chin-pinned but right back at the gill plates :D A bit of forcep magic and off it went.
All in all a bit of a fishermans basket but a nice little melbourne estuary session for a couple of hours
Last edited by sloth on Wed Jan 28, 2015 9:09 am, edited 2 times in total.
- Rod Bender
- Rank: Kingfish
- Joined: Sun Dec 25, 2011 8:46 pm
- Location: Shepparton
- Likes received: 5 times
- Westfish
- Rank: Garfish
- Joined: Fri Nov 21, 2014 2:29 pm
- Contact:
Re: Docklands
Do you have issues with Toadfish when using SP's around there?
http://www.westfish.com.au" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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- Rank: Premium Member
- Joined: Wed Sep 11, 2013 8:35 pm
- Location: Maribyrnong, Melbourne
- Has liked: 6 times
- Likes received: 38 times
Re: Docklands
Nope. Never been much of an issue for me at any of the places I fish. I've had them eat a marukyu crab at the Nong but generally not too much of a nuisance. Always the option to switch to hardbodies if they do attack I guessWestfish wrote:Do you have issues with Toadfish when using SP's around there?
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- Rank: King George Whiting
- Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2012 8:26 am
- Location: Ferntree Gully
Re: Docklands
Haha, the amount of times I've called a massive bream and ended up with mid 30's is embarrassing..... I think its just a case of some definitely pulling harder than others.
Re: Docklands
Heaps around especially on the low tide. Never had one damaged when working it for Bream, but did dangle a gulp minnow grub infront of one and the toadie bit the tail right off clean.sloth wrote:Nope. Never been much of an issue for me at any of the places I fish. I've had them eat a marukyu crab at the Nong but generally not too much of a nuisance. Always the option to switch to hardbodies if they do attack I guessWestfish wrote:Do you have issues with Toadfish when using SP's around there?
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- Rank: Kingfish
- Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2013 5:08 pm
- Location: Bellarine peninsula
- Has liked: 333 times
- Likes received: 569 times
Re: Docklands
Great report sloth the only time I get to docklands is when I take the misses out for dinner
- Giovanni
- Rank: Garfish
- Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2014 12:51 pm
Re: Docklands
I quit docklands as I hate the scenery and feel unsafe, especially at the end of Collins St under the bolte. I quit fishing there last year after donuts every time lol. Maybe it's just me but I don't like fishing next to water rats coming in and out if the water about 1 metre away from me it's so disgusting to see them eww. I have sadly learned that without a boat, it's best to go an hour each side if melbourne for decent fishing. I'm really more of a Queenscliff squidder anyway but I do like to read your reports on the area even though I'll probably never fish there again.
Re: Docklands
Just a quickie on the water rats. The ones with a white tail and swim on the surface at night. They're actually a native Australian known as Rakali. They belong in our waterways just like platypus do. As far as I know they hunt not scavenge in trash like rats do so are not "unclean" in the way we associate rats.
But I get where you're coming from, they can scare the $h1t out of you
when they pop up under your nose!
But I get where you're coming from, they can scare the $h1t out of you
when they pop up under your nose!