Fishing Victoria Forum

98% moon, low tide around 8am, north wind 15kmh to 25kmh, wind gusts 35kmh+.
Plan was to anchor up, soak bait while flicking plastic.

Got at the parking lot 6:10am, a mate called that he left his bait and burley, so we had to share one small bag of pillies.

Straight out, saw few things on the sounder, but they weren't biting.
. .
Moved a bit and my mate landed this 47cm flathead. That got a baby squid in its gut.
. . .
Moved to the pylons, a lot of things shown on the sounder in between trips, but they weren't biting.
I hooked to what felt like a good sized pinkie, but dropped it. Landed a 27cm pinkie few mins later.
. .
Pinkie stopped biting, landed a 39cm flathead on gulp turtleback worm pumpkin seeds colour. And 'patrick' on vibe lift, pause, lift, thump! heavy, aaaand patrick!
. .
My mate landed two 28.5cm and 28cm pinkies that he took home for his mrs, let go a 27cm few mins later.

So three of us only landed 4 pinkies and two flatties. Fishing around 6:45am-10:30am.

I blame the full moon
Maybe sceptical but I never had good 'still water' fishing around full moon.
Not because the fish aren't there, they just aren't biting hard when I fish full moon. They still have to eat od course, but just not as aggressive as when not close to full moon.

Hmm, so much for the predictions lol Thought a "full" moon would mean they'd fire up?
The water temp is still near 20C, and it's mid-April, wonder if this is a factor?
Nice to get out anyway

Sneaky1 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 15, 2022 8:27 pm

Hmm, so much for the predictions lol Thought a "full" moon would mean they'd fire up?
The water temp is still near 20C, and it's mid-April, wonder if this is a factor?
Nice to get out anyway

Some species like sharks and rays be good to fish around full moon, based on my personal experience ofc.

The water temp was around 17°, I went deeper around princess pier that would make the bottom probably couple degrees cooler, but didn't make much diff.
Fish in the sounder, but not biting.

Could be anything. Could be barometer, could be just my bad luck, maybe would be better if my mate didn't forget the burley and the fresh squid head bait. Who knows...

Oh and I talked to another guy on kayak, he landed a pinkie that looked like around 35-40cm. Had 10 mins hot bite and that was it he said.
But yeah, nice to be out. Been a while since the last time I went out on a kayak doing salt.

I hope that that starfish didn't get put back that is a pacific seastar . Pity about the fish not firing up

Nude up wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 15, 2022 9:13 pm

I hope that that starfish didn't get put back that is a pacific seastar . Pity about the fish not firing up

Plenty of pacific seastar in the bay unfortunately.

Sounds like a nice way to spend a morning, those full moons are tricky! haha

Andrews wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 16, 2022 5:10 pm

Sounds like a nice way to spend a morning, those full moons are tricky! haha

You're not wrong!

I've been thinking of that baby squid in that flatty's gut. Either there's squid in Port Melbourne or that flatty travelled from Altona (probably the closest squid ground) in short amount of time.
That baby squid was pretty fresh.

Better luck next time.
Apparently plenty of squid kgw around werribee today.

I don't fish the full moon anymore because I literally never catch anything during it. It's an absolute curse

A busy (but on the small scale) mid-morning @ Aspendale yesterday kayaking - lots of micro pinkies.
Water temp is 22C on this side of the bay.