I'd been meaning to check out Balnarring for a while now, a few nice bags of whiting have come out of there recently and as always you're a chance at a gummy down there. It was freezing bloody cold but I'd put on 3 layers of thermals under my wetsuit and had overpants and a spray jacket which took the edge off it. My new Lavacore socks were good too.
I launched right on sunrise and as I made my way out I started trolling a couple of little silver lures in the hope of getting a few pike for gummy bait. Turned out one of the lures dived a bit deeper than I was expecting and was quickly sacrificed to that horrible weed you find in that part of the world. Also turned out I'd left my scissors at home so tying on a new leader was a p****. However with a new lure and new leader I was underway and soon got onto a smallish pike. That was quickly followed by a double hookup. I wanted one more so I could take a couple home and see what they tasted like and soon I had a fourth sitting in the yak.
After that it was time to find a spot to anchor up and do a bit of bait fishing. I'd been told that south of the launch there was a big sandy patch but I'm still no good at using my sounder to determine the type of seafloor and predictably I ended up in a big patch of weed that ate a couple more rigs. I did pick up a decent LJ and a goatfish.
After a while I moved to a mark on navionics hoping that I might find a sandy patch there, which I did. I probably spent an hour anchored up but all I caught was a skate. By then it was mid afternoon and time to head back in.
I had thought about chasing some squid but I could hardly see them bottom on knee deep water so I gave that idea away pretty quickly. I think it might be because of all the weed on the beaches breaking down or something, Shoreham was really dirty too about a month ago and I struggled to find the squid.
The lack of gummies and whiting was a bit disappointing but it was just good to get back out onto the water. I'm in two minds whether or not to go back, it seems pretty similar to Shoreham except I know Shoreham better and can usually pick up a gummy at a spot I know near there.
