Fishing Victoria Forum

Hi guys and girls,

Took my 9 y.o. and 13 y.o. fishing down to Shoreham beach last Saturday night. Lovely, balmy night and polo shirts were enough to keep everyone warm. Got to the beach at 9.00 pm to fish the last 2 hours of the run-in tide (hoping for a gummy). Used fresh squid cut into rings and hooked onto suitable circle hooks. Result, one nice snapper caught in the first 10 minutes by my eldest boy. Thank heavens we took home a feed because the rest of the session was a nightmare! Weed,... seriously, marine Trifids, made the session a nightmare. The boys kept yelling out that they had strikes but, unfortunately, they all proved to be the dreaded Trifids that were plaguing the beach. Question: Is this beach normally such a PITA for weed?

It just depends down there. Some nights it’ll be perfect, others will be unfishable. I don’t know of any way to predict it either unfortunately. Best you can do is use big surf rods, keep your lines tight and hope the height of the rods keeps the line out of the worst of the weed in the shore break

Thanks for your reply, 4liters. The boys were using their trusty Gunnamatta rods - 9 ft Shimano Catana's. Perhaps not long enough to get the required distance. Oh well, we'll the give the beach another try on a calmer night - perhaps after a few days of northerly winds. The thing that distinguished the weed at this beach from all the weed I've experienced at other beaches was its ability to grip the line. I mean, seriously grip the line! I've never experienced anything like it and we were fishing with 10 kg monofilament. (I know it's light line but that's the way I'm educating my boys.)

Love those nice balmy nights.
At least you got a feed

Glad your boy got a fish