Southern piers and a snapper session

Rosebud, Tootgarook, Rye, Blairgowrie, Sorrento
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mazman
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Southern piers and a snapper session

Post by mazman » Fri Dec 02, 2016 2:00 pm

Hey guys, with Niroj finally finished exams it was time for a celebratory trip, we got our gear sorted met up and made the trip to Blairgowrie to collect some baits for a planned snapper session the next night. Upon arrival we started working plastics and metal lures around the pier looking for any fish on the pylons as we moved. We had worked our way right to the end of the pier and back a little bit and hadn’t mustered so much as a follow. I made the call to swap over to jigging for squid, first cast my jig was nailed on the initial drop and we had something on the board.
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Next cast to the same area was also hit on the drop and had Niroj rushing to rig up his egi rod. His first cast was smashed on the drop and while he was bringing that one in I fired a cast out and hooked up again. With 4 squid on the board in as many casts we were pretty stoked.
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My next cast hooked up yet again on the drop and had a follower which took Nirojs jig the moment it hit the water. We continued working this patch and ended up with 10 squid in 10 casts. However the next 20 minutes of jigging proved fruitless, so we made the change back to plastics and metals but just like before there was nothing around to take them. We made the call to move on from Blairgowrie and hit up Sorrento hopefully collecting a few fleshy baits while we were there. We both started off spinning small metal lures on our new combos and it didn’t take long for Niroj to get a hit, followed by another and finally a hook up after a bizarre fight we had a tommy rough on the deck.
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These guys were pretty thick and we were hooking plenty but every time they took to the air we would lose them we tried our best to stay with the school but they were moving quickly and we couldn’t see them. After 5 minutes of fruitless spinning Niroj finally got a hit again, only this time there was something much more serious on the other end. After some appalling guess work as to what it was, a couta popped its head up but also managed to win its freedom as it was being swung onto the pier. A few casts later it was my turn to hook a couta and everything seemed normal until I spotted a squid following it in and desperately trying to get a chunk out of it, and behind that squid were three more couta, it was absolute madness and somehow amidst it all Niroj managed to get the squid to stop chasing the couta and take his jig without the couta getting to it first. After landing the squid Niroj used his metal lure like a micro jig and managed to briefly hook a couta before they swam off. Finally I was able to land my couta which was too heavy to dead lift on the rod I was using.
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Once the couta disappeared the tommy rough came out to play again. We were getting hook ups left right and centre but couldn’t work out a way to land them. Eventually we were content with the amount of bait we had on the pier and started trying to get the tommies in as many weird ways as possible. We soon discovered that they were feeding heavily enough to hit lures that were being cranked across the surface, this led to very few hook ups and didn’t actually see us land a fish but we didn’t really care watching tommy rough slash at something on the surface was way more enjoyable than actually landing them was. As the sun dipped below the horizon the tommy rough stopped feeding and we called it a night.
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The next day was a full day at work followed by a trip for snapper in Port Phillip Bay using some of the bait we had collected the night before. We met at Mordialloc at 7:30 and made our way down the pier, the first few hours were extremely uneventful and the conditions unpleasant but we stuck it out because I had a feeling it was going to turn on at sunset and then again at the tide change. The sunset and as the light was fading Niroj got a hit on his squid bait and after an extremely lack lustre fight landed a nice pinky at 45cm.
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5 minutes later we had a double hook up of small pinkies measuring in at 32 and 35 cm after this the sunset bite died off and we began the wait for the tide change. Another long wait ensued but the half hour before the tide change brought another short bite window on this time we only managed to land two fish at 36 and 37cm but they fought much better than the larger fish niroj had caught earlier. Happy with our small bag of pinkies and absolutely sick of the cold and wind we pulled the pin, finally able to say we had been on a moderately successful snapper trip.

Cheers Alex
Youtube channel:Hawkesy Fishing

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Raulfc7
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Re: Southern piers and a snapper session

Post by Raulfc7 » Fri Dec 02, 2016 2:32 pm

Great report Alex well done great catch on both nights :cheers:
"Do good when you remember, and what you forget will be revealed to you; and do not surrender your mind to blind forgetfulness."

samjas1316
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Re: Southern piers and a snapper session

Post by samjas1316 » Fri Dec 02, 2016 3:50 pm

Nice report and photos Alex. That would've been fun seeing those tommies hit the lures on the surface.

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Re: Southern piers and a snapper session

Post by Lightningx » Fri Dec 02, 2016 4:59 pm

Nice report mate! Great pics :thumbsup:

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Re: Southern piers and a snapper session

Post by Scraglor » Fri Dec 02, 2016 7:31 pm

Sounds like a couple of good trips with good company!

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mazman
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Re: Southern piers and a snapper session

Post by mazman » Sun Dec 04, 2016 5:34 am

Thanks guys, it's great when a plan like this comes together nicely.
samjas1316 wrote:Nice report and photos Alex. That would've been fun seeing those tommies hit the lures on the surface.
We were beside ourselves with laughter and having a great time, landing fish didn't matter by this stage.

Still unsure how nobody else on the pier joined in.
Youtube channel:Hawkesy Fishing

spudtrans
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Re: Southern piers and a snapper session

Post by spudtrans » Sun Dec 04, 2016 9:26 am

great report, thank you. some nice fish there. well done

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