I had been to Walkerville South a while back while scoping out potential gummy beaches sheltered from a westerly (I have no idea if it is any good for gummies, to me it looked shallow and structure-less but who knows?). It did look like a reasonably fishy spot nonetheless and with a sheltered launch spot and easy access to deep water offshore I was keen to check it out. The target was whiting, on Google earth there appeared to be a large patch of weed close to the launch and out the back of that it looked like the perfect patchy weed and sand that just screams whiting territory.
I launched on sunrise and the first task was to pick up a couple of squid for bait. Unfortunately the water was really dirty, I assume they had a bit of rain early in the week and the water coming out of Shallow Inlet had silted up the bay a bit. I couldn't see the bottom but using the google earth on the phone and looking at the sounder I was able to do a few drifts across what should have been a nice weed bottom. It was tough going but eventually I came up solid, and as I was winding the decent size squid in I could see another one following it up. Luckily I had a couple of jigs dangling from the rod holders and the second squid latched onto one of those while I was landing the first one. I threw the first jig over the side to clear the deck and was instantly onto a third.
After that I headed out to what should have been whiting heaven but I couldn't get onto one. I did get a PB trev which took a whiting bait and a 50cm flathead that took a gummy bait so I can't really complain.
The only other bit of excitement was a few 30cm pinkies, a couta, a bloke in a boat getting shat on by a gull and an eagle ray grabbing a whiting bait and heading for the horizon, nearly spooling me in the process before the line gave way. After a while I moved out wider to drift for flatties, a nuclear chicken gulp nemisis did most of the damage, picking up a couple of whiting as well which was a new experience for me. The flathead were all low 30s and the whiting 38cm. Something grabbed the squid head I had bouncing around on the bottom but it tore it from the hook without hoking up.
The exciting/frustrating moment came when the sounder lit up with a huge number of marks below a big school of bait close to the surface. I looked over the side and could see the backs of a large number of 15-20cm baitfish about a meter below me, and every now and then they would break the surface to escape some unseen predator. I was pretty keen to see what it was that was hanging out below the bait so I clipped on a micro jig and started working it up and down the column. By this stage I was getting pretty excited because it looked exactly like the pictures of kingfish Scott showed me at Port Albert... I could see them on the sounder following the jig up and down the water column but no matter what I did I couldn't tempt a strike. I did hook a couta at this point but I'm not sure that was what was following the jig because doubt couta would have the restraint to simply follow something shiny without smashing it. I ruled out a school of salmon for the same reason so I'm thinking I was sitting on top of a school of kings for half an hour
I only had a green Gomoku rod so I'm not sure what I would have done if I'd actually hooked up... I'll defiantly be bringing the Crucis next time I'm fishing in kingfish country
Eventually I had drifted close to the beach north of the kilns so it was time to head back. I trolled a bright green and red stump jumper and got a mid 30s pinkie on it, and about 5 minutes later trolled it into a clump of kelp of something, never to be seen again. At least they're cheap.
All in all it was a pretty good day on the water, pleasant enough conditions and nice haul of fish including a PB. This was the first couta I've caught that didn't have worms so I'll finally get to see what they taste like. I'm looking forward to hitting up the prom on Saturday.
Obligatory sink pic
