St Leonards Easter 2016
- Trumpeter
- Rank: Premium Member
- Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 9:37 pm
- Location: Bellarine Peninsula
- Has liked: 71 times
- Likes received: 68 times
St Leonards Easter 2016
Hi All
Enjoyed a very relaxing, extended 5 day break with the family for the Easter holiday down at St Leonards, only managed one trip out but it was a goodie. I hit the ramp at 4am on Saturday and it was just me and one of the local, soon to be finished up pro's. The area I wanted to fish was easy enough to find in the bright moonlight and by using the sounder, I located the eastern edge of the Coles channel where it rises up from 7 to 5m. The wind was perfect, a mild westerly around 10kts and the high tide was around 5am so it felt really promising. Upon anchoring I packed the berley cage with crushed mussels, cut pilchards and Gotcha whiting pellets, lowered it to the bottom and baited up the rods. For rigs I used running No.#1 bomb sinkers on clips and single, snelled KL 1/0 circle hooks on 70cm 15lb traces, to keep it simple. To aid in bite detection in the dark I used glow sticks on the rod tips and it wasn't long before the first rod buckled over to a nice 'ting and the glow stick was pulled under the water surface! The new 7'6" 2-4kg Ugly Stiks I purchased recently performed brilliantly and it was great fun playing these fish in the moonlight as they were quite visible. The bite was hot and my baits, consisting of live mussels, pilchard fillets and squid were getting smashed as soon as they hit the bottom, the circle hooks worked well enabling me to use two rods at once and also helping prevent the fish from swallowing them. After sunrise the bite slowed down a little and I started getting fussy releasing any 'ting under 35cm as I knew I'd be coming close to the limit. I noticed a large vessel heading over my way and thought it may have been a charter but when they didn't stop I knew it was either the cops or fisheries, it was the latter and they pulled up alongside and asked if they may come aboard and check my catch. This was the first time I've ever been boarded and the guy was very pleasant and chatty -it's good to see them at work. I reached my limit of 20 not long after their visit and then switched to one of my now very tatty, 3.0 white Sephia and picked up a Calamari straight away and then another two on consecutive casts. At this stage I hadn't moved from my original location all morning as the fishing had been so good but decided to pull up the pick and drift with the run out tide and picked up my bag limit of squid, mainly small specimens but did get one good one that ripped the braid off my reel and put up a surprisingly good fight. So the tally for the morning was 20 KGW, 10 squid and a Mackerel destined for bait and the berley pot for next time.
:cheers:
Enjoyed a very relaxing, extended 5 day break with the family for the Easter holiday down at St Leonards, only managed one trip out but it was a goodie. I hit the ramp at 4am on Saturday and it was just me and one of the local, soon to be finished up pro's. The area I wanted to fish was easy enough to find in the bright moonlight and by using the sounder, I located the eastern edge of the Coles channel where it rises up from 7 to 5m. The wind was perfect, a mild westerly around 10kts and the high tide was around 5am so it felt really promising. Upon anchoring I packed the berley cage with crushed mussels, cut pilchards and Gotcha whiting pellets, lowered it to the bottom and baited up the rods. For rigs I used running No.#1 bomb sinkers on clips and single, snelled KL 1/0 circle hooks on 70cm 15lb traces, to keep it simple. To aid in bite detection in the dark I used glow sticks on the rod tips and it wasn't long before the first rod buckled over to a nice 'ting and the glow stick was pulled under the water surface! The new 7'6" 2-4kg Ugly Stiks I purchased recently performed brilliantly and it was great fun playing these fish in the moonlight as they were quite visible. The bite was hot and my baits, consisting of live mussels, pilchard fillets and squid were getting smashed as soon as they hit the bottom, the circle hooks worked well enabling me to use two rods at once and also helping prevent the fish from swallowing them. After sunrise the bite slowed down a little and I started getting fussy releasing any 'ting under 35cm as I knew I'd be coming close to the limit. I noticed a large vessel heading over my way and thought it may have been a charter but when they didn't stop I knew it was either the cops or fisheries, it was the latter and they pulled up alongside and asked if they may come aboard and check my catch. This was the first time I've ever been boarded and the guy was very pleasant and chatty -it's good to see them at work. I reached my limit of 20 not long after their visit and then switched to one of my now very tatty, 3.0 white Sephia and picked up a Calamari straight away and then another two on consecutive casts. At this stage I hadn't moved from my original location all morning as the fishing had been so good but decided to pull up the pick and drift with the run out tide and picked up my bag limit of squid, mainly small specimens but did get one good one that ripped the braid off my reel and put up a surprisingly good fight. So the tally for the morning was 20 KGW, 10 squid and a Mackerel destined for bait and the berley pot for next time.
:cheers:
Last edited by Trumpeter on Tue Mar 29, 2016 6:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-
- Rank: King George Whiting
- Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2016 5:44 pm
- Location: Healesville
Re: St Leonards Easter 2016
Jealous bud. Well done, sounds like the perfect morning even got to show off ya catch to the fisheries.
Re: St Leonards Easter 2016
Wow what an awesome effort good old St. Leonards seems its still firing. :good:
-
- Bluefin
- Joined: Wed Oct 01, 2014 4:21 pm
- Has liked: 72 times
- Likes received: 976 times
- Boonanza
- Rank: Premium Member
- Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:31 pm
- Location: Gone Fishing
- Has liked: 270 times
- Likes received: 222 times
Re: St Leonards Easter 2016
Well done mate :thumbsup:
A smart person knows what to say. A wise person knows whether to say it.
- hornet
- Rank: Premium Member
- Joined: Thu Jan 30, 2014 7:55 am
- Location: Melbourne
- Has liked: 123 times
- Likes received: 258 times
Re: St Leonards Easter 2016
I love St. Leonards ! always something around..
He who has the most fishing rods WINS !
-
- Rank: Kingfish
- Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2013 5:08 pm
- Location: Bellarine peninsula
- Has liked: 333 times
- Likes received: 569 times
Re: St Leonards Easter 2016
Great report amazing whiting have been on the go all year around the bellarine. I can't believe you didn't get any flathead
- Trumpeter
- Rank: Premium Member
- Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 9:37 pm
- Location: Bellarine Peninsula
- Has liked: 71 times
- Likes received: 68 times
Re: St Leonards Easter 2016
Yeah not a single flatty and am happy to report for once no swarm of Pinkies. The only by-catch was the Mackerel and a large Gurnard Perch which I cut free to avoid being stung.
-
- Rank: Kingfish
- Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2013 5:08 pm
- Location: Bellarine peninsula
- Has liked: 333 times
- Likes received: 569 times
Re: St Leonards Easter 2016
I have been stung once by a gurnard not something I would like happen again I give them plenty of respect and I flick them off carefullyTrumpeter wrote:Yeah not a single flatty and am happy to report for once no swarm of Pinkies. The only by-catch was the Mackerel and a large Gurnard Perch which I cut free to avoid being stung.