Fished a very early and insane (according to my wife) 3.30am tide change at St Leonards on Saturday in awesome conditions with a light westerly wind blowing and a lovely mild temperature. Autumn is the best time for fishing IMO. I went to the same location that did I well at Easter but this time the action was slow at first. It was a really dark and a bit of a spooky night to be out by myself, something large splashed near the boat while I was motoring out and I just hoped it was a seal or dolphin. I found the unlit channel marker I wanted with my torch, dropped the anchor and the berley pot, clipped light sticks onto the rod tips, dropped the baits down and waited for the first bite, and waited, and waited, checked the baits, nothing, put fresh baits on a few times and then an hour and several cups of black coffee later bang, it was on for young and old. The 'ting came on fast and after I'd landed four I hooked a Ray which proceeded to wrap all my lines together, I managed to get it up alongside and save my most of the line but once I cut it free I had to tie on all new rigs. A bit of a set back right in the middle of things and because it was a little slow at the beginning I'd had three rods out which made a nightmare tangle of braid, mono and circle hooks. Also the lice were really bad and swarmed over any baits on the bottom and in the berley pot so I had to crank them up a metre or so. Once I'd organized myself again I fished with just the two rods and ended up with eleven good sized KGW, the largest at 40cm and a nice Flattie a little longer. Once the sun was up the bite slowed right down and there were dudes that had arrived and practically anchored in my berley trail so I pulled the pick and went after some Calamari. The westerly really picked up for a while and with the tide running out It was a pretty quick drift, the 3.5 Sephias must have almost been surfing but it didn't distract the squid and I landed 5 pretty quickly with one big pumper at around 30cm+ hood size. I could've easily taken my limit with the Cala's but had more then enough for my family and for future bait so headed back in content.
Sorry about the crappy pics from my crappy phone:
Dark night
Awesome sunrise
Waiting..
Drifting for squid
The morning's catch
The ramp jetty
And the good ship Lollipop...
:cheers:
