Big Fishing Report 15th 23rd 28th & 31st/12/18
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 1:22 pm
G'day everyone,
Haven't posted a report in a bit now. So i thought id write this one up and show my last 4 trips out on the port. All fish taken from between Hastings - Warneet.
15th of Dec:
Last minute decision to head out, and with the wind well below par i did exactly that. Was forecast for a possible storm mid afternoon, but i didn't think much of it. (learn from mistakes). Hit a little bait spot of mine straight away, was tough going but managed 2 nice big yellow eye mullet and 1 yakka. Not quite enough to fish a whole tide but what could i do... had some frozen freshies on board too so i was alright. With a nice 2m tide, it was ideal to hit my local gummy hole. sat there for 30 minutes waiting for the tide to pick up, with not much activity apart from some pesky micro pinky bites stripping my baits. :oops: . Next thing i knew, the lightning storm hit. Absolutely pouring rain, thunder & the lightning of course. Looking around i was the only boat on the water and now i knew why. I stuck it out but the lightning was getting me nervous, especially being in a fibreglass boat and the only boat out there! Literally just as i was about to head back into the marina for safety reasons two of my three rods buckled and screamed giving my new saragossas a nice first go.
With one buckled in the rod holder, and me fighting a nice one, with swell, pouring rain and everything else... it was a bit of a dilema :rofl: . First one dogging it out boatside, and i switched on knowing it might be bigger than i expected. Up popped a nice 5.3kg male, measuring 115cm. Pretty happy with that. got him in, cut the leader and straight away onto the second one. Only 3kg this one, and because i was by myself i decided to let him go to make room for a possible doodoo at the end of the tide. Sadly not. But the whiting did play ball as the water slowed. If i had another on board, would have got a bag, but ill take it. All gummies took fresh mullet. 23rd of Dec:
Another trip dedicated to some keeper gummies with my mate Josh. I have never done a bait collection so tough. We spent 4 hours trying to catch bait. We ended up with 2 medium size salmon and 1 Snook and a couple of whiting.Hardly enough to fish how we'd like. Didn't have much of a choice other than to use the Whiting as well. 30 minutes into the tide and already heaps of activity, first up an eagle ray. Not long after, my rod buckles again with a screaming run and some good thumps then all of a sudden pop, bitten off clean. Putting my money on a Schoolie or Giller, but didn't fight it long enough to give a good guess. Here comes the ridiculous part... Hooked something BIG. with massive head shakes, but it felt as though it was snagged... I was so unsure at the start, but i was slowly bringing it up... honestly so confused. Every now and again this massive head whacks. Eventually after 15 minutes i got it to the surface, josh calls as it comes up at the transom "its a massive fkn bronzie!" but then as it surfaced it was a HUGE Wobbegong shark. I've never seen anything like it, estimated 3m long, and 100kg or something.. i was using a 10000 saragossa with a 30-50lb terez, and it was heavy. back down it went. Spent 40 minutes fighting the thing because we wanted a photo together with it, but it wasn't having a bar of that. After getting the beast up 5 times, it turned again and bit me off. No photo or anything.
After that we were both pretty buggered and not a lot was happening being in the middle end of the tide. We sat it out until the end and sure enough a nice gummy came along falling to a snook chunk. As the sun set and the tide change started the whiting were out again in force. 28th of Dec:
I invited Brady out, good bloke ive known from instagram for the last year or so. The plan today was to get our bags of whiting and then hit the gummy grounds.
First stop, one of my bait spots. Again... very hard going. We managed 2 nice trevally and 1 yakka. brady brought some frozen yakkas, so we decided that was enough. Off to a snapper mark of mine in the deep. dropped down the baits and straight away a nice 44cm Whiting. As the tide slowed the bite became fast and furious with some real monsters amongst the school. 7 fish over 40cm, with the biggest being 48cm and insanely fat. We managed 24 Whiting and all ranging from the smallest of 36 - 48. Was a great hot bite, in 15m of water. The tide turned and we went and setup for the gumbos. It wasn't long before my rod twizzled and buckled. A nice 3kg keeper. Non stop activity throughout the whole tide, with plenty of just legal fish as well as 3-4kg fish. We kept our bag of 4 table size gummies. But we werent done yet. Down the spit we went to a spot of mine from last season that i hadn't fished this season. Straight away onto the school, and as we got into dusk, the bite became hotter and hotter. Ended up with our double bag of whiting & gummies, as well as 4 nice pinkies. Was a cracking day and one that brady and i wont be forgetting for awhile. 31st of Dec:
Back out again with Brady to do the same thing. Bait collection was finally easy. landing 4 snook and 6 slimeys within 40 minutes. After that done and dusted, we headed down to the spit to find some Whiting. It took a few moves of just 2 fish each time, but we managed to find the school. They were very spooked and finicky. We slung a hook in 24 of them and called it to go get the gumbos.
Slimey mackeral is my favourite bait for gummy sharks, nothing makes a better strip bait than they do. We caught 8 gummy Sharks with 3 4kg fish. Another great feed from Western Port. Im absolutely loving this season. Nothing is disappointing. The snapper run was good. The whiting are going off everywhere & it looks to be a good summer of gumbos too. My goal is to get to know the western channel and break my PB of 10kg. Lets get cracking! Cheers everyone and apologies if the report is too long, i've forgotten to post lol. Hope everyone had a good christmas. Happy new year too!
Haven't posted a report in a bit now. So i thought id write this one up and show my last 4 trips out on the port. All fish taken from between Hastings - Warneet.
15th of Dec:
Last minute decision to head out, and with the wind well below par i did exactly that. Was forecast for a possible storm mid afternoon, but i didn't think much of it. (learn from mistakes). Hit a little bait spot of mine straight away, was tough going but managed 2 nice big yellow eye mullet and 1 yakka. Not quite enough to fish a whole tide but what could i do... had some frozen freshies on board too so i was alright. With a nice 2m tide, it was ideal to hit my local gummy hole. sat there for 30 minutes waiting for the tide to pick up, with not much activity apart from some pesky micro pinky bites stripping my baits. :oops: . Next thing i knew, the lightning storm hit. Absolutely pouring rain, thunder & the lightning of course. Looking around i was the only boat on the water and now i knew why. I stuck it out but the lightning was getting me nervous, especially being in a fibreglass boat and the only boat out there! Literally just as i was about to head back into the marina for safety reasons two of my three rods buckled and screamed giving my new saragossas a nice first go.
With one buckled in the rod holder, and me fighting a nice one, with swell, pouring rain and everything else... it was a bit of a dilema :rofl: . First one dogging it out boatside, and i switched on knowing it might be bigger than i expected. Up popped a nice 5.3kg male, measuring 115cm. Pretty happy with that. got him in, cut the leader and straight away onto the second one. Only 3kg this one, and because i was by myself i decided to let him go to make room for a possible doodoo at the end of the tide. Sadly not. But the whiting did play ball as the water slowed. If i had another on board, would have got a bag, but ill take it. All gummies took fresh mullet. 23rd of Dec:
Another trip dedicated to some keeper gummies with my mate Josh. I have never done a bait collection so tough. We spent 4 hours trying to catch bait. We ended up with 2 medium size salmon and 1 Snook and a couple of whiting.Hardly enough to fish how we'd like. Didn't have much of a choice other than to use the Whiting as well. 30 minutes into the tide and already heaps of activity, first up an eagle ray. Not long after, my rod buckles again with a screaming run and some good thumps then all of a sudden pop, bitten off clean. Putting my money on a Schoolie or Giller, but didn't fight it long enough to give a good guess. Here comes the ridiculous part... Hooked something BIG. with massive head shakes, but it felt as though it was snagged... I was so unsure at the start, but i was slowly bringing it up... honestly so confused. Every now and again this massive head whacks. Eventually after 15 minutes i got it to the surface, josh calls as it comes up at the transom "its a massive fkn bronzie!" but then as it surfaced it was a HUGE Wobbegong shark. I've never seen anything like it, estimated 3m long, and 100kg or something.. i was using a 10000 saragossa with a 30-50lb terez, and it was heavy. back down it went. Spent 40 minutes fighting the thing because we wanted a photo together with it, but it wasn't having a bar of that. After getting the beast up 5 times, it turned again and bit me off. No photo or anything.
After that we were both pretty buggered and not a lot was happening being in the middle end of the tide. We sat it out until the end and sure enough a nice gummy came along falling to a snook chunk. As the sun set and the tide change started the whiting were out again in force. 28th of Dec:
I invited Brady out, good bloke ive known from instagram for the last year or so. The plan today was to get our bags of whiting and then hit the gummy grounds.
First stop, one of my bait spots. Again... very hard going. We managed 2 nice trevally and 1 yakka. brady brought some frozen yakkas, so we decided that was enough. Off to a snapper mark of mine in the deep. dropped down the baits and straight away a nice 44cm Whiting. As the tide slowed the bite became fast and furious with some real monsters amongst the school. 7 fish over 40cm, with the biggest being 48cm and insanely fat. We managed 24 Whiting and all ranging from the smallest of 36 - 48. Was a great hot bite, in 15m of water. The tide turned and we went and setup for the gumbos. It wasn't long before my rod twizzled and buckled. A nice 3kg keeper. Non stop activity throughout the whole tide, with plenty of just legal fish as well as 3-4kg fish. We kept our bag of 4 table size gummies. But we werent done yet. Down the spit we went to a spot of mine from last season that i hadn't fished this season. Straight away onto the school, and as we got into dusk, the bite became hotter and hotter. Ended up with our double bag of whiting & gummies, as well as 4 nice pinkies. Was a cracking day and one that brady and i wont be forgetting for awhile. 31st of Dec:
Back out again with Brady to do the same thing. Bait collection was finally easy. landing 4 snook and 6 slimeys within 40 minutes. After that done and dusted, we headed down to the spit to find some Whiting. It took a few moves of just 2 fish each time, but we managed to find the school. They were very spooked and finicky. We slung a hook in 24 of them and called it to go get the gumbos.
Slimey mackeral is my favourite bait for gummy sharks, nothing makes a better strip bait than they do. We caught 8 gummy Sharks with 3 4kg fish. Another great feed from Western Port. Im absolutely loving this season. Nothing is disappointing. The snapper run was good. The whiting are going off everywhere & it looks to be a good summer of gumbos too. My goal is to get to know the western channel and break my PB of 10kg. Lets get cracking! Cheers everyone and apologies if the report is too long, i've forgotten to post lol. Hope everyone had a good christmas. Happy new year too!