Fishing frenzy

[4liters]

Yeah, not much is going on fish-wise. A few of the kayakers have been getting snapper in top end of WPB but I guess everywhere else is still too cold.

Have you had a chance to try your soft plastic rig yet?

[dezza68]

Yeah, not much is going on fish-wise. A few of the kayakers have been getting snapper in top end of WPB but I guess everywhere else is still too cold.

Have you had a chance to try your soft plastic rig yet?

I have tried it but not been much around. I did catch flathead doing it from the boat in about 12m of water. Been soaking baits and getting very little intrest so reckon nothing is on the chew.

[dezza68]

Going to have to give my gear a rethink. Did a pre dawn session down near the Quarantine beach. Had one big bait out (whole mackerel) and then pillies on the other rod. Suffered from a plague of banjos on the small baits but the big one remained untouched until 5:45am. Had a twitchy sort of bite which took at least a minute to get going. I thought it was just another banjo but I was wrong. It started peeling off line and after it had taken 10m I struck it. I started off with a fully spooled tld 15 with 30lb line and I had been fishing this about 60m out. 1 minute later I had an empty spool and a burnt thumb. Not sure what it was, it was a very heavy fish and just did a single straight run to empty the spool.
Only thing is if i upgrade the gear I then cant cast it. Ive got a tld 25 and Im looking at a stand up 25kg rod but then I cant get the bait out where I want it.
Only just calmed down now, this was the biggest run I have ever had from a fish.

[GTSHoon]

100% a ray from the sound of that, so have heart!
As far as the gear, i reckon you could go the 25kg gear no worries just balloon the baits out maybe?
Cam

[CarlG]

Going to have to give my gear a rethink. Did a pre dawn session down near the Quarantine beach. Had one big bait out (whole mackerel) and then pillies on the other rod. Suffered from a plague of banjos on the small baits but the big one remained untouched until 5:45am. Had a twitchy sort of bite which took at least a minute to get going. I thought it was just another banjo but I was wrong. It started peeling off line and after it had taken 10m I struck it. I started off with a fully spooled tld 15 with 30lb line and I had been fishing this about 60m out. 1 minute later I had an empty spool and a burnt thumb. Not sure what it was, it was a very heavy fish and just did a single straight run to empty the spool.
Only thing is if i upgrade the gear I then cant cast it. Ive got a tld 25 and Im looking at a stand up 25kg rod but then I cant get the bait out where I want it.
Only just calmed down now, this was the biggest run I have ever had from a fish.

Straightline run normally equates to a big black car bonnet...lol..aka Smoothray..unstoppable on all but big gear, be a couple of hundred kilos in some of them..

[dezza68]

Yeah could well be, the bite was gentle like a ray. Still what I'm really after is about the same size so stopping it is going to be tough. Everyone keeps saying about ballooning but its so rare to get the right conditions that most times it doesnt work. My thinking is to mess around with a cheap surf rod and make up a very short butt section. I can then cast out with the normal butt and swap over. I reckon that would give me 15 to 20kg stand up rod.
Back tomorrow to give it another bash.

[CarlG]

If you're after Mr Sharky, look for the wind is coming from and make your decision then. Once the water warms up, the buggers will be everywhere. You could sent out a bait anywhere from Portsea right round to Point Lonsdale and still be in with a shout...
Portsea to Mornington is a well populated stretch once the water is right for them..seen plenty of reports over the years in those areas..

[dezza68]

I had a 4am session again this morning. Nothing doing on the big rod at all but had some fun on the smaller bait. Caught the 3 biggest banjos I have seen and one of them went ballistic, absolutely gutted when I got it in as I thought I had a very good snapper on. Its the joys of fishing in the dark. In an effort to try and catch something else i tried deep spinning as dawn was breaking and yep you guessed it more banjos. I was belting it out as far as I could and slowly retrieving it along the bottom and bam nearly every cast I hooked up. Might be a first with banjos on soft plastics from the beach. At least the technique works (sort of) and with me getting the car back tomorrow I should be able to try in some more likely spots again.

[dezza68]

If you're after Mr Sharky, look for the wind is coming from and make your decision then. Once the water warms up, the buggers will be everywhere. You could sent out a bait anywhere from Portsea right round to Point Lonsdale and still be in with a shout...
Portsea to Mornington is a well populated stretch once the water is right for them..seen plenty of reports over the years in those areas..

I really want to fish off a headland where the current eddies rather than runs laterally and then I can get the chum slick working. I want to try and bring the fish to me if i can. Ideally I want to pre bait over a couple of days to bring them close.

[CarlG]

If you're after Mr Sharky, look for the wind is coming from and make your decision then. Once the water warms up, the buggers will be everywhere. You could sent out a bait anywhere from Portsea right round to Point Lonsdale and still be in with a shout...
Portsea to Mornington is a well populated stretch once the water is right for them..seen plenty of reports over the years in those areas..

I really want to fish off a headland where the current eddies rather than runs laterally and then I can get the chum slick working. I want to try and bring the fish to me if i can. Ideally I want to pre bait over a couple of days to bring them close.

Two edged sword. You burley like that and you'll have every undesirable fish in a 10km radius sitting at the table.