Fishing frenzy

[dezza68]

I'm on gardening leave between jobs so i have got 6 months to get some serious fishing in. I cant really travel too far as kids are at school so I'm going to look at adventures within a days travel. I have my list of things i want to do, i want to catch a proper snapper from the shore (no piers) and i also want to catch a shark off the beach. The plan is to find somewhere a bit off the beaten track with deep water and spend some serious time trying to get the target species.
Im on the westernport side of the peninsula so Wilsons prom looks like it will tick the box but there are a few other spots ive seen that look promising. I will mostly be going solo so i wont be going anywhere too hairy unless conditions are perfect.
I reckon the snapper should be the first target as im guessing it's a bit cold for the sharks.
I havent broken the 10kg mark from the shore yet so thats another personal challenge and if truth be known i havent broken the 5kg mark in years either.
I caught a decent salmon at the gunn a few months back following the expert advice on here so if anyone has pointers would love to hear them. Im not after spots more help on tactics and timing. Cheers Dez

[Basti]

Dez, you need to talk to DougieK. He's been doing similar stuff to what you're planning on.

[4liters]

Yeah, DougieK or CarlG probably have the info you need. Do a search through the forums for 'Caddy Point', 'Tongue Point', and 'Red Point', you should be able to find some of their reports. The search function here might still be rooted so you may have to use google to search the forum.

[dezza68]

Yeah, DougieK or CarlG probably have the info you need. Do a search through the forums for 'Caddy Point', 'Tongue Point', and 'Red Point', you should be able to find some of their reports. The search function here might still be rooted so you may have to use google to search the forum.

Yeah thanks, i have seen all of those, I guess that started the itch im now going to scratch.

[dezza68]

Dez, you need to talk to DougieK. He's been doing similar stuff to what you're planning on.

Thanks i will try to pick his brains!

[DougieK]

Pretty much what the guys have already said.

MrG and I have posted a fair bit of information, there are a few other bits we're playing fairly close to our chest.

Quite literally all I did was jump on Navionics, find any ledge that looks like it drops into deep water, then jump on google maps and figure out if it's accessible, then make a scouting trip carrying minimal gear to see if it's actually safe to fish, then make a heavy trip in the right conditions if it is. Repeating this process again and again and again until i've come up with a relatively good collection of different ledges to fish from depending on the conditions. The three or four that we've picked to fish consistently we're slowly figuring out but still have a long long way to come.

I'll tell you this. If you want to fish a WestPort entrance ledge or a Wilsons prom ledge for snapper, you have to start pretty much now. Snapper season in the bays usually gets hot around september, and you want to catch them on the way in. A VERY well known land based fishing guru told me to start at the start of August, so far i hvaen't really had time but I will try next week.

Please take the time to consider each spot and the relative dangers that can occur there. Fishing the deep side of Cape Schanck is practically impossible in anything but perfect conditions at low tide. Fishing Bushrangers Bay is the same. Red point you have a bit more leeway, but you can't actually get there without crazy amounts of effort during the top half of the tide, although once you're there it's fine to fish a hightide change.

Don't go alone unless you are extremely comfortable with the spot you're fishing. I've scouted quite a few ledges solo but the first few times i've fished them i have ALWAYS had 2-3 people with me.

There is a video series here about scouting ledges...... viewtopic.php?f=134&t=13328&p=162021&hi ... ng#p162021 and you can see the eventual result here viewtopic.php?f=142&t=13717&p=167827&hi ... dy#p167827

There are some good reports from Red Point here.... viewtopic.php?f=207&t=13264&hilit=red+point and a few more if you look in the Woolamai section.

If you are not experienced fishing rocks i'd recommend a session at Mt Martha first just to get a feel for the rocks under your feet and some of the problems they can cause, and then second fish a north facing ledge at Red Point. There is no swell at Martha and absolutely minimal at Red Point if you stick to the north facing ledges, and will give you a good grounding in rock fishing without the constant danger of one coming clean over the top.

Happy to help with individual spots, but you'll have to PM me for more details.

[DougieK]

Sorry for the double.

If you're going rock fishing, the low tide at midday on sunday is pretty much as good as any conditions you're ever going to see.

[4liters]

What wind conditions suit Red Point? Normally I can work it out myself when sussing out a spot but because it is right on the end I'm not sure if a large swell coming in from Bass Straight might make life uncomfortable.

[Raulfc7]

Good info Doug

[dezza68]

What wind conditions suit Red Point? Normally I can work it out myself when sussing out a spot but because it is right on the end I'm not sure if a large swell coming in from Bass Straight might make life uncomfortable.

I reckon its a reasonably safe spot except with an easterly it should be fisheable. The normal swell comes from the south west so its flatter than the open beaches.