With bait supplies running low and a few new combos to try out Niroj and I went on a late night pier mission last Tuesday. First stop was Mornington pier but a quick look at the water conditions confirmed our worst fear, the visibility was awful. A quick change of plans and we were off to black rock. We were surprised to find the pier and carpark area were empty and set ourselves up at the end of the pier, we started off looking for squid and after a few jig changes I hooked up to a nice squid for the area.
After this the action slowed down a fair bit with a few baitfish and toadies hanging out in the lights but no squid to be seen, shortly we spotted a good size flathead cruising through the lights a quick change to soft plastics and Niroj had a 40cm flathead on the deck, not exactly bait but a pleasant surprise. Not long after that there was a long slender shadow cruising the weed beds, we threw a stack of soft plastics at it but it was barely interested in our offerings. A quick jog to the car and I grabbed some shallow minnows, it didn’t take long for these to produce some follows but as usual the pike were incredibly hard to tempt. It took a small school of 6 fish chasing my x-rap down to get one to take the lure.
After this Niroj swapped over to a shallow diver but the pike seemed content to follow our lures right up to the pier and return to the weed beds they were stalking, once again it took a few pike chasing the same lure to entice a hit but this time it was Niroj who hooked up. After this the pike disappeared as quickly as they arrived and it was time for us to call it a night.
Cheers Alex
