Making up for lost time

User avatar
Broomstick
Rank: Premium Member
Rank: Premium Member
Joined: Mon May 26, 2014 10:43 am
Has liked: 2 times
Likes received: 37 times

Making up for lost time

Post by Broomstick » Wed Dec 06, 2017 4:21 pm

I haven’t done much fishing lately. And it is all because of this thing:

Image

222 pages of my own personal hell. It took me 4 years, but two and a bit weeks ago I finally handed it in. My mates had planned a big celebration for me that night, but I was itching to have a flick first. Priorities right? With limited options, I decided to hit the docks. And it didn’t take long before I had a touch:

Image

A little breambo. Life was good! I fished here unsuccessfully for another hour or so but my fishing cravings weren’t yet satisfied, so I decided to have a crack at the ‘nong. The first bridge I stopped at was dead – all I managed was a starfish:

Image

The second wasn’t much better, yielding only this tiny salmon:

Image

But at the third bridge I struck gold:

Image

A ripper bream, you beauty!

Image

With my fishing itch scratched (for now), it was time to meet my mates. I can’t remember much after that...

That metro flick was a nice little entree, but I needed a proper fish. The next week I was tied up with fieldwork, but when I finally got a spare night I decided to head to one of the Westernport beaches and have a crack at a gummy. I whacked on a salmon fillet:

Image

And before I even had time to throw out a second bait, the rod was bouncing:

Image

A little gumbo – right target, wrong size:

Image

The bites were coming thick and fast, but it was definitely quantity over quality:

Image
Image
Image
Image

I filleted one of the couta and not long after I chucked it out it sizzled off, but I was quickly bitten off. And about 20 minutes later the same thing happened. Then again an hour later. Furstrating! It seemed some big sharks had moved in (or one greedy shark), and they had scared off all the other fish. The sharks won this round, and we left with our tail between our legs. But we would be back…

A few days later I had another night free in between fieldwork so we decided to head back for revenge. I upgraded my tackle from 60lb leader and 6.0 hooks, to 120lb and 9.0’s. I considered wire, but I never get a bloody bite when I use it. We headed down a little earlier this time around and flicked some lures around to see if we could snag some fresh bait. The toads were ravenous:

Image

And the crabs kept getting in the way:

Image

There were worm tracks everywhere – part of the reason I like fishing this beach:

Image

But eventually we managed a couple of just legal salmon (perfect!):

Image

So with the sun dropping, we got the heavy gear ready and chucked out one of our freshly caught salmon. We didn’t have to wait long before it was sizzling off, and after a spectacular fight I dragged this guy up onto the shore:

Image

Not a shark, but a bit of fun. Over the next few hours we caught a slew of undesirables:

Image
Image
Image
Image

With the one exception being this nice flatty:

Image

The big toothies were conspicuously absent, so we passed some time messing around with the camera – this was my attempt at a long-exposure fish (fail):

Image

And before we knew it we were down to the last fresh salmon. My mate graciously let me take it:

Image

And boy did he regret it. Something absolutely smashed it, and after a really solid fight that had us both calling it as a nice gummy, up popped this guy:

Image

He went 78cm and was fat – I’ll take that over a shark any day!

Image

My beach cravings were satisfied, but I was still hanging to have a flick in an estuary. And a few days later, the perfect opportunity popped up. I was asked to do some fieldwork near Mt Gambier so I gave my mate from Adelaide a ring and asked if he wanted to meet in Nelson and camp for a couple of days. A few days later we pulled into a quiet little campsite on the river:

Image

By the time we’d set up camp it was getting dark, so we just chilled out and enjoyed a beaut sunset with our mates:

Image
Image

We got up at a leisurely hour the next morning and after brekky:

Image

We had a flick in the river. My mate scored first:

Image

Only a little fella, bit his first EP. I dropped a nice fish on surface when my rod got stuck in a tree (idiot), but after that it went quiet. We decided to head to the mouth of the estuary and have a flick on the flats:

Image

We fished a little channel between two sand flats and first cast my double clutch had barely hit the water when it was snaffled:

Image

A nice little breambo:

Image

It was super shallow here and I was getting caught on weed every cast, so I swapped to a colt minnow and landed this little fella:

Image

The colt minnow kept getting weeded too (we were fishing in only 1-2 feet of water) so I changed to a bent minnow. It turned out to be an inspired choice. First cast I landed a nice EP:

Image

Which I followed up with a nice bream:

Image

I then dropped two fish in two casts, but managed to keep the hooks in a couple more:

Image
Image
Image

Unfortunately I lost what would have easily been the two best fish of the sesh – they both exploded on my surface lure and sizzled off - only to pull the hooks. My money is on big Ep’s. Luna was very disappointed:

Image

The hot bite didn’t last long, so when it all went quiet we decided to head in for lunch. After a feed we decided to mix it up a bit and throw some slugs off the beach. The sky was looking ominous, and as the storm rolled in:

Image

So did the fish:

Image

The fishing was hot. Most of the fish were very small:

Image
Image

With a few bigger ones mixed in:

Image
Image

But we weren’t complaining. Either was Lando:

Image

When it started pissing down rain we reluctantly left the fish biting. The radio was going nuts with extreme weather and flood warnings, so even though we had planned to stay another night, we packed up camp and got the hell out of there. I think we made a good choice:

Image

And that brings me up to date. The wild weather over the weekend ruined any other potential trips, but this weekend is looking fine. You beauty!

I’ll leave you with a couple of snaps of a mumma and baby tawny frogmouth I found at my folk’s place – cheers!

Image
Image

drew 2
Rank: Premium Member
Rank: Premium Member
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2011 3:38 pm
Location: North of the divide

Re: Making up for lost time

Post by drew 2 » Wed Dec 06, 2017 4:46 pm

Another great report & pic's broomy :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Many congrats on finishing your thesis,what a great achievement.I'm sure all the hard work will pay of for you mate,but you know what they say,all work and no play ;-) Get out,let your hair down a bit and enjoy yourself mate :cheers: :cheers:

User avatar
Broomstick
Rank: Premium Member
Rank: Premium Member
Joined: Mon May 26, 2014 10:43 am
Has liked: 2 times
Likes received: 37 times

Re: Making up for lost time

Post by Broomstick » Wed Dec 06, 2017 5:15 pm

drew 2 wrote:Another great report & pic's broomy :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Many congrats on finishing your thesis,what a great achievement.I'm sure all the hard work will pay of for you mate,but you know what they say,all work and no play ;-) Get out,let your hair down a bit and enjoy yourself mate :cheers: :cheers:
Thanks very much mate!

purple5ive
Rank: Premium Member
Rank: Premium Member
Joined: Thu Dec 08, 2011 1:59 pm
Has liked: 567 times
Likes received: 1011 times

Re: Making up for lost time

Post by purple5ive » Wed Dec 06, 2017 5:20 pm

Well done pat. Some.nice fish in there mate.
Those guppies take me back to my schooling days when i used to breed them at home. Black whale tails were quite in demand

smile0784
Rank: Premium Member
Rank: Premium Member
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:16 pm
Has liked: 39 times
Likes received: 356 times

Re: Making up for lost time

Post by smile0784 » Wed Dec 06, 2017 5:22 pm

Some nice fish there.

User avatar
mazman
Rank: Murray Cod
Rank: Murray Cod
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2012 4:45 pm
Has liked: 137 times
Likes received: 455 times

Re: Making up for lost time

Post by mazman » Wed Dec 06, 2017 5:23 pm

Killing it Pat, not much better than bream on bents
Youtube channel:Hawkesy Fishing

dazz999
Rank: Premium Member
Rank: Premium Member
Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2017 4:44 pm
Has liked: 5 times
Likes received: 114 times

Re: Making up for lost time

Post by dazz999 » Wed Dec 06, 2017 6:05 pm

awesome Pat well done great to see you young guys getting out fishing

User avatar
Brett
Moderator
Moderator
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 10:23 am
Location: Mornington Peninsula
Has liked: 138 times
Likes received: 223 times

Re: Making up for lost time

Post by Brett » Wed Dec 06, 2017 7:09 pm

Nice work Pat. I'm hoping to put some big baits out at that beach this summer. It's nice to know that a few toothy monsters are around, albeit they will probably end up being bloody gorilla's :(
Those catsharks are cool little critters also.

TheGreatestGoat
Rank: Cephalopod
Rank: Cephalopod
Joined: Tue Sep 13, 2016 10:44 am

Re: Making up for lost time

Post by TheGreatestGoat » Wed Dec 06, 2017 7:53 pm

Best report i've read on here. Top work mate. Congrats on finishing the thesis - wouldn't mind having a read, is it available?

Cheers,
Goat

Nude up
Rank: Kingfish
Rank: Kingfish
Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2013 5:08 pm
Location: Bellarine peninsula
Has liked: 333 times
Likes received: 569 times

Re: Making up for lost time

Post by Nude up » Wed Dec 06, 2017 8:01 pm

I love your reports they cover everything I am interested in fishing wildlife keep up the great work.

Post Reply

Return to “Other Victorian Fishing Reports”