Thought of Altona pier, got there and the pier was closed half way, so moved to Ferguson Pier in Williamstown.
Time fished: 7am-9:30am
Moon: waxing crescent 13° full, rise 8:23am
Sun: first light 6:16am, rise 6:42am
Tide: peak high 5:35am, low 12:02pm
Wind: 20-25kmh north
Weather: 13° sunny to partly cloudy morning
Barometer: 1012 hPa steady
Water: a bit green'ish murky, couldn't see the plastic deeper than 40-50cm. Weedy bottom and weed floating mid top water as well, guessing due to rain flush from yarra and the N wind.
Gear: Megabass Levante ultra light rod 2-6lb (casts 1/32-1/8), Freams LT 2000, 6lb braid, 4lb fluorocarbon leader about 2m long.
Lures/bait: zman grub 2in midnight oil, DOA 2in paddle tail, zman slim swimz bad shad. 1/16 #2 jighead. All with scent on.
Started quiet, I got couple taps around the yachts on zman 2in grub, felt like bream taps. Was just casting between the yachts and also casting parallel to the pier, closed the bail arm straight away, let it sink then slow roll retrieve with long pauses.
My mate was doing the same and he landed a salmon around 25-30cm on a pumpkin seeds grub and 1/16 jighead, 10lb braid and 10lb fluorocarbon.
8am and gone quiet. I got another couple shy taps using DOA 2in white/brown paddle tail, felt like salmon, but no hookups.
Then just before 9am, I changed to zman slim swimz bad shad, moved to the end of the pier and got solid hit bouncing it on the bottom, I stroke, rod was bending, drag was screaming for few seconds, then *poof* just like that it's off. Came off, plastic got pulled out of the jighead halfway. Would've been a decent pinkie I reckon. Old man with his white bucket caught a pinkie around 35cm, he said they were around earlier around the end of the pier there.
Then the school of salmon came. I hooked 6-7 times and landed 4. My mate hooked some too. All around 25-30cm. All happened in about 30-40 mins. They picked the plastic off the bottom, and bottom to mid, didn't want to hit close to surface.
They were still biting, but the 4hrs was almost up and we needed a nice up of coffee.
.
The first time I used the levante rod for proper fishing session. Unusual rod but I like it.
As I wrote on the other post, it has a fast stiff tip but soft bend in the middle.
Casting the light lure was easy like a slingshot, similar to Daiwa Infeet regular rod. But on the retrieve and bite detection, the fast stiff tip felt really good.
During the fight, it was bending in the middle with strong fast stiff towards the butt.
Doesn't feel like any other fast rod we have here in Aus where usually stiff and fast right from the butt to mid and then soft whippy tip.
