McLoughlins Beach

[Tackleberry]

Send them to Melbourne and they would never come back .

[Pirkz]

Fished MCL with trusty offsider on Wed. Nice day with low water around 10am - which suited our late start gentlemanly hours. The occassion was primarily for a matey catch up so I could give him all his new fishing gear recently purchased from Ebay Uk - including 8 packets of size 16-20 hooks?? amongst many other things and the target was to catch some winter salmon (or anything really). And in that sense the day was a succces - he got his gear and only 3 salmon and a lone undersize trevally were caught between us. And that was it! And.. we had to motor around to Manns channel just to catch those. So thats it for this years winter MCL trips.
I also fished the Mitchell jetties afloat and the shallows off of the South of Raymond island over the last few days ..but all for nowt. Overseas again shortly and once again before Christmas so intend to make the most of the local lakes fishing chasing KGW when Im back in Oct and again from mid Dec. And as we are officially out of KGW a few months bwefore this years expected catch kicks off, Ive been told to freeze a few more before donating to neighbours.
Note from last year that I caught the first of the new 2023 KGW season (x15) on 22 Nov - report probably (read definitely/maybe) posted in an earlier missive.
Tight Lines.
Pirkz

[Strikey]

Fair round up Nick and a good day on the water for a catch up. Target is a Gummy on size 16 hook! Trusty Offsider.

[Pirkz]

With the KGW AWOL (absent without leave) in the lakes, I headed off to MCL with trusty Offisder and his boat yesterday, on an early season Flatty hunt. Dont fully understand the tides down that way but the expected low was pretty close, though still running out at the ramp. Semi overcast day and breezy - read pretty windy by Lakes standards. Wasnt so busy (yet) with only a few trailers scattered about and some returned Offshore types debriefing their mornings adventures;which sounded generally pretty average (read poor), with only the odd Gummy making an appearance. Anyway the trusty Bluefin started, and the steering worked (this time)- so all good. We headed off expectantly to our first port of call - with lines in only 5 mins later. First drop in a nearby channel, and Offsider was Fish On. Nice 60 cm ish Flatty boated and, as is our way, returned, as it was the first keeper...its a karma thing for us ...Expecting a hot bite we settled down and ... waited. Nada....Next hour only produced a few smaller models and a nice lone Billy No Mates Salmon (returned), so time to move. Tide was still ebbing slowly so we just up anchored and drifted back 20m in our berley trail to try again.. and again. All pretty quiet by MCL summer standards. 2 hrs later we called stumps and endedd up with several more keepers all around 46cm - which made it 6 kept for the day, (biggest 50cm), plus a few just size and the one good un returned...Oh and a lone banjo ray (returned).All fish were caught on pilchard chunks using a running trace. During our manoeuvers we chatted to a couple of other boats, and in one, apparently Tony caught a good Gummy - Good En Yer Tony - whoever you are - obviously a risk taker going offshore in a boat which looked older than me and more suited to housing homeless chickens rather than facing a Bass Straight swell on a breezy day! Maybe local though and well versed with the challenge of crossing the MCL bar. And after a chat early in the piece with the only other boat in view, another crew, encouraged by our relative modest success with a few flatties (they were fishless at the time) followed us around as it was their first time at MCL. Noticed them anchored for quite a while in our penultimate spot and met up with them back at the ramp mid arvo to discover that they had done really well late on - catching some nice flatties 50-65cm ish all on 100mm curly tail Sps in about 2 m after the tide turned. So another good day out, fish for T and some useful information gathered. Next trip shall see us in the shallows (1-2m) with an incoming tide and flicking Sps. Just need to find the KGW now closer to home.
Tight Lines
Pirkz

[Pirkz]

A glorious Gippsland Autumn Day commenced with early fog, blood tests for me and the usual munch and catch up before we motored on to McL. On arrival, the tide was as low as I have ever seen it at the jetty and still going out - Danger Will Robinson! Nevertheless, being determined and keen to fish, we launched and puttered VERY slowly and made the first 90 degree right turn at the buoys before running aground in a still vigorous ebb tide - oops! Very quickly the crew said "Oh arr Cap`n, wot do we do ere then?" Then one brave seaman came forward, removed his trousers (this was a nautical vessel remember!) and plunged overboard - not a pretty sight as Pirkz himself said. Luckily, he didn`t disappear up to his bollocks in just 6 inches of water and he proceeded to try and prise us free - to no avail. Showing leadership as Captain of said vessel, I also removed my trousers (getting really saucy now) and braved the elements. 15 minutes of rocking, pushing and cursing failed to alleviate the situation, so a rethink was required in order to avoid a 60 minute plus wait for the tide to change and lift the boat. A think bubble emerged, and I tread lightly around the boat to find a somewhat deeper channel of water. Only just escaping a sudden loss of altitude into a deeper and quagmire-like substance, I found the spot! So, vessel was turned towards the extra 4 inches of depth (water, not mud!), and we proceeded to take another 15 minutes to push the boat 8 feet until success was achieved - hoorah, and a measure of rum all round bosun. Forward movement was achieved, and we run aground briefly again, only once, before we anchored in just 1.2 metres at the first red buoy Flattie spot. Time for a cuppa, the berley pot and a chance to consider the somewhat less fishing time now available to us. Rods out, a brief wait and then tap, tap, tap, as a small salmon tasted our wares. We gave it 30 minutes of small taps and small fish before moving to the entrance. This appeared to be devoid of fish so we went to fish the beginning of the channel that goes towards Manns Beach. By this time the tide was snorting through however, the berley worked its magic and we started catching fish, including a keeper Flattie. An hour of steady bites and smaller fish and it was time for our next move to the Mullet channel. Surprisingly, no mullet but we did catch fish, including a couple of fighting Salmon that would have been about 800gms each. So, 3 species that were Salmon, Flathead and Trevally, about 30 fish caught ; a couple of which were taken home. As a by note, the wind was way stronger than forecast, but just within the limits of comfortable fishing, and the BlueFin much heavier than expected!

So, an eventful and enjoyable McL sortie during the Autumnal transition period. Next week we plan to take the good ship Toadfish out and fish the Mitchell river for Breambo`s.

Tight lines
Strikey

[Tackleberry]

Take your plastics the Mitchell has a lot of flat head in it at the moment