KGW Gippsland Lakes

[Pirkz]

Always up for a challenge, so got up early (for me at least) and motored over to the Fraser Island spot this morning, hoping to bag out on KGW for the first time. Sadly I missed the sunrise afloat by 30 mins and but was till over the target around 8am. 2 other boats were already in action close by, including the smaller Lakes fishing charter boat. Settled in the area as instructed by re-tyred and sure enough the resident KGW soon came on the bite. Fish 35 -40 cm soon put in an appearance. Slight hiccup in the bait arrangements as, in my haste to grab what I thought was a plastic box full of left over squid, prawns etc from the freezer, I inadvertently took the box of freshly filleted KGW from an earlier trip.... Doh... (Note to self - Tw*t! )
Panic time as it would be a shame to spoil em after all the hard work to catch clean and fillet em, but luckily there were just enough freezer blocks (2) in the small esky to keep em frozen until I returned home. And luckily (again) I had enough prawns from another source (still wrapped from woolies) so game on. Bites were sporadic but after a couple of hours I was approaching the bag limit of KGW, all temporarily rehomed in my 8 foot keepnet, along with a few trevally. By 11am I had reckon that I had about 20 so packed up and emptied the net...21 still swimming ,so threw a couple back to fight another day, along with the trevally ( 2 @ 30cm). Had promised a few people a feed if successful so stopped at the 1.3m line around Shaving Point and soon caught no 20 and a nice mullet - both within 10 minutes. Mission accomplished, so left the fish biting and headed home with about 10kph of wind up my chuff. Nice morning out and I would have been home a bit earlier had the bloke in the Car & Boat wash bay not taken 20 minutes to wash his bloody car - at one point I thought he was parked there !
All KGW 'd out now - so will probably give it a rest for a bit and save $40 a trip on fuel for the Tinny.
Tight Lines
Pirkz

[Lightningx]

That’s a top catch mate! Very nice.
Well done
Cheers

[ango]

I also had a fish this morning, I drove to Lakes and launched there, the skate park boat ramp is still closed, how long does it take to rebuild a ramp? This has been going on since before Xmas, maybe it would have been better to fix it during winter rather than during the peak holiday period. After launching I drove the boat around to the back of Frazer/Flanigan islands and anchored up, I misjudged and it was only 1.5 m deep, but I thought "I am here so give it a go" anyway, and after about five minutes they were on, I caught about a dozen before the bite stopped so then I made a small move into deeper water, 2.2 m this time and finished up catching my bag. I also caught a couple of trevally which I let go, each time I thought I had a monster whiting on, they give a good fight for their size. To my surprise the boat ramp was pretty quiet when I launched just after 8.00 am and there were only about 5 or 6 boats around when I arrived behind the islands including one charter. When I went to clean my catch I noticed there is a sign at the Fort King ramp regarding an algal bloom and to not eat prawns, crabs, and mussels from the lake.
Cheers
Ango.

[re-tyred]

Yeah Lake Wellington to lake king has an algae problem at the moment.fish are ok to eat as long as you fillet them. All clear down at lakes, metung and lake tyers.

[Pirkz]

How'd Yer Go?
Well seeing as though you asked- Fished Thu ,Fri, Sun (+Mrs P) and Tues chasing the KGW once again - as cant help myself offering neighbours yet to be caught fish whilst walking the dog around the local estate. Pretty steady fishing mostly in the Shaving Point area in 1.3m using either prawn or squid - preference changed session to session - strange that ! Sun it was all on prawn, yesterday it was all squid . KGW catches (mostly 34+only) were 4,14,14,14 plus quite a few sizeable others returned along with the odd pinky, bream, trevally and salmon. Best KGW 41 cm with a few others at 38 ish. So happy and very grateful neighbours, as many were given away either whole or cleaned & filleted (depending on my mood and knackeredness) and ready for the batter/breadcrumbs. So wind permitting I will continue to pop across to Shaving Point and the back of Flannagan's hoping to catch a few bigger specimens on some lighter gear (2kg outfit) and returning any under 34cm, until catches drop off noticeably. Will keep me gainfully employed and its always nice to catch a few for those that cant chase em themselves. Shout out to Brisbane Marine Pty Ltd as after 7 years felt it time to service the 2006 40hp 2 stroke MERC and ordered a service kit online from them. The promised 7 day turnaround morphed into nearly 6 weeks due to supply issues from the USA on some of the parts. A bit of a moan from me (well several moans actually) got prompt responses apologies and delivery updates and when the box finally arrived yesterday they gave me 2 x everything so a complete spare kit @$126.60 gratis as compo! Just need to get em fitted and probably flog the spare set as I wont have the same Tinny in 7 years thats for sure. Coupla pics - solid fish - bottom lot descaled.
Tight Lines
Pirkz

[Lightningx]

Very tasty looking feed there!
Nice work
Cheers

[Pirkz]

Being a rather ' Fair ' minded individual and being very aware of the 'Fair Go' and Fair Dinkum' uniquely Ozzy colloquialisms, I thought it Fair time to update the KGW thread. So with all that in mind I thought it Fair enough to drop my wife off at work on Saturday & for that matter Sunday and head off across lake King to continue my extra marital affair with the local KGW population. And I wasn't fussy, any family member would get my undivided attention as long as they were big enough i.e at least 34cm. Smaller types would be denied access to the esky and returned from whence they came. So I launched onto a millpond, which progressively chopped up as I rounded Raymond Island as the forecast breeze kicked in, and 20 minutes later arrived in the designated area - anchoring up once more amongst what had now become a pin board of markers on my Navionics app. Sun, boat, rod, bait, & expectation... - another glorious Gippsland day afloat was promised, which, whatever the piscatorial outcome would definitely beat working or household chores. So buoyed with anticipation I was super keen to get into It! Life felt good. What could possibly go wrong (rhetorical question ). App marker checked, anchor down, cast in, and straight onto a good bite with fish around 34 cm+ coming aboard. All good .
A few other boats came, anchored nearby, moved, and went, whilst I caught quite steadily.. well for me at least. During a lull in the activity, I noticed a KGW float by upside down, which was quite unusual.... not the upside down bit (which for a fish is quite unusual - or so Im told), more the floating by bit, as size wise. it was a definite keeper .. Ahh probably one I hooked and lost earlier thought I . Fair enough...that being a logical explanation an all. Fished on and went to check in the next house guest into the descaling bag ,which was being used as a temporary holding pen (as Id forgotten the keeper esky,) and noticed that all fellow guests namely 6 x KGW had rudely checked out early and buggered off ... FFS.... Half way through the day and it looks like chicken for T again! With a strong breeze, and wind on tide, the boat had swung to and fro, and the bag had been floating around unweighted, resulting in the neck opening just enough to facilitate the great escape. Ah well back to it... I now needed to catch at least a couple more to make a meal. In some respects, the day was still young.. sort of ...as they say f*kups happen in 3's...After rigging up rod no 2, with a rather time consuming (to make) home made, specialist rig - consisting of a small plastic boom (from UK sea fishing days) carrying a flowing trace tipped with a scavenged feathered hook off of an old jig rig, linked to a paternoster type setup , I struck into what could ,should, and definitely would have been a very nice fish, only to have the line mysteriously break part way through the encounter ..WTF?! Strike (and expletive) 2! Oh well back to rod no 1 then. Several fish later, I noticed an annoying loop in the braid on the spool some way down the backing. It wasn't getting in the way... . just distracting... bite was still pretty good but I just couldn't leave it alone . So cast out freshly baited favourite 2 hook $7.95 paternoster rig and unravelled the braid into the wind (blowing quite hard by now.) Metre after metre fluttered away.. no chance of a tangle thought I.... No, instead, and quite unexpectedly, as I reached the offending loop I became the proud new owner (albeit temporary) of two ends of orange braid (no idea how the break occurred)....sadly one of which quickly fluttered away on the breeze, never to be seen again, along with my end gear... FFS . Strike 3! And with that I called it a day and bounced home with about 20 kph up my chuff. Total catch 11 KGW 34cm -36 ish . And that was Saturday. Being a creature of habit Sunday was pretty much a repetition ... drop off wife, walk dog, hook up boat , launch & cross lake King, anchor up near previous days mark and catch KGW. The only hiccup being the lack of a tackle box...as I had forgotten it! Luckily I had a bait knife aboard, so no chewing of squid into bait sized pieces on my part required, and 3 rods on deck so enough rigs to cope with a bit of redundancy. Again , I fished the shallows in 1.3m and caught quite steadily . Lines in @1021 fish on @ 1022,1023,1024,1025 ....8 in the first hour, whilst other boats came and went . Steady sport for the first 2 hrs with all 32cm and under fish returned . A few inquisitive moves to deeper water for nowt , and by 1330 I had had enough (sun & fish) so called time & headed home slowly into an increasingly stiff breeze. Tally for the day - 25 KGW caught - 18 KGW kept - many for local distribution. Biggest 39cm, 3 x 38 cm and the rest around 34-36 cm. Fair Dinkum - . another good day afloat. And finally, a bit of intel from 2 anecdotal reports. 1.) Fellow regular fisher had been out midweek chasing KGW and had fished the usual spots Fraser Island - front n back, & Flannagans Island for very little success, finally catching mainly smallish KGW around Nyerimilang. 2.) Fort King fish cleaning table report on Sunday - local family trip behind Raymond Island resulted in 18 - quote - 'plump'- KGW 38 cm -41 cm on squid and pipi from 1.4m of water in one of the northern bays - So next weeks destination for me at least, after a Mcloughlins Beach trip on Wednesday.
Tight Lines
Pirkz

[Lightningx]

Well done mate!
Another great catch. Nice write up too
Cheers

[re-tyred]

Thought I would give it a go today. Seems the activity is at Metung. Up early as usual, so after walking the dog and toast, I hooked up the boat. It was just on 6am and 10 deg with 10knts of westerly. I thought a run up to Metung on the lake would be bloody freezing. So with a cuppa in the travel mug I drove to Metung with the heater on. Half 6 boat in the water cast off headed out then realised my phone was still in the car. Back to the beach quick sprint to get phone then back out. 2 minute run to the south side of the channel. 6.45 anchored up. Cast out only to find I am anchored in an eddy and the boat is doing circles. #$#&. Moved 20 MTRS into the tidal stream. Ok now for some fishing . First rod in. Bait the second, bzz off goes the first one. 10 minutes 6 KGWs. Then it went quiet. Bit of Burley and second rod in, and on again. An hour later with a few quiet times and a few frantic times. 20 good ones in the Esky. Threw a few small ones back. 8:15 back at the ramp. Notice the bakery open and plenty of park spaces, so may as well get coffee and cake . Back home by 8:30. Wonderful autumn day bright sunshine glassy calm. How good is life.

[denis barden]

Kool For Kats