High Tide 05.30am (ish) , Wind ~5kn SSE, very cloudy, no moon.
I had a mind to do a quick sprint down to Apollo late on Saturday night to catch the morning tide. Conditions ended up being pleasantly calm with a small ocean swell pushing through, though the overhead skies threatened to either blow up or dump rain at any moment. The incoming tide was as large as any I have seen in Apollo Bay for some time..... Thankfully, no seal in sight on arrival.
Fished a variety of pato, running sinkers, using whole pillys, pilly tails, squid strips, squid heads, and also tried using the live bait-fish caught from under the navigation light. I needn't have bothered with the squid, for the most part they all went relatively untouched (for most of the time at least). The hour either side of the tide change was most productive netting me 1 x snapper (37cm) , 2 x pinkie (25cm), 1 x Whiting (38cm) , 1 x flathead (25cm) , 1 x salmon (22cm), 1 x port jackson shark (55cm). Only the snapper and whiting made it into the esky, all other catches released.
Once the tide change period passed the bite went quiet and the rays moved in, I must have picked up a good half dozen shovel nosed rays. As the sun rose higher the salmon started to become more active, however around this time the local seal also moved in and around the vicinity of the pier. After losing a few hooked salmon to the seal I figured that the mornings fishing was done.... there would be no more fished landed whilst the seal was around.
Finally a session where I was returning home with a decent catch. Arrived home before midday, not an altogether bad result for a quick sprint out and away from PPB.
Happy days
