A day on the water - SA

South Australia Fishing Reports
Aimless
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A day on the water - SA

Post by Aimless » Mon Apr 27, 2020 12:25 pm

Hey fellas,

Thought I would get this up, either to make you jealous or so you could live vicariously through me.

I didn't post it, but about a month ago I bugged out of Melbourne, back to Adelaide. Working from home anyway, had some incidents in our apartment building, bla bla. So we did our isolation here and are planning what's next.

As a side effect of being back here, in the glorious state of SA, land of the free, fishing is still okay. In fact, it's a bit like the twilight zone. Things are kinda normal, apart from everything being closed. Thanks to a blitz of testing, bit of luck from the whole cruise ship tango, and less visitors generally, SA is pretty safe.

I took off with my Dad - same household and all so social distancing rules are okay - from North Haven, basically the upper end of the suburban beaches here.

Got rained on as we got the boat in the water and headed out, but the water was flat calm and barely a breeze in the air.
Trip1.jpg
Usually my family just go crabbing but I was keen to test some new gear. And have been eating crabs since I arrived (woe is me) so I was keen for some squid or fish.

Well, we hooked a decent little squid on first cast near the 'black pole', just out of the marina really, and an even bigger one followed that in. I managed to get my jig in the water in time and hooked him. This was probably my PB at the time.
Trip2.jpg
Trip3.jpg
Had a line out for gar with some gents on the end. That went off with a nice Tommy on the line. I was hoping for some mackerel too, to give my new UL rod a run for its money.

This thing is the lightest rig I have ever used... 3lb polyester line (didn't know it existed a few months ago) with a 3lb leader. Well, it worked and I hooked a mackerel in our berley trail with the smallest soft plastic I have ever used, on a 0.7g jighead. It pulled like a horse and bent my rod in half. A lot of fun on that little line - in fact, I could up the drag much higher than I thought I could. Wouldn't want to pull it up on a tall jetty though.

I did have some troubles with the line tangling though, it didn't like wind or loose casting. Had to cut off the leader and decided to tie my jig onto the poly line directly. That worked a treat, my plastic hit the surface and a mackerel slammed it straight away. Really feels like a big fight on this little thing!

The rain came in again and we got soaked. Quick break for lunch.
Trip4.jpg
We moved the boat a little further north and found a nice weedy patch. Lots of casting all over and we landed a few more squid, including an even bigger kraken, definitely my PB now. Hard to see (beer can for scale) but this thing was huge.
Trip5.jpg
Its tentacles had more meat on them than the smaller model squid we pulled in.

Headed in as it was getting dark, pleased as punch. Best session I've had in a while.

Final count: 8 squid, 2 mackerel, 1 tommy, 25 blue swimmers. Not being greedy - the crabs are shared out among whatever family want them! At an appropriate distance of course.
Trip6.jpg
Trip7.jpg
An hour after we got back, everything was cooked up and good to go. Quick turnaround on an awesome dinner!

I am going to write up some gear reviews on the purchase thread as I have a fair bit of time on my newer, weird rods now.

Cheers for reading and hope we're back to normal before long.

purple5ive
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Re: A day on the water - SA

Post by purple5ive » Mon Apr 27, 2020 12:46 pm

Good stuff mate, what a nice outing in times like this.
That crab stirfry/curry looks so good :tu:

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Re: A day on the water - SA

Post by Troy McLure » Mon Apr 27, 2020 1:02 pm

Tarty feed there, in very jealous.

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Re: A day on the water - SA

Post by VooDoo » Mon Apr 27, 2020 1:18 pm

Nice day on the water there Aimless :tu:

Given no changes in Vic regarding lifting the ban on fishing - there will be some on here with blood boiling reading your post :rf:

Dinner look delicious as well :gj:

Just wondering - where were the snappers ???? :te:
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"VooDoo .... WhoDoo .... YouDoo .... VooDoo" The Bug (Bugatti) S.A. [2019]

Aimless
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Re: A day on the water - SA

Post by Aimless » Mon Apr 27, 2020 3:14 pm

Thanks for reading!

No snappers even if we caught them... the blanket ban is on in SA for a while! Still, at least we can go fishing here. Would be going bananas otherwise, especially after spending two weeks messing around with my gear.

I like that method for cooking the squid. There's a great restaurant called Claypots in Melbourne (a few actually, St Kilda, in the City and South Melbourne markets... I like the South Melbourne one best) that cuts the squid like that. Cut through both sides but only half way, so it's basically loosely held together rings. Lets you very easily do the entire squid on the BBQ at very high heat (or on the stove). Just in some oil, salt and pepper for the BBQ and then dunked in a mix of good olive oil and spices. I think garlic, paprika, bit of chilli in that one. Too good!

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Re: A day on the water - SA

Post by samjas1316 » Mon Apr 27, 2020 3:38 pm

Thank you for giving me a chance to live vicariously through your report. I almost felt the wind in my face, the smell of the ocean, the flick of the rod, the bite of the fish and the taste of the smorgasbord of seafood. Blue swimmers are so expensive and we can't catch them here! How I wish I can go fishing again...

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Re: A day on the water - SA

Post by dmck » Mon Apr 27, 2020 3:44 pm

AImless,
as a South Australian who sneeks on here... I gotta be scared now that you have let on we are still fishing (well I would be but for a broken leg...)

Now all the 'Mexicans' will want to migrate....

I know... "We will build a wall"

Aimless
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Re: A day on the water - SA

Post by Aimless » Mon Apr 27, 2020 3:52 pm

Thanks for the kind words samjas. Hard to beat fresh crabs and something I missed while living in Vic. I think the best prices I saw were usually at Queen Vic at about $18+ a kilo but I don't like buying dead crabs so much..! Well actually, I prefer catching them to buying them anyway!
dmck wrote:
Mon Apr 27, 2020 3:44 pm
AImless,
as a South Australian who sneeks on here... I gotta be scared now that you have let on we are still fishing (well I would be but for a broken leg...)

Now all the 'Mexicans' will want to migrate....

I know... "We will build a wall"
dmck, you're not wrong. I have been letting a few state secrets loose unfortunately... since I never caught any halfway decent fish in Vic, all my good reports are from visits back to SA.

I am going to try and stay here this time - depends how work goes - but I can't find any better forum than this.

The toughest part; working from home today, I had a peek at the water this morning and it's even better. Sunny day and absolutely glass flat out there!

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Re: A day on the water - SA

Post by Boonanza » Mon Apr 27, 2020 5:04 pm

Nice work Aimless very jealous :gj:
A smart person knows what to say. A wise person knows whether to say it.

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Re: A day on the water - SA

Post by Lightningx » Mon Apr 27, 2020 5:10 pm

Thanks for the great report and pics!
Tasty looking feed 😃
Cheers 👍🏻

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