Just Your Average Fishos

When the weather is pretty bad, what do you do? Well if you were not at Compleat Angler Dandenong with the rest of Victoria, you might have been braving conditions for a fish.

Yep, Max and I decided to press hard and get up early to drive down to Inverloch again to see if we could catch some larger Salmon than last visit.

The westerly wind was pretty strong making it a little difficult to control a light tiller steer tinny and you know conditions were not favourable when I was the only boat trailer in the car park.

We were able to locate a Tailor school early and Max put in some work on those toothy critters, then we found a small Salmon school.

The salmon this time had reduced in length with the max size going 51cm this morning, but boy had they put on some condition.

The bellies on these things was the biggest change from 3 weeks ago, talk about full. And boy did they go hard but staying with them in the wind was difficult.

They were further up the inlet and and with the big tide running in with the wind, it was all pretty sandy water and wasn’t that easy to navigate.

We did a few laps but overall the fishing was slow compared to when conditions have been more favourable. We pulled the pin at 11am, the wind was pumping and it wasn’t fun, we had caught a few fish so still a successful effort.

The salmon were holding in the deeper water but I didn’t have the right deep divers in sizes that would get down enough.

That been said the blue Frogleys Offshore Atomic Slim Twitcher and Twitcher Deep in blue 95mm was the standout, accounting for all fish today.

The treble hooks on them were also up to the high drag challenge.

Rod combos were SHIMANO Australia Fishing Raider Egi sticks with Vanford 3000 reels spooled with 20lb braid and leader. They provide a good casting option if you can stay with a school of fish and are a little more capable than a regular 2-4kg stick.

On the way home we popped into see the boys at Compleat Angler Dandenong. Wow, would have been 150 people in store at 1pm.

Hope you enjoyed this quick report, as always, like, follow, comment and share - JYAF, Live, Unbiased and Free!

Till next time, see you at the ramp, or a tackle store lol. Cheers to all that said hi this weekend. Appreciate the support as always!

Justin.

P.S - hit the pics for more info.

Inverloch is a great place to visit in autumn and winter. Certainly less coconut oil lathered up man scaper teenagers than the summer months.

With the Mitcham Angling Club’s May target species being Salmon, how could junior and I not head down for some of these fat salmon which the inlet has to offer and catch a few in this good old fashioned fishing report!

Report Mission:

Head to Inverloch to catch some large salmon.

Report Weather:

Overcast, cold, wet, but light winds. It’s reasonably protected so should be fine. Lunchtime high tide change.

Report Gear:

SHIMANO Australia Fishing Maikuro2 light jig rods with 30lb PowerPro braid and 40lb leader. Stradic 5000 reels.

Lures were small Rapala X Rap 6 & 8cm in pilchards and an older blue and white. I also used a few small Nomad Ridgebacks in 20g.

Lessons were learnt, perhaps go 20lb leader to have the lures swim better and stronger trebles on the small x-raps required! Nomads were fine.

Fishing Report:

After an early morning Maccas meet, we arrived at Inverloch ramp at 8:30am. Whilst fishing was reported to be better on the low tide, we had a reasonable incoming tide until lunchtime.

Upon motoring out towards the heads we deployed the lures and were very quickly on with an absolute air time idiot of a fish, and it won its freedom, despite it clearly been the fish of the day first up.

More trolling along the channel edges saw brief periods of double and three way hookups. Most fish were lost as we quickly worked out the larger 100mm Rapala’s were not of any interest, the fish preferring smaller lures which had tiny trebles that either bent or shook free when w**d became tangled in the line.

The fish were not balled up in one place, rather spread out all over the heads inlet to just up the inlet past the pier.

Ralph, Matty and I all went seperate directions for the same success.

Sizes were very consistent, no giants but still very hard fighting, respectable fish that almost all went the same length but mainly differed in how fat they were.

The rain persisted and coming up to high tide the fishing went quiet. Completely soaked we pulled the pin, changed and went for a great lunch at the Esplanade Hotel. I had the roast lamb, Matty had the calamari and Ralph the bangers and mash.

Kids ate the burgers and steak sandwich. All food and service was top notch despite being very busy.

A wet drive home, but a quick cleanup thanks to the ease of a tinny, a great adventure with great mates!

Certainly be doing that trip again and there is plenty of land based options for fishos too, great to see the kids catching on the pier.

Click on photos for more details, till next time, catch you at the ramp…..

Justin.

P.S - remember to like follow and share, really helps the page! And thanks to Ralph for the tinny hire lol!



Just Your Average Fishos

No luck on the local barrels for me yesterday but with these numbers you cannot say I wasn’t committed.

Anyway….. last remaining seats for tomorrow nights big Mitcham Angling Club’s barrel talk with Dimma from Sharkmen Fishing Charters!

Must book, is almost a sellout!

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/barrel-bfts-with-dimma-tickets-1987922859787

The weekends weather was pretty good, despite a North wind that had some puff. It was still fishable and with a north wind with a runout tide, offshore was calling Anthony and I in this Good Ol Fashioned Fishing Report….read on.

Report Mission:

Pick up Anthony early Sunday morning and then head offshore for a gummy, noting if any other life shows up.

Report Weather:

Northerly with 15-20kts but backing down in the afternoon.

Offshore low tide time 12:30 lunchtime.

Report Gear:

Usual SHIMANO Australia Fishing Terez 72M rods with Saragosa 10k reels and 50lb braid

Gamakatsu Australia 8/0 inline SE hooks

Reedy's Rigs 1/0 surf rigs for catching bait.

Report Bait:

An old frozen squid head to catch some fresh bait, and Anthony bought along a few of his home made burley blocks, which are next level good in creating a chum slick.

Fishing Report:

I launched Sorrento at 6:30am, a couple of the game boats were heading out to look locally for tuna.

I met Anthony at 7am at Queenscliff and we headed through the Rip and punched down to the back of Gunnamatta Beach, sounding around the 40 meter line.

We had some previous marks but the bottom activity wasn’t very inspiring so we just sounded along a little more until we found some bottom activity and anchored up.

The northerly wind was stronger as the dunes are lower at the beach compared to other areas of the cost line, it was pretty rocky but fishable.

We deployed Anthony’s burly from the surface and before we knew it we had plenty of Slimies and Coota 10 meters down that were quickly caught for bait.

We cast out 2 running rigs and then put a straight up and down patenoster over the side.

As we waited we continued to fish the bottom and a huge pinky patch came though, with fish ranging 32-38cm, we kept a few of those.

One of Anthony’s rods had an inquiry which turned out to be a banjo and then later another with a gurnard.

It was all very quiet and despite the bait activity there wasn’t really much going on. The 12:30 tide change came and we thought we would be going out for a duck but as we were packing up, I threw a bag of multi trip re frozen pilchards over the side and and put almost a whole slimy on a hook.

A few minutes later as I was about to reel that rod in, it started nodding and pulling away, not with any conviction though.

I took it pretty easy on the fish not knowing what it was and before I knew it we landed a nice feeder gummy about 6-7kg in size. Was a garbage guts taking a big bait and it had hoovered heaps of the pilchards too!

Was a nice surprise, target species achieved and going home after a great morning not so empty handed.

Sometimes mixing things up and even staying that little longer comes up with the goods.

Shame the day was ruined on the way home thanks to all the tarmac works on Peninsula Link, almost makes fishing Sorrento now a no go…

I hope you enjoyed this report, JYAF keeping it real and free!

Till next time, see you at the ramp.

Justin.

P.S - I hate early mornings but sometimes you have to do them to chase a tide. Means no pizza review though! Hit the photos for more info.



Just Your Average Fishos

Cannot wait for this talk that’s for sure. If you ever wanted to know all the inside information from a tuna catching champion then book a free seat via the link below.

Date: Wednesday 13th May
Time: Club opens 6pm for a 7pm start
Location: Mitcham Angling Club

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/barrel-bfts-with-dimma-tickets-1987922859787

Mitcham Angling Club
SHIMANO Australia Fishing
Just Your Average Fishos
Compleat Angler Dandenong

With the end of school holidays near, my youngest Max said it was time to go fishing for a gummy with him. Given it was the Mitcham Angling Club’s squid comp I thought why not go for both in this Good Ol Fashioned Fishing Report!

Report Mission:

Go for a squid early in the morning and then fish the larger run in tide of the day so we had wind with tide.

Report Weather:

Reported 10-15kt SW in the morning and reducing to variable in the afternoon. Crib Point low tide time 6:20am and high 1:30pm ish.

Report Gear:

Usual SHIMANO Australia Fishing Terez 72M gummy rods and Saragosa 10k reels for gummies.

Shimano Zodias 270L with Vanford 3000 for bait and squid fishing.

Report Bait:

Only some frozen trevally from past trips. Hoped to get a few squid - not that I really use it for bait for gummies but hey, why not.

How it all went down:

We launched at a somber and very quiet Hastings boat ramp at 6am. Obviously fuel costs are starting to bite but I assume many of the hard core guys are on the tuna down west too.

First stop was the ex sub spot for a squid and I was able to pluck an eater with a 24cm hood on the old tiger glow prawn jig.

We made a move up to Crib Point and was able to score a few more but nothing overly exciting.

Given that slack water had just finished I thought to have a look and troll south of Stony Point as sometimes the salmon are around on the low tide but not this time.

It was just before 8am so we pushed up towards the top of Middle Spit Channel where we could sit very comfortably. There is some nice reef points up towards the end of the channel so I anchored off the back of that.

We deployed three running rod rods and a bait rod having seen a bit of activity on the sounder.

Everything had small trevally chunks as that was all we had.

A few minutes in we had a little inquiry that Max reeled in to be a small banjo.

We had some more annoying inquires which were likely small wrase or pinkies but nothing converted.

It was at this moment the bait rod screamed off an fought in a very unusual manner. It would come up, go down, dart across the surface and Max was just keeping up with it, despite the need to go easy as it was only a 15lb whiting outfit with a small BKK long shank hook.

I couldn’t call it but my mate Chris called it for a nice feeder gummy and before we knew it that’s exactly what surfaced.

Into the net and Max had his first solo gummy, 95cm long and I would estimate 3.5kg, a nice little feeder and very typical of this area.

It was still early into tide so we sat in for the long haul. Unfortunately that was really the only action for the remainder of the tide.

I would have thought we would have achieved something more and we almost did, but that inquiry ended up being the typical Western Port Eagle ray.

With the tide puffed out, we moved to Quail and Tyabb banks to have some more squidding time but we were all a little over it from the early start so off home we went.

Unfortunately getting off the water at 3pm meant no La Lupa Pizza review (yep you heard that right) but them the breaks when you leave home early hours.

Unsure if I’ll do it again and it just feels like emptiness signing off here without a pizza feed and photo. Perhaps my fat butt needs to turn over a new leaf…….nah, no way…….

As always don’t forget to like, follow and share, JYAF keeping it real and free!

Till next time see you at the ramp!

Justin.

Geelong Refinery Fire - Mmmmm better go buy a yak or take up freshwater fishing………

Geez, feel like a shower after writing that……