Heading down the freeway saw us being shadowed by dark clouds and forecast of cold and inclement weather , still it would be better hitting the beach than sitting in front of the TV and wondering if the fish were on the move or not. Hopes were high as we have had a bit of success on the Salmon in the last few weeks and we were hoping that the bigger run of fish would be starting to make an appearance. Also the desire to put out large fillet bait or head of a Salmon was high on the priority list as well in our attempt at taking a decent Gummy or School shark.
It was planned that Mike and I would meet up with Graham who had headed down earlier and then later catch up with Lee and Allan as they came down after sorting out the issues that keep us busy during the day.
When we got to the beach the tide was just starting to turn and with the north / north easterly winds the swell flattened out all too quickly. This had the unpleasant affect of shutting out the gutters and with no swell the fish just weren’t in the mood to take the variety of baits on offer.
It was Mike with his salted Mullet that started the ball rolling but not with what we had hoped for. Using this threadline match to the Nitro Messiah he landed a small draughtboard shark. It was good to see how he handled the lump of a fish and he was pleasantly surprised at how well the tapered shock leaders allowed him to control the fish in the shore break.
(Mick and one of the draughtboard‘s taken for the night)
We did get a few salmon but they were not really on the bite and were taking the baits quite lightly. I picked up a few and Allan got into a few more casting out closer to shore using his own salted blue bait.
(Allan baiting up with his light spin outfit)
The weather did turn a little worse with the occasional shower making the sand stick to absolutely everything and generally making it unpleasant on the beach.
Still as I said earlier it was much better than sitting at home.
Graham also got into the act with another draughtboard which took his bait but basically just sat around like a lump of weed. As the weather cools even more these will make there presence felt even more which will mean that the jewfish in the Yarra will soon be on the list of targets.
(Graham with another draughtboard)
The ever present Skate population made its presence felt with all of us taking them in varying sizes.
(Mick with Skate taken on the Nitro)
(Yet another Skate once more to Nick but this time taken on My TT Lite and his new 7HT mag)
Mick was enjoying using his new Daiwa 7HT which was matched to the TT Lite and casting 150 gram grip leads on a pulley rig.
The night wasn’t only taken up with fishing as we had a visitor in the form of a red fox that first decided that Allan’s rigs were worth a look at and then afterward that the salmon heads that I was using for bait were a good feed as well.
(Fox sitting at the top of the dune waiting for his chance to come and grab some more of the Salmon)
It was interesting at how relaxed the fox was with us, showing caution but no real fear and he was quite happy to keep coming back to see what he could take back to its den.
One other thing that we encountered was the ever present threat from tangles as mate’s fish reasonably close together and gets stuck into a few fish.
(Allan helping sort out the tangle after yet another draughtboard)
Still for all the less desirable species taken for the night it was a great way to spend and evening with mates.
Looking forward to next weekend
