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Epic Weekend At The 'pin

benno573

By benno573
in Saltwater

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benno573 Rising Star

benno573

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Hi all,

After exploring a new area on my kayak two weeks ago and seeing a heap of good crab sign - as well as free walking muddies on the mud flats which is probably the best sign of all - a plan was hatched between @Old Scaley and I to make up for our last two dismal attempts at crabbing.

The area was only accessible at high tide so the plan was to head out on saturday to set the pots and then collect them on sunday.  Owing to other commitments, the Scaley one was unavailable on Saturday but was kind (or keen enough for a feed of crab) to hand over the keys to his boat to me for Saturday.  So I employed the old man as a decky and launched out of Jacob's well about 8am Saturday.

We snuck into the new spot and set our 8 pots.  Signs were good as we again saw a muddie just walking along the bank on our way out.  We went for a bit of a fish on the last of the incoming tide, unfortunately we were plagued by mongrel pike eels - mine was the biggest though at about 8ft long.  Given the tide was still just running in, I decided to do a quick check of the pots before they became inaccessible, mostly to see if I was on the right track.  Turns out I was, every pot had crabs in it after just over an hour in the water, we pulled 4 full-as keepers out of the pots and re-set.  We headed off for a bit of a fish, the tides weren't right and we didn't have the best kind of bait but we still managed to have a fairly constant stream of fish coming over the side, a GT of about 35cm was kept for the old boy's dinner.

Scaley then met me at my place at 5am Sunday and we launched about 5:45.  We shot straight to a yabby bank that was fast disappearing and despite a few pump issues managed to secure enough bait for the day in the available time.  We weren't yet able to access the pots so we went to one of my favourite spots to fish up to the high tide.  The bite started slowly but what was coming over the side was pure quality.  Getting towards the top of the tide things went a little crazy for about an hour and the final wash up was 8 whiting to 38cm with only 1 under 30, 2 grunter, a GT and a 34cm bream.  We then headed back to check the pots.

The pots had a heap of crabs in them and after sorting out the heap of undersized crabs (about 7 or 8 that were 14-14.9cm) we were left with 4 more very full keepers.  Not exactly the big result I was hoping for but at least Mrs Scaley would allow Steve back into the house this time.  A field goal in extra time still counts as a win I guess!  Interestingly, only 2 jennies in all the pots, the rest were undersized bucks so might be a good area to target early in the next season after they have all had another moult.

We then headed back to my favourite outgoing tide spot where I was hoping to add some more whiting and hopefully a couple of grunter to the already good looking esky.  The bite again started slowly but schools of fish kept coming through and we ended up with 20 whiting in the esky and another decent bream.  Despite landing a heap more, we were not able to add to our grunter tally.  Steve thought he was onto a really good one at one point only to have a different kind of grunting fish appear - a catty about 45cm long.  Steve again called a good fish not long after and a mulloway of about 50cm was boated - and then promptly released without charge.  I managed to hook an unlucky sand crab that was easily legal size so he was also added to the box.

Huge thanks must go to @Old Scaley for allowing me to both decky on Sunday and skipper his boat on Saturday in his absence.  It was great to have a day out on the water with the old man again, something we haven't been able to do since the good ship rebel-t left the family.  Hopefully the crabs were well received on the home front mate!

I'll upload some more photos tonight when I pull them off my go pro, here's one to get you started.

IMG_8097.thumb.JPG.ce1eacfb3b5001af1c81838740205b4e.JPG

Cheers,

Benno <'><

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benno573 Rising Star

benno573

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6 minutes ago, Drop Bear said:

Yew what a cracking trip. Well done. Do you have a preferred moon phase? 

Any time you need a decky let me know 🙂 or a boat for that matter. 

Big moons definitely fish best - full or new, doesn't really matter.  New moon was Thursday or Friday so there was plenty of water moving around on the weekend.

Any time you want to head down there mate - let's load up Quampie and I'll show you where to go!

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Old Scaley Mentor

Old Scaley

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It was a fantastic day on the water with @benno573.  Weather was perfect and we didn’t ever have to wait long for a fish to come over the side. Benno is probably the best decky around. He takes you to his best spots, manages the crab pot baiting and deployment, bleeds your fish, reties your terminal tackle while you throw another line out and rebaits your hook.  It is like being on a charter in your own boat 😁.  

The crabs were all full and made me very popular at home. My daughter has recently returned home after living in Canada for 14 years and had forgotten the joys of eating freshly caught mud crab. We ate 3 crabs for dinner on Sunday night and had the rest in a delicious crab and corn bisque last night. Life is tough. 

Thanks for another great day on the water Benno. We will do it again soon.

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Drop Bear Community Regular

Drop Bear

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17 hours ago, benno573 said:

Big moons definitely fish best - full or new, doesn't really matter.  New moon was Thursday or Friday so there was plenty of water moving around on the weekend.

Any time you want to head down there mate - let's load up Quampie and I'll show you where to go!

I'd love to. Pick a day next week and I will come and pick you up. 

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