jon

About as long as that eBay link was

Hi all,
 
been a while since a did a report.  between a change in commitments on the home front and the whole isolation BS... opportunities to get out and about in any way, shape or form have been limited at best.  The forecast for Sunday looked toooooo good to ignore so I begged and pleaded and was allowed to disappear for a few hours for some socially isolated “exercise” on my hobie kayak.
 
i arrived at wello pt boat ramp at bang on sunrise, quickly rigged the yak up and headed out into the bay. 
 

 
keen to get off the donut early, I trolled a small lure out of the channel and had 3 pike and a grinner before the end of the leads. Not an illustrious start sure but donut avoided!
 
i headed for an area where other boats and kayaks were not, figuring even if the structure wasn’t amazing the lack of noise etc would hopefully lead to better success. I rigged up and then realized I had packed the wrong “medium” rod - 6-8kg, not 4-6kg. Not the right rod for working a plastic on a lighter jighead at all. So I benched it and pulled out the lighter 2-5kg 10lb rig and crossed my fingers nothing too big came along.
 
first cast resulted in a small cod
 

 
Next cast - absolutely smashed and promptly bricked and busted off. Bugger!
 
re-rigged, next cast and smashed again, managed to keep this one off the bottom and shortly slid the net under a corker grassy - ended up going 44.5cm on the lie detector.
 
shortly after, landed a Moses perch that was just legal but I let him go anyway
 

 
then things went went a little quite for about 1/2 hr, wasn’t even bothered too much by pike! Then in consecutive casts I landed a couple of nice pinkies
 

 
I fished for another hour or so but could only manage an undersized grassy and about 20 more pike. So I cruised back to the ramp and headed for home.
 
to the victor go the spoils...
 

 
cheers for reading.
benno <‘><

Well, due to all the chaos lately I’ve found myself with a fair bit of spare time on my hands, which can only mean one thing really... more fishing!.
I set out from Cleveland point at around 5:15am the other day, and made a beeline straight for the promise land, halfway there I was starting to curse Seabreeze for giving a dodgy forecast, it wasn’t quite the 3kts predicted, but still quite manageable in my 4.2 tinny.
Upon arriving at my destination I was beginning to have second thoughts, the minn kota was having trouble staying in the choppy water and the sun was just starting to creep up. I decided to persist and rigged up a 9” Z Man curl tail, I began flicking my offering around in hope of attracting the attention of a snapper, and low and behold, it didn’t take too long at all,  the plastic got nailed after the 3rd cast, and I found myself connected to a substantial fish, a short battle later and I had him in the net.
Feeling a little chuffed, and after a quick photo shoot, I sent him back on his way to fight another day, and then thought to myself, job done, now what?, keep fishing of course!.
I changed sides in the tinny and began peppering casts off the portside bow, and once again my offering got devoured!, this was indeed something different, it had quite a lot weight and began pulling like a tractor!, hmmm, this is definitely not a snapper I thought, as I’m hanging over the gunwhales with the rod butt jammed in my gut, and after a few good runs I managed to gain the upper hand, it came to the surface and I couldn’t believe my luck, a decent Jew!, this was going to be fun trying to coax him into my little net, but I succeeded.
I don’t know his exact size as my esky is only 820mm overall, needless to say he was hanging over both ends.
After a questionable photo shoot with size 11 hoof in shot, he was happily returned to make someone else’s day, this was fast becoming a very memorable day on the water, the chop that had hampered the minn kota had all but sudued, and the conditions were as good as it gets.
Well and truly on cloud 9 now, I kept flicking, and in less then 10 minutes was connected to another beauty!
This fella was quite well behaved and didn’t mind laying on the esky to have his photo taken, he too was in good shape and went straight back in the drink, this was getting a bit ridiculous I thought, but I persevered and kept at it, only to be rewarded yet again
this guy didn’t fare so well during the battle, so he ended up inside the esky. At this point, I needed a breather, I sat down and sucked on an ice coffee and just savoured the moment. After my spell I thought, I’d better keep going, and in no time at all, had another one in the boat!, by this stage it seems I had aroused the attention of a few nearby boats, I held up my quarry to show one of the approaching fisherman, and then speared him back in the water, only then to realise, I didn’t get a photo, bugger!, now now people, I’m familiar with the rules, if there’s no pic, it didn’t happen, but rest assured, the crayola have not made an appearance in this recollection.
So the tally was a respectable 1 snapper, and 4 Jew all before 7:30am.
It became apparent I was on fire, and couldn’t believe how the morning was unfolding, a quick trim up of the leader was required and I was straight back into flicking, and they just kept coming!, the school must have been huge!, and ripe for the picking.
This fella was a little unruly, and didn’t want his photo taken on top of the esky, he much rathered the carpet as a back drop, after the shoot he too was sent back on his way.
One of the boats that came over during all the commotion had a couple of old boys on it, and they asked me what bait I was using, I replied, no bait, just plastics, I hadn’t even gotten a chance to rig a floating pilly, as the action was just too hot, they were quite shocked as I proceeded to do battle with yet another monster.
I held this one up to show the old boys who were fishing next to me, and in a friendly gesture, asked them if they wanted it, well bugger me, I’ve never seen someone pull an anchor up so quick in my life, and in no time flat they came alongside me with a landing net hanging over the edge to accept my gift. They were very grateful, and I was just as happy. 
I continued flicking and managed another hook up, only to have the leader snap down near the jig head, I then realised in my haste to keep going I neglected to check the state of the leader, and it cost me Jew number 7, mind you, I wasn’t really that phased, just a little disappointed about losing the plastic I’d already boated 7 fish with.
As with all good things, it eventually comes to an end, and by 9:15am I made my way back to Cleveland point in some of the best conditions one could ask for, with a smile, and a feeling of accomplishment that will be hard to top for, for a very long time.
 

No one should touch them if your around and in sight, it’s more so if you leave them unattended over night

Couple of fruitful sessions there Sef, congrats on a thumping jewie, well done!

Nice one mate. Few good feeds in that one fish!

Been a few months since I’ve put the boat in the water so with some time off work I made the call to do a solo mission, over night out of spb last week. Headed across the bar around dusk and hunted for for some Spanish with no luck. After the sun had set I decided to find a nice spot to anchor for the night and set the lights on the water to gather my live bait for next morning. Got half a tank full of yakkas and three arrow squid so was confident I could convert that to a feed at sunrise. Decided to hit the hay but couldn’t resist leaving a livie out while I napped. Pretty good call as I nailed my PB Jew at 120 cm

 Mornings fishing was tough due to the moon phase and the fact there was  a million boats out there driving over my preferred drift lines but hey what can you do. Ended up with a couple of squire and a few Moses perch for my efforts.
Decided to have another crack  With my mate two days later but this time no over nighter. Got up at birds fart and ran my pots on the way to the bar. Got our bag of small squire in a short period of time but unfortunately nothing with any size about it spent next few hours for some random reefies and then made the call to go and check the pots. All in all was a great weather and a pretty tasty feed too!

 

Been a few months since I’ve put the boat in the water so with some time off work I made the call to do a solo mission, over night out of spb last week. Headed across the bar around dusk and hunted for for some Spanish with no luck. After the sun had set I decided to find a nice spot to anchor for the night and set the lights on the water to gather my live bait for next morning. Got half a tank full of yakkas and three arrow squid so was confident I could convert that to a feed at sunrise. Decided to hit the hay but couldn’t resist leaving a livie out while I napped. Pretty good call as I nailed my PB Jew at 120 cm

 Mornings fishing was tough due to the moon phase and the fact there was  a million boats out there driving over my preferred drift lines but hey what can you do. Ended up with a couple of squire and a few Moses perch for my efforts.
Decided to have another crack  With my mate two days later but this time no over nighter. Got up at birds fart and ran my pots on the way to the bar. Got our bag of small squire in a short period of time but unfortunately nothing with any size about it spent next few hours for some random reefies and then made the call to go and check the pots. All in all was a great weather and a pretty tasty feed too!

 

Yeah port can be real bad for pot tampering. The first green marker just out from the ramp is a good place to drop one for the odd sandy. A fair hike in a kayak but straight out and head right to the other side there is a few creeks and drains that will get muddies if pots are left a few metres back from the mouths. Beware if you see some pro pots in the water as I’m not sure if he still works this area but the dirty dog has a habbit of checking recko pots and slashing them rendering them useless. Good luck

Cheers mate, going off your reports you’ll be catching plenty of stonkas in no time. Especially once you have access to a boat. I like reading your reports because many moons ago I started off spending plenty years of brissy river bank fishing hunting sharks, threadfin and  bream-too!

No lol, truth be told it may have took two rude awakenings from my precious slumber due to pesky grey suits but the third time was a charm. Gotta love being solo and wanting to take a good photo in the boat, but ended up just bleeding it and rocking off to sleep with the slight sense of satisfaction

Been a few months since I’ve put the boat in the water so with some time off work I made the call to do a solo mission, over night out of spb last week. Headed across the bar around dusk and hunted for for some Spanish with no luck. After the sun had set I decided to find a nice spot to anchor for the night and set the lights on the water to gather my live bait for next morning. Got half a tank full of yakkas and three arrow squid so was confident I could convert that to a feed at sunrise. Decided to hit the hay but couldn’t resist leaving a livie out while I napped. Pretty good call as I nailed my PB Jew at 120 cm

 Mornings fishing was tough due to the moon phase and the fact there was  a million boats out there driving over my preferred drift lines but hey what can you do. Ended up with a couple of squire and a few Moses perch for my efforts.
Decided to have another crack  With my mate two days later but this time no over nighter. Got up at birds fart and ran my pots on the way to the bar. Got our bag of small squire in a short period of time but unfortunately nothing with any size about it spent next few hours for some random reefies and then made the call to go and check the pots. All in all was a great weather and a pretty tasty feed too!

 

No lol, truth be told it may have took two rude awakenings from my precious slumber due to pesky grey suits but the third time was a charm. Gotta love being solo and wanting to take a good photo in the boat, but ended up just bleeding it and rocking off to sleep with the slight sense of satisfaction

Yeah port can be real bad for pot tampering. The first green marker just out from the ramp is a good place to drop one for the odd sandy. A fair hike in a kayak but straight out and head right to the other side there is a few creeks and drains that will get muddies if pots are left a few metres back from the mouths. Beware if you see some pro pots in the water as I’m not sure if he still works this area but the dirty dog has a habbit of checking recko pots and slashing them rendering them useless. Good luck

Cheers mate, going off your reports you’ll be catching plenty of stonkas in no time. Especially once you have access to a boat. I like reading your reports because many moons ago I started off spending plenty years of brissy river bank fishing hunting sharks, threadfin and  bream-too!

Been a few months since I’ve put the boat in the water so with some time off work I made the call to do a solo mission, over night out of spb last week. Headed across the bar around dusk and hunted for for some Spanish with no luck. After the sun had set I decided to find a nice spot to anchor for the night and set the lights on the water to gather my live bait for next morning. Got half a tank full of yakkas and three arrow squid so was confident I could convert that to a feed at sunrise. Decided to hit the hay but couldn’t resist leaving a livie out while I napped. Pretty good call as I nailed my PB Jew at 120 cm

 Mornings fishing was tough due to the moon phase and the fact there was  a million boats out there driving over my preferred drift lines but hey what can you do. Ended up with a couple of squire and a few Moses perch for my efforts.
Decided to have another crack  With my mate two days later but this time no over nighter. Got up at birds fart and ran my pots on the way to the bar. Got our bag of small squire in a short period of time but unfortunately nothing with any size about it spent next few hours for some random reefies and then made the call to go and check the pots. All in all was a great weather and a pretty tasty feed too!

 

Been a few months since I’ve put the boat in the water so with some time off work I made the call to do a solo mission, over night out of spb last week. Headed across the bar around dusk and hunted for for some Spanish with no luck. After the sun had set I decided to find a nice spot to anchor for the night and set the lights on the water to gather my live bait for next morning. Got half a tank full of yakkas and three arrow squid so was confident I could convert that to a feed at sunrise. Decided to hit the hay but couldn’t resist leaving a livie out while I napped. Pretty good call as I nailed my PB Jew at 120 cm

 Mornings fishing was tough due to the moon phase and the fact there was  a million boats out there driving over my preferred drift lines but hey what can you do. Ended up with a couple of squire and a few Moses perch for my efforts.
Decided to have another crack  With my mate two days later but this time no over nighter. Got up at birds fart and ran my pots on the way to the bar. Got our bag of small squire in a short period of time but unfortunately nothing with any size about it spent next few hours for some random reefies and then made the call to go and check the pots. All in all was a great weather and a pretty tasty feed too!

 

Cheers mate, going off your reports you’ll be catching plenty of stonkas in no time. Especially once you have access to a boat. I like reading your reports because many moons ago I started off spending plenty years of brissy river bank fishing hunting sharks, threadfin and  bream-too!

Hi jon
Great job on the PB, that is a bloody massive jewie! It doubles my PB, LOL. 🙂 How good/long was the fight?
There are some nice snaps and moses as well as the pearlie and cod. Great feed of sandies too.
I dream to be able to catch that many fish one day in the bay, hopefully I'll have a job at 14 then I can buy a small tinny when I'm 16 and start trying to take it out on the bay (probably capsizing or sinking in the process😉).  
Cheers Hamish

No lol, truth be told it may have took two rude awakenings from my precious slumber due to pesky grey suits but the third time was a charm. Gotta love being solo and wanting to take a good photo in the boat, but ended up just bleeding it and rocking off to sleep with the slight sense of satisfaction

Been a few months since I’ve put the boat in the water so with some time off work I made the call to do a solo mission, over night out of spb last week. Headed across the bar around dusk and hunted for for some Spanish with no luck. After the sun had set I decided to find a nice spot to anchor for the night and set the lights on the water to gather my live bait for next morning. Got half a tank full of yakkas and three arrow squid so was confident I could convert that to a feed at sunrise. Decided to hit the hay but couldn’t resist leaving a livie out while I napped. Pretty good call as I nailed my PB Jew at 120 cm

 Mornings fishing was tough due to the moon phase and the fact there was  a million boats out there driving over my preferred drift lines but hey what can you do. Ended up with a couple of squire and a few Moses perch for my efforts.
Decided to have another crack  With my mate two days later but this time no over nighter. Got up at birds fart and ran my pots on the way to the bar. Got our bag of small squire in a short period of time but unfortunately nothing with any size about it spent next few hours for some random reefies and then made the call to go and check the pots. All in all was a great weather and a pretty tasty feed too!

 

Been a few months since I’ve put the boat in the water so with some time off work I made the call to do a solo mission, over night out of spb last week. Headed across the bar around dusk and hunted for for some Spanish with no luck. After the sun had set I decided to find a nice spot to anchor for the night and set the lights on the water to gather my live bait for next morning. Got half a tank full of yakkas and three arrow squid so was confident I could convert that to a feed at sunrise. Decided to hit the hay but couldn’t resist leaving a livie out while I napped. Pretty good call as I nailed my PB Jew at 120 cm

 Mornings fishing was tough due to the moon phase and the fact there was  a million boats out there driving over my preferred drift lines but hey what can you do. Ended up with a couple of squire and a few Moses perch for my efforts.
Decided to have another crack  With my mate two days later but this time no over nighter. Got up at birds fart and ran my pots on the way to the bar. Got our bag of small squire in a short period of time but unfortunately nothing with any size about it spent next few hours for some random reefies and then made the call to go and check the pots. All in all was a great weather and a pretty tasty feed too!

 

Been a few months since I’ve put the boat in the water so with some time off work I made the call to do a solo mission, over night out of spb last week. Headed across the bar around dusk and hunted for for some Spanish with no luck. After the sun had set I decided to find a nice spot to anchor for the night and set the lights on the water to gather my live bait for next morning. Got half a tank full of yakkas and three arrow squid so was confident I could convert that to a feed at sunrise. Decided to hit the hay but couldn’t resist leaving a livie out while I napped. Pretty good call as I nailed my PB Jew at 120 cm

 Mornings fishing was tough due to the moon phase and the fact there was  a million boats out there driving over my preferred drift lines but hey what can you do. Ended up with a couple of squire and a few Moses perch for my efforts.
Decided to have another crack  With my mate two days later but this time no over nighter. Got up at birds fart and ran my pots on the way to the bar. Got our bag of small squire in a short period of time but unfortunately nothing with any size about it spent next few hours for some random reefies and then made the call to go and check the pots. All in all was a great weather and a pretty tasty feed too!

 

Nice work again,  for someone of your age to take  such good notes of weather, tides dates humidity etc and keep records of them is pretty impressive. The more you fish certain spots the more you’ll start to crack a pattern. The makings of a gun fisho indeed. Keep up the good work! 

Nice work again,  for someone of your age to take  such good notes of weather, tides dates humidity etc and keep records of them is pretty impressive. The more you fish certain spots the more you’ll start to crack a pattern. The makings of a gun fisho indeed. Keep up the good work!