Date: 26-29/01/23
Weather: Friday morning was moderately calm, but it picked up heavily in the PM apparently. Saturday am was pretty choppy, but by mid arvo was almost glass conditions. Sunday am was ok but definitely was chop by 11am. All days fishable, but some better than others.
Spots: White Rock & Cliffy Island for Kingfish, and 40-50m line in search of tuna.
Bait: 7" jerkshad soft plastics caught most kingfish, but also snagged them on 180g jigs, and a chug norris nomad design popper. A Samaki Pacemaker 180D caught the tuna. Tried Halco deep divers and skirts too as we trolled for fish.
Catch: 12x kingfish (biggest being around 63cm) a 20kg Southern Bluefin Tuna, and a beast Snook.
Crew: Toon, Jax, Ross & Alfie.
Review: A dream come true. Wanted to do this trip since we were hiking the Prom at 14/15 years old. Finally did it and it didnt dissapoint. Left Mount Martha at around 4pm, and got to Port Welshpool boat ramp at around 7pm. Walked the 900m jetty and saw people catching beast flathead. Slept at port welshpool boat ramp. Departed at 6am to head towards Seal Islands. It a bit over a 1 hour trip from PW to white rock. Trolled around white rock but headed towards cliffy. Changed trolling lures to jigs. Ross hooked up to the first King on a jig and from then on it was on. Caught 6 kings and had a blast. They were chasing the poppers and soft plastic like crazy. Everyone caught a kingy, but no mosters.
Before the wind picked up in the friday arvo, we headed towards east towards camp (refuge cove). Trolled the whole way (2 hours) and didnt see much action until the 35m line where there was birds everywhere. Sounds a few tuna but they were not biting. Set up camp at refuge and bunkered down, ate sashimi kingfish for dinner and kingfish steaks.
Saturday headed out back to cliffy for kingfish. Trolled the whole way, very few bait balls or bird life. Caught 3 more kings, then decided to troll further wide to the 50m line. Hooked onto a SBT which was special, but had to throw it back because we didnt have enough ice!! We will catch him next time and he will be 100kg. Got back to refuge at around 5pm and had a swim in the 'surf beach' side of refuge.
Sunday we packed up and hit white rock in the hope of a 1m king. Caught 3 more kings none were legal size but they were awesome fun on the snapper soft plastic outfit. Lots of quality zzzzzz's. Got back to PW at around 1:30pm as the weather was shit late morning with chop picking up and rain. We wanted to go to rabbit island to check out the beach there and have lunch and play soccer but the weather was not helpful. Next time.
Distances: 209.7km @ 133L @ 1.57km/lt.
Rating: 10/10. Perfect trip. BCF'ing fun. Next time hope to catch a 1m kingy and get to rabbit island for a checkout. Must do this trip more often. Too beautiful camp spot and quality fishing options not to do this more often.
