Hot Box & Keys

Date: 18-20 Feb 2022
Weather: Warm Fri-Sat, Overcast Sun 

Crew: Dave, Dan HZ

Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly - Royal Wulff, Royal Humpy, Hoppers #14, #12
Gear Used: Fenwick 5w, 9', Orvis Superfine Cabon 3w 7'6, Sage Approach 4w 9'
Catch: 8 (Browns and Rainbows)
Report: Started one of the tight upper reaches of the hot box in the late arvo. Had a few rises that didn't convert to hookups. Sat morning had a quick poke of the upper hot box, then on to the main hot box, then over to the upper keys. Fishing was generally slow going. Sunday hit the hot box, and action seemed to be picking up. Be careful of wasp nests when picking blackberries. Found a geocache treasure which was pretty cool.

Report: 7/10

Ronnie's River

Date: 26 Jan 2022
Weather: Hot as Crew: Dave, Dan HZ
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly - Royal Wulff, Royal Humpy, Hoppers #14, #12
Gear Used: Fenwick 5w, 9', Orvis Superfine Cabon 3w 7'6
Catch: 5 Browns
Report: Tried a new section, needed to bush bash 100 m or so from the road to the river. Was pretty overgrown, so decided to go back to the road bridge. Water was clear, and managed to sight, cast and catch a few fish. Was very hot. Tasty burger on the way home. Need new boots.
Report: 8/10

Tangip

Date: 16 Jan 2022

Weather: Sunny
Crew: Dave, Dan HZ

Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly - Royal Wulff, Royal Humpy #14, #12
Gear Used: Sage Approach 4w, 9', Orvis Superfine Cabon 3w 7'6
Catch: 9 Browns, 2 Rainbow
Report: Absolute cracking day. Action was on and consistent right from the start, with first fish caught in the first 5 mins.
Report: 10/10

Jax's Snapper

 Date: 5/12/21

Weather: Fine and mild. Chop picked up in the middle of the bay.  

Spots: ifish patterson past channel and special spot near aquafarm

Bait: Silver whiting, pillies, squid, cubed pillies for berley.  

Catch: 1x snapper (74cm 5.5kg), baby gummy, 2x good sized flatties, 2x squid.  

Crew: Toon adn Jax

Review: Hit the ifish spot past the channel. Great spot. Need to keep sounding that area and find it for real. Then hit up my special spot near the aquafarm. Berley'd hard early on which i think brought the snapper. Also caught a small gummy and a few large flatties from this spot. Good area.  

Rating: 9/10. Promised Jax he would get his snapper before xmas - did it!

Overnighter

 Date: 19 & 20th Nov 21

Weather: Choppy arvo, dead calm night, mild morning, choppy mid-morn.  FULL MOON!!

Spots: Everywhere.  

Bait: Silver whiting, pillies, octopus. Chook pellets in tuna oil and Pillies for berley. 

Catch: A bunch of port jackson sharks, banjo sharks, flatties, baby gummy etc. Even a cormorant!!No trophy fish other than a moster port jackson.  

Crew: Toon and Ross

Review: Was pumped to hit an overnighter with Ross. Epic session, fished for 18 hours in search of the full moon snapper but no luck.  

Rating: 7/10. So much fun, but no snapper

Nov fishing session

Date: 1/11/21

Weather: 23 degreesies, low wind, relateivly calm water. 

Spots: Spoil ground at Mt Martha. 

Bait: Silver whiting, pillies. Chook pellets in tuna oil and Pillies for berley. 

Catch: 1x port jackson shark, a couple of pinkies, rod cod and yakkas. 

Crew: TAL fam. 

Review: Hit the good spot at MM spoil grounds where schools of fish swim through. Still only small fish though, no big snapper's coming through. Put a yakka rig on one of the smaller rods and hauled in heaps of yakkas and a couple of pinkies. Headed to the pinnacles to jump in the water. Fund day, no trophy fish unfortunately. 

Rating: 7/10. Great day on the water. 

Freedom Day - Port Phillip Snapper search

 Date: 26/10/21

Weather: 18 degreesies, mild to low wind, relateivly calm water. 

Spots: Mornington 20m, dromana reefs, mt martha spoil grounds around 18m. 

Bait: Silver whiting, pillies and squid. Pillies for berley. 

Catch: Flatties and banjos. 1x rock cod. 

Crew: Toon, mac and jax. 

Review: Hit morning with jax and mac, before the school said they need a covid test so had to drop them off at safety beach pier 2 hours into the session. then fished till 7pm looking at dromana reefs (not much there, probably best fished at night), and then mt martha grounds. spent a lot of time sounding this area, not a lot of activity, but the spoil grounds had a lot of schools coming through, bait fish and snapper schools. sounded a good school and anchorered right ontop of them, but they were simply not hungry. Spoke to a few people at the ramp too and no one caught any snapper which is strange. 

Rating: 6.5/10 was annoying we had to pull up stumps really early to drop the boys off, but then again spending a further 4 hours just by myself exploring the waters was great. no snapper caught though!!

Lockdown outing 6.0, 7.0 and 8.0!

Date: 1st, 2nd and 3rd October  Headed out on all three days!

Weather: Sunday 3rd was the best of the days, with the seas calming more and more. Water temp 14 degrees generally. 

Spots: Queenscliff, Portsea Hole, Symmonds Gummy, Yakka Reef, 20m wreck off Frangston. 

Bait: Silver whiting and pillies. Chook pellets soaked in tuna oil for berley. 

Catch: Flatties and rock cod.  

Crew: Various. 

Review: Did all the right things but no snapper!!! 

Rating: 5/10. No real fish.  

Lockdown Outing 5.0 - Snapper

Date: 26/09/21

Weather: 13. Relatively clam seas, slight chop.  Water temp 13.8. 

Spots: MM snapper, Mornington snapper

Bait: Snapper took a whole silver whiting. Berley'd hard all day with old pilly and chook pellets/tuna oil. Pillies and squid also used for bait. 

Catch: 1 snapper! 80cm, 6kg. Bunch of flatties, southern rock cod, port jackson shark. 

Crew: Toon, Jax, Mac, Brendon, Bailey

Review: Left home 5am, high tide 6:40am. Was pretty quiet fishing most of the day. Snapper caught at Mornington Snapper at around 9:45am. No fish at MM Snapper spot, all fish caught at Mornington Snapper spot. The snapper was a beast!! Took many runs spooling line. Without this fish, would have been a pretty ordinary day, but it made the day awesome. 

Rating: 8.5/10. Early season snapper - hopefully they start rolling in more often in the coming weeks!! 

Lockdown Outing 4.0

 Date: 15/9/21

Weather: 18 . Relatively clam seas, slight chop.  

Spots: MM squid, mt martha snapper

Catch: 0!!

Crew: Toon, Jax, Billie, Sam

Review: No fish! WTF? Made it difficult cos kids were being a pain.  Good spots sounded around MM SNapper spot. 

Rating: 4/10. Great to get out on the boat, but kids were being very annoying. Maybe i shouldnt feed them donuts. 

Lockdown Outing 3

Date: 4/9/21

Weather: 13 and cloudy. Choppy, tough fishing conditions.  

Spots: Ansetts reef 2 (still couldnt find it), mornington squid, mt martha snapper

Catch: 20+ flathead, 1x banjo shark

Crew: Toon, Jax, James, Elliott0

Review: Had to get out given it is the only thing we're allowed to do! Bunch of small flattie and a banjo. 

Rating: 5/10 - very difficult conditions, but enjoyable day. 

Lockdown Outing 2

 Date: 28/8/21

Weather: 16 and sunny. Slightly chopping in the am, but calmed through the day. 

Spots: Mt Martha Squid, Mornington Squid, Ansetts Reef, Mt Martha Snapper

Catch: 20+ flathead, 1x port jackson shark

Crew: Toon, Jax, Sam, Billie

Review: Took the kids on the baot again. Chased some sure catch (falthead) to make sure the bite was on. Jax had a field day. Poor sammy lost his rod overboard. So did Jax, but he caught it back after it sunk!!? WTF. Circled around trying to find any structure at Ansetts reef but couldnt find. Is there really a reef there???

Rating: 7/10. Great session, really getting to know the boat and electronics. 

Lockdown Outing

 Date: 8/8/21

Weather: 18 and fine. Glassy waters

Spots: Headed north towards Frankston to find closer squid grounds.  

Catch: 1 squid

Crew: TVB Family

Review: Screw lockdown. Still within 5km. 

Rating: 7/10. Sammy caught the only squid. Tough fishing with the kids to properly get a good session in, but beats lockdown anyday!! 

Port Phillip Bay Winter Session June

Date: 28/6

Weather: Calming through the day. 

Spots: Went to rye to chase squid, worked the grounds at south channel pile but only snagged 1 squid. then moved to Pinnance Channel to look for a gummy. No luck after an hour or so. Then trolled through some bait balls in search of salmon. No luck. Then moved to the east side of mud island to chase whiting and flatties. There were these weird bugs on our bait after 5 minutes, so pulled up anchor. Then went to Pile 1 in chase of gummies again and caught heaps of flatties. Then went to the middle of the bay in chase of snapper. Caught heaps of flatties. 

Catch: 30-40 flatties, 14 keepers. A couple of banjo sharks. 1 squid. 

Crew: Ross & Toon

Review: Awesome. Just awesome. 

Rating: 10/10. Would have been nice to catch a few more squid and a proper fish, but sooooo good to get out. 

Maiden Voyage

 

Date: Queens bday weekend 2021. Sunday 13th June and Monday 14th June

Weather: Sunday 10-15 knts, Monday 5-7knots (glass!)

Spots: Somewhere off rye chasing squid, then headed towards hovel pile in search for whiting. 

Catch: 3 squid, 1 lost. Poor jaxy. 

Crew: VB family

Review: Video says it all. 

Rating: 100/10

Maiden Voyage