BCF'ing Wilson's Prom

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. 

xmas Snapper

Date: 16-17/12/22

Weather: Calm overnight and picked up in the am to around 10 knts. Water temp 17-18 degrees. 

Spots: Between Mornington and Frankston out at 18m

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

Catch: 2x snapper (63cm and 70cm) and 2 x fresh squid.  

Crew: Overnighter with Sam then picked up Harvey at 4:30am on the sat morning. 

Review: Caught 2 squid at the evening with sam for fresh bait the next day. Would have hoped to catch a few more but we got out too late and the sun set before we had to anchor up and sleep overnight. Was so good to have hot chocolate with Sam Friday evening, he was so happy to finally have his sleep over. Picked up Harvey in the early am from Mornington and headed out to 18m or so. Caught the 2x snapper just after sunrise. Good fight, good sesh. Wind picked up at around 10am so had to head back in. 

Rating: 10/10. Sleep over with Sam was special. 5/5 >50cm snapper prior to xmas, but still not caught the big one on the soft plastic. 

Dedicated Snapper Hunt

 

Date: 5-7/11/22

Weather: Finally the sun came out and the rain stopped. 19-25 degrees and calm water. Water temp a bit over 16 degrees.   

Spots: everywhere. about 160ltrs of fuel over these 3 days to chase snapper. Headed mostly towards frankston, but also tried mornington, mt eliza, and west side of channel. 

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

Catch: 2x snapper (60cm (toon) and 63cm ross) and 1 x 60cm (properly measured) gummy 

Crew: Day 1 took Hugget in am, and then Liline, Jax and Sam in pm. Day 2 Liline am and kids pm. Day 3 ross. 

Review: 3x 5am b2b days to catch these things. Went everywhere to find them. Day 1 was hardest. Couldnt sound them or find them. Some dudes did catch a 3kg one off MM in around 18m water. Day 2 we found them at frankston in 12-14m of water. Some guys caught a 5kg snapper around 20m of water deeper out from frankston. They were everywhere but not biting for us. Day 3 we found them at same spot we went to day before where the guy caught a 5kg one and we snagged one too. Then headed off other side of channel then caught the gummy, then headed off again further south and caught another snapper. 

Rating: 9/10. The final day topped it off, but to get out and spend 3 days fishing after it has been so bloody wet and miserable was the fix that was needed. 2/5 >50cm season snapper done. 3 to go. 

                                                

Baby Moon Trip

Date: 2-6 May 2022
Weather: Monday - Sunny no wind.
Crew: Dave
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly, Parachute Adams #14, Hoppers #14, 
Gear Used: Sage Approach 4w 9'
Catch: 1 Rainbows
Report: Thought I'd take a look at the little stream at along the property line. Sighted 2 solid rainbows, so thought I'd have a crack. Landed an absolute ripper, and hooked up to an absolute horse of a fish that spat the hook. Beautiful scenery, deer, wild horses, kangaroos. Guy from the cabin rental, a keen fly fisher, couldn't believe I pulled fish out of the stream. Said he's never heard of anyone even having a crack.
Report: 7/10

Private Lake - Victoria

Date: 24 April 2022

Weather: Cold start, sunny  

Crew: Dave, Parko

Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Lake dry dopper, Magoo wet
Gear Used: Sage One 6w, 9', Orvis Helios 2 6W, 9ft
Catch: 1 Brown, 1 Rainbow (Browns and Rainbows)
Report: First time having a go at lake fly fishing. Was very visual and exciting fishing. Will be keen to have another go.

Report: 9/10 

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!!