Bitspere River

Location: Bitspere River
Date: 19-May-2012
Weather: Overcast
Crew: Dave, Ross
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Lures - Spinners
Berley: None
Catch: 1 x Brown Trout ~ small
Report: Amazing part of the Bitspere River. Parked beside farm and walked across paddock. Waded in the water upstream for a couple of hours. Caught a nice little Brown around the island. Good little fight. Caught of a silver spinner. Dave also had a hook up, looked like a nice size but unfortunately lost it. Came across a run down, make-shift cabin up river in a picturesque setting. Plan to cook up fish next time at this spot with a nice cold beer. Couldn't believe this was the Bitspere! Will give this spot a go many more times.
Rating: 7/10

Stockyard Point

Location: Stockyard Point
Date: 6-May-2012
Weather: Overcast
Crew: Dave, Ross
Target Fish: Gummy Shark
Bait: Fresh Eel caught from the Yarra River
Berley: None
Catch: Nothing!
Report: Fished 4.40 - 7.30pm. Low tide at 7pm. Many reports of small to medium sized gummy's caught from here. The channel can be reached with a decent cast only at low tide. We fished this spot on the full moon. Reports of Elephant Sharks caught here the previous day. Amazing views, also a great spot to camp in the dunes. Glow sticks helpful at night time, pvc rod holders worked well. Wade in water as far as possible and cast as far as possible towards French Island. I'm taking a sea kayak next time to find out exactly where the channel is !
Rating: 5/10

Location: Sandy Hook 
Date: 5-May-2012 
Weather: Mild - around 15 degreesywogs 
Crew: Toon & Austin 
Target Fish: Blues and Stripers 
Bait: Clams and Bunker 
Berley: Chook pellets
Catch: 1 x skate, 1x plastic bag fish 
Report: Fished the high tide, full moon, sunset from 4-9 pm. Tried to hit that run of blues the year prior but nothing out there. Water was calm but no one was catching anything. Skate took a nice zzzz, zzzzzzzz, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz then bang, but other than that it was pretty quiet. Austin caught a plastic bag fish. It gave a pretty good fight until it was skull dragged onto the sand and found out it was just a plastic bag.
Rating: 4/10

Artillery Rock - Lorne

Location: Artillery Rock
Date: 5-May-2012
Weather: Overcast
Crew: Dave, Westy dudes
Target Fish: Salmon
Bait: Lures - Halco Twistie, Alma Pilchard, Alma Ghost, Laser - Red Head
Berley: None
Catch: 1 x Tailor ~ 1.2 kg
Report: Fished 3 - 6pm. Low tide at 330pm. Hooked up 2 good size salmon on Alma Ghost but lost on retrieve due to Salmon jumping out of water. Tailor hit Halco Twistie. Dolphins keeping the fish away. Be careful at this spot, fish around low tide only with maximum 3ft swell.
Rating: 7/10

Howqua River

Location: Howqua River - Between 8 Mile Flat and Ritchies Hut
Date: 21-Apr-2012
Weather: Warm and sunny early, then a little rain in the afternoon
Crew: Dave, Ross, Willow
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Lures - Silver inline blades, Rapala CD5 Spotted Dog, Rapala CD5 Rainbow Trout
Berley: None
Catch: 1 x Brown Trout ~ 35 cm
Report: An absolutely marvelous weekend. One of the most beautiful fishing spots imaginable. Ross hooked a beauty at our lunch spot but unfortunately lost it. Dave landed a nice Brown Trout at around 4 pm just after it started raining - made for a tasty appertiser at dinner with a squeeze of lemon. Both fish hit Rapala CD5 lures. Witnessed a medievel battle in the camp site on the Saturday night. Great photography by Willow.
Rating: 9/10

Just up-stream from under a bridge

Location: Creek, just near water outlet pipe
Date: 09 - Apr - 2012
Weather: Very cold, raining, windy
Crew: Huggett
Target Fish: Eel, bream
Bait: Chicken, lures
Berley: None
Catch: 2 x Eels both around 70 cm
Report: For gummy shark bait. Hooked up within 30 seconds of dropping line. Lost one on the bank around 120 cm...wasn't too keen on handling that monster though. Eels were filleted and coated with salt, left to drain in a sieve in the fridge for 48 hrs, then frozen. We'll see how effective they are as gummy bait. Threw lure around for 5 mins but too much debris in creek.
Rating: N/A

Berry's Beach Rock Platform

Location: Phillip Island - Berry's Beach
Date: 1st April 2012
Crew: Willow, Ross, Dave
Time: 11am- 2pm
Weather: 20 degrees, mild wind, big waves
Target Fish: Salmon
Bait: Spinning with an Alma Anchovy lure and a Halco Twisty
Catch: Zilch
Report: Just missed the change of tide. Huge waves. Poor form by all... Ross fell in a rock pool up to his waist in water (what a douche) Willow just took photos (reckons he's a professional photographer now) and Dave was just trying too hard (as usual). Awesome location, unfortunately no success.
Rating: 5/10

Phillip Island Tinny

Location: Phillip Island - Tinny
Date: 31st March 2012
Crew: Dave, Ross, Willow
Time: 7:30am- 11:30am
Weather: 20 + degrees, windy
Target Fish: Whiting, Pinkies
Bait: Pippies, Pilchard, Bluebait
Berley: Nil
Catch: 2 x Pinkies (undersize), 2 x Whiting, 5 x Leather Jackets, 1 x Senator Wrasses, 10 x Pooh Fish, 1 x Prickly Toad
Report: Windy as hell. Frustrating start, lost a lot of bait very quickly. Whiting took bluebait.
Rating: 7/10

Guest Post - Ross'old man

Location: Next to the channel marker straight of Phillip Island House

Date: Early March
Crew: Tony, Mario
Time: mid day
Bait: Pilchards
Catch: 9 x Pinkies

1 x Whiting

1 x Blue Mackerel

Report: Mackerel ! Cut into steaks, tasted great, red flesh.

Secret Lake

Location: Secret Lake
Date: March Sessions
Crew: Dave, Ross
Time: 5:00pm- 7:30pm
Weather: 20 + degrees, no wind
Target Fish: Carp
Bait: Corn
Berley: Nil - Did throw out a bit of corn
Catch: Min 3 each session
Report: Finally figured out how to catch these bastards consistently. Various size catches, had some great fights.
Rating: 7/10

Johanna

Location: Johanna Beach
Date: 10 to 11 March 2012
Crew: Dave
Time: 3:00pm - 6:00pm
Weather: 18 + degrees, windy
Target Fish: Salmon
Bait: Metal lures
Berley: Nil
Catch: Nil
Report: Nobody catching anything. Had good fun, though Johanna beach is extreme surf fishing...be careful
Rating: 5/10

Guest Post - Simo in Thailand

Location: Thailand
Date: February 2012
Crew: Simo
Catch: Tuna, Barracuda, Reef Fish, Grouper

Report: Went out on a couple of boats. The first one was with a group of people and not much happened.I managed to catch a really small Tuna that wasn't even 2kg.
The second time I went out was much better, hired my own personal boat for the day so the only people were myself, the captain and the deck hand. For the whole day it only cost me around $150 Aus! Amazing considering I had the whole boat to myself. I managed to catch a couple of nice size Barracuda (round 5kgs) while we were trolling. We also did some bottom/reef fishing and managed a large bag of Grouper and other reef fish that I am not familiar with. I would have liked to throw back the Cuda but the boat owners use them to feed their families and also sell them to the market so all good.

Port Phillip Bay Charter

Location: Port Phillip Bay - VIC
Date: 26th February 2012
Crew: Easty, Dave + Charter guys
Time: 6:00am - 11;00am
Weather: 1.0m swell, windy as hell, high tide at 6:42am
Rig: Running sinker
Target Fish: Snapper
Bait: Pilchards, squid, mullet
Berley: Mixed bag
Catch: 25 + Pinkies, flathead.
Report: Fun morning had by all. Pinkies on the bite all morning.
Rating: 7/10

Secret Reservoir - Victoria

Location: Secret Reservoir - Victoria
Date: 25th February 2012
Crew: Easty, Dave
Time: 6:00pm- 8:00pm
Weather: 30 + degrees, no wind
Target Fish: Trout, Redfin
Bait: Lures - inline spinners and hard bodies
Berley: Nil
Catch: 2 x Redfin ~30cm
Report: Really nice afternoon. Both Redfin caught within 15 mins after sunset. Definately worth putting in some time at this place. Redfin are a nice looking fish.
Rating: 7/10

A typical day in the tinny - '06

Location: Phillip Island
Date: 2006
Crew: Luke, Ross, Toon
Catch: 1 x squid, 1 x salmon, 2 x Whiting, 6 x Flathead, 2 x Snapper