It didn’t take long for us to discover that the estuary was still full of these annoying bloody micro tailor:
These guys are a real pain in the ass and make me extremely nervous when flicking around expensive lures. It took about half an hour and a handful of tailor before my old man connected with something a little more substantial:
A nice flatty in the high 40s - ripper. And a few of casts later I was on too:
A bream in the low 30s - nice! We kept flicking for another 20 minutes with nothing but more micro tailor hitting the sand, when suddenly my lure stopped dead. Initially I thought I’d hit a snag until it started shaking its head – bigggg flatty. This guy had some serious weight and I had visions of a metery monster, but when it took off on it’s first serious run my 6lb leader broke - dang. I tied on another lure and threw another cast into the same spot and was rewarded with this poor little whiting jagged through the stomach:
And with that, we decided to call it a night:
The next day Dad and I were lucky enough to score a spot in a friend's boat, but with the thought of that massive flatty still fresh in our minds, we decided to hit the flats at first light for a quick flick before our 8am boat departure:
Although the pesky tailor were still out in force:
We struggled to find any decent fish. At one point my old man starting bringing in what he thought was a stick, until it started to move. And up from the depths rose this guy:
An octopus on a hardbody – you don’t see that every day. And I hope I don't see it ever again because he was an absolute bitch to untangle. Anyway by this stage the fog had cleared to reveal a perfect day:
And after a quick coffee we were in the boat (and a bloody nice boat it was too):
We tried a few different spots around lake corringle and the islands, but we couldn’t get away from the tailor. At least they were a bit bigger than on the flats:
But still a pain in the ass, and when we started losing expensive lures, we decided to head up the Brodribb and flick hardbodies at snags. While drifting along we noticed a heap of fish schooled up deep on the sounder, so we swapped the hardbodies for vibes/blades and started fishing on the bottom. And it didn’t take long before we found out what they were:
Little perch, but unfortunately they ranged from small, to tiny:
After catching a few of these cute little fellas and a sea mullet:
We decided to head closer to the mouth and fish the channel. We started dropping vibes around and after landing a few more tailor and a couple of little trevally:
My dad came up solid to a bream:
Finally! But after that it was nothing but tailor, and when the local seal started stealing our fish:
We decided to call it quits. The next day we scored another spot on a friend's boat and after a relaxing morning (we decided to forgo another flick on the flats – I was suffering from a shocking man cold) we hit the water in perfect conditions at around 10am:
We didn’t have all that much time to spend on the water so we decided to just risk the tailor and fish the channel between the ramp and the entrance again. After sounding around for some fish we dropped down our blades, and dad I were immediately on:
A bream double first drop - ripper! Next drop our blades had barely hit the bottom when they were smashed again, but this double hook-up turned out to be a little less exciting (goddam tailor):
Over the next couple of hours we had a ripping session, working our way through the tailor to land a variety of species including trevally:
Tiny pinkies:
Salmon (geez they pull hard):
And some nice bream:
It was a brilliant way to finish off the weekend and firmly cemented my need for a boat. Big thanks to our mate Kim for taking us out - you’re a bloody legend!
Cheers!
