This spot didn’t look quite as bassy as I’d hoped, but after a bit of exploring we found some likely looking areas:
Now it’s fair to say that this fishing trip didn’t start well. First cast I threw my dog-x junior into a willow, while my dad went swimming to retrieve his favourite sx-40:
My mate Ash came and joined us, and his luck wasn’t any better (his lure is in that tree somewhere):
But we soldiered on, spending an embarrassingly small amount of time fishing, and a lot of time retrieving snagged lures and fighting our way through blackberries:
At least Luna was enjoying herself:
Eventually we came to a thick wall of marshy brush:
My old man and mate took one look at it and headed off in the other direction, but I could see a very fishy looking pool just on the other side of it. I battled my way through and eventually came to this tasty piece of water:
I threw my little presso under a snag and before I could even twitch it, I saw a flash of silver and something grabbed it. I came up solid for a split second before the hooks pulled – shattered. I peppered this snag with casts until out of desperation I tied on a chubby, reasoning that perhaps the fish had retreated deeper into the snag, and about halfway through my retrieve, something absolutely smashed it. After a short and brutal fight, which involved me getting chest deep in the stream, free spooling twice, and forgetting that my phone was in my pocket (goddamit), I finally landed my prize:
A beautiful bass right on 40cm. This isn’t a massive bass, but in super tight country and with 6lb leader, it put up a ripper fight. I won’t be forgetting my first bass for a while (I just wish someone had been there to see it!):
After releasing this beauty I went and and found my old man and my mate (both of whom hadn’t had any luck) and when the birds made their way to roost:
We decided to call it a night and head to Marlo. Unfortunately Ash had to head home, but on the way to Marlo we picked up my other mate Lara (she was in Lakes Entrance for the week) who was on a mission to redeem herself after our previous trip, and catch her first fish on a lure. So after setting up swags for Lara and I:
I chucked Luna in the back of my car with my old man:
Took a snap of this Vereaux’s tree frog:
And called it a night. Next morning we were on the flats at first light and were greeted with a beaut sunrise:
We waded out to a likely looking drop off, and first cast my dad was on:
A nice flathead around the 50cm mark – ripper! A couple of casts later I had a hit too, but after a brief bit of weight my line went slack – I’d been bitten off. I was pretty certain of the culprit, and when I saw my lure floating 5 minutes later with a fish still attached, my suspicions were confirmed:
Goddamn micro tailor! These guys are often in plague proportion at Marlo, and they're a total pain in the ass. I caught a second in as many casts, and Lara excitedly yelled out that she was one too. But on closer inspection, hers turned out to be a tiny snapper:
This was her first fish on a lure and I've never seen someone so excited to land a 3inch pinky. We wandered the flats catching tailor after tailor and it wasn’t until the sun was well and truly up that I had my first decent hit:
A nice little bream in the low 30s – finally! After this it went quiet, and we spent the next two hours catching nothing but hoardes of tiny tailor:
And even smaller by-catch:
By this stage Luna had decided she’d had enough of wading and went and sat on the beach:
But when my old man hooked up again, she was straight back out to where the action was:
And after a really solid fight, up popped another nice bream, this one in the mid 30s:
And a couple of casts later, I was on too:
Another beaut flatty around the 50cm mark. By this stage Lara was starting to get a little frustrated about her lack of a decent fish, but the weather had taken a turn for the worse:
And we were running out of time (I had to back at uni in the afternoon). We decided make our way back to the car, fishing a couple of very likely spots on the way. And it didn’t take long before I was on again:
Another nice bream in the mid-high 30s. We slowly fished our way back to the car until we came to camp, and I reluctantly called for last cast. Lara flicked out a perfect cast and after a couple of twitches her lure stopped dead. I though she might have been snagged until she yelled out “it’s moving!” and line briefly peeled off her reel until the hooks pulled. It was undoubtedly a big flattie, and she was gutted:
She insisted on another cast and I couldn't believe it when she hooked up again. This was obviously a different fish but it was still putting on quite a show, and Lara played it like a pro:
A really nice bream in the high 30s – she was stoked. We had a couple more obligatory casts but after no more bites, we decided to head home on a high.
On the way back home I got a text from my supervisor asking if we could push our meeting back by two hours. Goddamit - that was two more hours we could have spent on the flats. I decided to use the extra time to pop into a little creek on the way home and have a cheeky crack at a perch:
The conditions were far from ideal – it was the middle of the day, the sun was bright, and it was high tide (most of the fish in this system move out of the creeks and onto the flats to feed at high tide), but we gave it a crack anyway. My dad tied on his favourite creek lure – a carmen red sx40 – and second cast he was on:
A nice little perch in the mid 30s. Nice! We continued flicking, but 45 minutes and no bites later, it was time to call it quits. Lara had snagged her first fish and first bream on a lure, I’d landed my first bass, and we'd nailed the elusive Victorian trifecta - a bass, bream and an estuary perch in the same trip. Can't complain!
Cheers!
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