On Sunday I got a call from my boss telling me work the next day had been cancelled (you beauty), and within the hour I was on my way to East Gippsland with the pups for an overnight fish. I was cruising past Marlo just as the sun was setting:
I considered having a flick, but my rod wasn’t rigged up and there wasn’t much sun left, so I just enjoyed the show with my pals:
Luna is the most photogenic dog in the world - Lando is the least photogenic:
Once the sun was down we jumped back in the car and a couple of hours later we were at my favourite estuary. After a restless night we awoke with the sun the next morning and made our way straight to the flats:
I tied on a laydown and second cast, I had my first hit:
A cute little trev. And next cast, I had another hit:
A solid tailor – these guys are usually in plague proportions down here, and those sharp teeth have cost me many $$ in lures:
I kept flicking, landing a few more little trevs and some solid tailor:
Luna would come and investigate every time I landed a fish:
Eventually a few nice bream started appearing:
Check the chompers - these ain't no pylon-munching docks bream:
Lando is a real coward – he’s terrified of fish:
With the sun up I decided to head to the mouth of the system to try for some whiting on surface:
Surprisingly, it was dead down here. I didn’t see a single whiting (usually they are fighting each other for my lure – I guess it is winter). I spent most of my time trying not to squash the hoardes of soldier crabs:
Some savvy birds could have an absolute feast down there. Anyway, when all I could catch was this pretty bridled goby:
I decided to head back to my favourite little hole for a quick flick before lunch:
Now that the sun was up, I swapped my shallow diver for something slightly deeper, and it didn’t take long before I had a solid hit - a nice bream in the mid 30s:
I landed a few more tailor and trevs:
And lost an absolute monster fish that almost spooled me (Luna was very disappointed when the hooks pulled):
Before heading in for lunch. It's no surprise that this place is full of fish - there is food everywhere. Little bait fish:
Oysters:
And no shortage of crabs:
Anyway, I decided to spend the afternoon exploring a bit further up the estuary, which meant a lot of wading for me and a lot of swimming/reed-bashing for the dogs:
Lucky they’re absolute troopers. They were stumped by this big tree though (pun intended):
I eventually found a bit of deeper water, and landed my first flatty for the trip:
I’d been wondering where the flatties had been – usually they’re bloody everywhere here. There was no shortage of bream and trevs though:
I wanted to keep exploring up the estuary - I could see some tasty looking water not too far away - but the poor dogs were zonked. All the swimming, reed-bashing, and climbing over logs had finally taken it out of them:
Poor Luna couldn’t keep her eyes open:
So I decided to head back to camp. But of course, I couldn’t help but have one last flick along this little bank on the way:
I was curious as to where all the flatties were – usually they are the most common fish here by far. I thought the cold weather might have made them a little sluggish, and thus less inclined to come up off the bottom and whack a hardbody. So I decided to tie on a plastic, and sure enough it didn’t take long before a couple hit the bank:
I’m too impatient to fish plastics, so I quickly switched back to a hard for the last of the light:
And up popped something different:
A little luderick – only a little fella, but a nice way to finish the trip. And with that, I decided to call it a night. I can't wait to get a bit of time to come back and explore this place properly - it really is a ripper.
Cheers!
