I wish I had a boat

I spent the weekend with my old man in one of my favourite places in the world - Marlo. We arrived around 4pm Friday afternoon and headed straight to the flats for a fish:



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!

Revenge..?

A few of you may remember my last trip to the bass coast where I got my ass thoroughly handed to me by some dirty big perch (for those interested, see 'Perch: 1, Pat: 0'). A year later I still hadn’t gone back, so on Sunday afternoon I decided it was time to whip the rods out for the first time in over a month and get some well overdue revenge. This time I brought some reinforcements with me in the form of my old man and two friends; one of which - Lara -  had never fished in her life. And of course my number 1, Luna:



We arrived at the creek around 4pm Sunday afternoon and the tide was dead low, meaning the majority of the creek was only 1-2ft deep:



After a few half-hearted flicks I made the call to head straight to the lair of the beast - a large pool that is more than twice the depth of the rest of the creek and filled with large, permanently submerged snags:



This is where I’d had all the action (and heartbreak) on the last trip, and I was hoping the monster perch were still hanging around. But the main goal of this trip wasn’t to exact revenge on my old nemesis, it was to get my old man his first EP on a lure and my friend Lara her first fish on an artificial. So when my dad yelled out “I’m on!” before I’d even tied a lure on, I was pretty bloody stoked:



A nice little perch around the 30cm mark, and my dad’s first on a lure. Nice! And while I was dicking around trying to take a photo, I heard my mate yell out that he was on too:




Another nice perch, this one in the mid 30s. You bloody beauty! I chucked out a cast in a similar area and on the first twitch it was slammed. Lara turned to me and said “I thought you said these guys were hard to catch?” and sure enough, just as the words left her mouth, the fish buried me in a snag. I waited patiently for it to swim out but when it didn’t budge, I decided to get closer to the water to improve the angle on it - bad move:



I was stuck, and I was having vivid flashbacks of my previous trip to this spot. By the time I managed to scramble out of the mud the fish was gone - goddamit Lara, don't tempt fate! After this the fish completely shut down (which often happens in these small pools) so I decided to do some exploring downstream, and found another large pool:



Unfortunately this one was shallow, snagless, and distinctly less fishy than the previous pool, and when the only touch I had turned out to be this miniscule galaxid:



I decided it was time to head back. On the way I ran into Lara who had managed to get herself into quite the pickle:



Welcome to the joys of landbased perch fishing ha! We dragged ourselves out of the mud and after some bush bashing:



We made our way back to the original pool. My old man and mate hadn’t had another touch, so I made the executive decision to head to a larger river a bit further down the coast (I’m sure many will recognize it):



I started making my way to my favourite spot under the bridge and found that someone had already beaten us to it – fishing pals Alex and Niroj. After a quick chat we started flicking around various hards, and third cast I was on to a little perch:



And two casts later, I had another:



After I dropped a third in as many casts I called out to the rest of the gang, and in no time space under the bridge was at a premium:



The boys were landing a steady stream of perch ranging from 20-35cm:




Particularly Maz and Basti who were pulling out one after the other from this snag:



But Lara just couldn’t keep the hooks in a fish, and after her second dropped fish she’d had enough:



And when the sun started to drop:



And I landed a toadie by the ass:



I decided I’d had enough too, so we left the fish biting. It had been a killer afternoon and although Lara didn’t catch her first fish on a lure and my perch nemesis outsmarted me once again, my dad managed to tick another species off the artificial list, and we’d all had an absolute ripper.

Cheers!