Quickie in East Gippy

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!

It's good to be home...sort of

I’ve just come home from a rod-less month in Europe where I witnessed some of the best fishing waters I’ve ever seen. Check this river in Slovenia:

It was FULL of big trout and salmon (this trout is chowing down on another poor fish):

All the fish in this pool were 3lb+:

And this river in Croatia:

Which was full of Adriatic dace:

The beaches looked pretty fishy too:

Ireland was ridiculous - every stream looked like it was out of a fairy tale:

And the coastline just screamed fish:

And finally Scotland - I lost count of the number of pike I saw smashing things off the surface in these beautiful lochs:

How's this for a trout stream:

So you can imagine that by the time I got home, I was bursting for a fish.  And when I woke up Sunday morning at 5am jet-lagged and wide awake, I decided to make the most of it and head down to the Maribyrnong with the pups for a flick:

It didn’t take long to discover that the river was full of 25-30cm salmon:

They were absolutely everywhere. A bit annoying when you’re chasing bream, but I was just happy to put a bend in the rod:

And spend some time with my pals:

I must have landed 20+ in an hour and a half, keeping half a dozen for gummy bait:

But when no bream made an appearance, I decided to call it quits. The ‘nong is a far cry from the untouched streams of rural Ireland, but it’s nice to be home...even if it is bloody freezing. I’ll leave you with a few pics I took of puffins on an island of the coast of Ireland.

Cheers!