Western Port and Surrounds
4 April 2008

With Jarrod Day
See Jarrod's Profile here.

Wind, wind, wind and more wind, so much for raining cats and dogs, I think they actually blew away.

MORNINGTON
On Wednesday, Paul was down at Mornington while the strong winds blew in. Clocked at 135kmph, Paul said it was amazing to see waves blowing over the pier.
The Yachts were practically surfing the waves to stay afloat, see link - www.news.com.au/heraldsun/gallery/0,22010,5030731-5006020-14,00.html.

IFISH
Paul came back from the Gold Coast this week and reports some excellent fishing. To add to last week’s report, Paul headed out on Thursday and Friday to bottom bash some deep reefs. Using the new KOWAI jigs we just received in store, Paul managed plenty of cobia to 10 kilos and said there were plenty of them to catch. He also caught pearl perch on squidgy flick baits.

WESTERN PORT

RHYLL
On Tuesday I headed out with good mate Blakey off Rhyll in 12 metres of water. Using a berley concoction of pilchards and pellets we managed a great bag of silver trevally along with tailor, slimy mackerel and salmon. Best baits were pipi and Bass yabbies during the high tide.

LOLIA SHOAL
Robin Gray from Peninsula Fishing Charters reports catching plenty of elephants around the Lolia Shoal area this week. He said there have been a lot of very large females compared to males being caught. All fish have been taking pilchard and squid baits.
They have also been catching good numbers of Elephants from Gardner’s Channel on Tortoise Head. Whiting and silver trevally have also been caught in the same areas.

STONY POINT
After coming back into the boat ramp at Stony Point I spoke with another angler by the name of Marcus. He had been fishing out from Stony Point and managed 2 elephant sharks of about 2-3 kilos. Both fish were taken during the run-in tide on pilchards.

HASTINGS
Ryan and his dad fished around Hastings and the Middle Spit in 5 metres of water during the week. Together they caught flathead, leatherjacket and King George whiting to 46cm. All fish were taken on pipis.

MIDDLE SPIT
John Stuber from Challenger Fishing Charters reports good whiting catches along the Middle Spit this week. On Tuesday with 6 clients they caught 30 good whiting using pipi and squid baits.

PATTERSON RIVER
Robert Hendrych was sitting at Patterson River eating his lunch, flicking some pieces of bread into the water when he noticed a few bream snacking on the crumbs. After putting a piece of bread on a hook he tossed it onto the surface and hooked into a few nice bream with the largest measuring 44cm.

LAKES ENTRANCE
Allan Sandford from PD Marine reports excellent numbers of striped tuna at Lakes Entrance last weekend. Allan caught 15 stripys and also saw some much larger tuna between 20–40kg. He wasn’t sure what species of tuna they were (bluefin or yellowfin) but did say they were big fish.

LAKE TYERS
Staff member of Tackle World Cranbourne, Daniel Matlin and mate Troy, decided to head to Lake Tyers for the week on a “survival trip”. The boys didn’t take a tent or sleeping bags, no matches and no food; rather they decided to fend for themselves. Although they slept on leaves and in a small bark hut they made, they did manage to catch and eat plenty of fish.

Over the week they caught and released approximately 60 bream to 40cm, flathead to 56cm, tailor and silver trevally. Most fish were taken on salted tuna cubes, squidgy flick baits, and Tackleworld Blue Lazer lures also accounted for a few fish. They did survive the week!

BERMAGUI
We received a report from some customers during the week that purchased two of the large Red Rocket Skirts from us before heading to Bermi. On Monday the boys were trolling the skirts and had a hook-up on a striped marlin only to push the reel into sunset, busting off the fish and the skirt with it.

On Tuesday the boys had another hook-up on their other Red Rocket Skirt only to push the reel back into sunset and snap off the other skirt. After realising they no longer had the gun coloured skirts, they rang a mate and asked if he’d post his Red Rockets to them. I don’t think he did though. They also reported catching as many striped tuna as you’d want.

USELESS INFORMATION
The candlefish is so oily that it was once burned for fuel.

For fishing club presentations, drop me an email.

Good luck and fish hard,
Jarrod Day

See Jarrod's previous report here.