Walking the planks

Saturday night I decided to do something that I had not done for a very long time. I left the boat at home strapped on my walking boots and went pier hopping along the Mornington Peninsula.

Since buying a new boat 2 and a half years ago I have only wet a line land based on a few occasions and that was generally in the fresh chasing Trout or Estuary Perch. Fond memories of walking along piers casting at squid and chatting to the other pier rats was something that I had taken for granted having access to a boat and walking that planks of the jetties again sounded like fun.

I jumped in the car loaded with gear and headed about an hour south west to Portsea. Being an Easter weekend there was a few people on the pier already casting away and a few with the long wonderpoles jigging to their hearts content. I stood around chatting for a bit before looking for a clear part of the jetty where I could wet my own line. I found a clear spot near the end of the jetty where I ran into Mr Barresi casting away with his father (I think) they had no joy but I thought I would have a crack myself. A short time later a mate Paul Anca Barton turned up with his missus Beck and the dog for a few casts. After an hour of casting and no joy I packed it in and headed back towards the east to Sorrento.

I got to Sorrento and wondered down to the end of the pier. The current was ripping through and only limited space was available for casting. I picked a spot and cast away for about another hour, it seemed no one was having any joy here either so it was decided Blairgowrie was going to be the next stop. Arriving at Blairgowrie we walked up the jetty towards the end when I noticed a mass of ink on the pier. We stopped and cast around for a bit. Anca was preoccupied by his scotch and while leaning over to reach it he got smacked by a squid but lost on the can retrieval he missed it. I laughed but then realized - hang on I have not even had a hit yet, maybe I should shut up!! Things did not improve, I made the trip to Mornington on my own for the last hurrah.

Mornington was its usual busy so I picked a place out of the way of every one and started plugging away, the water was dirty and the wind was up so I made a quick color change to add some color to the jig and on the very next cast I picked up a typical small Mornington Squid. I stuck to this spot for about half an hour picking up another 3 squid. Some folks had started to leave making room for me further down the jetty. There was more light here so I opted for one of my designs in Kuma Killer and see through red jig with black cloth and white print on the back. The next 20 minutes saw me land another 3 small squid. I was going to keep these guys for a mate who needed some bait but there was a family of 5 sitting to my right that I had been talking to that had been there for 6 hours and not landed a squid. I handed my squid over to them as they were leaving, six hours of casting should not go unrewarded and they were going to eat them. I packed it in myself and headed home after an awesome night.

It was good to gt back to my roots and stroll the loose timer beams of the
many jetties along the southern part of the bay, I will have to do it more often.