Big week ahead with AFTA

Every year the Australian Fishing Tackle Association holds a trade show giving the opportunity for wholesalers and distributors to show their wares to the retail stores and to launch new products for Australia. I have been to the last three (3) and have enjoyed them equally. This year is a whole new kettle of fish for me though as I am going as a Gan Craft Pro Staff to represent Gan Craft on the Australian distributors stand, Gladiator Tackle.

As much as I am not looking forward to the hours upon hours of standing on my feet I can never say that talking tackle has ever been a chore and I am genuinely looking forward to spending some time yakking with the many folks I have met around the country conducting seminars as far away as Perth and other states but also the local ones here4 in my home town Melbourne.

Last year all the big boys playing with the toys at AFTA

So my bags are packed and I am off to the airport again to head to the sunny (I hope) Gold Coast for a few days of talking tackle and playing with all the big boys toys that will be on display.

Western Port weekend.

Finally a break in the weather during a miserable Melbourne winter, I have been busting to get out for another egi bash in Western Port.

I made the decision to head out fairly late in the afternoon on the previous day so I had not organized a fishing partner for the day, my regulars were all off doing other things or already planned fishing. I have recently joined a facebook group about Melbourne Squid reports and there are heaps of keen people who have asked about going out in the boat so I put a quick post up offering a seat on the boat out in the Port. I checked back in on the post a short time later, Matt was the first to put his hand up from the responses so I contacted Matt and orginised to meet at the Hastings boat ramp at 0800 the next morning.

I was feeling pretty orginised, however, some one forgot to change their alarms on their iphone and it was not Matt, DOH. I rang Matt to let him know I was running about half an hour late.

I arrived at Hastings right on 0830 to find Matt waiting in the car park ready to hit the water, was not long after that we were on the water. Now when I say we had a break in the weather conditions were not perfect. From the launch location at Hasting things were lovely and calm, there was a slight breeze from the south which gave me some reason for concern as the tide was just starting to head out to the south which means as soon as I stick the boats nose out from behind Sandy Point things would be very different and very different it was. We had a few moments of airtime making our way south down the Port, it was like a washing machine in some places. I moved out of the deeper tidal water and made my way into the smoother shallow water for the journey south.

We arrived in our spot where I found Clint and Paul from the Bass Straight Game Fishing Club also trying their luck, from all accounts things were a bit tough, I could have run but the water was the clearest I had seen since launching so I just had to have a few casts.

It took about 5 minutes and I found my first squid, it was only about 15cm in the hood size and caught on a 3.5 sized jig. Not deterred I punched another few casts out and before long we had one of around the 1kg mark in the boat. Still not a big squid but better than the first.

We spent another hour in this area before I gave up, Clint and Paul had already made the move about half an hour before us. The tide turn was due so I though about a little place about half way up the port that would clear up for a while until the tide started to roar.

We arrive to again find Clint and Paul giving the squid a try but they were again struggling and were preparing another move, again I stuck it out for a while. This ended up being our spot of the day landing 6 out the 8 squid for the day in the area. It was pretty tough condition wise and Matt managed his first for the trip in this spot. We did manage one a bit over a kilo from here also.

I made one more move near Stoney Point and found the water was coffee colored and full of weed so it was decided that we make our move back to the ramp and call it quits.

Was great to have Matt aboard, always enjoy having new people on the boat, keeps things interesting and means you are always meeting new people with the common interest being fishing.

I had done a radio interview 2 days before, the last question I was asked was if I was to go squidding on the weekend what color would I use, I said that I would use a Gan Craft size 3.5 in Pink Head Shrimp and in every photo is that very same lure.

Last week on Western Port

After returning from Japan I was itching to get the boat wet and see if the big squid had made their way in yet.

I managed to knock off wok a little earlier than normal so a quick call to my mate Dan and we were off to Western Port to do some exploring around for some of the big squid that we would normally find coming into the bays at this time of the year. We Launched from Hastings and made the mad rush down to the southern end of the port to an area that showed some promise at the same time last year. We made it down though some ordinary weather and started casting.

Things were pretty tough going with only a few small squid around to entice, then a color change to Olive real shrimp to turn things around a little, a couple of casts and a hd a bit of line peeling, now it was no giant but it was definitely better than the smaller ones we had been getting, I though our luck had turned but the squid just did not want to play.

A few more changes in color and heaps of casts in between before we found another half decent model was on board. We plugged away for ages for not much and light was disappearing fast so a quick pack up and we were on our way in the dark back to Hastings.

Not sure what is happening with the squid this year, perhaps the record rain fall has something to do with it or perhaps they just aint ready to visit us yet. Persistence over the next few weeks with the hope of better things to come.