Way out west

I have been trying to get back out west after a tough trip to Nelson a few weeks back so I caught up with mate Quy Bok Choi Van who is a resident of the western suburb of Warnambool and a handy fisho.

I woke nice and early for the 3 hour drive from Cranbourne in search of some Bream and Perch, I have caught a lot of Bream and Perch in my life but have not done a great deal in the west it has always been in Gippsland and some a little closer to home so it was good to catch up with a native (local) who had fished this water before.

Now I am not going to go into detail on the stretch of water we were fishing as I consider it to be quite fragile and not used to high traffic and exploitation, all I can say is it is a very picturesque waterway and one that I enjoyed fishing very much - yes I will be back.

We started in the lower reaches fishing the deep edges, with the deep water I started fishing with a DRESS Drepan Mini vibe, a perfect choice in the conditions. Well it would have been if we did not get plagued by small Australian Salmon keen to smash lures on every cast. Quy was worse off, he was using a Daiwa double clutch and the Salmon were all over him as he was not as deep in the water column. As it was getting tough to get past the Salmon we made a move upstream a little where I changed my lure to a Norries Laydown minnow, not much changed the pesky little salmon were everywhere. Quy managed a nice keeper Bream but it went very quiet except for the Salmon that were busting our chops on what ever we threw out.

Time for a change upstream a little. The whole landscape changed in an instant and the snag lined banks lit up with growth. It was like I had died and gone to Bream heaven. This is a very beautiful part of the world and I knew we would find fish there no matter what. We did find fish - nothing huge but plenty of fun for all.

I was fishing very very light with a PE 0.1 GOSEN Mebarin main line and 3lb leader, silly string for the structure we were fishing and I soon found out that it was probably not the best line choice for this area, this was loaded onto a Stella C2500HGS on a Gan Craft Custom Blue Series Cross Eye Rod. Suffice to say the loss of a few lures was imminent. Good bye to the Norries Laydown minnow, good bye to a couple of Jackson Trout Tunes and good bye to a couple of Dress DREPAN Mini's.

Darkness had started to fall so a quick trip back to the ramp was in order I thought I would get my phone out and film a bit of the water, I should have payed a bit more attention. Many fallen logs in skinny water and outboard will always result in a loud thump and a stalling motor.

Off the water on dark I had an awesome day out and will be back again soon enough. Massive thanks to Quy Bok Choi Van for a great day out in his neck of the woods.

Quick cool brisk morning on the port

With a break in the wind and rain earlier this week I decided to go for a quick session in Westernport in the hope of finding some above average squid.

I met up at the Hastings Ramp with old friend Dale, I had not used the boat since Nelson so nothing was set up or ready to go and
the night before I ran out of time so after a slight delay setting the boat up and getting gear ready we made the slow dark journey out of the Hastings Channel.

We headed north with Carlos following close behind as he had never fished in Westernport before and arrived at the quail bank along with a few others. Quail bank is a shallow piece of water the sits between Yaringa and Warneet, it holds lots of broken ground and lots of squid at the right time. The water varies in depth from 1 meter to about 7 meters so working out if you are set for a deep or shallow bite is the toughest part so I started in the middle and worked from there.

It was not too long and both Dale and I were putting squid into the live well, it was nearing the bottom of the tide and the bite had slowed down considerably so we made a short move to Tyabb bank. We managed a couple from here but nothing that would excite either of us. we made a few short moves along the bank but could not seem to find any decent activity.

I wanted to head much further south but the tide was coming in and there was a stiff north wind blowing - any one who has fished Western port knows what wind against tide can do to the lower reaches of the port so we only ventured down as far as Stony Point. We were doing it pretty tough down at Stoney. With the tide in full swing it was time to pull the plug and head back to the ramp.

Was great to be out on Westernport again, we managed a bag in less than 4 hours of squid up to 40cm.