Merry Christmas.

Has been a massive year for me and all who have been involved in the Yamashita Squid Series 2011, from all of us here at Australian Egi Tournaments we wish you all a safe Christmas period and new year. None of which could have been possible without our supporters Yamashita, Gan Craft, Shimano, Fishing Fever, E J Todds, Gladiator Tackle, Lowrance and of course all those who participated in the events through out the year. I look forward to seeing you all at the Grand Final at Queenscliff in February.

Mid January I will be in Sydney to conduct a few Egi seminars in tackle stores, will also be hitting up Brisbane for a day or so to do another egi seminar and then in Feb heading to Japan for the Osaka International Fishing Tackle Show and to catch up with a few friends then coming home to Melbourne before heading back to Sydney for some filming, seminars and interviews with the team from Gan Craft Japan before racing home to get all ready for the Yamashita Squid Series Grand Final so its going to be a massive couple of months.

WP squid and a bass straight cruise

With the bashing that we have been giving Port Phillip Bay in recent weeks we thought it time to give the bay a miss and head over o Western Port for a quick look around for some squid and give the boat a big long run, we launched at Hastings boat ramp and made the long trip through the port to Cleelend Bight in the Eastern entrance to Western Port, was a great morning for a ride with the Northerly wind behind us we made it in short time, found my trusty patch of reef and though out the sea anchor to help maintain a lengthy drift. First egi to get tied on was the Gan Craft 3.5 Pink Shrimp head. First cast saw me strike into a half decent squid, not massive but nice for the first cast of the morning. After a couple more squid it was getting a bit crowded in the bight so we decided to head for Cat Bay in the western entrance for some peace and quiet. I thought with the Northerly blowing it might have flattened out the conditions in Bass Straight so the decision to go off shore rather than through the port was made.

At first as we stuck our nose outside it was swelly with no chop, the swell was only a couple of meters high but well spread out so it started as a gentle ride, then as we came around the corner into the full face of the ocean it started to stand up a bit with chop of about 1/2 a meter on top of the swell withe occasional 1.5 thrown in, driving front into the chop and swell the boat ate it up, it seemed to love driving into the conditions. That said I was not going to be able to drive into the swell front on for long with out hitting land so the tac off to the port side was required and a drive side on to the chop and swell was required. although a little damper than it was going into the swell again the boat loved it and with 3/4 throttle just cruised through and over everything that I threw at her, we did the whole trip across the bottom of Phillip Island and cut between seal rock and the nobbies, now I had a trailing sea and although the boat handled it just fine, with the massive chines that this boat has the trailing sea was not its fave position. It still went no dramas but lets just say I should have brought a snorkel or a stormey with me as it was a lot damper coming back in.

Safely back in the port we had a quick cast around Cat Bay to land a few more before we decided to head back home with the 30knot North blowing us all around the place.

Great day out on the water and thanks to Dan for making the journey outside easier, you feel a lot better about going outside in a new small boat that has had a couple of small motor issues.

Morning PPB session

With the weather promising to be good again in Melbourne I had to take advantage of the conditions and get out there and look for a few more squid, although the threat of a strong ESE wind had me worried after launching the wind stayed as a straight north until about 1100 and then it flattened off to a 5 knot south east breeze which made for a nice drift at the end of the trip.

I arrived at Sorrento at about 0630 with mate Dan who has been on many squidding missions in this part of the bay with me previously, the weather was a stark contrast from Wednesday as Wednesday was bright sun with slightly murky water, on that day I used a Gan Craft 3.5 Red Orange Shrimp that is bright orange with a shimp pattern and because the sun was high in the sky I picked this egi as it was translucent which made the egi stand out in the murky water. Today the water was gin clear and the sky was overcast, so it was back to my trusty Gan Craft 3.0 Pink Shrimp Head, this egi has a gold foil with an ivory body and shrimp pattern with pink head and olive body, the foil was perfect for the water conditions and light and the contrasting colors made for a tasty looking treat for squid.

First cast and I had a small squid of about 25cm hood along side the boat, pretty happy with the results I kept working the same area to land about 5 more of the same size, incidentally Dan managed a slightly better one of about 30cm hood, only hung up by both candles he made the decision to grab the squid by the head rather than lift by the jig. I dont know how he did it but he managed to get ink on just about every inch of the boat and not a drop on him, he got the second wave of the water blast and no ink, after a bit or laughter and banter egi back in the water to land a few more. The area quietened off a bit and the tide was still low we thought a trip to Point Lonsdale was in order to cast a few plastics around and wait for the tide a bit.

With a quick stop at Point Nepean we struggled to get a nice drift with the stiff North blowing us in towards the shore at almost 1km per hour, bit hard to cast a 1/32 jig head and a whiting worm around so we kept on to Point Lonsdale. As soon as we stuck our nose beyond the headland at Queenscliff the water became calm and we were protected by the land from the north. We spent about an hour flicking plastics around for whiting but could only manage to harass a few Wrasse, we were a bit time poor as I had a some stuff to take care of later in the day so we did a quick bolt around to Queenscliff to have a quick squid flick, again first cast with the Pink Shrimp Head Gan Craft 3.5 and I was into the squid again. Only 2 more from the area and we moved back towards Portsea.

Similar results to Queenscliff we found a patch of squid landed a couple and moved on back towards Sorrento as we looked at winding the day up. It was then that we found a Honey hole full of small squid, my mate Dan was after some snapper baits so we took a bag from the area and headed back to the ramp. Productive day squid wise but only average sized squid, looks like we are in between the spawn now and should not expect too many giants until June so I am going to have to settle for practice on the small ones until then.

Brighton Central Angling Club

After getting out on the squid on Wednesday I had enough time to wash the boat pack up my gear and head to Brighton to the Brighton Central Angling Club to talk all things squid with the members after their club meeting, during the meeting it was good to see a club involve them self in many of the political issues surrounding fishing and boating and also was refreshing to see a club taking advantage of the RFL small grants program to look at the future of fishing by running a clinic for kids teaching them fishing fundamentals by learning on bread and butter species such as carp. After the meeting a raffle was held and the members kindly raised over $300 for Beyond Blue (the shed program) a great initiative by the club to support a charity that Australian Egi Tournaments has been supporting through out the year, was a very humbling moment to see so many dig so deep for a great cause.

Meeting and raffle out of the way a sausage sizzle was happening and members both helped cook and demolish the stack of sausages on the table, I then spent the next hour running through what I could about squid and squid fishing in particular the varied Japanese styles that I have been learning over the past few years, lots of questions and no one fell asleep so it must have gone down ok, was a very friendly club that made me feel at home from the time I walked in to the time I left, the club was kind enough to present me with a club shirt and cap which will be worn proudly when the moment calls for it. Massive thanks to Steve Atto for the invite and for promoting the talk.

Some cracking squid

A few people have sent me some pics over the last few days of their catches in Victoria, certainly some nice squid getting about

First one is Daniel Windsor who landed this beauty off Waratah bay on a Gan Craft Uo-Jya in color 24 Drunken Red Stop

Photo By Benny Reinwald

and secondly is Luke Scicluna who landed a couple of nice ones on the same color egi in Western Port, looks like this color is doing its job a treat.

Image thanks to Luke Scicluna

Picture by Luke Scicluna

Normally by this time of the year the squid go a bit quiet or get smaller in size but great to see some bigger ones still about.

Well done boys.

For full size images click on the originals and they will open larger.

The ink Christening

Well I have done a few hours on the boat since I got her but today I finally took some gear out with me as she is now run in, was a cracking day on the water with a slight chop early ending with a calm flat day on the bay.





Started off doing some sight seeing and playing around with the trim but soon settled in with some squid. Started in Rye in the fields but only managed about 8 or so average sized calamari so I headed south towards Portsea, did not take long but in about 30 minutes I landed about 20 squid, no giants but still with hoods to 40cm they were great fun. With a heap of squid caught and released it was time to make my way over towards Queenscliff to see if I could find a few bigger models, not a taker there so headed towards Indented head where I found a heap of small squid to 20cm hoods. No luck on the bigger ones I made my way to point Lonsdale to some of my old haunts, again nothing of significance so I decided to call it a day, stopped at Sorrento moorings for a quick play when these blokes came and scared everything away so I just put the boat back on the trailer and went home.

New Boat

 Well as some folks already know while I was in Perth I bought a new boat from a dealer in Melbourne, settled on a Carolina Skiff Sea Chaser 1800 Offshore, its a nice 5.4m center console with casting platforms and all the nice options, took her for a wet run yesterday to start the engine run in, although I could not run her at WOT she was very nice on the water, I am wrapped with the ride of the boat, comfort and performance, buying a couple of sounders for her today and a lecky motor in a few weeks.

A couple of weeks with Gan Craft crew Japan

I have been fortunate enough to spend the last couple of weeks with the great guys from Gan Craft in Japan, it was an absolute honor to conduct some egi talk nights along side the founder and creator of Gan Craft Mr Takanori Hiraiwa, something that I will remember for a long time, although the time went fast as it was a very busy period I had a blast and these guys are great fun to hang with, not only did I learn a thing or 2 about a thing or 2 when it comes to egi but I also learned a bit more Japanese in particular variants in dialects, I learned how to write Japanese calligraphy (kind of) and I learned that Mandurah is not just around the corner from Perth. Long drive for those who have not been to WA before. Met heaps of tackle store people and all in all was a great time. Sadly 2 of our guests had to spend their birthdays away from family and friends so we did what we could to make it feel a bit like home.

I hope they enjoyed their stay and I also hope we can see them back here for the 2011 Yamashita Squid Series 2011 Grand Final in Feb.

Pictures will say more than words so here are a few pics from the last couple of weeks.

And finally for the guys from Japan "Yanacoi mate!" and thanks for a cracking couple of weeks hanging in Australia.