Duration: 10 hours
Tide:Falling (AM) rising (PM)
Weather: Great & very calm
Bait: Fresh Sprats & Frozen Mack
Rigs:See Report
Results:300+ fish
Report:
With the curtain closing in on the Bass season and the weather taking a turn for the worse, my mood followed suit. Spring is a long time away ....
A weather window had presented itself and it was decided that Pat was gonna get the Wahoo wet one more time this year, one last throw of the dice for the Soft Plastics over the reefs of Kilmore was on the cards.
Barry, Crevan, Pat and myself were on the slip for first light, boat launched, gear on board and smiles all round as we rounded the West pier and pushed out into the calm morning.
Rigging up the Soft Plastics on route to our first location, sure the buzz was only mighty, I was in my element. This was only my second trip on board Wahoo this year... scandalous carry on!! It then came to light that some members of the Crew brought bait ... Sacrebleu !!! They doubted the pulling ability of SP's over the reefs this late in the season. Undeterred Barry and myself would not be turned, we would fly the flag for the lures
The fishing followed a similar trend that we have come accustomed to over the last few years, excellent fishing early in the morning, which then turns patchy as the day progresses over the neap tide.
As the tide ebbed it created a nice rip over some of the marks which is ideal for some good Pollock on the SP's We picked up cod to 5lb over general ground, hitting the SP's hard and giving a very good account of themselves. We picked up 4 Ling on the SP's, and lost some better ones when they cut through the 25lb leader with their razor sharp teeth. Excellent fight out of these fish on the light gear. Again I encountered a lot of Wrasse while experimenting with different lures, the lads had a good laugh every time I pulled one up.... It became ridiculous at one point, a Wrasse a cast for a duration
The fish seemed to be hitting above their weight at this time of year. Some fantastic battles played out over the day with a boat full of smiley heads all round.The bait the lads brought along was fresh Sprats averaging around 3 inches long and frozen Mack. These were tried in various ways; on jig heads/feathers/hokkai's/jigs/flying collar etc and the results were not good. The lads switched back to the SP's after awhile and got in on the action. They tried the bait at various times through out the day but it was not attracting much attention from any species on the day.
We encountered 6 species in total; Pollock, Cod, Coal Fish, Wrasse, Ling & Poor Cod. Quantity wise I reckon we hit a few hundred ( I didn't take many pictures - caught up in the buzz!). which brought an end to another season afloat for us. New Years resolution is to get out more on the boat next year!
Well that's another season over from the boat perspective. What fishing we had was of excellent quality and quantity.
Casting up tide of underwater structures and waiting for your lure to hit the zone is something I will miss over the next few months after getting the buzz back from this trip. If you have an opportunity to out in Kilmore late in the season either on a mates boat or a Charter boat I would highly recommend it
The Lure Boat season comes to an end for us in 2011.( More pictures available on the Blog)
Your next one could be your best one.
Danny.
last trip out paul bates was useing only soft plastics he had some lovely fish.but the largest amount of cod and all good ones was caught on white cod feathers baited with fresh mack [we only had one for the day]roll on 2012
