Last weekend I managed to sneak away from uni for a day and head down to Marlo with my old man and fellow member Mazman (East Gippsland two weeks in a row…how bloody good’s this?!). I’ve been trying to get my old man down there for months to get him his first bream on a lure so that was the main goal of this trip. We also met up with GTShoon and his old man (who was also looking to snag his first bream on a lure), so between the 5 of us I was pretty confident we’d get into a few fish. Well it’s safe to say that the fishing was pretty tough – actually very tough. But through sheer persistence we managed to catch a few nice fish and tick off a couple of goals along the way…
We left my place at lunchtime last Friday and after a quick stop at uni to check on my experiment, we were on our way. We arrived at the flats with a couple of hours of light left and anticipation was high:
After mine and Pistol’s success on minnow patterns the week before I decided to tie on a double clutch, while my old man went with the ever faithful brown suji chubby. We made it down to the flats in record time and immediately started casting, and it didn’t take long before I had a hit:
And up popped the smallest tailor I’ve ever seen. We quickly discovered that the system was absolutely chockas with these little guys, and over the next hour or so we probably caught close to a dozen. Finally something slightly more substantial hit my double clutch, and I quickly landed the first decent fish of the trip:
A nice bream around the 30cm mark - not a bad way to start the trip. I had a couple more bumps (it seemed minnows were the go) and it didn't take long for my Dad to ditch his chubby and tie on a double clutch too. We flogged the water for another 45 mins or so with nothing but tiny tailor coming to the banks, but just as we were considering calling it a night my dad came up solid:
Not big, but his first bream on a lure. You beauty! I think I was more excited than he was – I was absolutely wrapped for him. By the time I’d taken a couple of snaps the light was fading, so we decided to head to the pub for a meal. We hadn’t caught many fish, but our number one goal for the trip had been achieved. And man is it a beautiful place to fish:
So after a good meal and a solid nights sleep, we were back on the flats before the sun was up and conditions were perfect:
I tied on a bent while Mazman went with a double clutch and Dad with a chubby minnow. The fishing was slow to begin with but just as the sun popped its head over the trees:
Maz had a hit:
Another tailor. We were hoping they’d disappeared over night, but if anything they became even more ravenous throughout the day. After releasing a few of these pesky critters Maz finally had a hit from something a little bigger:
And we landed our first bream of the morning. Only a little fella, but a good sign. We made our way up to the shallower flats and I decided to tie on a shallow cranka minnow, and it didn’t take long before it was absolutely crunched! And after a spirited fight this guy popped up:
A nice yellow fin in the mid 30s. It didn’t take my old man long to switch to a shallow diver too, and after a couple of casts his colt minnow was hammered by a good fish. And after a really solid fight (man these yellow fin pull hard on the flats) he landed his first legal bream on a lure:
You ripper! A really nice fish in the mid 30s – we were stoked. We continued flicking in this area for about an hour for nothing but more little tailor, when my old man’s drag started absolutely screaming! After a massive first run this fish swam straight at us and it didn’t take long before we caught a glimpse of an XL mullet, which would have been well over 40cm. Unfortunately as we tried to land it, it gave one more big run and pulled the hooks. Bugger! Oh well, at least Louie was enjoying the flats:
We had a couple more casts but our stomachs were grumbling, so we decided to head to the local fish and chip shop for some lunch. As we were making our way back to the car we heard a hoot from the opposite bank and watched GTShoon’s old man bring in his first bream on a lure – a nice fish around the 30cm mark. We were thrilled for him, and it was a great way to end the morning (unfortunately I have no pics as he was on the opposite side of a channel). Over lunch we discussed our plan of attack for the afternoon and decided that while the sun was high and the tide was dropping, we’d fish the deeper channels in hope of a big flattie. So after polishing off our food quick smart we went back to flats and started tossing around various deeper diving cranks and minnows. And first cast these guys started annoying us again:
The fishing was extremely slow, and as the afternoon wore on we covered some serious territory. Poor Louie had to do a heap of swimming as we waded across the deeper channels – the poor thing was exhausted by the end of the day:
We eventually came to a really nice looking piece of water, and lying on the sand was this big girl (she would have been around the 60cm mark):
No idea how she died – hopefully not at the hands of an irresponsible angler. As much as I’d rather not see a big dead flatty, it did give us hope that they were in the right area. But after flogging the water for the best part of 3 hours, we had nothing but tiny tailor to show for our effort. We were just considering heading home when my old man finally came up solid. A big dead weight with headshakes – finally we’d found our target! Judging by the bend in my Dad’s rod this was a big fish, but just as it started to peel some line the hooks pulled. We were shattered! We flogged this bit of water for the next half an hour but couldn’t entice another bite – it just wasn’t our day. As the sun started to drop we decided to call it a day and when I bought my lure in I noticed something on my front treble:
The smallest flatty in the history of the world. How’s that for salt in the wound (I actually think it was some species of goby, but a flatty is more poetic). So with that we decided to head home with our tails somewhat between our legs. It had been a great trip with some great company and both mine and GTShoon’s Dad had caught their first bream on a lure, but I’m sure my old man will be thinking about that lost flatty for a while. But I guess that’s what keeps us going back!
Cheers!
