St Leonard’s Fishing report

Portarlington, St Leonards, Queenscliff
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soulstar
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St Leonard’s Fishing report

Post by soulstar » Fri Dec 28, 2018 12:19 am

Headed out to St Leonard’s on 26/12 (Boxing day) arrived at the pier 7:30pm good 1 hr before sunset! My intention was to chase squid so I had 2 rods on floats with whiting on spikes.1 surf rod which I used a pre rigged set up that had a poppy on it! I used squid for the bait. Another rod I used was my favourite inkvador from surecatch brand for jigging.

Within 1.5hrs my surf rod hit and I landed a table size pinkie. It swallowed squid strip while! Needed assistance from a friendly local who had a few goes on my inkvador and actually landed a small octopus! (Unusual but true) I

I was relentlessly jigging most of the night. To my surprise my floats did not get touched by any squid. Yet as I walked up further down the pier with my inkvador in hand I observed a group of 5 fishos having a laugh and to my surprise seen them catching squid one after the other. After they caught 6 or so they packed up and left so I decided to try jigging their.

I seen a school of trevally, salmon, gar fish, the odd barracuda and whiting. None took small or medium slug lures to my surprise!

I seen many squid throughout the night but I STILL could not entice any to latch on to my jig. I tried many different methods to jilt my rod, even used UV light for making jigs brighter but to no avail. I just could not figure it out! I had an arsenal of 5 Higgs I used some expensive and some cheap and used scent spray also.

Soon other anglers could hear my frustration of unsuccessfully catching one. So they moved to where I was and then there was 4 to 5 of us trying to land passing squid! A lot of people were asking for permission to fish next to me which I found odd! My response is always - it’s a pier for all of us to enjoy! I hope asking people like this isn’t common practice! Some people argued over crossing lines but hey...on a pier what do you expect...it happens! Had a few cross over my lines and notice some people get scared to tell you but guess it depends on the angler!

So, Only one of us was successful landing 4 over 20 mins! He used an orange jig! Then at say 3am they packed up and 3 others joined me in the fight! Well again their was a point we’re i could visibly see 8 swimming together! We put our jugs close if not right under them/over them and they did not even react.

Still one of the batch of anglers landed 6 right next to me and my frustration pressed me on to keep going hoping there was a chance I could go home with what appeared to be a predictable outcome! Sadly as the sun came up I decided to claim defeat, and packed up my gear, knowing the many opportunities I lost in landing a squid.

I drove 1.5 hrs home and slept (power nap) at McDonald’s half way to then return home and sleep for 8 hours. Still I woke up and had snapper for dinner. And experienced the taste of fresh soft fish from the sea! And remembered how fortunate I was to at least have caught a pinkie and not returned home empty handed!

Still I’d really like to hope it wasn’t me doing anything wrong! Guess it all comes down to luck at the end of day! Never any certainty when fishing

All in all St Leonard’s was thriving with life! The big ray that glides in the water to little banjo sharks swimming around! My next place to visit will have to be North shore rocks as I hear you can catch some pretty big snapper! We’ll see! Thanks for reading guys! :water:
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smile0784
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Re: St Leonard’s Fishing report

Post by smile0784 » Fri Dec 28, 2018 6:04 am

Great report
Something that just happens.
That's fishing mate
Well done on the 1 pinkie and octopus
Surprised you didn't get more

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Re: St Leonard’s Fishing report

Post by bowl » Fri Dec 28, 2018 6:09 am

I find at st Leonard's make sure ur jig is right on the bottom....you will get weed n occasional snag....but catch rate is much higher then jigging just off bottom ..
To many boats kayak, helicopter , catch a fish,catch a fish

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Re: St Leonard’s Fishing report

Post by StarrangerAU » Fri Dec 28, 2018 6:34 am

Good on you for having a go...
Like you my strike rate at squiding is poor at best... Listen to the advice, watch other folk, and hopefully the tide will turn for you.

Keep at it, and enjoy the challenge. (Oh! and good on ya for posting your report)

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Re: St Leonard’s Fishing report

Post by Lightningx » Fri Dec 28, 2018 8:44 am

Nice report and pics :thumbsup:

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Re: St Leonard’s Fishing report

Post by j_pap » Fri Dec 28, 2018 10:21 am

Nice report. Nth shore is good for Snapper, some stonkers caught there earlier in the season, from st helens to nth shore.

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Re: St Leonard’s Fishing report

Post by soulstar » Sat Dec 29, 2018 9:19 am

j_pap wrote:Nice report. Nth shore is good for Snapper, some stonkers caught there earlier in the season, from st helens to nth shore.
I heard you can get decent size snapper off the rocks in north shore. But though I have never been there before to know when you can go! I’m assuming you have to go at low tide when the rocks are exposed. But then finding gutters, deep holes ect would be another challenge for me! Also is north shore even fishable at high tide?

Only got a little bit of info from a local at the compleat angler shop in Geelong...

j_pap

Re: St Leonard’s Fishing report

Post by j_pap » Sat Dec 29, 2018 12:18 pm

soulstar wrote:
j_pap wrote:Nice report. Nth shore is good for Snapper, some stonkers caught there earlier in the season, from st helens to nth shore.
I heard you can get decent size snapper off the rocks in north shore. But though I have never been there before to know when you can go! I’m assuming you have to go at low tide when the rocks are exposed. But then finding gutters, deep holes ect would be another challenge for me! Also is north shore even fishable at high tide?

Only got a little bit of info from a local at the compleat angler shop in Geelong...

j_pap

Re: St Leonard’s Fishing report

Post by j_pap » Sat Dec 29, 2018 12:25 pm

Mate just go off the rocks at Mackey st Nth Geelong (T rocks) look up ya maps you’ll see it. Or St Helens. Or if you drive down refinery rd you drive down to the jetty/rocks at phosphate, can nearly access the channel there with a big cast. Theres another good spot but a bit hard to describe on here. Got a 9k banger there in October

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Re: St Leonard’s Fishing report

Post by Lightningx » Sat Dec 29, 2018 12:27 pm

j_pap wrote:Mate just go off the rocks at Mackey st Nth Geelong (T rocks) look up ya maps you’ll see it. Or St Helens. Or if you drive down refinery rd you drive down to the jetty/rocks at phosphate, can nearly access the channel there with a big cast. Theres another good spot but a bit hard to describe on here. Got a 9k banger there in October
Geeez mate that’s an awesome fish :thumbsup:

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