As Phil had posted up that he was going to be fishing down Lorne way and was looking to catch up with a few people, I decided that I would take the soft option and fish at Eastern view as it represented the shortest walk from the car and I felt confident that we would at least get into a few salmon.
The drive down to Geelong was good with little traffic and after a short stop at Mario’s to pick up the bait I was finally making my way down the coast. The weather gods were kind with only a slight westerly wind and the beaches weren’t weeded up at all, or at least Eastern view wasn’t.
Phil had already arrived at the designated parking bay and we quickly set up at the exit of a nice gutter that I felt confident would produce fish as the tide receded as it opened up to the back of the breakers . I gave Phil the better position which would allow him to place his baits near the edge of the gutter were the backwash would be stirring up some food for the fish hopefully.
( Phil & his Threadline outfit )
I was planning on a light session and to that end had brought along my TT Ultra-light, HPR Super match as well as my 9’ HPR lure rod which I planned on tossing out some light lures on to the edge of the wash as well. I had the Akios 555 Shuttle on the Ultra lite loaded with 12 pound Ultima distance and the Penn Squall on my Super Match, on this was loaded 12 pound Ultima power steel. As is my usual practice I had plaited doubles to the 60 pound shock leaders. For rigs I was running a simple pulley on the Super Match and on the Ultra lite I was running a two hook clipped down rig and size 4 circle hooks. This is the rig that I use when targeting Whiting around the bay and will also use it during the coming weeks for the winter run of whiting along some of the rock areas along the coast.
(Me using the TTLDSM with the Akios 555 )
Phil was using his threadline outfit and had the reel loaded with braid and running a simple two hook paternoster rig. Baits for the session were salted blue bait, Squid and pipis and it was good to see that we got most of the fish on the Squid strips and pipis. We had a very enjoyable day and took fish on all of the rigs. I did send out a bigger bait in the form of one of the fresh mullet that I picked up and this was smashed by a shark that bit through the 80 pound track taking the 9/0 circle and a fair bit of the leader with it. I did try with wire after that but as expected didn’t get any further action as the tide bottomed out.
(The small mullet that was sent out for the bigger stuff - sadly not with a positive result )
(One of the small Salmon taken with the Spinner on the HPR )
We called it quits well before dark and are planning another session in the near future as I have just picked up a few new toys though that will have to wait till after the forthcoming comp over the Queen’s birthday weekend.
(Phil looking forward to the next trip )
Roll on the coming Salmon season
