Kayak Reds

[whambamsam]

Have been hitting the water with the new kayak recently, but haven't had any luck chasing reds.

So far I've mainly been fishing around fisherman's beach + the mussel farm around mornington.

Does anyone have any suggestions in that area for a kayaker to head to, and also some advice on what I should be looking for on my sounder? I've definitely had moments where I've sounded up what looks like a big school of baitfish and maybe some larger fish ~ so do I just stop quickly and flick out my plastics then?

[e.welch]

I am landbased so I wouldn’t have a clue but seb and other kayakers on the forum but all I can say is try different things

[Sebb]

Its harder now the water is warmer, the bigger ones go deep, try to look for deeper holes and pick a calm day so you can go further to deeper water without compensating safety. Best is to fish low light (sunrise/sunset). I'd rather fish sunrise into the day as fishing and returning in the dark can be hard/dangerous with boat/jetski also returning (and usually go fast). Be on the water like 5am.

Mussel farm / fishies beach is a good spot, my mate went there on Mornington boat hire tinny and did well last week. Caught a few between 30cm-45cm. Apart from fishies beach, I don't fish east side much.

When there's drop offs or structures, there's fish. I usually use the sounder to look for drop offs and structures, not really to look for fish. But when I move around and see fish on the sounder, I drop the bait/plastic. And use big bait/plastic. It'll get bitten by smaller ones but at least it'll stay longer til hopefully the big ones bite it.

Did that on NY day at Altona, in 6m water. Caught a lot of small pinkies on zman slim swimz with 1/8 #2 jig head then changed to a bigger plastic gulp nemesis 2/0 jig head. Still got tap tap and hooked small pinkies but less. Then bang! Bzzzzzz... But I lost it on the second run...sigh* would've been a good 40cm+.

So there's still chance to get a decent one, just gotta get through the micro pinkies and be lucky. Autumn is good too to get bigger snapper.

In regards to reading the sounder, big snapper showed up as big arches usually on the bottom. I had to read and watch YouTube on how to read sounder a lot, helped me a lot.

Good luck. I haven't caught a big red this season either. Only small pinkies and lost some big ones.

[purple5ive]

When you are seeing fish you need to mark them with a waypoint so you can drift back into them afterwards.
Snapper dont necessarily sit on structure either, they can be anywhere.
This time of year start looking in deeper water like 20m depth.
All the fish I have been catching last month or so have been on small gulp plastics in 3 and 4 inch sizes.

[whambamsam]

Appreciate all the tips guys - didn't realize the water was so warm already but the heatwave will do that hey.

Guess I'll head out further to one of the outer buoys of the farm and give that a go.

Might also switch over to some worm style plastics and perhaps target whiting at the same time.

With my sounder, here's an example of something I found but wasn't sure about. Was a bit confused by that steady line through the middle, but assume it was some bait or a chunk of weed drifting about?

[eddyt]

I fish off Mornington quite a lot too. Last few weeks seem to have slowed down a bit but I still got a few 30-40cm today. There's an app called Boating HD by Navionics with depth charts, use that to find the drop offs and you'll find the pinkies.

I think I have the same fish finder as you (Hook2 4x?) in 8m of water those don't look like big marks, looks more like small pinkies. The line in the middle could be a bait fish swimming around under the boat, there's a few small arches above/below it. They are usually yakka.

Edit: underwater footage from today off fishies beach. The fish finder was showing pretty much what you're seeing.
https://youtu.be/13DQFmhUlfc

[whambamsam]

I fish off Mornington quite a lot too. Last few weeks seem to have slowed down a bit but I still got a few 30-40cm today. There's an app called Boating HD by Navionics with depth charts, use that to find the drop offs and you'll find the pinkies.

I think I have the same fish finder as you (Hook2 4x?) in 8m of water those don't look like big marks, looks more like small pinkies. The line in the middle could be a bait fish swimming around under the boat, there's a few small arches above/below it. They are usually yakka.

Edit: underwater footage from today off fishies beach. The fish finder was showing pretty much what you're seeing.
https://youtu.be/13DQFmhUlfc

Yup same finder ~ and thanks for the note about the marks. Don't think I usually bring anything light with me for stuff like yakka, but maybe I should for the future.

Are you fishing soft plastics at all? If you are, what size jigheads are you using. I'm running with 3/8 ounce at the moment, and I get the feeling that might be too heavy.

[croe04]

I fish off Mornington quite a lot too. Last few weeks seem to have slowed down a bit but I still got a few 30-40cm today. There's an app called Boating HD by Navionics with depth charts, use that to find the drop offs and you'll find the pinkies.

I think I have the same fish finder as you (Hook2 4x?) in 8m of water those don't look like big marks, looks more like small pinkies. The line in the middle could be a bait fish swimming around under the boat, there's a few small arches above/below it. They are usually yakka.

Edit: underwater footage from today off fishies beach. The fish finder was showing pretty much what you're seeing.
https://youtu.be/13DQFmhUlfc

Yup same finder ~ and thanks for the note about the marks. Don't think I usually bring anything light with me for stuff like yakka, but maybe I should for the future.

Are you fishing soft plastics at all? If you are, what size jigheads are you using. I'm running with 3/8 ounce at the moment, and I get the feeling that might be too heavy.

3/8 is way too big, especially in only 8mts of water. Use 1/8-1/6 as much as you can, and 1/4 if you get in deeper water.

[whambamsam]

I fish off Mornington quite a lot too. Last few weeks seem to have slowed down a bit but I still got a few 30-40cm today. There's an app called Boating HD by Navionics with depth charts, use that to find the drop offs and you'll find the pinkies.

I think I have the same fish finder as you (Hook2 4x?) in 8m of water those don't look like big marks, looks more like small pinkies. The line in the middle could be a bait fish swimming around under the boat, there's a few small arches above/below it. They are usually yakka.

Edit: underwater footage from today off fishies beach. The fish finder was showing pretty much what you're seeing.
https://youtu.be/13DQFmhUlfc

Yup same finder ~ and thanks for the note about the marks. Don't think I usually bring anything light with me for stuff like yakka, but maybe I should for the future.

Are you fishing soft plastics at all? If you are, what size jigheads are you using. I'm running with 3/8 ounce at the moment, and I get the feeling that might be too heavy.

3/8 is way too big, especially in only 8mts of water. Use 1/8-1/6 as much as you can, and 1/4 if you get in deeper water.

Ah i should've mentioned, I'm usually out around the buoys so 13-15m.

[eddyt]

I fish off Mornington quite a lot too. Last few weeks seem to have slowed down a bit but I still got a few 30-40cm today. There's an app called Boating HD by Navionics with depth charts, use that to find the drop offs and you'll find the pinkies.

I think I have the same fish finder as you (Hook2 4x?) in 8m of water those don't look like big marks, looks more like small pinkies. The line in the middle could be a bait fish swimming around under the boat, there's a few small arches above/below it. They are usually yakka.

Edit: underwater footage from today off fishies beach. The fish finder was showing pretty much what you're seeing.
https://youtu.be/13DQFmhUlfc

Yup same finder ~ and thanks for the note about the marks. Don't think I usually bring anything light with me for stuff like yakka, but maybe I should for the future.

Are you fishing soft plastics at all? If you are, what size jigheads are you using. I'm running with 3/8 ounce at the moment, and I get the feeling that might be too heavy.

Just bait. Haven't had any luck with plastics yet. Except this one time which I'm sure was a total fluke, where I ran a big curly tail fish SP on a running sinker and caught a 2kg snapper.

The bigger snapper show up as thick arches or dark blobs in shallow water, it's pretty obvious even with the smaller transducer.