Due to road closures since New Year making beach access very difficult along the East Gippsland coast there has been very little fishing pressure on the beaches.
I fished Point Ricardo this morning, from first light until about 10.00 a.m (high tide), with four or five other guys. It was literally a fish a cast.
The salmon were schooling up within 20 mtrs of the shore break in big schools. Pods of dolphins were chasing them almost onto the beach while sharks were harrassing the schools just 50 mtrs out.
It didn't matter how you fished for them. Bait, lures, surf poppers, unweighted pillies, they were taking anything.
The fish were a real mixture of sizes, mostly 2 to 3 kgs, some a bit smaller and also quite a few horses among them too.
We kept one or two for bait, evey thing else was returned. There's only so many you can use.
I've fished the beaches for 60 years or more and have never ever seen such huge schools of salmon as I did this morning.
As soon as the tide turned the fish dissapeared and the crazy bite was over.
