Waratah Bay trip report

[Matty H]

OK, what a time to head off on a fishing trip...... Boat loaded and packed last Thursday night, left early Friday morning, picking up my brother in law on the way through Melbourne after his early morning arrival from Perth. Light traffic through the city courtesy of the virus saw us hitting Walkerville 11’ish. Conditions not boatable, so left the bay master at the air bnb and headed to shallow inlet for a look, suitably impressed and pumped a bucket of yabbies for the next day’s fishing. Early’ish night (for a fishing trip), and greeted by light westerly wind in the morning. Dumped the boat in to the smooth flat water off Walkerville south, and headed out to cape liptrap towing some skirted lures..., only for the bro in law to immediately turn green! Pulled the pin on trolling and turned in to the sheltered bays. First drop and immediately I picked up a solid kgw, followed by a pinky, but the crew was still green..., anchor up and back to the millpond corner off the launch beach! Well, fate smiled on me, with another 9 solid whiting in quick time, my brother in law pulled 1...., on my rod!
After midday 2 more brothers in law arrived and we loaded them in, and finally my stepson, making the boat feel decidedly cosy... We fished various spots with plenty of pinky snapper to entertain us, but no more whiting...
Headed 5.30’ish, huge day on the water, the beach skid and electric winch making retrieval an absolute luxury.
Great evening thereafter, quality steak, extremely good red wine, excellent company.
Next day lived up to the forecast unfortunately, heavy rain, high winds. Once the rain settled returned to shallow inlet for beach fishing where my stepson redeemed his donut from the previous day by catching the salmon of the day. The senior bro in law knocked up catching toadies...! Over the course of the day we kept up to speed with the escalating corona virus situation, and by the end of the afternoon it was clear that with one of the brothers in law coming over from Perth ..., end of the trip....., after 9 months of planning...., losing money we’d paid for accommodation...ahhhh! Anyway, that night involved some robust drowning of sorrows, with pack up the next morning and a very quiet drive home.
At least we got 1 day out on the bay, and we will definitely be revisiting this trip once the current situation settles down.
In the attached pics you can just see the launch beach over my left shoulder. The whiting size was solid, but smaller than I’ve caught in the past in Waratah.
Cheers, Mat.

[Sebb]

Despite of what's going on, you managed to have some great time catching fish. Good on you, well done. Big smile there
Sounds like an ideal place to fish on a yak. I might head there one day with my yak.

[Nude up]

Great report pity about having to cut the trip short

[Lightningx]

Enjoyed the read.
Great report and pics
Cheers