KGW Gippsland Lakes

[Lightningx]

Short story short as prawn linguini almost ready ( remainder of todays woolies bait).Fished 10 - 1300 across in Woolaston. Dead calm and bloody hot for the first 2 hrs before a lively ESE kicked in around midday. Started off with anchor needlessly down and large house brick off the rear .Quiet start with only 2 kgw in the first hour on paternostered prawn. No drift at all so moved about a bit without anchoring....No ripple either so was able to differentiate sand patches from weed areas today . Eventually found a nice looking clear area in 2 m and bagged out in about an hour and thats with a good un dropped at the boat, as too lazy to net, another good un departed with a new paternoster rig, as the line parted for some unknown reason, and 3 around 30 cm returned. Sizes varied today with the average coming down from 38 nearer to 34 or so. Most donated to happy neighbours hence the reason for keeping a few smaller ones early on as I wasn't expecting such a productive trip.
Tight Lines
Pirkz

That’s a very nice catch mate!
Nice of you to give some to your neighbours as well
Cheers

[re-tyred]

Seeing they are getting a bit patchy south side of Flanagan island I decided to try Metung area today.Towed the boat to Metung. Tried Wollaston bay for a start
Couldn't get a bite, so headed back to South side of Shaving poi t channel. First cast and away we go. constant bites but plenty of Toadies stealing the bait. By 10am I had 14 big ones. Headed in and left them biting.

[denis barden]

Good Katck
Massive Toadies at St Leonards and heaps of
Dont mind as where there are Toadies and Skates there is Whiting

[Pirkz]

A day of two halves as I also fished Wollaston and had my best day to date. Had to fish 50 m west of my planned mark today as someone had beaten me to it . But thats fishing. So feeling a little less expectant and a bit miffed, I randomly dropped anchor and the trusty house brick in 2m and opted for a float rig fished at about 1.8m as over weed according to the sounder ( water too murky to see anything).Lines in at 9:55 precisely and bugger me 9:56 a bite, a good scrap on the 10 ft float rod and a solid KGW at around 38cm joins the ice slurry in the esky. Rebait, cast, bite, strike, miss, repeat a couple of times until its slightly bigger mate joins it. T and biccies will have to wait. By 1030 I had 15 in the bag (great sport watching a float slide away and using the light gear) and was looking at an early doors exit due to an impending bag limit. Buuuuut....and there's often a But.........1130 saw me still chasing no 17 (although a few around 32 had been returned) and it wasnt till 12:29 and a half that No 20 finally came aboard. - a nice 40 to finish on. All good fish including 2 scraping 43 (PB) and several over 40 on float fished discounted Woolies prawn. Noticed that the other boat had had very little action and they came over around fish no 5 and anchored up 20 m below me. By fish No 10 still nowt and he moved away across the Bay only to return an hour later to see how I was doing and on my invite anchored up 10 m abeam. Hed been using mussel all morning for a few here and there, but with no prawn aboard had had nothing since my arrival. So I threw him some over in an empty plastic Raymond Island honey pot and left him catching after I hit No 20. Decided to head and gut a few at the ramp as the pelicans were expecting something and then did a tour of the estate, boat still attached, to give away a few fish that had been promised on various dog walks... hence only 12 in the pic. So another excellent KGW day on the local lakes and good to see healthy, chunky monkey, quality fish this early in the season , and widespread through their usual haunts. I think most readers will be well aware of all things KGW regarding what, where, when, and how by now, so shall minimise future posts as hopefully it will be Same Ole Same Ole...... buuuut ....there again, probably, read "definitely maybe"... Not!
Tight Lines
Pirkz

[snapflat]

Wow!

Amazing catch sizes there Pirkz. What a privilege that normally keepers at 32 cm is good to throw back - but also really great to be returning the soon-to-be big ones. We have had more success on pipis than prawns - not been using mussels this season yet. Mostly been getting hit by random juvenile salmon though, which makes the bait/catch ratio a bit expensive

[Pirkz]

snapflat yep I was pleasantly surprised as it bodes well for the future of a potentially very good KGW fishery. I remember the excitement of catching my very first KGW only 2 years ago off Nyerimilang (after reading this forum),it measured 28 and was kept! These days now I am privileged to live in Paynesville and with plenty of practice, (with some days more productive than others) be able to catch and release some good size fish. In fact no 21 from the post above was 38 and released. Re bait I use woolies banana prawns sold for the table (not as bait) and although expensive ($20-26 KG) used in small bits on a size 6 or 8 circle hook last a few sessions and seem to pay off.
Tight Lines
Pirkz

[Geoffski]

Well done Pirkz
I've never caught KGW under a float. Would you mind explaining your rig?
Thinks in anticipation.

[Lightningx]

A day of two halves as I also fished Wollaston and had my best day to date. Had to fish 50 m west of my planned mark today as someone had beaten me to it . But thats fishing. So feeling a little less expectant and a bit miffed, I randomly dropped anchor and the trusty house brick in 2m and opted for a float rig fished at about 1.8m as over weed according to the sounder ( water too murky to see anything).Lines in at 9:55 precisely and bugger me 9:56 a bite, a good scrap on the 10 ft float rod and a solid KGW at around 38cm joins the ice slurry in the esky. Rebait, cast, bite, strike, miss, repeat a couple of times until its slightly bigger mate joins it. T and biccies will have to wait. By 1030 I had 15 in the bag (great sport watching a float slide away and using the light gear) and was looking at an early doors exit due to an impending bag limit. Buuuuut....and there's often a But.........1130 saw me still chasing no 17 (although a few around 32 had been returned) and it wasnt till 12:29 and a half that No 20 finally came aboard. - a nice 40 to finish on. All good fish including 2 scraping 43 (PB) and several over 40 on float fished discounted Woolies prawn. Noticed that the other boat had had very little action and they came over around fish no 5 and anchored up 20 m below me. By fish No 10 still nowt and he moved away across the Bay only to return an hour later to see how I was doing and on my invite anchored up 10 m abeam. Hed been using mussel all morning for a few here and there, but with no prawn aboard had had nothing since my arrival. So I threw him some over in an empty plastic Raymond Island honey pot and left him catching after I hit No 20. Decided to head and gut a few at the ramp as the pelicans were expecting something and then did a tour of the estate, boat still attached, to give away a few fish that had been promised on various dog walks... hence only 12 in the pic. So another excellent KGW day on the local lakes and good to see healthy, chunky monkey, quality fish this early in the season , and widespread through their usual haunts. I think most readers will be well aware of all things KGW regarding what, where, when, and how by now, so shall minimise future posts as hopefully it will be Same Ole Same Ole...... buuuut ....there again, probably, read "definitely maybe"... Not!
Tight Lines
Pirkz

Enjoyed the read!
Very nice looking catch! Well done.
Cheers

[Pirkz]

Geoffski. OK See pic
But basically a longer lighter rod say 9ft min. Float is an old UK sourced item balsa body and stick type insert (easily home made though)buoyant enough to hold a 1cm sq piece of prawn -but not so buoyant that the fish feels too much resistance on the bite. Float is attached to 3-4kg line via float rubbers i.e small pieces of tubing top and bottom of the float , although this float has an eye on the bottom for additional stability on the line. Line threaded through rubbers then attached to a small clip swivel and a commercially made size 6/ 8 circle hook with snood on attached - allows easy change of end tackle i.e hook size via a clip though not normally necessary - but useful if toadies come out to play! Very simple rig. Quite coarse though as the last bit of line is thicker than the mainline. If the bites were fickle I would just tie a hook on to the mainline and forgo the swivel. In Uk most of my youthful lake/ river fishing was done with 4.5m rods and a large selection of different floats depending on conditions, using lines as light as 1kg and hook size down to a 22 which would still hold fish of KGW size easily if played properly. I found that these KGW (rip) were very bold on the take and the float slid under quickly after a few taps. By striking up the hook was invariable set in the top lip - easy to remove and being a circle wouldn't drop out if the pressure was taken off the line. Depth setting was random but set above most of the weed though easily adjusted. Only the second time Ive used float for KGW but shall persevere as a lot of fun. Basically float fishing water any depth say 2-3 m is quite effective if it aint windy - then you would need a different float (long antennae) or ledger as per normal. I also berleyed intermittently with bits of prawn incl the squashed up heads and noted parts of the heads in the guts of the bigger specimens. Hope this helps. Was just about to go out again but the lawnmower has won today!
Edited to add a size 16 hook and a home made float
Tight Lines
Pirkz

[re-tyred]

Another 10 this morning. South of Shaving point. 2 on the first 2 casts, then nothing for 3 hrs. Lots of moves no one catching. Around 10-30 on the southern end of Bancroft Bay the came on. Came home for lunch. Have plenty of fish for a week or so. Weather sound garbage for the rest of the week , see how next week looks