February is almost over continues to deliver us a mix of strong winds, heavy downpours and changing conditions. Strong northerly/easterly winds have pushed Pinkies and King George Whiting into shallower water producing productive fishing in the murky low clarity water. Squid in larger continue to appear during the evenings with a heavy mix of mid 20s-40cm hoods.
Monday 17/02/2020, overcast evening with a moderate north east and a dropping, low clarity tide.
Arrived at the pier at 5:30PM and excitement grew seeing dolphins and Australian pied cormorants chasing juvenile snapper alongside the pier. Squid seemed almost impossible to catch with the thick pea-soup murky water clarity. Taking advantage of the easterly wind and rigged up using a #4/KL1 circle hook flasher paternoster rig using small square of fresh squid wing weighted with a small rocket sinker, casting directly into the easterly current. It took seconds for the rod to buckle with a small mid 20s pinkie. Knowing the school’s location and casting past the school with the aim of attracting the larger pinkies sitting on the outside of the school the bait continued to work successfully with 20+ undersized pinkies being released. Dolphins continued pushing larger fish away from the pier until they disappeared for the evening. At 6:30PM as the wind turned southerly it was followed by the sound of line screaming off the 1-3kg rod. The pinkie pulled outwards away from the pier and attempted a futile dart under the pylons before being landed. Measuring 32cm this juvenile had beautiful coloration and showed there were potentially larger fish amongst the schools. Undersized pinkies continued to be released until 7:30PM when the rod buckled once more with a healthy 35cm pinkie to end the fishing trip. Unfortunately, these were the only two sized ones caught on the pier all evening.
Early start of 3:30PM with the aim to replenish my dwindling fresh squid bait reserve. Rigged up the 1-3kg rod with the #4/KL1 rig and squid wings as bait I was casted onto the sandy bottom with weed either side. Turning my back for one minute to clip on a squid jig to my egi rod I was alerted that I had solid bite as I watched my line be pulled away from the pier. Fighting the fish into the pier with and feeling small darting actions was a present surprise to the evenings first King George Whiting measuring 33cm. I promptly returned the bait to the sandy bottom to be instantly onto another kgw. This continued for another 8 kgw between 32-40cm, a total of 10. The wind snapped jumped from a 20km/hr southerly to 42km within minutes, well above BOMs prediction resulting in a kayak out from the pier calling the Queenscliffe Coast Guard before being brought to shore only from them to have a similar call from Portarlington. Squid were very quiet before the wind and once it struck one sized 35cm hood grabbed my jig, followed by the locals catching one each, 20-30cm hoods. One local landed a nice 35cm flathead along with one squid.
Monday 24/02/2020, overcast evening with a moderate southerly and rising/dropping, rainy high clarity tide.
Turned up at 5:30PM with squid on the mind. Casting into the current and using a long resting period between movements the squid went wild attacking the white jig every couple of casts. The long resting made all the difference with four 20-30cm hood squid in an hour while others fishing meters away were yet to catch one. The white jig action slowed, and I swapped to a natural sardine blue back silver underbody jig which instantly grabbed attention with a larger 40cm hood squid with a friend following with a 30cm hood. Three more smaller squid followed into the esky. Fished till 7:30PM as the rain set in. Finishing with 9 squid, one local bagged out, another two landed four and a couple of people ended empty handed.
