St Leonards Calamari 4/12/2020

[Andrews]

Hey everyone,
I'm back chasing the krakens from St Leonards Pier and making the most of the crystal clear water. Plenty of action and plenty of fun!
Check out the clarity!!

3/12/2020
Thursday afternoon 2-3PM, Full sun with a crystal clear slow run in tide and a light NE/ENE wind.
Conditions were beaut, never seen the water so clean without a green tinge. First few cast and we were on to a winner.

Squid #1, little ripper smashed the pilchard colour jig on the weed and within ten minutes dinner was sorted.

Squid #2, #3, #4, #5, #6 now this is the action I love! I hooked up onto a nice hood and right behind him were a few more! I gave a shout out the young fellas next to me to cast behind mine and wham, they're on! Casting right back out and letting sink did the damage, between the three of us we managed a total of ten squid. I had my dinner so I gave away three of the squid to a young family who wasn't able to hook up in the chaos. Ended up only keeping 2 squid, another two went to a friend. Gave away the heads and wings too. Seven squid caught total in an hour before I went down to the beach to clean them. Zero waste, any membrane or guts the gulls love.

4/12/2020
Friday Morning, 8:45-11AM, full sun with a crystal clear near full run out tide, light winds from the W turning to a stronger WSW.

Squids #1 & #2, First cast and a few actions later and we're on! I was talking to two really nice guys who were saying that they fished the night with no luck. Two nice hoods which had them pretty keen, they'd never caught a squid before and were down to learn.

Squid #3, ripper squid came chasing the jig and smashed it on the action. Few friends behind him so I gave the two guys and shout and then wham! They both hooked up! Solid effort on all ends as I ran around scooping them up in the net!

Squid #5 & #6 about 15 minutes later I felt a small knock over the weed before feeling the weight on this one! Strong pulses and he put up a good fight. His mate without hesitation stuck the jig!

Post continued..

[Andrews]

Squid #7, big thumper grabbed this right at the pier as I went to have a drink. Solid fight and I took a few photos before giving him away to a mate.

Ended up giving a few of the smaller ones away, kept four of the seven caught.
Highlights of the day was the clarity and the pilchard jig doing the damage.

[Kenle]

Top effort mate, your the squid king in my books mate. Been a while since I've had a hot squid session, might head down there tonight if I get all my house errands done early. Enjoy the feed mate

[Lightningx]

Nicely done once again mate!
You smash it there everytime
Plenty of tasty calamari rings coming up!
Cheers

[Andrews]

Thanks Kenle! I always loving chasing the calamari and more importantly getting others hooked onto the same! haha! Hope your session went well!

Cheers Lightningx, when the weathers that nice it's always hard not to have fun! Definitely a fun session!

[Matthew drako]

Great efforts again mate, the king of st leonards it seems.

quick question, are there many kgw or even pinkies or salmon getting around the pier lately.

planning on getting down there tomorrow and spend the day, so wanna have some alternative options to squid fishing.

thanks

[Andrews]

Great efforts again mate, the king of st leonards it seems.

quick question, are there many kgw or even pinkies or salmon getting around the pier lately.

planning on getting down there tomorrow and spend the day, so wanna have some alternative options to squid fishing.

thanks

Cheers Matt, haha, it's all about knowing what the squid are keen about.

Plenty of KGW & Flathead being caught, water temp just hit 18C and casting either into the sandy drop off or the sandy holes should produce. If you walk to the wood section and face outwards to the exposed side you'll see wooden pylons, there should be a healthy mix of sandy holes and weed there and then a few further out you'll see this sandy drop off that continues along the pier. Pink for sandy holes, red for the sand drop off. Should be only a few meters out, pretty close. Plenty of squid off there too. Pinkies are around casting towards Melbourne, straight our from the pier, but pretty quiet.

I'll be down tomorrow in the morning, from maybe 10:30AM to catch the high/run out tide, should be a pretty cold day with overcast skies and a WSW wind. I'd over-dress than under. The pier will be protected by land with the W and the wind is behind you, but the S will be cold and breezy. The water should be very clear, but dark due to the light. I'll be using this jig tomorrow, anything with a darker colour and or rainbow foil should work great.
If the clouds break up, I'll go something lighter. Feel free to say hello if you're there, I'll be rocking my tanned surf hat.

[dazz999]

Great report guess that rude old guy is nowhere to be seen

[Andrews]

Great report guess that rude old guy is nowhere to be seen

Very true, probably complaining about another pier haha!

[Matthew drako]

thanks andrews ended up going last night and got a couple squid for a feed, lots of hits but we're real timid. seen quite a few cruising under the pier. rain hit so didn't get a chance on the whiting but went this morning to the barwon river and got a half dozen whiting and plenty other species