A short and sweet Phillip island LB report
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2023 5:51 am
Since it seems quiet around here, I thought I’d upload one.
Went for a quick LB fish yesterday. The plan was to go to a popular squid beach to get a feed and hopefully some fresh bait, and the go for some big LB whiting at a not so popular spot.
At around 1pm Sunday the 9th, right on slack tide I got to my spot. The squid fishing was very slow, and I was losing whole silver whitings to picker fish very quickly. Fortunately, after a couple hours I managed to pick up one nice squid going approx 30~ cm on the hood. Good for a feed, but most importantly some fresh bait for whiting.
Around 4pm I decided that was enough, I had my fresh bait, and I would try somewhere completely different for some whiting. Given the southerlies were reasonably strong yesterday, I was limited with choices but I knew this place was would be well protected and hosts BIG whiting all year round.
I got to my spot around 4:30 and after a short walk from the car I started setting up. It was quite weedy at this spot, with only very small patches of sand to cast on. It was quite difficult as the southerly winds made it difficult to spot where to cast too from land, and if I missed the spot I would be in snagsville.
First hour was very, very slow. I even snapchatted my cousin telling him that I was wasting my time coming to this spot… as soon as I finished the message BANG! My whiting rod buckled in half. I noticed the fish about 50m out with some very aerobatic displays and thought to myself that it was a massive salmon. After a somewhat lacklustre fight after 5 minutes I got the fish into the shallows and I was stunned. It was a gummy. A very big gummy ( for whiting gear) close to what I would say is 4 feet, maybe 7-8kg… unfortunately, it was too good to be true. Due to the weed around my trace and swivel, I couldn’t quite get him close enough into the shallows to tail grab him and get him onto terra firma. After about the 4th try of grabbing the trace and gently trying to skull drag him onto land, he had enough and made a dashing run and snapped off my 8 lbs braid to swivel (no shock leader because I was being lazy and couldn’t be bothered tying an FG for whiting). Lesson learned. Always put in the extra efforts.
Anyway, that got me pumped up and ready to go. I quickly tied on another rig and off I went with more fresh squid for bait. Over the next hour I managed a couple nice sized whiting (43cm + 36cm), and I also hooked up to another little one before a seal decided he’d rob me right up at the shore. He came in like a torpedo to take it too. Unfortunately the dumb seal managed to hook himself too. I tried my best to get him in without cutting the line so I could get my hook out of him, but he was just too strong and I could not gain any line on him, and he ended up busting me off. **** situation. It was getting on dark at that point so I thought I’d call it a day, not wanting to tie any more rigs at night with only my phone light. Definitely left them biting.
Anyway here’s some pics. I apologise for the poor photo quality (and the crocs, actually sorry not sorry) I was by myself for the majority of the day and taking photos wasn’t really high on my priority list. I rush them as I like to be humane as possible and get the fish on ice or bleed it.
Went for a quick LB fish yesterday. The plan was to go to a popular squid beach to get a feed and hopefully some fresh bait, and the go for some big LB whiting at a not so popular spot.
At around 1pm Sunday the 9th, right on slack tide I got to my spot. The squid fishing was very slow, and I was losing whole silver whitings to picker fish very quickly. Fortunately, after a couple hours I managed to pick up one nice squid going approx 30~ cm on the hood. Good for a feed, but most importantly some fresh bait for whiting.
Around 4pm I decided that was enough, I had my fresh bait, and I would try somewhere completely different for some whiting. Given the southerlies were reasonably strong yesterday, I was limited with choices but I knew this place was would be well protected and hosts BIG whiting all year round.
I got to my spot around 4:30 and after a short walk from the car I started setting up. It was quite weedy at this spot, with only very small patches of sand to cast on. It was quite difficult as the southerly winds made it difficult to spot where to cast too from land, and if I missed the spot I would be in snagsville.
First hour was very, very slow. I even snapchatted my cousin telling him that I was wasting my time coming to this spot… as soon as I finished the message BANG! My whiting rod buckled in half. I noticed the fish about 50m out with some very aerobatic displays and thought to myself that it was a massive salmon. After a somewhat lacklustre fight after 5 minutes I got the fish into the shallows and I was stunned. It was a gummy. A very big gummy ( for whiting gear) close to what I would say is 4 feet, maybe 7-8kg… unfortunately, it was too good to be true. Due to the weed around my trace and swivel, I couldn’t quite get him close enough into the shallows to tail grab him and get him onto terra firma. After about the 4th try of grabbing the trace and gently trying to skull drag him onto land, he had enough and made a dashing run and snapped off my 8 lbs braid to swivel (no shock leader because I was being lazy and couldn’t be bothered tying an FG for whiting). Lesson learned. Always put in the extra efforts.
Anyway, that got me pumped up and ready to go. I quickly tied on another rig and off I went with more fresh squid for bait. Over the next hour I managed a couple nice sized whiting (43cm + 36cm), and I also hooked up to another little one before a seal decided he’d rob me right up at the shore. He came in like a torpedo to take it too. Unfortunately the dumb seal managed to hook himself too. I tried my best to get him in without cutting the line so I could get my hook out of him, but he was just too strong and I could not gain any line on him, and he ended up busting me off. **** situation. It was getting on dark at that point so I thought I’d call it a day, not wanting to tie any more rigs at night with only my phone light. Definitely left them biting.
Anyway here’s some pics. I apologise for the poor photo quality (and the crocs, actually sorry not sorry) I was by myself for the majority of the day and taking photos wasn’t really high on my priority list. I rush them as I like to be humane as possible and get the fish on ice or bleed it.