Summer Holidays – East Gippsland Style

Day four started off quite well with good numbers of fish coming to the boat early, on a variety of techniques including surface lures. We spent a majority of the morning drifting edges with the slight breeze and working lures close to cover in the form of fallen trees and root balls which make the perfect habitat for both bream and perch. It also seems to be the favored habitat of barnacles too which seemingly covered every branch, and made easy work of shredding light leaders. I’m not usually one to get too upset after being busted off by a fish. We buy lures to use and loosing the occasional one to a fish is just part of the process, but after having three OSP Bent Minnows taken in as many casts, it was safe to say I was a little apprehensive about donating more of my collection and opted to cast a little wider and work the outer drop off.

As the day progressed and the sun got higher in the sky the bite slowed down and we made a move to a bank we hadn’t fished before and down sized our lures to something a bit more bite size. As we slowly approached the new water under the electric Nath tied on a Skagit Diving Beetle and launched a premature cast towards the bank, landing quite away off the edge. Only moments before we were both talking shit about that lure how he wouldn’t catch anything on it, when suddenly his line came tight as a fish ate the lure on the drop. It turned out to be the best fish for the day, just nudging the 41cm mark and was one hell of a way to serve up some humble pie.

We got wind of a storm front approaching and thought it would probably be best if we headed back and make sure everything was secure at camp. As we made our way back, we could see the billowing clouds in the distance and the ever occasional lightning strike, which no angler holding a graphite rod likes to see. Unfortunately for us though we had left our run a little too late, as the storm front rolled through and we got hit with strong winds, heavy rain and hail. To make matters worse I managed to run aground on a sandbar, sucking up a mix of sand and mud into the outboards cooling system and clogging up the outlet tell-tail. Thankfully the storm moved out nearly as quick as it moved in and the winds abaited and we managed to make our way back to camp, be it slowly as to not overheat the engine.

Upon arrival back at camp we found our swags had blown open with the strong wind and substantial amount of rainwater had seeped its way into our sleeping bags and pillow. There was shredded leaves from the surrounding gumtrees everywhere which showed just how strong the winds were. We spent the remainder of the afternoon  drying everything off as best we could, tending to the impaired outboard and crossed our fingers that we would get more pleasant conditions in the morning for our final days fishing.

We awoke early the next day, peering out of the swag, expectations of trees swaying from side to side were instead replaced with the chirps of birds and clear skies. We grabbed the gear and set off.

The day started off quite slowly with several moves proving fruitless, we made the decision to move down the front where we had started the trip. We were again greeted with clean bluey-green ocean water the same as the few days previous. As it was still early had the place to ourselves and began to run deep Jackall Chubbies across the flats, a technique I had used previously in this area with great success.

I find slow rolling crank baits across flats results in a much different hit/bite to that experienced when fishing lures with a jerk and pause retrieve. As your in constant contact with the lure you can feel it bumping its way over the undulating sandflat and any hits are transferred instantly to your rod. Fish are also seemly more willing to hit the lure several times before hooking up and it wasn’t long before just that happened. We sifted our way through a bunch of small bream, both black and yellowfin, as we drifted towards the entrance with the outgoing tide.

I’m not sure if i had broken a mirror or ran over a black cat on the trip down but it seemed that Nath was having all the luck with the big fish this trip. He placed a cast right on the edge of a deep hole, right near the entrance, it looked like the prime position for a big fish to sit. As he began his retrieve his lure was hit with the small tap like that of the all the other fish we had caught that morning but, then the fish turned on its side and its big silver body threw off a flash which got us both excited. The tide had now started to race over the flats, and we had to fight the fish from a stationary boat held in the current with the electric in order not get beached on a sandbar or float out to sea.  The fish put up a great fight for its self making several high energy runs and using its tall body to hold itself in the current. Eventually the fish tired and we slipped the net under our 4th 40+ fish for the trip and another new PB for Nath.

We worked our way back to the top of our drift on the electric as to not scare any of the spooky fish that were feeding on the flats. We had now been joined be several other boats in the distance and it was only a matter of time before the noise of 2 stroke outboards and anchor chains would shut down the bite.

We worked over the same flat that we had just drifted and Nath hooked up once again. As if he wasn’t already having a great trip he was connected with another big fish this time a skinny, but long black which we boated in nearly half the time of the previous yellowfin.

As the tide slowed, the water changed colour and the boat traffic shut down the bite, we decided the end the trip on a high and head back to camp to pack up and head home.

This trip was an eye opener for me, proving that even though its one of the busiest times of the year, there is still plenty of fish to be caught if you put in the effort.

I don’t think ill be spending the Christmas break at home in the future.