Warumbul And Audley

[pmak]

It was the kids who suggested that we go squidding - so as a reward for good behaviour for the week, I promised to take them to Warumbul today. We have had reasonable success there before late last summer and this would be our first squidding trip this summer.

We arrived at 6.30am just on high tide and began casting our jigs from the old jetty. Nothing there so we moved to the rock wall facing west. Unfortunately for the kids, they did not see much action with me getting the only catch for the day coming at 8.00am on a pink/red Yamashita 1.8g jig. It's size however made up for the lack of numbers and I was quite happy with a new PB and something to bring home for the table.

To make up for the lack of action for the kids, I resorted to Plan B so we packed up at 9.00am and headed off to Audley. We got to our usual rock platform about 150m north of the carpark at the end of Riverside Road for some C&R fishing. With peeled prawns for bait, size 8 long shank hook with the barb crushed and the kids were soon pulling in little bream, tarwhine, luderick, tailor and trevally for their fun.

While they amused themselves, I threw some plastics around. I never have any success at this area assuming that the place is crawling with little tiddlies only. BUT, I never pass up the chance to have a flick. This time, I decided to give my favourite Gulp SPs a miss and decided to rig a 2" berkley power minnow in watermelon on a 1gram darter style jighead. Small and light, I worked the lure with short erratic flicks to mimic a wounded baitfish. I was aiming for bream but at the back of my mind I was thinking that I might even be able to snag a Bass after reading about the fishway open at Audley Weir.

Bass - hmm... I worked the SP parallel to the rocky shore as I could see distinctive rock ledges under the water. About 40 minutes into the session, I felt some weight at the end of my line not more than 5 metres away from me and firmly lifted up the rod tip. There was movement and I was on! There was not much of a fight but as the fish began to appear, I knew I had not caught a bream. It was my first Bass (that was my first assumption anyway). I took some quick snaps and raced off to show the kids. After a measure (came to 30cm) I held the fish in the water for a while to revive it before releasing it.

It's only with the benefit of checking with the Autralian Museum on-line fish database that I think it was actually an EP. I hope fellow Raiders can confirm this. Whatever the case, I was quite chuffed. As my first fish, I had no qualms releasing it for good karma but can any fellow raider help to clarify the legal size rules for bass and EP? Only 1 fish over 35cm - does this mean 35cm is the minimum size?

[keenist]

Well done mate. Nice EP you caught there.

For future reference, the biggest difference between the two species is the scooped head and larger eyes of the EP when compared to Bass

[kantong]

nice squid. congrats on the pb as well.

[davebrewer]

Congrats Pmak.As you said,you are only allowed one EP over 35cm,but from the DPI website it looks like there's no minimum length,which is surprising,since you are allowed a limit of two.That in possession bit refers to any you may have,even in your fridge,as I've had it explained to me.

Cheers,

Dave

[gretsch]

Nice catch.. that is a quality cephalopod!

[Aloosh]

Awesome looking squid pmak, well done

[DaveD]

Healthy looking EP BEAUTY !