Mallacoota Bream Trip

[brendong]

Last Saturday Coyote and I headed down to Mallacoota after doing the right thing and watching the kids soccer games. Its a long trip down the coast road but the time always seems to fly by as you chat over the various strategies your are about to employ, the new lures you've picked up and reminisce over previous trip away....We arrived in the early evening and met up with our cousin Dave who'd made the trek down with his family from Canberra. Checked ourselves into bed fairly quickly for an early start...

(All fish on this trip were unharmed and returned to fight again another day)

Day 1

Up and on the water by 7am we fished the bottom lake first up and within 5 minutes Coyote nailed what would turn out to be the biggest bream of the trip @ 39.5cm.

The day wasn't easy and ended up a total of 6 bream, 6 flatty's, 2 Sambo's and few taylor. We had to move around a little fishing both the top and bottom lakes.

Coyote Sambo

Dave did really well and pulled his PB Bream at 35cm on Day 1

Coyote with a couple of crackers

Off the water at just before 5 to thaw out - top temp of 13 degree meant it was very chilly....

Day 2

Again on the water early and even colder conditions this time with the wind howling on the bottom lake. We were thinking it might have been even harder but we had 6 bream after our first drift before things went a little quite. So we went searching and struggled for a huge section of the day before we hit a cracking purple patch and finding about a dozen fish in the last hour and half in probably the windest coldest conditions I've ever fished in m life.

Total for the day 14 bream (some featured below), 6 flathead, 1 Sambo's and couple of tailor

I did manage my biggest bream for the trip at 39 cm featured below along with a nice sambo.

Dave also managed to upgrade his pb by .5cm's

Coyote with a few more. Great close up of a yellow and black bream and he also managed a healthy 59cm winter Flat which are few and far between this time of the year.

Off the water to defrost, have a beer and fall into bed.

Day 3

The heavens open up that night so we packed up and headed up the coast to Narooma and Dave made his way back to Canberra with the family. Just had a quick session in Narooma but managed to pull a few flatty's, small tailor, a nice solid bream and quality trevor all off the racks. Also saw a seal working the racks and smashing legal size tailor for about an hour and half.....

Here is my bream off the racks

So we pulled away from Narooma and made a b-line for The Shire to wash the stinky boat down. Was a great trip with lots of good fish and memories, probably the hardest I've had Coota to date, there are plenty of massive Bream there but you have to find them and find them hungry too....we marked plenty and having the Odd sambo around kept us on our toes too.

We love the place and if you love catching bream, you've got to make a run down there for a weekend at some stage....trust me it won't be our last!!!

[jenno64]

Poddy,

Fantastic post and some magnificent breambos caught there! Nice bonus flatty too!

[bassboy888]

what a trip poddy! some outstanding bream there. Awesome report and pictures. sounds like you guys had fun despite some chilly weather.

[paul.kenny]

Great report Poddy, I could feel the cold . Going by that photo from day 2 your livewell must have been teeming with bream .

How long does is take you to travel down to Mallacoota?

[denzor]

Awesome read mate, some great breamboes there.

[arpie]

GREAT post, Poddy!! Great pics! Terrific Blue Nose breambos, too! Congrats on all the PBs! Well done! I bet you head down there again next year!

Roberta

[brendong]

Yep it was freakin freezing! Was standing room only in the live well by the end of the day.....and yep probably get down there again next year but then again we loved Glenbawn last year to its a toss up....either way it's a good problem to have - horse bream or hardcore bass! Basscatcher it takes about 6.5 hours to get there so it's a bit of an effort, definitely make a weekend of it.

[sprike]

Good to see their are fish there. Am heading there for 6 days middle of next week with a mate. Bit worried about the cold as we both fish out of kayaks.

Have herd that a beer at the end helps you defrost quicker so will be having a few of those.

If wind gets up will be able to launch from Gypsy Point as there is a lot of shelter. Only drama is the amount of fresh water still in the system. Down tere last season and seemed like you could dring the water all the way down to bottom lake, it was that fresh.

[brendong]

Good to see their are fish there. Am heading there for 6 days middle of next week with a mate. Bit worried about the cold as we both fish out of kayaks.

Have herd that a beer at the end helps you defrost quicker so will be having a few of those.

If wind gets up will be able to launch from Gypsy Point as there is a lot of shelter. Only drama is the amount of fresh water still in the system. Down tere last season and seemed like you could dring the water all the way down to bottom lake, it was that fresh.

Yep, gypsy is always an easy launch and yep prepare to be cold in a yak. The water temp in about 3 degrees colder up at gyps vs the top and bottom lakes. Let me know how you go mate.

[sprike]

Yep, gypsy is always an easy launch and yep prepare to be cold in a yak. The water temp in about 3 degrees colder up at gyps vs the top and bottom lakes. Let me know how you go mate.

Five full days of fishing for my birthday for not much return. The weather was windy and rained most nights.

Water temp was around the 14degrees according to Depth Sounder for the most part. We used soft plastics, Squidgie fish and wrigglers or vibes. When we were moving round we had out some hard bodies out trolling in shallow and medium divers.

Day One launched from bottom of the narrows and worked our way up both sides and round and up the arm to Captain Creek Jetty. Got basically nothing until later in day and picked up a barely legal flathead and bream in about 9.5 meters of water off snapper point. Out for about 6 1/2 hours.

Day Two launched from Gypsy point and worked rock wall at Colemans Inlet as last time this is where we cleaned up. Then down to Cape Horn Bay. On way down was trolling a shallow diver and got hit and lost the lure without even getting a glimpse of what it was. Picked up a 50cm Salmon and that was fun as it pulled the kayak round for about 20 minutes. Worked the point on the right opposite the Jetty and up for an under size flat head. Also worked the large drop off for nothing. The water was very brackish all the way down to Cape Horn Bay, you could taste the lack of salt in the water. Out for about 5 1/2 hours.

Day three launched from next to the fishing platform near Fisheries Point. Worked both sides of the channel here for nothing and then started to head over to Allan Head via the wrong side of Goodwin Sands. Had to back track to the channel and then edge round to Maxwell Point, then Swimming Point. Didn't get across the last streth to Allan Head as the wind had started to pick up more, as per the weather forecast, so turned round here and fished Refuge Cove on the way back. Headed back to our launch point via Karbeethong Jetty to Rabbit Island. Picked up a nice 35cm Bream on the road side of Rabbit Island. Out for about 6 hours.

Day Four Forecast was for 30 knots of wind so no kayak fishing. Went and had a bit of a drive out past the airport and had a look at Betka River. Then had a look at a couple of the beaches but everywhere was too windy. Spent the afternoon fishing off the beach at the bottom of the narrows where the turn round point just past Buckland’s Boat Hire. We used beach worms and a couple of pipis/cockles that too our hooks. Got some very irregular bites and were far apart. Nothing. Fished for 3 hours.

Day five and last day for fishing, launched from Sandy Point, picked up a 40cm bream within 5 minutes of launching trolling a shallow hard body. Thought this was a good sign, no. Went across to far bank and worked that down to Genoa River across Palmers Bank. My mate picked up a nice 38cm Bream so worked the area for a good forty minutes. When across to Smellies Inlet, was quite quick with the wind behind us. My mate a 56cm flathead half way down the left hand bank. It was quite nice out of the wind here. After about 40 minutes here, it started to rain . This was the only time we actually got rained on the whole time fishing. I was working the right hand bank, near the corner where he got his and picked up a 33cm flathead, when my mate came up to tell me had finally found the fish and had 5 bream in his keeper bag all between 35cm and 42cm. Off I paddled down to there he had got them, there is a bicycle reflector nailed to a tree where he had got them, but they had moved on as I got nothing and he couldn't get any more either. Finally had had enough of the rain and the wind started to gust up so headed back to Sandy point to pack up and head back to unit. Talked to a couple who were fishing off the bank and they had only caught a couple of Salmon. Out for about 6 hours.

We talked to a few of the locals and they said that there didn’t seem to be much out there. The local Caltex bloke also mentioned that the weekend before the local fishing club had had their monthly comp for not much of a return either.

[brendong]

Brrrrrrr sounds very cold to be out yaking, but at least you gave it a nudge.....looks like you found a few horse breambo's but they can be tricky to locate and s you found out they move around, sometimes very quickly. You obviously know the area very well and it sounds like you threw everything at them and used the same lures as we did.....those salmon are fun and certainly break up the day....congrats on making the effort and finding a few....