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Posted

Spent the weekend up at my uncle’s little holiday shack on Scotland island with my girlfriend - such a beautiful part of the world. Got down there Friday night and got a fairly early night in so I could get up first thing in the morning.

No trouble waking up, was keen as mustard to get down there with the squid jigs and see if I could pull up a few green eyes. Was already about 25 degrees when I woke up, but to my dismay as I’m sure a few other fishos can attest to, it was HOWLING. I read the forecast and knew id be in for a windy one - but not a 5 bloody 30 am!

Needless to say, it made life very difficult and with the tide fairly low it resulted in a donut on the squid. Went back upstairs, went back to bed and made some brekky then it was off to tennis court wharf to pump some nippers. Spent an hour or so down there having a little swim and collecting bait. Got back to the shack and we both headed on down to the jetty to send some down.

Was very quiet, with only undersize bream and pinkies coming up before the first of the storms rolled in. Took my mind off fishing for a while and had some lunch and a lie down waiting for a break in the weather. Finally at around 6:30pm once the second storm had come through, the wind changed direction and died down a heap. I also caught a glimpse of my bread burley which I had thrown in a good hour or two previously come back with some mullet taking it on the surface.

So back down there I went with some bread and tried my luck - even with my lightest set up they were being very finicky and I was getting disheartened. After about 15 minutes of trying, my bread finally gets inhaled on the bottom and had some line peel off. Nice mullet I thought, had a bit of weight… Took another little run, real nice mullet I thought. Finally comes up and to my surprise (and delight) a smashing little snapper! 31cm - some dinner sorted!

Anyway my girlfriend heard my excitement and came down to join me. Throw out another piece of bread and finally the mullet played ball and a nice little 33cm model comes up. Next it was her turn and she was on! This thing was stripping the 3lb power pro at a rate of knots - she handled it like a pro though and after a nifty little 5 minute tussle up comes a 40cm trev! You beauty! We gave it a bit longer and I picked up two nice bait sized squid for the next day. The sun was nearly down and I was on again, a stonker bream just shy of the 40cm mark, gave a good account of it-self too. A few more little trevs/pinkies came in and some cute little fish which I’m not sure of. Also had my livie rod out - without a livie mind you - and went to bring it in and felt a bit of weight. It was coming up, thought it was just a big bit of weed but nope, there’s a bit of movement there. Comes up - a great big bloody toadfish - bigger than the one I caught the other day. My luck eh. Didn’t measure him, was well over 50cm though and weighed a ton. Made some really strange croaking sounds - suppose they don’t call them a toadfish for nothing!

Had the bream and snapper for dinner - was amazing and off to bed for another early start.

Looked like a much more promising day the when I got up - though a touch chillier - and got down there looking to bring up some more squid in the hope of a kingie amongst the moorings. All the signs were there for them to be around but they just would play ball! Threw about 5 different jigs at them and no luck, other than one little cuttlefish which I dropped getting him up… Anyway wasn’t too sure how to go about targeting the kings from the jetty, so decided to chuck on a weighted float with a stopper about a meter or so above the hook, with half the hood on. Perhaps someone can inform me on what the best way to go about it is for next time? Other than some rather pesky looking chunks getting taken out of it - which I’m assuming were little choppers or some jackets - I didn’t get a hit all morning by which time the wind had picked up again considerably - making it a real nuisance having to recast the float out again and again.

My girlfriend was getting hungry and all we had was that trevally so I thought id wade over to where the green marker is on the SE point of the island to try for some whiting or flathead. About 5th or 6th cast with a 3” gulp minnow and up come’s a nice 50cm flattie. Lunch sorted. Went back to dispatch him and cook up a little feast. Fried flathead fillets w/ garlic, butter and lemon - trevally sashimi - sweet potato chips and salad - yum! After lunch we both headed back down the same spot and pumped some more nippers to try and get onto some whiting. Unfortunately as soon as we got there, the wind picked up about 10 fold and made it pretty uncomfortable. Under a bit of pressure to head back, I put away the plastic rod and slooowly walked back along the wharf trying to sight cast some fish. Saw an absolute horse of a bream, so I crushed a few of the nippers in some sand and threw it in for burley hoping he would hang around. Down go’s an unweighted nipper and he got smashed as soon as he hit the surface for no hook up unfortunately. He got spooked and moved on so slowly again I started walking back. Saw two long shadows slowly moving through about a metre of water, couldn’t tell what they were due to the chop from the wind. Of course I decide to throw another nipper out infront of where they were moving and as soon as I did the wind died down - two HUGE long green things - looked like garfish on steroids - Long Tom? Barracouta? I thought they were just going to swim past but to my surprise one of the turns back and head straight for my nipper - takes it and fight lasted all of about three seconds, 6lb leader had no chance. Fun to watch though and a good signal that it was time to head back.

All in all a cracker of a weekend, shame I didn’t get a kingy I had been hoping for but will come better prepared next time. Sorry for the essay - wrote this in Word and its telling me its 1200 words - ha!

Few photos of course.

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Posted

Nice work Mitchie,

Having caught my share of fodder from upon that very wharf I must say you did very well, especially on the Snapper. The Trevally would have made good Sushumi with a bit of Soy.

Caught the fishing bug hey! Happy to join you for a bash one day. I spent a few hours last night tying rigs and spooling reels with new braid and am almost ready to get into the action!!

Brett

Posted

Nice mixed bag there mate. Never knew bream took bread

With the float set the bait about 3 or 4m under the surface using a stopper that you can cast and use a strip of squid

Cheers sydneyfisher12

Posted

Nice work Mitchie,

Having caught my share of fodder from upon that very wharf I must say you did very well, especially on the Snapper. The Trevally would have made good Sushumi with a bit of Soy.

Caught the fishing bug hey! Happy to join you for a bash one day. I spent a few hours last night tying rigs and spooling reels with new braid and am almost ready to get into the action!!

Brett

Will take you up on that offer for sure old boy! Trev was tops, soy and wasabi - best white fish for sashimi in my opinion.

Sydneyfisher12 - caught plenty of bream on bread, smallish hook, wet your fingers and gently press it around the hook leaving a fluffy bit at the top. Very under rated bait.

Cheers for the tip on the float - dont think i had it set deep enough. Always next time!

Posted

Sydneyfisher12 - caught plenty of bream on bread, smallish hook, wet your fingers and gently press it around the hook leaving a fluffy bit at the top. Very under rated

think it was a mistake I meant I never knew you could catch snapper on bread I've caught plenty of bream on bread
Posted

think it was a mistake I meant I never knew you could catch snapper on bread I've caught plenty of bream on bread

Many fish will eat bread, even had small kingies in my bread burley eating all the bread.

Posted

Sounds like you had a good time there Mitchie.

The long green fish were probably Longtoms, look like oversized garfish with long thin jaws top and bottom, full of needle sharp teeth, and they will try and bite you when you hold them.

Posted (edited)

think it was a mistake I meant I never knew you could catch snapper on bread I've caught plenty of bream on bread

Oh in that case I'm with you! Very surprising to say the least. But as yowie said - a lot of fish respond to it, at least as burley.

Edited by mitchie18092
Posted

Great job man, that's a very nice haul considering you had a few storms to contend with.

And Scotland Island, eh? Sounds like somewhere I need to visit.

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