Stockton - Short and sweet.

[Restyle]

Gday raiders, headed up to stocko armed with a kilo of salted pilchards and 12 freshly caught arrow squid. Plan was to be on the beach by about 3pm, find a nice sexy section of beach structure and settle down before heading up at around 8am the following day.

Once we arrived we originally headed south and the beach was absolute chockers so up north we went and after going a few k's north from the entrance we spotted a nice rather gutter with a deeper entrance on the southern end with a shallower one 200 meters further up. we set up about 20 or so meters north of the southern deeper entrance. The downside for this bit of wonderful structure was it needed a real good cast to get out into it.

The swell was quite large, was predicted to be 1.9-2 meters but it was probably abit higher and the wind was blowing a constant 20-30km/hr from the E/NE so not exactly ideal condition's.

I brought 2 rods, a heavier sensor surf and a lighter rod for whiting and other smaller fish out there for a bit of fun my mate just brought his rod which is also a sensor surf.

Soaked the first bait on the smaller rod for abit and unfortunately it was getting over powered by the swell & wind and it was already throwing out small pillie cubes on a 80gram star sinker so I packed it up. 

 

After having a feed I threw out some bait on the heavier rod which yielded multiple 30-40cm tailor on half pillis & a 110gram star. I kept one for fresh cut bait later on. There was also quite abit of bird action around but only finding small tailor in the schools. My mate had a whole squid out for nothing. Bites were a little bit difficult to detect because of the wave action and the constant wind so who knows how small the fish were. I did loose a larger fish which was probably a larger tailor or salmon. After awhile of catching tailor I hooked the first shovelnose ray which saw a end to my short hour stint and I kicked back again for another hour. 

I also tried pulling out some beach worms and gave up after getting soaked. The tide wasn't low enough. There's some bloody huge ones there. Also looked around for some pipis and gave up after 15 seconds. I didn't even have any whiting hooks on me so I don't even know why id want one for. 

The sun continued to set and there was a couple hours of sunlight left so I decided id threw out another pilchard bait to see if the tailor was around & if not id drop the 4/0 hook for a 10/0 and 8/0. The first bites yielded a 3 dart which surprisingly I've never caught before so its a welcome catch to the species I've caught list. before catching a lone bream. 

 

By now its going just about dark and replace the 4/0 rig with a 10/0 and 8/0 twin hooked rig and throw out my first squid which got demolished by a small ~50cm jew just after 9 Quite a temperamental one this one as he kept on fiddling with the bait but a nice sharp strike had him on my hook no issue. Quick photo and threw it back.

The second Jew came in at 9.30 and after buckling the rod like a metery and getting into a full sprint to the rod but it was just a 62cm jew. Measured, quick photo and released nicely. Not even 2 minutes after another Jew just like the first came onto the hook which was also playing with the bait and needed a nice strike to get onto the hook. this one was also about 50cm.

The bite slowed down abit and it wasn't until 10.30 my mates rod gets some action which yielded another small Jew also at 50odd cm. before he caught a even smaller 40cm jew on an hour later on the same squid he caught the first with. 

 

By now its going on midnight and we got 4 squid left. after a few bites over the following hour that was reduced down to 1 squid left by 1am. The tailor fillets got picked to death and there were 4 pilchard left as well. Looks like we are running out of bait, which we did over the following 30 minutes as I landed the second shovel nose. Our plan for a nice night of fishing was over, we had no bait left. 12 squid gone in 6 hours. So now we had a choice, roll out a swag and sleep on the beach and leave in the morning refreshed, or we drive home now tired. We drove home tired.   

Overall 5 jew pups which I'm quite happy with, plenty of tailor, 3 dart, 1 bream, 2 shovelnose. Weather wasn't great but oh well, was a awesome short trip out of the city and away from work for a day. A lot of hoons on the beach in their absolute sh*tbox utes and saw a cop going up and down which was the first time I've seen him. Didn't see much rubbish on the beach ether which was awesome! 

 

[bessell1955]

It does sound like you and your mate had a great time.

 

[Yowie]

Looks like you had a good time, plenty of fish, but no jewies big enough. Nothing wrong with eating a fresh tailor fillet off one about 40cm long.

[Restyle]

2 hours ago, Yowie said:

Looks like you had a good time, plenty of fish, but no jewies big enough. Nothing wrong with eating a fresh tailor fillet off one about 40cm long.

Yeah I agree, was going to be a catch n release trip though and didn’t have any ice ether.

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, Restyle said:

Yeah I agree, was going to be a catch n release trip though and didn’t have any ice ether.

Cook one up on the beach, or take a small smoker with you. Have used one before, the size of a shoebox.

[Larkin]

It’s always either too much bait or not enough. Bet you take twice the amount next time and only end up using a third. 
Well done on the Jews - at least you got onto some action!

Edited January 29, 2023 by Larkin

[Isaac Ct]

Good stuff , nice job with the soapies and the first dart

[Rebel]

Top report.

Had a great ime by the looks of it.

Super photos.

Well done.