[Guest]

My office (being a tin shed, albeit insulated) got pretty damned hot today so with weather condtitions looking good, I packed the car with yak, kit, missus and bub and went down to Dromana to escape it. I launched at about 6PM and took off in the general direction of Mt Martha, trolling a Power Minnow SP and a Yozuri DD HB. It didn't take long to hook onto a nice couta and then another soon after. Not long after that, another. All on the Yozuri.

Once I'd peddled about 500m out from the point, I started drifting back, working the SP more intently. I got a fair few bites and managed to land 2 flathead, one of them a really nice specimen at around 48cm. Eventually I started to run out of sunlight, so I headed back for the launch site and trolled the HB and SP again. I picked up 2 more Couta, 1 on the HB, 1 on the SP. Got plenty of bites. Kept the 1st 3 couta and both flatties, released everything after that.

Thats the 1st time I've yak fished there, but it won't be the last. In the right conditions, the fishing is obviously pretty good. Free parking all over the place to.

Oh, I had an absolutely pearler of a kodak moment to - a pod of dolphins that approached me (coming in with a stunning sunset as a backdrop) - and goddammit, I'd left my camera (for the 1st time ever) back at the beach with the missus. She even told me to take it to, and foolishly I didn't. I won't be making that mistake again. Those dolphins gave me plenty of chances for photo opportunities.

 

[Kevin]

Sounds like a fun trip with plenty of action.

 

[RedPhoenix]

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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[aleg75]

Great report, sounxds like a top day on the water!

 

[Squidder]

Nice work Josh, you certainly deserve some good fish with all the hours you have been putting in. :wink:

 

[Russ]

Your right 5th. My bro lives at Dromana and we stayed down at Rosebud last week. It really is a nice spot along there. We went out off Mornington on Sat 11th and got 2, 5kg Snapper and 2 smaller ones as well. Nice report mate and pity bout the camera would have been nice to get some pic's of the Dolphins.

fishing Russ

 

[Peril]

Brings back memories of a week spent at McRae (sp?) summer of 74/5, I think with a mate from school's extended family. Went out on his uncle's tinny one day and we got about 90 couta between 3 boys and 1 flathead for the uncle. Back in those days we would never have thought about putting any back The couta were literally tearing each other off the hooks

 

[Y-Knot]

nice work 5th, how do you find trolling the SP's... i guess you would have to take it even slower as they are not as well designed for trolling OR am i completly wrong and they troll the same as HB's?

 

[Guest]

Smuggla, you'd be amazed how many fish I get trolling SPs. Salmon will go em, as will couta and Snook (that big snook you saw me with was caught on a 3" power minno towed 12 meters behind me). Sometimes the fish are right at the surface. I've even caught flathead on em. All of these species trolling at varying speeds. And I do usually use a somewhat unusually large jighead to do it with. Sometimes I incorporate an extra sinker as a leader joiner (there's a special one - not sure its name) that is shaped so as to take it down further. Honestly, this is the first time I've seen HBs outfish SPs. But yeah, those couta sure loved the Yozuri dd. They tell me pinky are fond of em to, but I'm yet to confirm that for myself.

Working plastics definitely gets better results though, and thats how I picked up the flatties, and definitely for pinkies. But some SPs troll better than others. Wrigglers at a real slow speed can be dynamite.

I do prefer SPs to HBs for 3 reasons. 1, they're easier to manage on a yak (less chance of tangle on nets, gloves, fabric) - 1 hook is easier to handle than 6. Secondly, they're cheaper in the long run (in my experience). And thirdly, I probably wouldn't have kept as many couta as I did had I not managed to hook them with both trebles, both in mouth and around gills. It's harder to unhook and more damage is done, giving them less chance of survival. 3 of the 5 coutas were all double hooked. Good news if ya wanna keep em, not if you don't. I usually only use em for bait and my freezer is near full of frozen by-catch bait as it is.

That said, yep, the HB clearly outfished the SPs on couta on this occaision. If I ever decide to target them wholesale, I'll probably go HB for sure.

Oh, I did catch another fish, again in strange circumstances. When I pulled in my drift sock, there was a little leatherjacket trapped inside. Lived to find another day he did.

 

[PoddyMullet]

Hiya 5th, sounds like a hoot of a session You're also getting creative at finding new ways of bringing quarry aboard....drift socks and even just let em jump right on. Bloody aquatic pided piper ya be :wink:

 

[RedPhoenix]

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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[Y-Knot]

great report 5th...im surprised the SP's work well for trolling, i wouldnt have given this a go but will definietly trial a few different SP's next time i get out.

 

[onemorecast]

Well done 5th, and thanks for the info on trolling SPs. In my limited expereince using them I have drifted a few on the bottom with a heavy sinker in front but never trolled any.