Alexsfishin1 781 Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 DAY 1In the first week of school holidays, a Kangaroo Island trip was a great way to settle us in thanks to one of my best mates (John) and his family, who are one of the biggest deaf families in Australia! We arrived on a beautiful day with nothing but blue skies and crystal clear water. As soon as we got off the ferry, we were straight into the fishing! I spotted a few good schools of tommies so I chucked on a small hard body to see if I could tempt a few.. After landing a couple, a tiny squid appeared to be attacking the lure! Hooked up to it but dropped it. The next cast the same thing happened but this time I landed it. It was only small but there were quite a few hanging around it so I quickly chucked on a jig. First cast with jig, it was smacked by a nice squid on the drop. Same with the second, third and forth cast! I realised how many there were but we were only keeping a few for bait and the rest were released. For the next 1 and a half hours we caught close to 30 squid, sharing around a single rod! John, his two brothers and mum all landed their first squids which they were stoked about! It was time to head over to our shack, which was in Hanson Bay. We unpacked and set off for a stroll to the second beach, carrying a couple of rods. We found a very nice gutter and whist John chucked a bait out, I was flicking metals and soon hooked up within the first few casts! After a couple of solid runs, it spat the hook but another one took it closer in! Once again it spat the hook but again, a school chased it into the wave breaks and I saw the hookup through the wave! This one was one of the larger models which took me for a huge run and spat the hooks again!!!! It was one of the biggest salmon I've hooked and I was spewing!! I even saw it in the wave with another 4 fish following it and clearly, this one was the biggest. For the next couple of casts, I had no interest in the lure but once the sun started to go down, plenty of big tommies and small salmon trout were hitting the lure. I landed quite a few big tommies while John only had bites on the baits. It got dark and cold so we decided to call it quits. Fortunately, the alarm was set for an early start the next morning! DAY 2 6am, we got up and had a quick breakfast. Walked to the river in Hanson Bay which I believe is the South-west River? The scenery was beautiful with the early morning fog creating a blanket over the top of the river. At the first accessible spot, I had a practice cast which resulted in a hookup on the Ecogear SX40! It was only a small bream but a good sign! We made our way up the river flicking at every spot we could access. Before it warmed up, I landed another 3 fish with my mate getting donuts, it was his first time using lures which was understandable but I showed him quite a few tricks! We made our way up to the very top of the river where I had plenty of casts in a small pool, on the 10-15th cast, I had a solid hookup! This one felt bigger and almost got me into a snag. After a good fight, I lifted it up to the ledge and boy was this bream healthy! It measured 30cm and after a few pics it was quickly released. We went back to the second bay after lunch where we landed plenty more tommies, salmon trout and loads of pesky wrass! We got bored and went back to the shack to get the kayaks ready for a relaxing paddle in the river. But knowing me, I had to bring a rod along. I followed behind John with the SX40 being trolled behind me. It wasn't long before I got hits, and lots of them! At the first bend in the river, I managed to land around 3 small bream. We made our way all the way up the river where I had no hits at all so we decided to go back down. As soon as we hit the same bend, I had a heap of hits. I hooked up to a few fish which spat the hook. This time I only landed one before sundown which was just legal. A quick photo and release. DAY 3 The next day, we went to Kingscote jetty. It was pretty windy and cold. We had plenty of tiny bites on the baits but no hookups, it was really slow. After an hour, John hooked up to something huge on my rod! It took a rather large squid tentacle and screamed off straight under the jetty. After a quick 20 seconds, it busted him off on the pylon.. We reckon it was a big salmon, small kingy or possibly a snapper. I tied on another rig which had no interest other than the odd small nibbles. In the last few minutes, I decided to try for squid. It was hard casting with the wind but I managed to land 2 small squid before we left. Just after dark, we made our way to Vivonne Bay jetty. it looked very promising with tommies swarming the lights. First couple of casts, we landed a couple of tommies on plastics! They were solid tommies going 28-30cm. After landing around 20, I hooked onto something that peeled line! After a decent fight, I lifted it up and to my surprise, it was a nice Silver Trevally! A couple more tommies were caught and then I hooked up to another slightly bigger Silver Trevally! We were getting loads of tommies and before we were about to leave, I hooked another Silver Trevally which looked a lot bigger! It fought extremely hard and spat the hook before it broke the surface. Oh well, we landed a nice feed all up! DAY 4 After a long night, we woke up tired but we didn't want to leave the place without landing a big salmon, so we walked all the way to the third beach, both casting metals into the surf along the way. We both managed to land a few salmon trout each, nothing big and were released. We made it to the third beach which didn't look as good as I thought, the gutters were really shallow and we didn't get a single hit. On the way back, we flicked metals at the end of the second bay, next to the rocks. First cast we both had hits. We hooked up to some good fighting salmon trout but we both persisted through the smaller ones. After I had a talk with John about why persistence is crucial in fishing, we both hooked up to a big salmon each, at the same time!!! Mine was doing plenty of heart stopping jumps but they both stayed on! We were so excited and shared an amazing experience together. Both salmon were our personal bests with mine going 55cm and John's going 51cm. We threw them onto the sand and our lures went straight back in, hoping for another 'real' salmon. This school moved way to quickly and we didn't hookup to anymore solid fish.. After another couple of hours flicking lures and catching salmon trout after salmon trout, we called it a day and what a day it was!!! After hard work scaling and filleting the fish, they made a lovely meal! This was when I realised how good they tasted fresh from the surf! DAY 5 It was an early start for me as I had to leave. Lots of hand shakes and hugs went around as I left. I arrived at Penneshaw jetty a few hours early which gave me time to fish! It was windier than the first day but it didn't stop the squid from biting! First cast I hooked up to a nice squid, followed by more. I ended up catching and releasing around 20 and decided to try catch something else. I chucked on a Zman 2.5" grub to see what was hungry. Casting into the reefy shallows, I had a solid hit, quickly retrieving the lure in, it was followed in by a wrass which smashed it! They actually fight hard which was a surprise. After a pic it was released. And of course! Here's the video!! My longest video yet, please enjoy What an amazing experience I had! MASSIVE thanks goes to John and his family for the awesome time. I would also like to thank a few Strike and Hook members that helped me get familiar with Hanson Bay! Cheers guys. Alex. Sykes, Rod, archerfish and 16 others 19 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 CRACKING report Alex.. looks like a great trip away! Alexsfishin1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
doobie 5,802 Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 An excellent report Alex with plenty of fish and squid catches. I'm sure you have been thinking about your next trip over there. Have seen a couple of your posts on FB as well, and I must say your videoing is top notch Alexsfishin1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Underpants 1,543 Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Great report mate, been waiting for it ! Major jellies tho. Haven't had a KI trip for years . Those trevs certainly pull hard, mini versions of their Northern cousins. Alexsfishin1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nosaj 121 Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Great write up mate ! Looks like plenty of fun was had, well done. Alexsfishin1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
brenton 637 Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 nice going,i love big tommies cheers b Alexsfishin1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Magoo 152 Posted October 11, 2015 Report Share Posted October 11, 2015 Looks like you had a ball, Alex Great video too Alexsfishin1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Del 245 Posted October 11, 2015 Report Share Posted October 11, 2015 i was on KI wednesday and thursday.. but driving the tour bus.. so no fishing.. done well mate! Alexsfishin1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bjorn2fish 4,612 Posted October 11, 2015 Report Share Posted October 11, 2015 EPIC REPORT!!! Love the video and pics. The slow motion video of the squid squirt What an awesome place begging to be fished. It definitely sounds like you had a great time, very well done mate and well done to John and his family with their first squids. Alexsfishin1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
paddy1802 7 Posted April 4, 2016 Report Share Posted April 4, 2016 OOOOH RIPPA REPORT BUDDY!!! I think i should go check it out sometime soon im PUMPED!!! Alexsfishin1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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