Innovative Ideas Man

[yellow door 1 1,841]

Although size is increasing slightly. I’m beginning to think this bay might be too shallow for anything but runts. It’s probably why all the mullet stack so tight against the shore line. 
 

im getting tempted to grab a few as livies and chuck them out into some deeper water

[yellow door 1 1,841]

Been hanging out with some fish murderers

While I took no part in the killing of big old bream for yabby bait

i did lend a hand to collect some chicken food.

I got chatting to an angler on the rock wall who breeds chickens and he reckons they love a bit of couta  So when I found some, I called him over so we could both lose some lures. I was rigged for trevally so it got a bit dumb in the end  but we got enough to keep his chooks fed for a few nights

 

 

 

[yellow door 1 1,841]

Hanging out with these Warrnambool killers has changed my perspective on things

Figured I might take a few home to feed to the Jewies. 

[MAH 449]

On 14/04/2023 at 10:07 PM, yellow door 1 said:

While I took no part in the killing of big old bream for yabby bait

WTF! I only fish for species that I intend to eat. When I was younger and didn't pay much attention to the lifecycle of different species I would keep bream, but for decades I haven't targeted bream; because they are such a slow growing fish. It's crap like that which really saddens me.

[yellow door 1 1,841]

4 hours ago, MAH said:

WTF! I only fish for species that I intend to eat. When I was younger and didn't pay much attention to the lifecycle of different species I would keep bream, but for decades I haven't targeted bream; because they are such a slow growing fish. It's crap like that which really saddens me.

Yeah he knew what he was doing would ruffle the feathers of some but did it anyway

[yellow door 1 1,841]

I was doing alright this arvo….. until the tax man showed up 

[yellow door 1 1,841]

The tax man

 

[Plectropomus 379]

On 16/04/2023 at 3:34 PM, yellow door 1 said:

I was doing alright this arvo….. until the tax man showed up 

I was doing alright this arvo….. until the tax man showed up 

I was thinking "shark? ....down there?", but it looks like Sammy the Seal. I really like oily fish, and well remember having some marvellous battered 'coutta and chips down at Queenscliff (?) in Victoria. Yet most folk seem to loathe them as wormy line-cutters. 

Sounds like a great fishing location!

[yellow door 1 1,841]

18 hours ago, Plectropomus said:

I was doing alright this arvo….. until the tax man showed up 

I was thinking "shark? ....down there?", but it looks like Sammy the Seal. I really like oily fish, and well remember having some marvellous battered 'coutta and chips down at Queenscliff (?) in Victoria. Yet most folk seem to loathe them as wormy line-cutters. 

Sounds like a great fishing location!

Yeah Ive only eaten Couta once and it was battered and reheated in the microwave after a bloke brought me in some to work.  I ate it out of politeness but it wasnt horrible.

Yeah Port Fairy is a good little spot - the river serves as a Estuarine nursery to alot of the species in the area. Juvenile King George Whiting, trevally, sand Whiting, Bream, Luderick, Flathead and many other species can be found in large numbers in the river.

And alot of the predators know about it aswell - So they will have daily raids up the river to snack on the bait and other little things floating around. Salmon Couta are the 2 main species doing the raids.

Funnily enough I havent hooked a salmon yet - which is odd as I thought thats what Id be catching most.

Yeah that seal was a pest - He'd go out deeper and pretend he was full, by just lounging around on the surface - but charge back in when you hooked up - I had to pack it in after he stole 3 fish. I tried waiting him out but he wasnt going anywhere.

Their rep as a Line cutter is well deserve and they can be pretty fussy about wire leaders

- unless they are fully switched on - they werent hitting any lure with a wire trace - But chuck in a plastic with 10lb mono leader - and they would whack it - but you only had a 50% chance of getting it back.

 

[yellow door 1 1,841]

And this rock wall had more shrimp on it than I’ve seen anywhere.
 

in the slightly slacker water, Out the front of some weed beds, they where shoulder to shoulder covering the submerged rocks

[yellow door 1 1,841]

And I just found out if you left your lure sink to the bottom - there’s little pinks there aswell

 

the shrimp weren’t as thick tonight

[Plectropomus 379]

2 hours ago, yellow door 1 said:

there’s little pinks there aswell

damn pretty fish. Loads of variety down there. Do the dusky flathead get that far south?

[yellow door 1 1,841]

54 minutes ago, Plectropomus said:

damn pretty fish. Loads of variety down there. Do the dusky flathead get that far south?

Not sure - plenty of sand and rock flatties - my guess is there arent duskies here

[Plectropomus 379]

On 12/04/2023 at 3:20 PM, yellow door 1 said:

Little eps and bream were whacking them in the darkness at low tide.

do they "boof" at the surface? Like salmon or barra?

[yellow door 1 1,841]

2 hours ago, Plectropomus said:

do they "boof" at the surface? Like salmon or barra?

Yeah its the same style of implosion feeding - My observations may differ with others in different waters - but they will raid in very small packs but often is just single boofs. And in Melbourne its the smaller fish that make the most noise and disturbance.

Its almost as if the bigger fish have learnt not to boof - or at least they do it much more rarely than the little ones that boof like mad and are messy feeders.
 

When Im catching larger perch in Melbourne, I often wont hear a boof at all - they tend to leave swirls with no audible boof. But this is when they are surface feeding with 3m of water under them.

Ive watched jewies be extremely cautious while approaching bait schools in deep water - never increasing speed from a slow crawl - thats before the hit and after - they just "cough" and continue at the same pace. I assumed they do that so the bait school doesnt disperse or get unnecessarily spooked. There are kind of like "Pick Pockets" as opposed to "Armed smash and grab robbers" -

So much so that I used to think my livies were getting hit by squid - The slow and gradual loading of the rod tip was confusing because Jewies dont hit like that elsewhere. The rod tip would just slowly arc over and then they would spit the bait. Took actually seeing them feed to work out it was just slow-mo Jewies who were trying to be stealthy and not disturb the huge baits schools also in the area

I wonder if the larger perch I target have adopted a more subtle feeding style aswell.

But down here on the coast - there seems to be some very aggressive feeding - I found a strip of bait stacked against another shallow bay last night and the Perch and bream were making as much noise as they could while hunting - savage slashes and boofs - in this scenario - keeping the bait frightened and exhausted while pushed against the dry sand probably works in their favour.

[yellow door 1 1,841]

New species on the wall tonight every thing I hooked had nasty dentures tonight

[yellow door 1 1,841]

Last flick on the rock wall before heading back to Melbourne

 

 

[yellow door 1 1,841]

Season started 5 days early this year

[Plectropomus 379]

19 hours ago, yellow door 1 said:

Season started

beautiful picture> 

[yellow door 1 1,841]

2 hours ago, Plectropomus said:

beautiful picture> 

I may have cranked up the saturation a bit to bring out the purples

It looks different depending on which device I use to view the photo - on my phone and laptop  it looks almost normal - but on the work laptop, it looks like I way over cranked the saturation.

Just going to post the original untouched to see if theres a difference

[Softy 2,991]

Nice work mate.. I'm still bloody yet to catch one of them

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[yellow door 1 1,841]

1 hour ago, Softy said:

Nice work mate.. I'm still bloody yet to catch one of them

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
 

Yeah I find as long as I fish 8 times more often than blokes who know what they are doing - I can keep up

[yellow door 1 1,841]

Picked up the new yak today

 first piece of business involved  some pvc pipe and a heat gun

[Softy 2,991]

I done similar with a length of alloy tube slid over the end of the rack end and an extended tent pole to hold it up. Might be a pic of it in my thread.. can't seem to find one on my phone.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[Soobz 559]

On my tray the Hobie has to sit top down as the hull bottom is too rounded, which is a PITA as loading is easier with bottom down. Actually I think Hobie says you're supposed to carry them topside down for some reason...I think maybe to do with stresses when tying down.

[Plectropomus 379]

19 hours ago, yellow door 1 said:

Picked up the new yak today

what model did you choose?

[yellow door 1 1,841]

6 hours ago, Softy said:

I done similar with a length of alloy tube slid over the end of the rack end and an extended tent pole to hold it up. Might be a pic of it in my thread.. can't seem to find one on my phone.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
 

Yeah I left it long in case I needed to add a verticle adjustable bar - but the passport 12 is only 33kg and the load is taken so close to the car with the way I load it -  all that pvc has to do is stop the yak from slipping and scratching the car

Based on early trials - I dont seem to need it to be any stronger. Its more of a "catch" to stop the yak slipping, than a load bearing bar.

[yellow door 1 1,841]

3 hours ago, Soobz said:

On my tray the Hobie has to sit top down as the hull bottom is too rounded, which is a PITA as loading is easier with bottom down. Actually I think Hobie says you're supposed to carry them topside down for some reason...I think maybe to do with stresses when tying down.

Yeah I got mine from a hobie dealer and he helped me put it on the roof - and ran me through how to tie it down etc - so if theres any issues  - I'll know who to blame - Thanks for the heads up

[yellow door 1 1,841]

2 hours ago, Plectropomus said:

what model did you choose?

I went with the passport 12 - its the entry level hobie but with 180kg load capacity-  I upgraded the drive to the 180 turbo fins

Specifications

• Length: 12’ / 3.6 M
• Width: 34” / 86.36 CM
• Capacity: 400 LBS / 181.44 KG
• Fitted Hull Weight: 73 LBS / 33.11 KG
• Fully Rigged Hull Weight: 83 LBS / 37.65 KG
• Hull Construction: Thermo-formed Polyethylene
• Colours: Slate Blue, Seagrass Breen, Bay Sand
• 3 Year Warranty

 

[Plectropomus 379]

1 hour ago, yellow door 1 said:

he passport 12 -

marvellous!! Hope to see some posts on here of your adventures and a review of the pros and cons.

[yellow door 1 1,841]

17 minutes ago, Plectropomus said:

marvellous!! Hope to see some posts on here of your adventures and a review of the pros and cons.

The cars electrical system started doing all sorts of weird stuff its never done before last week. Like its possessed by a demon. Its already been in the shop once and they managed to fix one of 4 faults. But last night the car turned itself off while at a stop light. I couldnt really ignore that one. So I had to take it back in this morning

So the Christening will have to wait till they can get to the bottom of it.

But looking on the bright side - at least the weather sucks for the next few days

[Soobz 559]

Hmm, they wouldn't allow a drive upgrade for my wife's PP10 when I got it, not that she really needs it.

Tip, get a spare sheer pin for the rudder and keep it with the yak.

[yellow door 1 1,841]

2 hours ago, Soobz said:

Hmm, they wouldn't allow a drive upgrade for my wife's PP10 when I got it, not that she really needs it.

Tip, get a spare sheer pin for the rudder and keep it with the yak.

Thanks for the rudder pin tip.

There was a good deal on a PP12 at AWS in Geelong, Melbourne. So i didnt really look too closely at any others - I was curious as to whether there would be issues upgrading to the 180. But nothing was too much trouble for those guys

[yellow door 1 1,841]

Got a hot tip from Mazman that I could be utilising the "T-Track" on the Rhino racks.

Bash the ends of some metal pipe flat with a hammer and its almost done - just have to driil some holes and buy some bolts, lock nuts and washers.

[yellow door 1 1,841]

just coloured in the t-track in with a grey lead pencil - then transferred it onto a bit of paper - to save me some mucking around when choosing fittings