Alexsfishin1

Sounds epic well done!

Out of interest I just picked up some crab plastics. what way do you find best to rig them?

With a super light jighead (1/24th-1/32th of an ounce), rigged horizontally so it moves sideways like a crab  

Top report mate! Love the surface lure action no better way to catch a fish IMO. The skiny water bream are something else over on the island, got my pb 43cm bream in a skiny little creek last visit and he was probably the smallest of the school.Going over for work wed. Morn coming back thurs night 7.30pm ferry

Any hot tips alex

Awesome dude! I should be asking you for hot tips with that quality bream!! LOL. Good luck! Sounds like you found a killa spot  

Well my mate asked me along another Kangaroo Island trip last holidays! Arrived back home last week with an experience we will never forget. 

When we first arrived on Hanson bay, we got out of the car for a quick stretch and collected some fresh air on the front porch. We looked at the first bay to see a massive patch of "seaweed/reef" that was never there before? After a long analysis, I realised it was a salmon school that was incredibly close to shore!!    We quickly started to unpack but my mates mum told us to grab the rods and go so we did!   
It was the closest school I have ever seen and the salmon weren't small! We hooked up every cast for a good 25 minutes before the school moved out deeper. Biggest went 70cm and they were all around 65-70cm. Awesome fun while it lasted and we already collected a feed. lol   

The next day we woke up at 6:30am to find another huge school (possibly the same one) being chased in close by a couple of hungry seals!  

Same thing happened, we ran down and hooked up every cast for a solid 25 minutes before the school moved back out. Crazy stuff!! 

After had some time to relax and eat, we headed down to the river and realised that it was full of feeding bream!!! We used surface lures (OSP Bent Minnows) for the majority of the time, landing dozens of healthy fish including a 36.5cm one! 

Went back home for dinner and played a couple of board games before I headed back to the river for a solo flick. Caught another half a dozen or so before dark. 

The next day we woke up early once again, but this time we couldn't see any schools so we headed straight for the river. Within the first half hour of using surface lures, they seemed a bit slow because it was freezing!! So we switched to Zman grubz, cranka crabs and dragon maggots. This turned out trumps and we found ourselves catching one almost every cast in one specific spot.   Not huge but they were fun little fish. 

After about 3-4 hours, we went back to the shack to get our energy back, when my mates mum comes in and informs us of a big salmon school on the second bay! We grabbed the big rods and ran down to give it a suss. Standing on the cliff at the start of the second bay, I spotted the school! It was out far unfortunately so we waited (impatiently). 

After a long wait, we realised there was another smaller school further down the bay, but this one was closer! 

We followed it around the place, landing a fish every few casts into the school before one fish broke my hook! For the next 20 minutes, I was casting into the school with a hookless slug and watching them chase it all the way to the shore. It was an amazing sight. 

After the school moved out far and wide, we  decided to call it a day as we were buggered... 

The next day, we headed north towards Kingscote! Expecting the best, it ended up being rough and windy at the jetty but we fished it anyways. It was real slow but we managed to land 2 tiny squid (kept for bait), a few red mullet, a leather jacket and a troutie! 

On the way home, we stopped at Vivvone bay for a quick night flick. After landing about half a dozen nice tommies on plastics, along with a couple of tiny trevally, it was time to go. On the way home, a 4x4 with a barcrusher boat overtook us at high speeds. Then another one which looked quite familar? After a second look, I realised it was the Paul's boat, "True Blue" and the Ifish crew! LOL   Hope they didn't hit any wallabies. 

The next few days we only fished the river as there were no salmon schools in sight! 

We landed over 30 bream on the OSP Bent Minnows including some bruisers that were 35cm+!  We had clear visions on most of the hookups! It was insane!!!! 

Overall, it was one of the best holidays I've had! None of it would have happened without one of my best mates, John and his lovely family!   

And to finish this new thread, here's the longest video I've made on my YouTube channel!!  Cheers! 

Oh my! This is an old post LOL! Thanks for the great feed back S&H'ers Hope to update the intoduction very soon     
Appreciate the advertising Tinker! Bahahha     

Well done im so missing fishing 

i asked my therapists today i could meet up with fishos got told no

guess i gotta be patient 

Thanks mate, hope you get better really soon and write up some more quality reports!!! 

Another very enjoyable report Alex.

Sorry to hear about the camera, some of your footage has been brilliant.

Hope you get another one soon mate.

Out of interest, how is your reel after being dunked?

Today my phone broke.... There goes $600 in the past 3 days...       

The reel was fine, it was Daiwa magsealed  

I've been getting quite a few chunky bream lately on both Plastics and Hard bodies! 

A couple of weeks ago, I fished with Jacob at West Lakes. We decided to fish early morning without expecting much. We used hard bodies and we were getting follows straight away. It wasnt long before I hooked up to a little bream, followed by a few more!  

As the day grew warmer, it was time to head back. We threw lures around while walking back and all of a sudden a nice bream came out and whacked my lure twice before hooking up!! This fish had some go! After a solid fight, it was measured in at 40cm which is my new Personal Best on hard bodies!!!     

After a few photos, the fish was released.. (of course!) 

Today, my school mates and I planned a snorkelling day with this hot weather. But of course, I had to bring a rod along. The day started with flat conditions and clear water. I had a couple of casts with the Zman 2" Grubz before a few donkey bream followed it right in.   I slowed down my retrieve and the biggest out of them engulfed the plastic!!! I set the hook and it screamed off like a train! After dodging quite a few rocks and almost loosing getting smoked, the fish was tired out and as I was slowly bringing her in, the hook came loose and I watched the fish cruise back down....        It was well over 40cm, possibly even pushing 45cm... But who knows, that's fishing! 

After sobbing a little bit, I got back into the action. I could see some monsters holding up along the weed edge but none of them would touch the plastic. It was getting extremely hot and sweaty so we jumped in to cool down. It was a good experience swimming with the bream, I got some underwater footage but unfortunately my mate dropped the camera between some rocks (wasn't his fault, the strap came loose).. Never to be seen again     Which means I won't be making videos for a long time...     

After we cooled down, I climbed back to where I spotted the fish. A few casts later, I hooked up to another decent fish! This one was no where near as big as the first one but it was still a very good sized bream. It was just hooked in the top lip but I got it in a comfort lift. As I was getting ready for a photo, the fish kicked and fell through the rocks into the water. I thought it was still hooked but it must've spat it when it kicked... I estimated this fish to be around 37cm, spewing I didn't get pics 

Anyways after that, I climbed back towards the same rocks and slipped. My whole rod/reel combo was dunked in the water and my ass landed on a hard ledge.. I had to sit there for a while to recover. But after a few minutes, I got back up and started flicking again. I switched lures to a 2.5" Zman Grub after I got the other lure snagged on a rock. The first couple of casts resulted in another solid hookup! This one felt quite similar to the second fish. It ran me under a couple of rocks but I managed to get it out. This fish measured in at 39cm!!!   Stoked! Few photos and it was back in the water.
 

The bite slowed down a lot so I decided to venture around to see if I could spot any. For the next couple of hours, I was sight casting them, catching low 30's bream. 

It was a beautiful day to be out, although it was hot, it gave us an excuse to go for a swim lol! 

Here's just a couple more from earlier trips! 

Even got a few nice ones in a cheeky bait session   

Cheers!   
Alex. 

Oh and by the way, the legal size for YFW is 24cm. So I think you had already caught legals the day before Nice fishies either way!!

Awesome work Hooklinestinker! I was assuming the toadies would smash the baits before they hit the bottom, but you proved that wrong! 

Could you see schools cruising around? Keen to try surface lures next time!! 

I love the tubs. I've been thinking of making something similar myself, although I'd like some wheels for the (long) walk out and back at low tide (I'm lazy  ).

 

My wife's away this weekend, so I'm hoping to head up to the flats myself 

Nice! Wheels would've been useful when we left lol.. Carrying a whole basket of fish a couple of hundred meters back to the car park was not fun.. 

Cracking effort young lads! I nearly found my way up there a few weeks back but unfortunately work got in the way  Now you're making me jealous.

 

We've been having a lot of customers coming in wanting to make some of those floating tubs, James' tub looks like a real winner, just needs wheels somewhere and it'd be perfect.

Hey! if we didn't have my tub we wouldn't be able to keep any fish for a feed!!     Lol, thanks Leigh. Someone should start a business making these things, very useful. 

The next weekend that has glass conditions is locked in for a flats session! James and I will try poppers next time, might even flick for the big flatties we spooked!

 

Welcome to the aquatic wonderland of the Northern Sandflats.

 

A good wind ripple produces better results   ...   

Too rough and too stirred up is not good.

Don't be afraid to fish very shallow water for YFW. Especially at the bottom of the tide and you can see nipper and cockle beds.

 

Good luck

Cheers, Des

On the way back in we saw heaps of little yfw but did spot an alright one! They were feeding in the very narrow channel, really shallow! Too bad we didn't have our rods rigged up, all ready to be put into the car   

The next weekend that has glass conditions is locked in for a flats session! James and I will try poppers next time, might even flick for the big flatties we spooked!  

Oh, the juice also toughens them up a bit, which is handy. Although that may be an age thing. Do you know if they get gar up there? Don't think I've seen them mentioned in the flats reports

This was my first time up there, but I haven't seen many posts where people get them either. I think you'd be better off going off a jetty lol. 

Great little session there Alex, really like the floating live well. Didn't see any more whiting?

 

Those worms work alright don't they! I mixed up some diy gulp juice to keep them in, almost 7 years since I bought the packet (geez I was little when I got them)and they are still like new.

Saw one around 25-30cm in about knee deep water on the way back in! That was it though. Gulp lures are awesome, especially the juice making it feel like you're using bait! The only thing I don't like about them is that they break easily aha. 

Headed out today with James for a northern flats session! A massive thanks goes to Underpants and Sbarnden for hinting us in the right direction. We started off the day at 6am and arrived on the flats at 6:45am. 

The tide was running out which was good but the wind was blowing pretty hard. We set up our stuff and headed straight out. Once we got close to the gutter, James hooks up to a fat whiting on the GULP worms. At first we thought it was a good salmon with the first run but once it came up to the surface, we were stoked. After a quick photo, it went straight into the homemade livewell! 

We kept persisting to see if we could get a few more whiting but the toadies kept on chomping out soft plastics. We decided to fish the channel/gutter and that's when the action was hot!  We started bagging some average sized tommies and salmon trout but we wanted to find bigger ones.

We made our way out to deeper water where we spotted a few black rays, but everywhere we went there were only tommies, salmon trout and toadies. We decided to go back shallower to see if we could get a few more whiting, but that's when we spooked a couple of big flathead! (around 45-55cm). I managed to hook one whist flicking for tommies/salmon trout but this one was only a baby. 

On the way back in, we stepped on a crab and James was quick enough to snatch it up into the livewell. Just over legal! It was a beautiful day to be out wading (would've been better without the wind  ). Here's just a few more photos! 

DAY 1

In 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. 

Great write up.  The balls made it a good laugh though LOL!

I've only been to KI once, but had one of my best ever Salmon sessions at the second beach at Hanson Bay. I was casting lures into the gutters and caught a heap of 3-4kg size fish over a couple of hours. Interestingly there were others fishing near me using bait and didn't catch one.

Nice! Were you using waders by any chance? Or are the gutters in really close? 

The good old Marukyu crabs!!! Really good lures, hope to see a few bream on them this season Mickyj  

Hey everyone, I just wanted to ask whether people have caught Salmon along Hanson Bay in Kangaroo Island? Can you get them at the mouth of the little river there? Or can you only get them on the beach next to it? 

If you've got any photos, feel free to share! Would love to see what I can get this holidays

Cheers in advance.. 

Awesome!! I'll be down there tonight.

Geez that sucks Alex.

 

Did you hold onto the Symetre? I dunked my 1000 for 5-10 seconds wading for whiting, 10 months later and can't feel any difference.

 

May have helped that I had a bottle of fresh water to wash it off though.

Sadly, no.. It's at the bottom of the Coorong  

Yesterday was the Onkaparinga River Fishers Competition Day which was held by Fishingmad (Joshua). It was rain, wind and sunshine but it was awesome fun with almost everyone catching at least a couple of fish each. Met plenty of friendly people and had a quick chat with some familiar faces! 

The biggest bream was caught by me, going 34cm on a Zman 2" grub. Which won me a pack of 2.5" grubz, TT HWS 1/16 jigheads and some Sunline 10lb leader. 

 Photo Credit: Joshua Davey.

Not many 'decent' fish were caught that day, not even a schoolie!! So most of the prizes went to the raffle draw. 

Here's some footage for the day. 

Whatttt!! Don't you hate it when a good days fishing turns into s**t...   A couple of weeks ago when I was at the Coorong, we were catching salmon after salmon off the Yak. On the way back in, we hit the waves side on and you guessed it.... There goes my Symetre 2500 spooled with 6lb Fins Braid with my Shimano Dinamix Bream rod..  James also lost his Lox Yoshi 1-3kg and a Shimano 1000 reel (forgot the name). My phone was filled with water, we lost all our fish, pliers, scissors and a net.   
The next day we had to use our surf rods lol.. We had worked out that over $500 worth of gear was gone. 

Got out to the Pat today, didn't get anything decent. Only small schools of small trouties! Good to see HBT down there, I wonder if he caught anything!  

Nice wat to christen it too zman Grubbs yesterday

Nice work Brankim!!! Solid ones too, must be filling themselves up on the bloodworms lol.