Long wekeend at hamelin bay
Scano, and his wife and i decided to book one of the new chalets down at hamelin bay for last weekends long weekend.
The target fishing wise was King George whiting. We have always done well for KG's down that way from the tinny's so decided to take Scanos down and have a crack in some areas we have caught some before.
The drive down isnt as long as it used to be with the new Freeway, so heqded down Friday after work.
Got down quite late at 10pm or so, but being a fully setup chalets didnt need to setup anything.
Winds were down a little on Saturday, but there was a 3 metre swell pushing through, and for those who know the Hamelin bay ramp isnt the friendliest.
So we launched about 1 hour before high tide (High tide is the best time to launch and retrieve on this ramp, especially when its a little rough.
Out we headed in search of KG's, and maybe some good sized skippy.
We tried to find the best location given there was a little wind about making it sloppy in a tinny.
Didnt take long to find the KG's with one coming from the first cast.. at 37cm. Not a bad start!!
2nd cast was a Monster skippy, for the location anyway and gave me some curry on a 3kg setup. After some running around the boat, it was up, probably close to 2 kilos!
The rass moved into our spot so decided to move over to another location.
We only have mulies and whitebait for bait, so we wanted to try catch some fresh squid for bait. But before we started to setup for this we decided to drift out a couple live herring on a float to try for a shark or Salmon. We've done this previously and have realised we needed the biggest gearwe could use, as whatever we were hooking (Sharks, YTK's or sambo's, all i know live in this area we just couldnt stop.
So sent a herring out the lack on a float, and it didnt take long for the floan to start going under..(3 metres off the back of the boat!!!)
Didnt look like a fish, and it was called for a squid. So rigged one of the small rods up with a Squid Jig, and tried to lure the squid in on the herring, then replace it with a Jig... Well, this worked like a treat. We had the hottest 1 and a half hour sessions Ive ever had fishing, with KG's on the light gear along with herring, skippy, flathead, and the biggest squid Ive ever seen come up for the herring we were floating out. We managed 6 nice KG's between 35 and 50cm a flattie at 45cm a few bull herring and 14 massive squid!
USed some of the fresh squid for bait which worked well, getting the flattie, more KG's herring, Skippy. So much fun on 6lb gear.
Scano with a 54cm KG
Scano and his nice flattie
Scano with another nice KG and a big squid
Couple more big squid.
Good catch of squid. the biggest ones had tubes 44cm long, and were 90cm from tenticle to end of tube.
Few more
Now that day when we came back in the tide had dropped, and the ramp was a mess to say the least. It took us 45 minutes to get the boat onto the trailer with it being very hard work with 2 of us. Many people were watching not 1 person offered any help, which is somewhat a nnoying as we always offer help to those who are sturggling. Problem we had is the wash was washing the trailer off the ramp all the time. However we did it safely and didnt rush, which Ive seen too many times down there where people rush and end up hurt of damaging their boat.
Talking about damaging your boat. While we were cleaning our fish on the beach, another boat came in, which was a pollycraft thing, about 4.7m long. Well there was only 2 of them trying to get their boat on, and they managed to get there boat washed up backwards onto the concrete ramp, causing thousands in damage to it. We did run over and help them, and with 4 people it's made much easier. Bit long winded this, but think it needs to be known for anyone heading down that way, dont take the ramp for granted.
The next day we decided ot take a walk down the beach to one of our 'Beach KG locations' which usually produces some nice KG's
However it was pretty slow with only a heap of herring, and skippy about. We were noticing something was pulling bits of mulie and whitebait off the hooks, similar to squid. So rigged the big rod up witha float, an a squid spike with a Gardie on it. Never really used squid spikes with success before, but hey worth a crack
And 2 minutes later, here was the result!
Managed a couple of squid then decided to head back and wait for an arvo fishing session.
About 5 pm the 3 of us headed down to another beach location which we have cought a couple KG's before and tried again.
Well, i thought Saturday's tinny bash was hot, we had the hottest KG and herring session in 30 minutes!! Managing 11 KG's between 35-40cm and plenty of herring and sand whiting which a few were kept for snapper baits!
Scano with the light gear from the beach
sunset
KG's :D
All in all a great weekend, especially only fishing light Managed a good feed of KG's all be it, not as many cracking 50cm ones we usually manage, but nont the less, we managed some of the biggest squid Ive seen.
Long write up hopefully not too boring.
Bodie
danno
Posts: 1676
Date Joined: 12/07/09
great fish mate nice write
great fish mate
nice write up to.
those squid sre very nice size so are all the other fish.
nice sunset and nice squid off the beach.
well done looks like fun.
cheeers danno
Faulkner Family
Posts: 17984
Date Joined: 11/03/08
now thats the sort of trip
now thats the sort of trip down south you can remember for a while . they were huge squid you managed to get and a great feed of kg's to go along with it. great write up and yes that boat ramp isnt the friendliest around
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
Goodz
Posts: 2332
Date Joined: 20/07/09
struth those are some big
struth those are some big jumbo squid! Nice KGs too!
westline
Posts: 114
Date Joined: 01/01/09
great write up bodie
they are sum cracking squid and lovely kg's must have been very happy with that!
So true about hamelin bay ramp its gets very hairy down there with a swell.
Far 2 many people have wrecked their boats on that ramp our trailer used to be rigged up to fully drive on and then wrap a rope around the trailer post at the bow.
All done in about 15 seconds but u definatley gotta time it right!! especially with 500kgs of crays in ur tinny at a time!
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
you were probably one of the
you were probably one of the guys i remember watching down there who used to drive the tinny's on. Good idea aswell.
Lamby
Posts: 3145
Date Joined: 04/08/09
Sweet report, awesome KG's
Sweet report, awesome KG's and huge squid sounds like a cracker weekend. Boat ramp shenanigans sounds familiar, had some blokes giving me jip whilst waiting for the right moment to launch last time with bad swell etc. Only to nearly dry dock there tinny and have the trailer wash off the side so I gave them a hand. Lots of embarrased appreciation after, nightmare ramp!
sherbert
Posts: 4717
Date Joined: 10/09/06
Well done bodie
You know the waters well down there, And were to fish
Colin hay need a photo shoot again with your fish lol
steve
Assassin landbase fishing club
carnarvonite
Posts: 8657
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Good write up
Great write up Bodie, some good fish and squid caught in reasonable conditions really makes it a successful trip.
When I fished out of there our drive on trailer was fitted with a post near the right hand back corner of the dinghy so you could control the outboard with your left hand and wrap 3 or 4 turn of rope around the post to save time and effort of having to run up the bow of the boat to tie it on.
If the gate is open when you are trying to retrieve your boat , right next to the ramp on the beach is the best spot of all.
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
yeah mate usually if the
yeah mate usually if the gate is open we'd go down onto the beach, but it seems closed almost all the time now days.
Other option is we drive down the ramp and pull onto the beach, but during the winter its bigger tides and more wash, so cant get down far enough.
But as stated in the original post, and as i said to the blokes we helped out, just dont rush it. Worst thing you can do is injure someone so dont put urself in that position.
Just take your time and pick the right time. Always breaks in between swell.
milsey
Posts: 1462
Date Joined: 22/08/07
Great stuff guys, thoses
Great stuff guys, thoses squid are huge, well done
DazSamFishing
Posts: 1518
Date Joined: 19/08/09
Some nice fish & squid
Some nice fish & squid there! Well done.
makai
Posts: 459
Date Joined: 28/10/08
Great story Bodie
Good write up, and they are some of the biggest squid I have seen!
Lucky Tim
Posts: 2536
Date Joined: 28/11/07
something about KG's,
something about KG's, especially off the shore. You forgot to put up the photo with land marks in the background though....
Gotta get down south for some of that action.
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
haha i had photos with land
haha i had photos with land marks on them, but decided it was not a good idea to put up. :)
Ive been going down there for 20 years now so know the place pretty well.
Next time i will take the bigger boat down and chase some Demersals too.
Also some good YTK's down there too which im keen to have another crack at. They go like mad in 5 metres of water!
Lucky Tim
Posts: 2536
Date Joined: 28/11/07
what size were the kings? I
what size were the kings? I think I might have to take the boat down there soon. Have you got any photos of the ramp?
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
This was relativally calm
This was relativally calm day, but this tralier was washed off several times. Bigger boats could have driven on, on this day.
The ramp quite often has weed on the water line, so with the wash it does grab the tralier.
ps: this isnt us.
look how high the wash comes up
westline
Posts: 114
Date Joined: 01/01/09
thats the go
Carnovite seen a few of the lads down there with that setup and makes it even easier again. It really gets nasty down there and sumtimes when its no choice after a long day to get home to a dry bed haha u jus gotta go it hey! crazy times!
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
funny thing while we were
funny thing while we were trying to put the tinny on the trailer a pro abalone boat was waiting, he came up close and said 'why dont you justd rive it on'. My polite comment was, its a tinny and isnt drive on.
So we moved out of the way and let him go for it. Him trying to be a smart ass, drove his on, while riding the swell and hit the trailer hard...way too hard. Busted the winch pole and the nose clip on the boat.
Was rather amusing for us, but im sure it wasnt for him.
I drive my 26ft console on down there without too many dramas (However i dont put in or retrieve in rough seas).
But it has a long trailer and a heavy tralier.