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Squidette and I drove down to Melbourne from Canberra yesterday to spend Chrissy with the family, and after that long drive in 35 degree temperatures, I couldn't wait to get out on the bay for a fish today. Some last minute shopping this morning saw me launching at about 1.30pm to very flat seas. I was fishing around Edithvale/Chelsea, where I grew up, and cut my teeth fishing for smaller table species and squid, so I had a squid jig out, and was casting a few plastics around in about 8 metres of water.
Using 3" minnows I was catching a tiny snapper almost every cast, so I upsized to 5" jerk shads (powerbait, not gulp) to try and beat the pinky horde, they were still hitting the bigger offering, but I wasn't hooking anywhere near as many, and every little while I picking up a keeper flatty, which was cool. Then the squid rod started bouncing and I had an inker on board. Life was good until a nasty nor'easter sprung up, and I was drifting way too fast, and had to resort to casting well forward of the kayak to give the plastic a few seconds of bottom time before the drift caused it to ride up in the water column.
After 20 minutes and a couple more flatties I'd just about had enough of that, and was thinking of heading in, when the rod buckled and the 10lb braid seared off in one long continuous run which had me almost down to the backing. The run stopped and the head shakes started, and I smiled at the prospect of a good snapper. After the big run the fish just arked around a bit, then slowly came in, played up a bit yak side, and then I had her in the net. She went 75cm and 4.5kg on the kitchen scales, and will be enjoyed by 8 on Boxing day night.
(Posted on behalf of Jason 'Squidder' Price)
