# SA - Windy and wet Baird Bay



## fisher (Aug 30, 2005)

Scupper and myself (kayaks) and a couple of mates with a tinny have just returned from a week at Baird Bay. We had some very ordinary weather, but in between gale force winds and driving rain we did manage to score plenty of fish when we were able to wet a line.

Baird's is a large bay with a narrow passage, meaning the tide flows in front of the town(?) itself are very strong. Despite being fairly protected, when strong winds are opposing the strong tide it makes conditions tough for fishing. Nevertheless, we found that if you concentrated around the changing tide, you'd get plenty of fish particularly as the tide started running again. The fact that there were a heap of pros :? errr I mean hookers, :? errrr, you know, commercial fishermen  (!) fishing the bay we knew the fish would be about the place - all we had to do was find them.

It took us awhile on the first day to find fish, but both Scupper and I managed to bag out on King George whiting once we found some likely bottom. As it turns out, this area was only about 400 metres from our shack, and produced our bag limit of King George whiting the 3 days we managed to get out. There were a lot of small fish, but most were around the 32 - 33cm mark - nothing huge, but plenty in numbers.









We didn't have much in the way of cockles (too expensive!), but we found the whiting loved salmon trout and tommy ruff pieces. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it, but this bait was taken quickly by the bigger fish. I don't think I'll ever buy a cockle again!

On one day the forecast was for strengthening northerlies, so we decided to head to Acramans Creek for a look (approx 100km away). 








Conditions were ok when we arrived but deteriorated quickly once we launched. 









Fortunately Acramans is reasonably protected so we could get out for a bit of fishing, but I couldn't get to the spots I wanted to that I found on google earth. Anyway, we caught a few 1-2lb salmon and the tinny brigade got one around 5lb, plus a couple of very decent flathead.









The best day of the week (weather wise) coincided with a charter we'd booked from Sceale Bay. We got rained on pretty heavily but the wind stayed away and the swell dropped, and we managed a nice load of nannygai and swallow tail, plus a couple of snapper and an 11 lb blue morwong. The largest nanny went 7lb - the largest I've ever seen.









On our last day we woke to heavy rain, but little wind. We decided to put the rain gear on and head to Mt Camel beach where we managed to get into plenty of 2-3lb salmon. Knowing the Baird's tide was about to slow down, we went back there, launched the kayaks and scored another bag of KGW in approx 1 hour.









We were confronted by another gale, so the decision was made to pack the car and come home.

PS - if anyone is thinking of heading that way soon, be aware that there are plenty of mice about. The shack we stayed in was almost unbearable - we had mice in the toaster, under the bed covers, all through the cutlery drawers - in fact everywhere, including our waders. We went beach fishing a couple of times and there were mice all over the beach!

Oh, and one more thing. If you do go to Baird Bay and fish the shallow whiting grounds, have some heavier gear ready. One of the pros hooked a 15lb snapper, Scupper hooked a 5lb salmon and one of the blokes in the tinny got spooled by something big on his whiting line.

Cheers,
Fisher


----------



## solatree (May 30, 2008)

Thanks Jeff - sounds like you had a pretty good time despite the weather and rodents ! An pretty nice Morwong too.



fisher said:


> be aware that there are plenty of mice about. The shack we stayed in was almost unbearable -


We had mice at Fowlers too - although not too bad where we were staying, but we met a couple camping at Cheetima - and, like you, they had unbearable company - crawling over them as they slept ! Bad news for the grain harvest out that way.



fisher said:


> If you do go to Baird Bay and fish the shallow whiting grounds, have some heavier gear ready. One of the pros hooked a 15lb snapper,


 - Did you try for the bigger stuff or was it just on the whiting rigs ?


----------



## NoelMc (Feb 6, 2010)

Sounds like fun.
I lived at Streaky for 18 mths & the mice r bad (real bad) for a few weeks after the farmers burn off the stubble from the crops.
Bad luck also with weather, the winter is pleasantly milder than Adel.
We used razorfish for bait which we found sticking up at low tide.
Dived for scallops off the Streaky channel & lotsa blue crabs.
Great coastline, long way but worth it.
Cheers, Noel..


----------



## Float (Mar 8, 2009)

Well done, some nice looking whiting there. Every year we go to Elliston for holidays and I have had intentions of fishing at Baird's, but for one reason or other haven't been able to get there. I have also heard reports that you can catch some huge garfish there. Interesting tip on the salmon and tommy pieces for whiting bait I will defiantly give that a go.


----------

