# VIC Magic at Marlo



## LoboLoco (Feb 1, 2008)

Lately I have been having lots of trouble with my car with two different mechanics telling me not to spend any more money on it and to get rid of it. I took it to one guy who knew what he was doing and within 5minutes it was running like a dream! So finally with a car and a couple of days up my sleeve and a bunch of new vibes that I have been working on to test out, I was off to my new favourite breaming location&#8230; Marlo

Below is a map (from google earth) showing a small portion of Marlo including the first and second islands (marked with 1 and 2) that feature in my report.










*I* arrived fairly late in the afternoon and since there was a stiff wind blowing I thought I would give the yakking a miss and cast a few lures from the bank. After a few casts around some reedy spots I was pulled up by an out of uniform DPI officer asking to see my fishing licence which was good to see. Not having any luck around the reeds I decided to concentrate my efforts around the pier as I figured there would have to be lots of bream under there. I was casting my vibe along the pylons and slowly hopping it back towards myself&#8230;&#8230; and about fifteen minutes later I finally enticed a strike!

Fishing 4lb braid and 4lb leader he fought well, and there were a few hairy moments when he went under the pier and made some spirited runs towards the pylons!

It was a nice, fat and healthy 34.5cm bream and a good start to the trip 










I tried hopping vibes and plastics along the end of the pier under the fish cleaning bench. I was thinking that the bream there would be a little less timid as they would regularly get a free feed of guts and fish frames. 
But they stayed elusive so I changed vibes a few times, just in case they were getting cluey to the specific vibration that my initial vibe was producing, and persisted along the pylons for yet another bream of about 35cm but not as fat as the first one.










After that I decided to have an early night and prepared for an early start the next morning&#8230;&#8230;.

*When* I awoke at 6am there was about 10kn of wind blowing from the south which made it very cold and prolonged me hitting the water until 7am when the sun was just about to show up. However, the wind dropped as the sun rose and it looked to be a beautiful day.

I started out by paddling around looking for fish on the sounder. It didn't take long before I found a few blotches sitting near the bottom along the bank opposite the first island. I cast various vibes at them for about half an hour with no luck so I decided to fish bits of structure along the shallower bank of the first island. After about twenty minutes I was rewarded with a beautiful 44cm bream 8)










I also got a quick shot of him under water just before he took off!










I pulled the hooks on another three really good bream while trying to keep them away from submerged structure so it was a frustrating morning. However I managed five smaller bream for the morning on vibes going 34cm, 37cm, 38cm, 29cm and 39cm before the wind picked up to a steady 20kn with gusts of 30kn!

My technique was to drift over drop-offs looking for fish, then paddle around and set up a drift over the same spot casting vibes towards the fish. If the fish were sitting on the bottom I would repeatedly hop the vibe only a few cm off the bottom.

If the fish were sitting higher in the water, I would apply slow but long lifts up to 2m off the bottom. Below is a very average image (because of reflection) of my sounder showing a fish sitting on the edge of a drop-off, this is an example of what I was looking for.










With the wind up I was drifting too fast to comfortably fish so I spent the next few hours exploring and finding some promising spots. Later that evening I drove to the far east end of the system and fished some nice looking water (land based) that seemed to drop off into nice little holes (marked by x on the map). No fish, but I'm sure those spots would fire at certain times of the year.

*The* next morning saw a beautiful sunrise, again I decided to paddle around and found some fish on the sounder along the first island, but once again they didn't want to play. I headed over to the entrance of creek X (marked on the map) and the activity on the sounder picked up and I caught my first fish for the morning! A healthy looking bream of 37cm.

While I was getting a quick measure of the fish, my rod, which was sitting in its holder with the lure just dangling in the water, started to buckle over! After a short fight I reeled in a small 29cm estuary perch! So I now had both a nice bream and an ep sitting in my lap :shock: 8) :lol:










The hot bite continued for another twenty minutes and I managed another four bream with the biggest being 39cm.

Not long after they went off the bite, I ran into another yakker who said that he had only picked up one small bream for the morning. I suppose I was just in the right place at the right time.

By this stage it was about 10am, the sun was getting high and the fish were not cooperating so I paddled over to the second island to fish some deeper water. The second island has a beautiful steep rocky bank that drops off into about 4 meters of water. I was bouncing vibes off the rocks trying to make lots of noise (often getting them stuck!) then slowing down the retrieve when I got the lure to the sandy bottom.

On one particular cast my vibe was about half way down the face of the rocky bank when it was absolutely smashed and the fish took off down towards the northern end of the island. The fish fought well and stayed down deep for most of the fight. I finally managed to get his head up and I slid a solid 43.5cm bream into the net!










By this stage the wind had picked up so I decided to explore some of the little creeks of which there are no shortage. I mainly fished with small hard bodies, squidgy wrigglers and gulp worms for only a few small bites.

I pulled over to stretch my legs and have some lunch on the bank. While I was munching on my sandwich I noticed some action on the surface about 50m down the creek. I quickly grabbed my rod and sprinted over&#8230;.. 
I landed a cast about 7m past the activity and twitched my hand crafted hard-body lure through the activity. My lure was almost at my feet when there was a big swirl of water behind it, and it was smashed by a decent fish! He made a dash for an over handing shrub but I managed to pull him out, and after a minute of following the fish up and down the bank I was able to lift him out of the water.

At 41.5cm he was my best minnow caught bream.










That was the last bream I caught that day, however on the paddle back I had a few casts with some of my vibes at some nice looking snags and I landed my first lure caught luderick!










I went to bed that night hoping that the wind would drop so that I could get a good fish in before I had to leave the next day&#8230;..

*My* dreams came true and I hit the water at 6:30am. Although it was a beautiful morning the fishing was slow, I missed a couple of good hits but pulled in a fish scale each time! They appeared to come from bream of about 35cm. I persisted and just before the sun was about to poke its head above the horizon, I got a solid hit that stuck. It was only a small bream of about 33cm but it certainly made my morning!










Marlo really is a magical place, during sun set and sun rise the sky turns pink and orange and the water seems to turn purple. At the same time as the sun was rising, the almost full moon was setting behind me.










Not long after this I heard some serious thrashing in the water behind me, I quickly turned the yak around to see a seal leap out of the water with a nice taylor in his mouth!

It went very quiet after that so I moved closer to the second island. After a couple of casts at a school of fish that showed up on the sounder I was onto a good taylor of over 40cm&#8230;.. Just as I got him to the net he went nuts and sliced my poor 4lb leader with his razor sharp teeth, taking my vibe with him  This action brought the seal over and the fish disappeared.
So I started to head back towards the pier casting vibes and flick baits at likely spots along the way. I was rewarded with two nice trevally of 37cm! Being one of my favourite fish to both catch and eat I was very happy, and one of them came back with me for a late breakfast!










I was on my way back to start the long drive home but I really didn't want to leave so I just kept casting away&#8230;.. Just one more cast&#8230;.. Just one more cast&#8230;..

I was at the end of the first island closest to the pier and I fired a cast into the shallow water and worked my vibe over a small drop off and BANG! I was onto a very good fish! 
I wasn't sure what it was&#8230; a huge flattie&#8230;.. a small mulloway&#8230;. it was taking line and towing me back towards the second island, I could see the seal splashing around in the distance. I thought I had better get this fish in before he realises what's going on or it would all be over in a flash! So I upped the drag and about one minute later, and after some very tense moments, I swam my personal best bream of 46.5cm into the net  Wooo hooooo!










I couldn't have been happier, I spent the next half hour or so casting different vibes around catching a few more bream, one at 32cm, one at 29cm and the other at 40cm. Then I headed for home.



















On the way in I spoke to another yakker who had only managed two small bream for the morning. I also had a chat to a few guys at the boat ramp that got lots of under sized bream and a few just legal's using sand worm and crabs for bait. So I was very happy to have found some quality fish. I drove all the way home with a smile on my face and some trevally in my belly!

Cheers 
Loboloco


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## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

Oh dear god!

Nice one mate, incredible fish, incredible fishery!

Jealous as!


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## Cid (Nov 14, 2005)

Loboloco,

Sheer magic and great job on the blades. It looks like you had a few different types and good to see that each one had a fish hanging off them! Top photos, too.

cheers,
Cid


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

Some great fish there gotta love Marlo  looks like a great weekends breaming

Cheers Dave


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## perk (Jul 29, 2010)

MAGIC at AKFF, is what you should have called it. Awesome report and some top fish. One question what is that last blade in the picture?


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## Rstanek (Nov 5, 2007)

Epic :shock:


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## YahHaus (Jun 21, 2010)

Great report and great fishing! I'd never heard of Marlo until I saw an episode of iFish this morning where all manner of things were caught on vibes when they were after Bream. Now it's on my list of "must visit" places.


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

OMG! Most people would be happy with one bream over 40cm in their lives. You seemed to get a dozen over a few days on home forged metal plates. Hats off for the the lures, the mojo, the skill, the photos and the monster report.

I'm unworthy of calling myself unworthy.


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## PhilK (Jan 4, 2010)

Just wow... never even seen bream that big before.


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## andybear (Jan 15, 2006)

Ooooh!

Very nice Bream there. A magic trip indeedy.

Cheers Andybear


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## forbs (May 20, 2008)

Great report great place. Thanks for the information on where and how you caught them. Something about Victorian Bream fisheries that just makes us South Coast NSW bream Fisho's shed a tear. Apparently size does matter.


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## chapy (Jan 7, 2010)

nice fish and good report, but if you want this fishery to be "magic" in the future, then maybe keep a little info to yourself (make it vague) and let others work it out for themselves... ;-) ;-)


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## JonnyOnTheSpot (Jun 8, 2010)

Cheers for an amazing and inspiring report. Love that home made lure - bummer to lose it, but what a trip to lose it on


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## Ralphy (May 10, 2010)

You must be wrapped catching all those big fat bream on your homemade blades.

Great job.


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