# Barwon Heads 12/01/08



## GoneFishn (May 17, 2007)

Have to admit I was excited about the days trip out behind the surf break at Barwon Heads. Arrived at Barwon Heads at 6:00am had a look at the conditions for a while and looked really good. Drove to the launch spot and geared up. Just about to get onto the water when Grant rocks up. After a bit of how do you do I had a couple of runs around the bridge to try and snag something to troll, the tide had already started going out at this stage and boy was it moving, I can only say it would be like Western Port (never fished there) was not any problem didn't seem to affect the way the kayak handled even paddling against the current.

Grant caught up to me quickly and we started our way out slowly as the conditions had changed in between the time I arrived.
The swell had picked up and was looking almost like we would have to abandon the trip out of the river, but we went for it  
Once out I started trolling a big HB and Grant had a fresh squid out (I think he did). We had to stay out wide as not to get caught in the breakers, the swell would have been about 1to1 & 1/2mt, well it was big, enough that I couldn't see grant half the time, but it was quite comfortable didn't feel unsafe even when I had the odd chop on top of a swell break over the Yak 8)

We didn't didn't end up catching anything when we were out there but I did see some really big arches and there where the odd bait school. Well at least we can say we gave it a go 

Coming back in on low tide was a bit interesting with the odd small wave but we made it in unscathed I even managed to catch and ride one wave on the tempo :lol:

After that we stopped at the cars and re rigged for the river and fished that for a while flicking soft plastics Grant got one very small salmon and soon called it quits after that. I decided to stay as it was really nice day to be on the water.

I ended the day with 2 fish in the bag 1 30cm whiting and 30 salmon both cooked for tea that night. Hooked a lot of smaller fish mainly salmon and almost got ran over by 20 sail boats that decided to have a race up the river and one jet ski, he was lucky I didn't have a big lure on at the time 

All in all it was good to get down to Barwon Heads its a great little spot and I'll be heading back there again especially when they start the dredging in PPB


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## AGE (Oct 7, 2007)

G'day Kel,

Well done for giving the Surf out the front of the Barwon a go. It's always good to fish a new place. 
The tide there does fly at times during the run in/out. I learned my first valuable lesson there when I first bought my yak....NEVER EVER ANCHOR IN THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER WHEN THE TIDE IS RUNNING 100 MILES AN HOUR STUPID!!! :shock: (My anchor is still stuck on the reef there, and I'm lucky I didn't go for a swim that day). I enjoy fishing the Barwon and have had some good days on the salmon there, it's a lovely place to fish. I will try and team up with you in the future when you fish there again.

Always enjoy reading your reports  
Catch you Later
AGE


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## Rodman (Jun 29, 2007)

Good effort Gone, I spent many a summer down there surfing and fishing in days gone by, so I know how fast the tide runs out there. Small salmon and mullet is about all I ever got out of the river, along with the odd trevally and a run of barracouta one year.

PS - good spot for whiting is just towards the mouth from the first pier on low tide (land based).


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## Redfish (Apr 25, 2007)

Well done guys on the trip report! Looks like a fun trip. Was wondering how you'd go in the tide.

Have been keen to give barwon heads a go myself for a while. I've heard you can get some nice salmon trolling HB's up the river- which always sounded like hard work to me with the way the tide runs there!


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## Garfish (Jun 2, 2006)

good work guys... tough work getting out there id imagine.

I was reading an article on the weekend in the 'Catch Annual East Coast Fishing Magazine' (some good articles in it) that was written by Neil Slater on fishing Barwon Heads. I'm gonna give it a couple of months, and then have a dusk session around the sheepwash looking for some elephant fish. Neil also suggests pumping some bass yabbies for some thumper 50cm+ bream in the sheepwash. The bream are always caught at night, always on bass yabbies, apparently.

I've spent a lot of time fishing the sheepwash during the day for small salmon and mullet... not much else (good live bait sizer). I caught my PB salmon from the Ozone Jetty two years ago casting out minnow style plastics and bringing them in at speed. It was great fun. Measured 40+. I just copied a couple of locals that were doing.

I also had a mate about 10 years ago catch a 3kg+ silver trevally from that jetty.


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## GoneFishn (May 17, 2007)

Thanks guys I'm glad we went, the speed of the tides wasn't an issue until I busted a rudder cable (rope) later in the day  , then it only made it hard to steer around the bridge. Going directly into, or with the current was fine. I ended up fishing from 6am to 5:00pm paddling up and down the river anchoring up in different spots.


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

G'day Gone fishn

You'll probably find this hard to believe but I've caught kingies and tuna just off Barwon Heads. Also had a run-in with a thresher, which I released. This was in the mid 1970s and my boat was a 15foot De Havilland Offshore. It was quite adventurous sometimes crossing that bar. It seems to me that with a kayak you might find a better place than the river mouth to access the blue water -- off a small sheltered beach somewhere perhaps? Thanks for reminding me of it. Oh, and this is the time of the year to get the tuna, although we got them by high speed trolling which might be a little difficult in a yak.


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## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

Excuse me at taking the piss Sunshiner, but was this early snapshot of ya the reason ya eventually went to yak fishing in order to build up the biceps?  










Well done gents, with an onshore wind ya did extremely well to wet the paddle down that way! Great going (even if Hoit refused to wear a Bikini)


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## hoit (Aug 29, 2005)

Many thanks for the paddle GF. We saw some nice arches outside but the best I could do was to hook and then drop a small Salmon. Still I had my revenge catching his smaller brother on the river. :lol:

It always hard to capture the true size of the swell in a photo but as GF said we lost each other several times out there. I would be keen to tackle Barwon Heads again but I might choose to paddle in offshore winds next time.

BTW nice boat Poddy.

View attachment 2

View attachment 1


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

PoddyMullet said:


> Excuse me at taking the piss Sunshiner, but was this early snapshot of ya the reason ya eventually went to yak fishing in order to build up the biceps?


Hey Poddy, that must be one hell of a magazine collection. Actually, that isn't me in the pic, but it is one of the reasons I bought the boat.


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## JohnnyMagpie (Sep 7, 2007)

Nice report, I had my first go in the surf at the Prom, but water not as rough as you guys had it. I believe there is a bit of a whiting hole not far off that small jetty in the river. Would be interesting to find on the sounder and confirm or squash the rumour.


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## beardys (Jun 23, 2007)

please pm me next time you go, can i tag along i regually go to barwon heads as my yak is stored there, but usally fish the river, around marker 10 and the green marker, used to be heaps of 40cm salmon there but mainly whiting now, went out in a charter off barwon head 'adamas fishing charters' it was good and we went not far off the beach and caught around 20 or so 40cm snapper, and then we went ages out to the 65m mark.
cheers, tom.


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## GoneFishn (May 17, 2007)

No probs Im looking to fish down there a bit if the dredging of the bay stuffs things up.


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