# It aint over until the fat Flinders lady sings



## hoit (Aug 29, 2005)

I was going to write a longer trip report but IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m way too tired after being on the water for 7 hours todayÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

Scott, Tony & I met at 6.30am at Flinders. It was short wait whilst the light improved so could check that the swell was good enough to launch on the ocean side. After some quick photos we easily peddled out through the small waves in close.










Over the next 5 hours the total catch was 4 snook (or pike depending on your religion) and something unknown that Scott caught.

I was thinking about heading back in and was just lazing around watching Scott throw some SPÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s into a bommie wash. I happened to look under my kayak and I saw them.

A HUGE school of Salmon.  :shock: 

I quickly called out to Scott and Tony and started to cast out a HB. On first two retrieves I watched a number of Salmon follow the lure. One the third retrieve I watched a Salmon take it and this set the scene for the next ninety minutes. All three of us hooked up together on multiple occasions. On one occasion I had a double hookup. One a SP and one on a HB. I had a rod in each hand with line peeling off both.










Over the next ninety minutes working as a team we would scout around to locate the school again, hook up, and call the others over. It was a pretty amazing session to share with Scott & Tony and IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m sure they will want to say more about it.

Regards
Grant


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## Daveyak (Oct 6, 2005)

Well done on the Salmon Grant. Doesn't it get your pulse racing to see a school of fish like that :shock: passing under your kayak? It's happenend to me a couple of times and am surprised I haven't dropped something (me included) over the side in the trembling, fumbling rush to get hold of the rod with the right rig on it to handle the big buggers & to cast it after them.

I haven't managed to find even one school of 'em this year, just keep hearing reports of where they've been :roll: .

Any pics???


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## kingfisher111 (Jun 13, 2006)

Sounds like a top trip Grant. Can`t wait to hear some more details from the boys. Steve.


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Grant and hour and a half on a salmon school is a great way to get weary, and sounds like you all had a ball


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## Rod L (Aug 29, 2005)

Nice work fella's
I still reckon salmon are one of the best fighters around.
Tripple and double tripple hookups...it doesn't get any better than that.


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## Wattie (Apr 30, 2007)

Sounds like a great session, 
Speaking of Salmon.
I went out at 3.00pm yesterday to a place called Twilight Cove, (remember that Dave). Anyway there are always schools of salmon around thereÃ¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦.apart from yesterday. After running with lures for three hours and with arms that looked like Mr TÃ¢â‚¬Â¦.for those of you who remember him? I caught nothing.

I come back in to be greeted by a bloke and his wife standing on the beach who were holidaying from Vic. He saidÃ¢â‚¬Â¦you wouldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t believe what we have just seen at ten mile lagoon. (Four beach away). There were that many salmon in the waves they were washing up on the rocks and flapping their way back into the waterÃ¢â‚¬Â¦..HHmmm.

Oh well, next time.

I still had a good session though. While I was quietly paddling along I almost shat myself when there was a burst of air rushing out. It was a dolphin right beside me. There were about eight of them. They stuck with me for about five minutes so was good.


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## ScottLovig (Aug 7, 2006)

Flinders just looks fishy even on a bad day so there was a lot of anticipation as Grant, Tony and myself slipped between the reefs and bommie breaks to the offshore waters.

We started working the closer reefs and came up with a few pike, a pinkie and a new fish pictured. We moved out wider and the bite slowed right down. We covered a lot of water left, right and wide out without any joy for 4 or 5 hours untill Grant spotted the salmon school.

They were milling around a reef and bommie area with a swell up to 3m rolling over it. The next hour and a half was one of the most enjoyable fishing sessions I've ever had. We made our kayaks do what other fishing boats cant. We peddled in and around the reef spotting fish, dodging large rolling swells, cruising over bommies and casting at the school. We had multiple hookups, leaping fish, screaming reels and bent rods. Its was so good my arms started to hurt from continualy hauling on very tough and stuborn fish. We laughed and yelled and spotted fish for each other.

It was simply yak fishing paradise.

Cheers

Scott


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## ScottLovig (Aug 7, 2006)

more


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## PhilipL (Apr 15, 2006)

Fantastic stuff guys - and what a day for it!!!


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## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

Hooray for the salmon kings :!: What a top report gents, well done. Ripping pics too, that fish pic coming to the surface is a beaut....and I can picture the team work going on  Squidder may help with the fish ID, beautiful plumage. Coupla questions though, what distance was their beat roughly, was there any birds about as well to help guide ya's, and how'd ya cook em up :?: Thumping peddling session


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

----

QlpoOTFBWSZTWbMlIdAAABBfgAASQGUAAICgEQAv5d6gIAB0GqNkIwmnpANog1TymZRo09RoZHqAgEBhjD4U2o5/F0ubIEiytpPEyu8a19ZOIzWutiFb6xDr5iOUlsQV5qHpdowvM6MSdukbBgqw0e4qApOgcfxdyRThQkLMlIdA


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## DGax65 (Jun 7, 2006)

Good job on the salmon. Sounds like great fun.


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## Y-Knot (Sep 26, 2006)

heya fellas... what an outstanding trip, those Sambos fought bloody hard for their freedom which they rarely won 

As has been reported we got on the water at daybreak and peddled out into some huge rolling swell with bugger all wind, trolling a lure then casting about SP's and dropping in a baited rig i finially hooked up to a solid little pike who came in like a dead weight ... and then no action for me for a few hours until i picked up a nice snook about 70odd cm trolling a deep diver. Once Hoit spotted those Sambos it turned into a three-ringed kayak circus, there were hoots of laffter and rods bending, reels screaming and fish jumping. These were solid fish as you can see pictued and the amount of grunt in 'em was awesome. 
Echoing hobies remarks it was easily 1 of the best sessions ive had myself and was great to have shared it with you both, thanks for posting the trip Grant, it was a memorable day indeed.

Finished up with a snook, pike, blue throated wrasse and at least 12 - 15 sambos all returned bar half a dozen that became "crispy fried fish in a hot thai sauce". Not very flavoursome fish, and i dare say next time i'd release any salmon i may catch... BUT as for a fighting fish - they rocked.

Special thanks i must give to HobieVic for lending me a SOT for this trip, it was my first time in a hobie and i gotta say it was a "Luxurious" ride. I coined the fraze to my misses when i got home " hobies are to kayaks, what remote controls are for TV's" its the ability to fish while negotiating the water, being able to turn (almost on a dime) without having to put the rods down, to steer and chase fish down WHILE being hooked up and fighting the bastards. it was undoubtly an incrediable platform to fish from.

Exhausted wasnt descriptive enough for me Hoit, i was totally knackered ... as you said 7 hours fishing, 2-3 hours traveling and all the bits 'n pieces in between i was left in a vegetive state in my hammock( :wink: Scott) for most of the night once i got home. i guess it didnt help i did all that on about 3 hours sleep night before from playing poker  won $180- for my $20 so well worth it.

Its mothers-day, im outta here.

Tony.


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Excellent! Your joy comes through the reports. Well done guys.


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## woody (Aug 15, 2006)

Congratulations on a fantastic trip. Sorry I couldn't slip the baby sitting leash for a few hours to join you. Oh well - next time?


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## kingfisher111 (Jun 13, 2006)

Thats a ripper session boys!! Dont it just show the diversity of the mighty Westernport Bay. Crystal clear water to fish with massive swell rolling through on one side and the muddy cloudy water with no swell and ripping current on the other side. Fair dinkum I`m gunna keep banging away about this bay for us kayak fishos till everyone gets sick from hearing about it   Trips like this can only help raise the profile. Congrats again to the three of you. Boys, tell us how many boats were out there?? Steve.


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## hoit (Aug 29, 2005)

Daveyak said:


> Doesn't it get your pulse racing to see a school of fish like that :shock: passing under your kayak? It's happenend to me a couple of times and am surprised I haven't dropped something (me included) over the side in the trembling, fumbling rush to get hold of the rod with the right rig on it to handle the big buggers & to cast it after them.
> 
> I haven't managed to find even one school of 'em this year, just keep hearing reports of where they've been :roll: .


I had just had snapped my SP leader so I'm glad I had my HB ready to go. It would have been the longest time ever if I had to re-rig.

Yes, you can never be certain when the Salmon will appear. We were watching out for the bird action all morning but these guys were just cruising around.



Wattie said:


> Oh well, next time.


That's what keeps us coming back. 



PoddyMullet said:


> Coupla questions though, what distance was their beat roughly, was there any birds about as well to help guide ya's,


There were no birds at all. The Salmon were just cruising around a 200m section close to some bommies.



Y-Knot said:


> Special thanks i must give to HobieVic for lending me a SOT for this trip, it was my first time in a hobie and i gotta say it was a "Luxurious" ride. I coined the fraze to my misses when i got home " hobies are to kayaks, what remote controls are for TV's" its the ability to fish while negotiating the water, being able to turn (almost on a dime) without having to put the rods down, to steer and chase fish down WHILE being hooked up and fighting the bastards. it was undoubtly an incrediable platform to fish from.


I'm glad a non Hobie owner is saying these things. When Gatesy first posted his reports on his Adventure in similar conditions I was in denial. :roll:

BTW don't think Scott was doing you a favour yesterday. He has penciled in one sale to you and a few more based on your referrals. I think the term is called viral marketing. 



kingfisher111 said:


> Boys, tell us how many boats were out there?? Steve.


There were several commerical boats dropping off cray pots and one or two other stink boats further out. You couldn't fish off a stink boat where we caught the salmon.

Regards
Grant


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## varp (Sep 12, 2005)

On yers!! Must have been a hoot.

Very pleased to see you all hooked up. Great read and hope you enjoy those fillets. My gastronomic tip for salmon is cubed and dipped in tempura batter with a dipping sauce.


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## squizzy (Mar 3, 2007)

well done guys, great report & pics. Sight fishing for salmon, what a great day and the water looks terrific!


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## Mushi (Aug 31, 2005)

Awesome fellas    :!: Was hoping you guys would turn up the goods, as a fair few PPB reports have been quietish recently. Count me in for the next one


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## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

Don't forget the comp fella's, us Vics could use the points :wink: By the way, what did ya do with the curse HobieV :?:


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## ScottLovig (Aug 7, 2006)

I finaly chucked the bastard Poddy, and did it with great style. I'm still smiling about that session even now.

I moved address and extended my drive way. You'll need a bonnet mounted slingshot to throw fish frames onto the roof now.

Who's comming to Flinders next time??????

Cheers

Scott


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## Mushi (Aug 31, 2005)

Did it look kingfishy at all around there? Sounds like it might have been, esp with the sambos hanging out there. Still hanging out to hook one of these not far from Melb.


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## ScottLovig (Aug 7, 2006)

Very kingfishy. I was eagerly checking the school for them but didnt spot one out of the pack.

Cheers

Scott


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## spooled1 (Sep 16, 2005)

Hobie Vic said:


> Very kingfishy. I was eagerly checking the school for them but didnt spot one out of the pack.


If present - The kings would have been lurking deeper underneath.

That area looks very familiar - Great water color too.

I used to go surfing at a spot called "Big Left" when I was a kid. Were you guys paddling near there?


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Wow, great report and pics guys, it must have been a real buzz to catch one salmon after another for *90 whole minutes* :shock: It looks like a brilliant day to be out on the water 

Scott, your unknown fish is a barber perch:

http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishf ... crasor.htm

They don't grow all that big but are supposed to be alright on the table :wink:


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## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

Fantastic report guys, well done.

It makes those of us who are presently land bound very jealous


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## Guest (May 14, 2007)

Now that looks like fun. And there I was wasting my time on the other side of the peninsula. I think my planned return trip to Blairgowrie just got cashed in for a trip to Flinders instead.

Nice work fellas.


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## GuardianZAct (Feb 7, 2007)

Great work, Great Read, Great report.

Sounds like you guys proved you need to be in it to win it. The 7 + hours and its all the fun in the last 90 Minutes.

Well done

Adrian


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## evarn (Jul 10, 2006)

hell of a story guys?

i would be going brown with envy, but i was up the coast getting towed by some VERY sporty tailor on the Wagonga Inlet... (report to come)

so, do any of you guys have sounders fitted?? that mighta helped finding the skools of fish. i find mine to be very useful indeed.


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## Y-Knot (Sep 26, 2006)

g'day Evarn - looking forward to that trip report ya mentioned, sounds exciting with the mention of a tow 

As for the sounder, i dont have one myself but Grant was well equiped i think ...


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