# VIC Portland Wrasse-o-rama



## haynsie (May 26, 2008)

Well, I'll kick off the Portland report..

Hitched a ride down on Thursday night with Redfish. Took it pretty easy on the road as there was a strong sou'wester blowing and the roof rack was loaded up with a coupla' yaks, so we didn't get in 'till around midnight. Set up camp then wandered down to the breakwall out the front of the campground where there was a bloke who had a couple of surf rods out. Turns out he had just hooked a Mulloway which he then lost at his feet as he was climbing down the rocks to land it. Things were looking promising for the weekend ahead, so we hit the tents for some shuteye.

We awoke to less than perfect conditions on Friday before Starver, Blahger and Wembas showed up, so we headed into town for coffee, a big breakfast and a visit to Portland Bait and Tackle where Chris gave us a map and the lowdown on Portland. We were on the water by mid morning hoping to collect some bait, but there wasn't a whole lot on the chew. A couple of squid were landed, as well as plenty of annoying Wrasse. Came in for a break mid arvo where we were joined by Cruiser before we all headed back out into the harbour for the evening session. The Lee Breakwall and harbour surrounds look really fishy and it's at least 12m in most parts so I was feeling confident, but apart from a lot of small pickers the only interest I was getting was from the carloads of locals yelling out "there's f#*%n sharks in there mate!" to me from the breakwall. Met Gezmeister briefly back at the ramp and we were back at camp by 9pm where bacon sandwiches were washed down with a few cold ones.

Saturday morning we awoke to a strong southerly and big swell, but we decided to head out to the Kingie mark everyone was talking about. The reef looked great and there were plenty of boats fishing balloons. We found a few arches on the sounder around 6-13m but they were shut down and we failed to turn a reel. As far as we could tell it was the same story from the stinkers. We decided to call it a day and went into town for some lunch and to register for the comp that was running (great prizes and a kayak category also) before beginning a good old fashioned pub crawl. I won't go into too many details, but it involved several pubs, a jukebox, a badly customized commodore, a cow's worth of bbq'd meat, and ended at around 1am with a hair-brained scheme to set shark baits with a Starver's PA (minus bungs) from the campground breakwall. Haven't laughed so much in ages.



Packed up early Sunday as the weather had really closed in. Said our goodbyes and started the long journey home. Despite the fact the fish didn't play ball, it was a top weekend and great to catch up with everyone and meet a few others. I also got to try out Starver's PA (still minus the bungs) which is a very impressive piece of plastic, even when it's half full of water..

Cheers

Tim


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## harrip94 (Sep 30, 2009)

great report mate. bugger about the kingies normally down there when ya fish for kingies you get a few snapper as wel


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## widsa (Nov 26, 2008)

Nice report Tim,

Sorry you guys didn't get on to the kings.
But i am sure you still had a ball, sounds like Starvers PA goes well...


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## Rhino (Dec 17, 2007)

Sounds like the weather didn't really give you blokes a fair chance, but it's not always about the fish. You had a good time anyway, and what is it about yakkers and tongues in ears :shock: :lol:

Whats up with the bungs PA Pete?


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## widsa (Nov 26, 2008)

Rhino said:


> what is it about yakkers and tongues in ears :shock: :lol:


I think its you blokes from "the Otherside".....
Over that bridge, things start getting weird......


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## blahger (Feb 6, 2009)

Nice one haynsie, will cover much the same ground 

*Day one*

Headed in a Portlandish direction early Friday morn










Arrived onsite setup tent started to unpack gear when Redfish and Haynsie appear from the sloppy conditions off the Caravan park. Starver arrived soon after and we trundled off for coffee, a chat at Portland Bait and tackle and a crack at the harbour.

Setup at the harbor went well:

Sounder not working
Safety flag/light back at camp
Bait back at camp









Whatever, keep at it

Without sounder i thought i'd just follow the maps in my gps that indicated depths in the harbour. Good idea until the batteries died about 50 metres into the paddle out. Spare batteries? Back at camp, never mind. By this time the windfarm had recieved orders to pump out an extra 10 knots just to make things interesting.

Trolled a HB up the lee breakwater and across the Alcoa pier without much interest. Redfish picked up a pinky.







Feeling naked without my sounder I attempted to taunt some squid into the yak without much luck.

Eventually we made our way outside the lee breakwater where those big snaps are reported to be launching themselves at the shore based fishos. 








Some mighty wrasse were boated, and a couple of squid where also teased out of the ocean.

A paddle back to the foreshore was agreed, where we caught up with Wembas and Cruiser, ready for the next assualt. I fixed my sounder with ye olde twisted wire and tape sorcery. Next time I will check ye olde fuse first. Pillage Yakkodore for fuse.

Up the other side of the harbor with Wembas and Starver after some squid to plopp out as kingy bait, had a few hits on gavin the glo jig but no hookups (more on this later), wembas dropped one at the boat and decided to attach himself to some rocks on the wall.

Starver then proceeded to Ady Gil himself in a standoff with the pilot and some small nondescript pleasure craft "Rockwater2"?










Positive proof of my shark shield, when i left the area, 2 draftboard sharks were taken, not life threatening as a species but definately disgruntled.

Day one ends appropriately with beer, pork, barbecue sauce and smoke alarms.

*Day two
*
Smoke alarm sirens are all the rage in Portland caravan parks

Wind Farm still has orders to pump out 15 + knots and ramp up production after lunch. Straight to Wollys ramp and ride the washing machine out to Minerva reef. Again tow a HB out to the reef which resembles a bit of a boat parking lot. on the paddle out some reasonable sized baitfish are breaking the surface, but no hits on plastics.

The drift rate with the wind was very ordinary, wasn't particularly keen on anchoring. Tried gavin the glo jig. He wasn't going to work well without hooks (snapped off somewhere).

Floated a squid head and negotiated the maze of boats and balloons as well as i could, while flicking plastics. Some angry squid chewed my gulps but ignored my jigs.

Back at the ramp we were informed that we'd boosted the boaties confidence in the stodgy conditions when we appeared. Also some pinkies had been caught. Named after being measured against someones pinky finger.

Pack up time for a late lunch and regroup.

Couple beers at camp, couple with lunch. At some point there was chaos in the main street of Portland and some of us got lost and had to find solace in a bar. And another one.










Figuring we best find a pub with a nautical theme (where else would you find yakkers?) we finally found the rest of the group. So we all went to the next pub. Only one to go but we'll be back.

*Last night*

Feasting, merriment, stretch marks, shark fishing, missing keys, wallets, phones, rain and that f#cking smoke alarm. Apologies to the natives at the caravan park. But not to the Fisherman Watcher.

Great venue Portland, lot's of launch options into very fishy water, Great to meet you all, thanks for setting stuff up Redfish!


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## haynsie (May 26, 2008)

Nice one Blahger. Dunno how I forgot about the smoke alarm - I think the beer erased my memory.

Here's a couple more pics..

View attachment 2


View attachment 1




Cheers

Tim


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## GoneFishn (May 17, 2007)

Great reports guys, sorry I couldnt make it. Oh well next time. Pitty about the lack of fish but the abundance of fun made up for it


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## Redfish (Apr 25, 2007)

Awesome and highly entertaining reports guys! Unfortunately the fishing didn't turn on for us this time, but I learnt a heap, and not just on the fishing side of the equation!










As was remarked at about 12:30 pm on sat night when blahger was squeezing into a wetty to drop the shark baits in and starver was entertaining everyone with some of top gun's (the movie) soundtrack "there's some things you can't learn about people from the forum!"










_Incidentally Haynsie is talking to starver here. Not trying to intimate something about blahger!_

_The shark rig. Sharks were so intimidated by this monster they promptly vacated the area!_









It was a highly entertaining time, with a top group of blokes. A big thankyou to all that came. The fishing wasn't on, but that was more than compensated for with the company:

Starver 
Blahger 
Cruiser
Heynsie
Wembas
Gezmeister
Cubby

On the fishing side, it was great to check out Wally's ramp. For anyone heading that way, it is some seriously good water coming out of about 12 m pretty sharply to 3-6 m of broken reef. Unfortunately it was packed with boats like a hot snapper bite in PPB. If you're intending to tackle them in this area, you'll need to be anchored and have gear to stop a king in it's tracks lest it wrap you around the reef (6-8 m of water) or 10 other boats! Tough water indeed.

The other area we checked out was the boat harbour, which is meant to produce smaller kings and pinkies. It was shut sown the day we were there, but there is just acres of good whiting water in the area if you're prepared to be a bit more flexible than we were in your target species. If you are fishing the harbour, the mouth was where a (non-fishing) yakker was tipped by a GWS a few months back. As Haynsie was eloquently told "there's $%&*ing sharks in there mate, don't you read the paper!" I wonder what they told all the guys scuba diving and snorkelling...

Unfortunately we only scratched the surface and conditions were tough. I would have loved to check out the Cape's and the Glenelg. Ahh, another time.


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## topgunpete (Jul 19, 2009)

Great effort guys, great reports and not catching anything of substance isn't really an issue.


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## ELM (Jul 14, 2008)

Sounds like a top weekend even if there was a lack of fish.


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## zipper (Feb 27, 2008)

sounds like an awesome time boys. pitty you couldn't put some stretch on that new line haynsie but i guess that's fishing. sounds like the off field antics made up for the lack of fish anyway


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## haynsie (May 26, 2008)

zipper said:


> sounds like an awesome time boys. pitty you couldn't put some stretch on that new line haynsie but i guess that's fishing. sounds like the off field antics made up for the lack of fish anyway


Thanks Zip, I probably could have stuck with 4lb braid and it wouldn't have made any difference!

Looking back at the photo of me with 2 pints in hand - I now understand why Saturday night is somewhat of a blur..

Cheers

Tim


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## Redfish (Apr 25, 2007)

haynsie said:


> zipper said:
> 
> 
> > sounds like an awesome time boys. pitty you couldn't put some stretch on that new line haynsie but i guess that's fishing. sounds like the off field antics made up for the lack of fish anyway
> ...


Hey mate, did you realise I was holding that pint for you? ;-)


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## haynsie (May 26, 2008)

Redfish said:


> haynsie said:
> 
> 
> > zipper said:
> ...


Wasn't realising much by that point..

Where's Starver - he's been awfully quiet (compared to the weekend) :lol:


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## ratfish (Oct 21, 2008)

Looks like a great weekend despite the fishing guys, I'd earnt some brownie points through the week to ditch the family holiday for a day and come visit but then the in laws decided to come along on saturday and no amount of points was getting me out of there - knew i should have left friday night...


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## alcbb (Dec 2, 2008)

sounds like you guys had a good time.

portlands funny with the fish, Everytime we go over there we either bag out and get nothing...
the big advantage of taking the yak is not having to wait 1hr to get the boat out at the main ramp.. then not being able to get the car/trailer out as is blocked in by kingfish crazed boat owners..


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## hoit (Aug 29, 2005)

Well done to all the guys that stuck to their guns and had a crack.

Hmmm, not to sure about sharing a tent with Redfish in the future just in case he has got the taste for manlove. :lol:


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## cruiser (Dec 19, 2007)

Great weekend with a top bunch of blokes ,I cant remember the last time I laughed so much and enjoyed other peoples company last sat night,blah you are a much much braver man than me mate and starver the way you were catching those burban cans with your lightening reflexes well lets just say theres a spot for you at first slip in the aussie cricket team 
Shame the fishes didnt cooperate but thats minor details, a good time was had by all and thats probaly what really counts

cheers cruiser


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## harrip94 (Sep 30, 2009)

so whats the go with the PA bungs :lol:


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## blahger (Feb 6, 2009)

eric said:


> Where are the photo's of the fish?


Haynsie is actually pointing out where the shark shield is attached.

There were fish?


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## Starver (Aug 18, 2008)

I have been a bit quiet, because I couldn't remember if I had a good time or not..... :lol: weekend was a bit of blur.
After reading all the post by the rest of the crew sounds like we all had a ball. :lol:

Fishing was very slow. 
But you couldn't have asked for a better bunch of guys to be away with when the fishing is slow, very entertaining weekend. 
Very funny moments had by all over the course of the weekend. Haynsie mate very impressed by those pints you really step up the pace Sat night. :shock: 
Blahger that guy at the pub that thought he was your long lost brother also a very funny moment. :lol:
And that beautiful custom Bomerdore parked outside one of the many pubs we had inspect for the beer to be the right temperature.
Also blahger and Hanysie for taking the PA out offshore without the bungs in it very gutsy effort. (Sorry fellas wasn't thinking straight Sat night and forgot to put the bungs back in). :shock:
I am certain there was more funny times but just can't seem to remember them due to killing few to many brain cells Friday and Saturday night.
Special thanks to Redfish for organising the trip, which ran really smoothly over the weekend, also thanks to all the guys that made it such a top weekend.

Redfish
Hanysie
Blahger
Wembass
Cruiser
Gezmeister
Cubby

Cheers Pete

Ps Will add some photo's tomorrow. Not of any fish just around the local area.


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