# Maloneys Beach - 25/5/07



## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

*Maloneys Beach Ã¢â‚¬â€œ 26/5/07*

On this day let it be known that Squidder ( Jason ) and myself embarked on a truly dope adventure...

Now before I begin to ramble on in the same fashion as yesteryear ( Previous trip reports ) I must elaborate on how truly magnificent the weather really wasÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ Words wont do this justice but by comparing the 7:00am 2 degree start in Canberra to the 9:30am absolutely perfect launching condition and warm, still weather may help, after arriving at BatemanÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Bay and heading to the local Marine dealer to pick up rubbers ( Nope, not some gay porn shoot ) we arrived at Maloneys and spied Itchyant ( Anthony ) and Caught2 ( Kim ) mooching around offshore anticipating our late but gentle start, quickly rigging up the yaks and tackle we headed off towards the duo who were working the local bombie closest to shore, Immediately Jasons Squid perception skill kicked in and rather than greet the invited guests he proceeded to try and level up on his brethren.

Anthony had already pulled in some decent Flathead including a ripper of an unknown documented size some 20m off the beach while Kim landed a legal Snapper as I arrived for a chat, the water was Gin clear even in 9m of water making structure easy to spot even without the aid of a fish finder so I eagerly threw a few plastics around hoping for a fish early in the day, got worked hard on the first cast of the day and lost half my plastic to some toothy critters but the good news was that the Leatherjacket plague were out for an extra long lunch and would not make an appearance today much to the pleasure of the locals and interstate guests alike, saving the Gulp and the Slick Rigs for later I switched to Pilchards and clipped on a Paternoster dropperÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

The wrasse hammered my offerings to the point that I got reefed many a time, I quickly learned once the snapper sinker had hit the bottom to turn the reel twice allowing the sinker and the angler ample time to stop the run towards home, Squidder failed to raise a Squid but soon had a present fit for a Mother-in-law ( Red Bass? ) and a few wrasse to his name, conditions were that good he headed in to collect his dive gear and commence a dive off the yak hidden behind bombie section number 2 ( some 300m left of the first set ), I switched to Squid bait and hoped to hook an Ooglie or two but alas found myself dropping fish left, right and center mainly due to my oversized hooks and the pickers struggling to get the mouths round my presentation, Kim and Anthony headed towards Yellow rock while I followed gingerly behind testing the depths further out.

_Where are these so called Kingfish? What about these pan sized Snappers members often catch?_

While watching Squidder disappear into the depths I moved on to Yellow rock while dragging a plastic way to fast, the big Hot Tomato Squidgy was smashed by something with a yellow tail, perhaps I had found the species I was looking for or PERHAPS it was the dreaded smelly toothy critters I had been doing so well to avoid over the past few years, a frown appeared quickly followed by a sigh of relief as the Pike was landed with the aid of a net and Boga grips, relief that I had finally boated my first fish for the trip some two and a bit hours after initially launching, met Kim and Itchyant behind Yellow rock as the wind picked up slightly and the swell rose an inch or two ( Was still an amazingly clear day ), spotted a Trevally following my Squid bait drift but failed to entice him, perhaps we wanted some Pilchard but keeping these away from the offending reef scum would be hard, moved back following the bread crumb trail on the GPS and set adrift again but this time I was smashed by a 33cm Silver Trevally who decided he didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t want to become dinner and tried to bust me off on the reef belowÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

This model put up more of a fight that the 45cm Skippy I caught at Easter easily pulling drag on the Caldia Kix and bending the Heavy Procaster tip into the water, poor fish lost out to my 20lb braid and 20lb leader and was quickly bled inside my Hobie dry bag stowed securely in the middle hatch on the Quest, checked the time on the Garmin and decided to troll various lures along the rocky edge back towards Squidder to see how his dive fared and to ask when the Hamburger Deluxe mission was scheduled for, Squidder seemed pleased but a little miffed at conditions on the day, a few Leatherjackets ( Jealous Davey G? ) and a nice Black Drummer were speared but no Abalone or Crayfish were discovered, these conditions made for perfect sailing and boating weather but perhaps forced the fish into deeper water where the H20 is murkier and safer for fish and crustaceans...

_Diving from the yak looked fun and the Fish Ã¢â‚¬ËœNÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ Dive was used for its intended purpose for the first time since moving._

Itchyant had to head off and Kim seemed to never want to come in so it was burger time, a plan of packing up the gear and going for a shore based fish / dive was hatched but only after one of these so called super burgers was munched alongside a minimum chips and many a coke beverage, must say the burgers were quite nice and it was pleasant to taste a good, crisp flavour ( Sign read Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ We use Soy Linseed oil in our cooking Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ ) I have not experienced before, running out of time we headed back to the beach with bloated bellies just in time to meet Kim loading her yak on her roof racks, Jason offered assistance while I bludged about enjoying my ciggie and perplexed over when sunset would actually occur, Kim thought we had about 1 hr left so we bid farewell and went left along the shore towards a reefy point and Squidder entered the water immediately spooking a few monster Flathead in his first five minutes of diving, I cast plastics from the beach hoping to secure a fish of any species but found nothing but rocks and weed which claimed the life of a few Gulp laden jig heads.

Moving away I kept hoping plastics till I found a Stingray holding ground at my feet, I had not noticed this Ray before so was amused and took some photos before testing its response with plastics, It was interested but I was not going to hook this little beast so I just teased it on and off for a few minutes before I noticed Jason exiting the water empty handed exclaiming that once the sun had set behind the hills that eyesight had become extremely poor, he was pleased that he saw the big Flatheads and estimated a few close to 80cm in size, packing up we headed for home and arrived at my house for a feed prepared lovingly by my partner Claire, she made me proud cooking up her famous Lasagna & Garlic Bread combo followed by Chocolate Pudding, Offering Jason free veggies and poultry plundered from her sisters rural property while we sat down for a good feed and a tale or twoÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

Thanks to Jason for his invitation and to the others for spending time with me on a body of water I had not fished.























































Hope you enjoyed the report! 8)


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## Fishing Man (Oct 4, 2006)

Great report Paff, 
looks like a great spot, are those pike any good on the table mate, 
they are a different type to the ones we get up here in qld, they look thicker


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

Nice work guys, good report Paff, a beautiful winters day in the pacific.

Love it

Cheers Dave


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## .329 (Apr 17, 2006)

Great report Derek. It was good to meet you guys out there, thanks for the invite.

Final keepers for me were two flatties (the bigger one maybe close to 55cm? Didn't end up getting an actual measurement) and one RRC. By-catch included lots of sargent bakers, small RRC, a couple of unidentified fish, and a single slimey from a trolled minnow. The rest of the catch were taken on soft plastics - mostly 5" gulp jerk shads or 110mm squidgy flickbaits.

I had a ball out there, so calm, I felt like I could easily peddle out to the Tolgates (getting back might have been an issue!). And the clarity!

Hoping to get down to the Bay maybe next weekend (if not, then the weekend after) for a serious bream session or two, but if the weather is that great again I'd be hard pressed to not head off a beach in search of that elusive snapper.


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## Bart70 (Jan 28, 2007)

Hi Paff,

Great report - I had not realised that you had not fished Maloneys before.....Is a great spot (not so good if there is a southerly) but this time of year it is magic.

Itchyant - let me know of you are going down next weeked - will be back down at my van from Friday to Sunday and could be up for a fish together...especially if looking for bream...the evasive buggers have eluded me until now!

Cheers,
Bart70


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## aleg75 (Dec 20, 2005)

Great report Derek, looked like a top day on the water, wish I could have been there!

Ash


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Great report and pictures Paff, it was a spectacular day to be on the water, but a little too perfect for good fishing - sunny, no swell, clear water :roll: My first fish was an amazingly bright red-mullet (see photo) followed by a few wrasse of various kinds. When it became apparent that the fishing would be slow, I returned to the beach, replaced my rods and tackle with speargun and dive gear, and headed for some isolated bommies in the middle of the bay. It would have been a massive swim for a shore-based spearfisherman to reach this spot, so I was glad to have the kayak, and stoked to use the Fish n Dive for one of the things it was designed for - diving! 

I anchored in about 3m of water just off one of the bommies, donned the gear and slipped in the water. The conditions were epic for snorkelling with visability approaching 6-8 metres at times, and it was great to swim with with 100's of (protected) blue groper, some of them massive :shock: . The good table fish, crays and abalone I was seeking were conspicuously absent, I only saw 1 red morwong and a handful of luderick. However I did spot and shoot a ripper of a leatherjacket at 39cm, and managed a smaller leatherjacket and a solid black drummer in about 2 hours in the water. I looked in every hole, crack and crevice I could find, but there were no crays for me, only sea urchins and a cranky moray eel  It was still great to get in the water though, and it goes without saying that getting a bigger leatherjacket than DaveyG left me smiling all the way to the take-away shop, where hamburger deluxes were devoured with gusto.

I had another brief land-based dive in the last hour of daylight, and saw some BIG flatehead but nothing much else.

It was good to meet Ant finally, and to see Kim again, but possibly the best part of the day was to arrive back at Paffohs house, tired and hungry after a long day, and have a big plate of fresh home-made lasagna and garlic bread placed in front of us by the lovely Claire, then a glass of wine, followed up by chocolate pudding hot from the oven, and then to be sent on my way with organic pumpkin, potatoes and eggs   

Thanks for a great day out folks, anyone got plans for next weekend yet :?:


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

Paff , the Ernest Hemingway of the forum , great report mate , as usual, and the photos are something else , look at that weather, i can see a time when the greatest coffee lounge in canberra relocates to the coast, i think i need to move, what are The Tollgates , and how far from shore :?:


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## Dan A (Aug 29, 2005)

Great report and some nice fish there.


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## Guest (May 27, 2007)

Good report again mate your writing skills are amazing, a very enjoyable read 8)

Shame the kings didnt want to play though :?


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

Kim , what a superb report , you certainly have a gift with words , i could feel myself being lulled into a peaceful lazy frame of mind as the ocean drifted around beneath me , you certainly have the love and deep respect for it, to have a whale blow almost beside you is i know a very humbling experiance , i think nature sometimes gives us people who love the water an experiance like you have had , to be able to see the bottom in that depth of water is magnificent, dosnt matter if you dont catch fish


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## hoit (Aug 29, 2005)

Nice report guys and its good to see you are enjoying some great Autumn weather.

So Jason, I hope you will enter the leatherjacket into the hall of fame to knock off DaveyG :wink:

Gee, if home-made lasagna, garlic bread and chocolate pudding are all part of your trips I may have to make the effort and join you guys for a trip. 

Regards
Grant


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## DiveYak (Feb 5, 2007)

Mate....a great report as usual..felt like I was there.

Jason....are you going to start a diving/spearing HOF? Thats a great leathery.


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## craig450 (May 11, 2007)

We can always rely on you for a good report Paffoh, great reading and some excellent photos too. It sounds like it would have been a great day to be on the water.


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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.

----

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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Loved your report Kim, summed up the magic of yak fishing very nicely 



caught2 said:


> By this time Paff and Squidder had joined us - well Paff had but Squidder decided to be a loner and not say hi. Mightily offended we were! :lol: :lol:


Yeah sorry about that, I thought I could smell a squid or 2 in that shallow reef around the point....must have been Paff's BO :lol:


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Last report I heard was that the squid were thick around all the headlands at Bateman's, and that the land based mob were catching quite a few - so I'm not sure what was going on. Leigh caught one up at Malua Bay on Saturday


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

good report guys and gals. hasnt the weather been great lately?? good to see you managed to get amongst it and lap up some Autumn sunshine

Jase - as for the LeatherJacket Crown....you'll have to do better than that......it's still mine,,,,, all mine!!!! bwahha ha ha ha ha ha


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Just read the Hall of Fame rules......doh!

"The fish must be taken using legal angling methods. Fish caught via spear fishing or netting (where permissible) will not be eligible for entry."

:x :x :x

No chance of amending the rules Davey? 
(I just saw a pig fly past the window :wink: )


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

Squidder said:


> Just read the Hall of Fame rules......doh!
> 
> "The fish must be taken using legal angling methods. Fish caught via spear fishing or netting (where permissible) will not be eligible for entry."
> 
> ...


mate, if you WANT IT that bad, a bundle of $50's in a brown paper bag will be just fine, thanks.

(ps.. Jase is your email down?)


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

No, I'll play by the rules :twisted:



Davey G said:


> Jase is your email down?


If it's my hotmail, I don't use it anymore, PMing you my new email now :wink:


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## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

Great report guys, it sounds like a hell of an adventure. It made for very engrossing reading.


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