12ft tin - Carnage - fat West coast Harbour Snaps

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    Posted: 18 Sep 2018 at 12:37pm
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With the weather Gods shining down perfect weather for a West coast Harbour mish, Pea and I hatched a plan to drop the little tin in and head to the middle grounds. Late Spring time is when we love to fish our shallow spots, the little channels and banks that not much people know of. These spots are where we stray line with 1/2 - 1oz sinkers and sometimes no weight at all, although we don't catch big fish these places still hold some fat prime Reds to 70cm and this time of year a lot of.

Early Spring the bigger fish start to move into the Harbour and is a good time to get out there and not be bothered by to much small fish, most times we never catch anything under 40cm until the water warms up and the fish make there way further up the Harbour. Over the years I have learnt when and where these bigger fish will be and even fish them with small jigs and soft baits.

Arriving at the ramp around 9.30 we had a couple of hours left of the incoming which we love to fish, although we can't get over the banks till it's at least a foot deep we were a little late so it was no problem - we have a middle ground spot where a little channel runs off the main and the best thing is it's uncharted so very rarely fished. It took a good 15-20min run down to our spot where in the summer / Autumn months our spots are with in seconds of launching with the Snapper right up the Harbour.

Being in the little Tin it's a little harder to get right onto our spots due to not having a sounder, even our old school ways that we use along the Bays don't really work in the middle ground as there are no houses or trees close enough to line up. It's actually one part I love about fishing in the small tin and has become apart of it by going back old school. Once we are in the rough area I use a heavy sinker on my line and we move along the shallow 1-2ft bank plonking the sinker as we go, once I have to start letting out line we know where on the right track. Once I'm roughly letting it sink 3-4mtrs we know we have found our little channel.

At our spot we dropped the pick and set up for the last couple of hours of the tide, dropping the berley we casted out our first baits. Sometimes it can take a good 5mins before our first bites come on and knowing this spot once they do it can get quite hectic. We normally catch good fish from here this time of year with very little to no chance of anything small - small being around 40cm. Not having a sounder I wasn't sure of the temp as this lets us know if it's warm enough for the smaller fish to already be here. As usual the bites came on after 5mins and then it was all on - Pea caught four fish in four baits. The first fish was a stonker of a Gurnard, we've caught some beasts from here to around 50cm. Then his second was a Trevally, then a Kahawai then a Snapper - I hadn't even caught anything mainly from me video'n.

30mins in it was just all go it got pretty hectic - a bit ridiculous, Snapper after Snapper was coming aboard and these were fat in prime condition. This is why I love fishing the Harbour in Spring the fat that these fish have they are in such good nic, being in 3-4mtrs these fish came up strong and healthy and we were able to pick and choose the fish we wanted to keep. Anything gut hooked or that had any damage was put into the bin with the odd good fish, I like to have a few good size fish around that 50-60cm and the rest around that 35-45cm. This gives us those tasty smaller fish with the few big ones giving us more meat - we very rarely ever take our West coast quote due to fishing like this as three nice little eaters around 40cm and two to three 50-70cm fish each is more than plenty....

Around mid day the tide slackened and the wind dropped right away, I absolutely love these Harbour's in these conditions. Most times when up that middle ground you may only see one or two other boats and even days not seeing one, on days like this when still there is no noise, motionless which you don't really get anymore in most areas - No boat slap or wake it's just blissful fishing.

As that tide slackens the fish bites die away as the fish use these little channels like a highway and ride the current snapping up food as they go, on the high they do feed across the top of these banks. It's quite amazing to go from absolute mayhem to the odd bite with in mins, once that tide turns again and the boat swings it's all on again and the mayhem starts all over again - it's pretty insane fishing alright.

With 4-5 nice eaters and 5 solid 60-70cm fish in the bin we called it a day - we did move over to our Carrot spot that I fished 3-4wks previously but couldn't get away from the pesky Snappers - last time I didn't catch one Snapper just carrots so it looked like the warmer water had arrived and the Snapper taken up residence.

Another awesome day on the water with a mate and a few nice fish in the bin and only used 10ltrs of fuel - can't ask for much more than that.

Tight lines


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Fishb8 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Sep 2018 at 4:27pm
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Superb fishing!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote pjc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Sep 2018 at 5:22pm
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We really rely too much on technology, more of a challenge,man vs beastThumbs Up
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Snappa Geoff Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Sep 2018 at 6:24am
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Great Harbour Fish'n Jase!Thumbs Up
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