20/10/09
With the torrid weather patterns over the last few weeks, finding a day with light offshore winds and good weather has been quite the challenge. Last Thursday I got the chance to get out for a fish with my Dad as the forecast was for light SW winds during the morning and freshening late afternoon. Our destination for a morning fish was Peel Island which I was keen to return to after the Gold Coast ABT to chase some bream but most of all squid as I had seen a lot during the comp.
Our starting point was the western side of Peel where we found that the tide to be full and up under the tree line. I started the morning chasing bream on surface using the trusty Dog X Jr while my dad worked the shallows chasing squid with his Yo-zuri squid jig. After a long drift in about two foot of water, we left the area with only two undersize bream and no squid to report. We then headed to the eastern side to start our drift from the wreck at the south east corner, working our way north to source out some bream. With the tide running out, the fish seem to be scarce in the shallows so we headed for deeper water around 5 foot and decided to throw deep diving hardbody lures. I threw an Atomic Hardz Deep Crank in Matte Ayu, while my dad threw a Jackall Chubby deep in Brown Suji Shrimp. Within two casts my dad was on to a healthy 27cm FL Bream which nailed his lure as he bumped it along the rubble bottom. I soon followed with a feisty 26cm FL Bream and a 25cm Squire which fought really hard with erratic runs and characteristic head shakes.
After this we went close to the shore to see if any squid were chasing baitfish up in the shallows during the receding tide and it wasn’t long to source some out. Having nice clear water in the shallows made it really easy to spot the squid chasing our lures but today was really strange in that they acted very timid before striking unlike their usual aggression when it comes to feeding time. I’m not sure if it was due to low barometric pressure, increased water temperature or time of year, but spring isn’t notoriously a good squidding time. We adjusted our retrieve to a really, really, really slow roll which gave the squid time to come up, investigate, retreat then strike our lure before getting spooked. We caught four squid in pretty quick succession at Peel (Which had dinner sorted!!) and then decided to shoot to Goat Island to see if we could get some more as the tide was rapidly dropping. When we arrived at Goat Island, I decided to try for bream as my dad stayed on the “Egi” train. I quickly picked up a nice 27.5cm FL Bream while slow rolling an Atomic Mid Crank 38 in Ghost Wakasagi close to the shore while my dad scored another healthy squid while fishing away from the shore. After cruising along a little further, my dad hooked the biggest squid I had seen for a long time. Not only did this thing take a lot of drag, it took my dad a good seven minutes to fight with plenty of ink squirting and long runs which was awesome to watch this cephalopod in action. On landing this squid measured 37cm through the body alone!!! (Probably big enough to feed a small tribe!!).
We ended the day after that as the wind blew up from the North and made the ride home pretty bumpy. All in all, things might have been quite on the Bream front but I had a great day out on the water with my dad and we got to catch some good squid too. With the summer just around the corner, chasing bream up in the shallows in the early morning is a must. Using shallow diving hardbody lures and surface lures will increase you catch rate and make your day more enjoyable!!
Also breamers, check out www.fishin.com.au for awesome lure specials when stocking up for this summer. They have a great range at awesome prices and the postage and service is A1!!!
Happy Breaming, Grayson
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