Bridport Report January 2010

By Tom
We decided to head to the coast for a feed of flathead so Bridport was first choice as my father lives there.. free house overnight plus a chance to catch up with the old boy 91 years young.

Eddy and I left home (Longford) at 05.30am, we planned earlier but someone slept in (me) and we arrived down there about 07.00am. We went straight to boat ramp and headed out into the bay with great intentions of going to the 100 ft line. About 10 km out the weather soon put payed to that plan so we ran up to East Sandy Cape where at least the sand dunes gave us some shelter.

The wind was about 15 knots and freshening as the tide ran out against the wind making the waves stand up about 2-3 metres not breaking on the top.

The depth 57 ft of water with a sand bottom; the gear out was hand lines .

We had decided to use plastic bait, so on went Berkley trout plastic, gulp mouldy cheese, slam bait, new penny. They were a bit slow at first, so we moved the boat about until we got onto a hot spot.

Eddy had five in the boat in quick time and started to give me a serve on how to catch fish. I was getting bites but no hookups.  I altered the rig a little then started to catch, but for every flattie I caught Eddy caught double the amount.

The wind started to pick up to 20 knots so we couldn't hold the bottom as we were drifting too fast between 2 -3 km/h so we called it quits and back to port we went. We surfed most of the way back which rather exciting- 20 kms  to over 30 kms along the face of the waves.

The tide was flat and the bar way only had enough water to float in. We couldn't use the motor so over the side went the deck hand to wade us over the bar. The water temp only 8c.

Once we had enough water we drove to the ramp loaded, up to fathers by 10.30am with 38 flathead to clean.

We were on the water this morning at 05.30am. The tide was only starting to run out so no worry's on the bar way. A light westerly breeze short chop on the water we went straight to the same spot via plotter .

As we got near the cape the wind had freshened and kicked up a 2 metre swell. We fished for 3hrs for around forty flatties until couldn't hold the bottom. We then returned to fathers, packed up and left for home.

All the flathead were Sandy's not over big-.  averaged 35 cm. We never caught a gurnard or squid but we had a seal come along side. All in all a good rewarding trip even though I was well and truly out-fished by Eddy and have been let know who caught the most,-. but
who cares??  I DO !!!

TIGHT LINES
Tom

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