Just Because – By John Boon

I think every angler will experience it at some stage. You think that you might have run over a black cat or something that seems to keep destroying the weather forecast. It’s certainly frustrating when you’re sitting at home just watching day after day of crap weather roll through. You look to the long range weather forecast for a glimmer of hope but all it resembles is shattered hopes and dreams.

Recently I went through these emotions. I had spent a lot of time in the creeks which I had absolutely loved. The poor old Cruise Craft was feeling neglected and collecting a good thick layer of dust. At that point I thought ‘yep, I could use a good offshore trip’ and I believe at that exact moment the weather turned awful.

One fateful weekend the forecast looked like it was going to drop down good enough to maybe get a shot out the front on the big blue. It wasn’t the greatest of forecasts and one of those ones where you really need to poke out early morning and see what it would be like.

I rang the old man who hadn’t been on the water in over six months. I asked if he was keen to maybe go and do something just because. Just because basically means that we are desperate and will make up a plan to chase something, somewhere. He didn’t need to be asked twice so we put our heads together to hopefully head in the direction of a successful trip.

With the weather forecast still looking like it could go either way we hatched a plan to head north to the mouth of Corio Bay to have a go at some inshore fingermark and grunter. The issue we normally have when doing this trip is that black jew like to make a nuisance of themselves.

The old man was getting low on fish in the freezer so it wouldn’t be a bad thing if we did snag a few as he does like to eat them. I also had a few different lures and plastics I wanted to test out so if there’s any species that would give them a red hot test it would be jewies.

We headed out the front of the marina at a sparrow fart and were greeted by a small chop. This time of year it’s normally just on daylight when you get to figure out what the weather is going to do for the day.

We made a steady trip up to Corio Bay and were sounding around the rubble patches in no time. We still had a good few hours until daylight. I do like to get up there early so you can have a good search around and pick the best looking spot. I think ex editor of Fish and Boat Lee Brake liked to refer to it as the golden hour.

To be honest it was bloody hard to try and pick one spot to sit on. The bait schools and fish arches on the Humminbird Apex were absolutely insane. We had the Minn Kota Ulterra all set up running off a BLA lithium battery for this trip. Electronic anchoring in a cabin boat is the ultimate in my opinion. No issues having to struggle to get to the front of the boat and put the noisy anchor down. Just one button to deploy and one button to spot lock, brilliant.

We settled into our position and the Apex was showing the goods. Dad would be running bait and I would be running artificials. I was quick to get a lure down with Dad still setting his rig up. I gave the plastic two hops and then it got crunched. The old man looked over  and said ‘you’re joking aren’t ya?’ as he laughed his ass off. There’s nothing better than getting hooked up straight away.

It was a dog fight so you know what that means. In the dim boat lights up came a hefty black jew. With current regulations you’re allowed to keep one black jew per person. Dad slid the net under it and we lifted it over the side.

This was the first trip that I had success with the Squidtrex from Nomad. There’s countless video’s with anglers banging fish on them but unfortunately the first time I took a couple out to trial it didn’t go well at all. I chatted to a few mates who had used them and was talked into giving them another trial, I’m glad I did.

If you haven’t heard of or seen the Squidtrex then I’ll give a short run down on them. They are a very clever design. In short they are a squid lure that vibrates on the lift. They come in a large range of sizes, colours and weights so you can cover everything from estuary right out to 100m depth offshore. The terminals are Sea Ranger assist hooks. I wouldn’t say they look like the most reliable assist hooks I’ve ever used but I will confirm they are bloody strong for their size and gauge.

After we put the jewie on ice we got back to it. I looked over at the Apex and it was showing a lot of good sized fish up off the bottom to about half way down in the water column. I convinced the old man to rig up a floating pilly and flick it out. It didn’t last long with the rod buckling. We had no idea what to expect but deep down I was secretly hoping for a fingermark.

Unfortunately it wasn’t the golden goodness I was hoping for, it was quite the opposite. It was a small shark of about a meter in length. I gave Dad a hand to get rid of the vermin and convinced him one again to put another pilly out. The exact same situation happened with a small shark being hooked within seconds. He just looked at me with an expression and I understood straight away. I replied with ‘no sharks hitting the lures’ with a smirk.

I sent another squidtrex down and once again another solid hookup. This black jew was about the same length but definitely had more girth then the last. I was impressed with the Dobyn’s XP Champion 703 I was using. Thought it might have been a bit under gunned for this sort of torture but it really did feel nice and comfortable under tension.

The little squidtrex I was using was a glow in the dark colour. Every time I dropped it to the bottom I put it up to the boat light to charge it up before I sent it on its way. Was charging it up making a difference? Yes I do believe so. There was a few times I didn’t charge it up and had to burn it back to the boat so I could reset it because it wasn’t getting any interest. Always wise to be observant and prove different theories.

I tried everything in my power for a fingermark or grunter but unfortunately didn’t come up with the goods. Once the sun was up, the wind had sprung up with it so the call was made to make a steady course towards the Keppel Island group.

When we were discussing plans about what we wanted to do this trip I was really keen to do some different stuff. Doing the same old thing does get a bit boring at times so it’s always a good idea to give the mind and body new challenges.

One of the new challenges I wanted to do was target trout around the islands. I can hear you saying ‘how is that a new challenge?’ Well to put it plainly it’s not something I have invested any time into. If the weather is good enough to push wide then that’s where we go if we are chasing fillets for the freezer. Most of the time when we head to the islands we are chasing tiger squid or mackerel.

When we do an island trip I’ve normally got the family on board. It’s very difficult with the wife and kids to dedicate time to trying new challenges. Sometimes it takes hours to figure out different techniques and locate likely areas.

After a slow trip back across the bay we finally made it to the Keppel’s. Dad was pleased that he could now stand up in comfort. He’s 70 years young so less then favourable conditions are a big struggle.

I split screened the Apex to look at side imaging, 2D and chart. It was now search time so the old man kicked the feet up for a well earned rest. I basically drove around looking for pressure points, bait school congregations, isolated bommies and of course good looking fish shows.

We searched for a good couple of hours marking up potential spots. After we had completed a search of our chosen area we went back to the first mark and started cycling through them. The first spot didn’t look great to me as it was fairly flat bottom but it had great fish shows. It was only wire netting cod we could get interested.

The next few spots were turning over the same action. It was obvious we were in a dull period. I checked my phone and said to the old man I was hopeful for a decent bite around 11am.

We kept soldiering on trying different spots and different techniques. It wasn’t until we ran over a bommie that was covered in life I got really confident. It was what I had been searching for. It was only around 9-10 meters in depth but looked spot on.

I was running lures again and Dad persisted with the bait. Our first bit of interest came with a mackerel taking a live bait off the bottom but as luck would have it, cut us off. Next I sent down a prawn imitation on a weedless jig head as the structure was very prickly.

It only took a couple of hops and THUMP. It was a battle but the Dobyn’s performed once again and up came a solid island bar cheek. I flicked it over the side and I saw Dad’s eyes light up. ‘Nice one mate’ he said. I asked him what the time was which he replied ‘it’s 10:50am’.

I gave it a minute and he put the clues together. ‘How did you know’ he said. It’s not a matter of knowing but just being aware. We were fishing the right country but obviously the timing was off. I looked for the next trigger which was going to be the moon above period.

Does it always work? No not always but in this case I believe we had found the right spot at the right time which is why it was now working. If I had gone back to some previous spots that looked good would we have got fish off them during this time period? I would assume so but it would need to be proven.

We sat on our little bommie for about half an hour before the switch was turned off. The bite was short and sharp but we were able to put two nice trout in the boat and a hefty island cold spot cod.

Due to work we were only doing a half day mission so it was now time to make our way back to the marina. We stopped into a few squid spots on the way back and got a nice feed of calamari to top off a great half day.

We had tried different techniques and searched some new areas. We had a nice feed on board and were back in the marina a bit after lunch. I think these ‘just because’ trips might turn into an addiction.