Ebb Tide Adventures is about more than just fishing which is just as well as this is not much of a fishing report!
After our amazing recent session at Portland chasing bluefin tuna, (see Mad Friday) using alternate techniques we could not wait to get back and we were armed with more casting and jigging rods and camera's than you could poke a stick at.
Massive swells but light winds gave us the small fishing window we were after although we were a little perturbed by the dodge tides and indifferent reports however we forged on none the less. Jason Taylor's Evolution 650 Predator was the platform and well up to the task and we had a capable crew with Victorian Game Fishing Club members Anton Vogiatzis and Justin Clarke on board. The sea's certainly were large and its hard to get out a tape measure but they were among the bigger Southern Ocean swells I has seen for some time but the conditions were certainly fishable. The waters behind Lawrence Rock in the 100 - 130 meter line was alive with a mixture of pacific gulls, gannets and albatross harassing the red bait being pushed up relentlessly by dolphins and seals. Although there is a chance of tuna being amongst them when bait is balling up like this we could not find or at least failed to temp them this time. Late morning we pushed wider still to the Horse Shoe area where we had enjoyed the great session Mad Friday but it was lifeless excepting a small lonely albacore that fell to a Jaks Barrel Bullet in Rigid Regie color. As the afternoon wore on we made our way back to the scene of the morning bait activity and the bait and birds were still present in numbers but no sign of obvious predators from below. Calling it a day we made the trek back in the dark and it was one of the few times during the peak of tuna season where I have returned to a deserted boat ramp and empty cleaning tables. Please enjoy some photos which never do justice to the size of the ocean!
Please click on the images for a better resolution.
