I have made the 'groot trek' from South Africa to Australia. As the forum has been quiet, I have decided to add an article of my fishing trips in far East Gippsland, Victoria Australia. The fishing for Tailor (as the Aussies call them here, not Shad) is almost identical to how we fish for them in South Africa.
I was fishing my local favourite spot called Bastion Point. It is an inlet to a massive lake system in the tiny holiday town of Mallacoota on the East Victorian coast, very close to the border with New South Wales. I was fortunate enough to have an epic four-day period where the tides and conducive size swell coincided with sunrise. This is important as if the tide is too high or too low then fish will not move in and out of the lake system from the ocean as the flows will be too strong. Sunrise had the tide pushing slightly with a swell of 1.1m. This was perfect for a relatively calm inlet channel on sunrise.
Gear used:
Reel: Shimano Catana C3000
Rod: Shimano Maikuro 2 702 Medium
Line: 12lb braid
Leader: 1.5m 15lb FC tied with a FG knot
Lures: 25 gram to 45 gram metal slugs which look like small baitfish, colours in blue, black/silver and pink. I bought loads of cheap lures from Temu, ranging from two to three AUD per lure. These worked just as effectively as the more expensive lures from BCF or tackle stores. The only thing I do is swop out the trebles for single hooks with some flash in them. Note the cheap Temu hooks pull straight on the bigger fish, the only downside. The normal price of a similar lure costs between 15 to 20 AUD. I used a steel snap swivel for the Tailor / Shad. Current exchange rate is around R11.56 to 1 AUD.
It was still quite dark when I walked the short 100 meters from the car park to where the beach met the inlet, filled with excitement and anticipation the weather was mild, with a gentle breeze. I threw my first cast about 40 meters diagonally out towards sea and retrieved not expecting a hit on the first cast, just enjoying the peaceful beauty of pre-dawn. BANG! My day dreaming was rudely interrupted by a sudden jerk of my rod, I was ON! First cast, and a nice tussle began and I landed an Aussie Salmon (Arripis trutta) of about 2.5kgs. I let him go, hoping for a bigger uncle to take my lure. At a stage I counted 11 casts with 9 hookups and six fish landed. A medium fast retrieve worked well. I even got a double hookup on the one lure which was awesome fun. The Aussie salmon love aerobatics and jumping when getting close to shore and throw the hook. I try and keep pressure on the fish and not have any slack line but they often throw the hook. Should I keep my rod tip up or should I keep my rod low and parallel to the ground? Some UA member advice please!
There was a school of Tailor in between the larger school of Salmon and I managed two nice Tailor of 48cm. My Mrs caught a bus of a Tailor of 59cm! One thing is for certain the Aussie Salmon fight way harder than Tailor and I love catching them.
We kept 2 Tailor and two Aussie salmon for a feed. Note that as soon as you catch the Aussie Salmon you need to bleed them, otherwise they don’t taste nearly as good. Also I learnt a valuable lesson, if you don’t have an ‘Esky’ cooler box or wading bag, bury your fish head first in the sand with just the tail sticking out, not only to keep them cool but to stop the pelicans getting them! Aussie salmon are great as Thai fish cakes with chips an a salad or smoked!
Once the sun was out the pelicans arrived to see what all the commotion was about as the action was hot on the hookups. As I was about to land one Aussie Salmon a Pelican, obviously very hungry for a good breakfast, dive bombed my fish! To my amazement it caught it and I was trying to take off which it did, I was doing everything trying to pull the fish out from the pelican. I had visions of me flying a Pelican kite while I phoned the Greenies to come and help get the lure from the pelicans mouth. As the pelican was now air born, I decided to yank hard on the line and one of two things would happen, the line would snap or I’d hookup with the pelican and have to get someone to help me untangle the bird. Well, after my yank, the pelican deviated flight path with my fish still in its mouth and hit the water, as it hit the water the lure popped and was freed! The pelican then ate my fish headfirst and flew away!
What a thrilling morning session! Great fun and beauty in only 1.5 hours.
