Emu Bay Soft Plastics

[Greenmachinekayak]

I went to Duck Bay yesterday in hopes to flick around some plastics and to get a look at the place, as I have never been there before. I organized my plastics, bought a few more packets, some more jig heads and got it all ready for the day. It didn’t go to well and ended badly due to wrong tides and weather. If I didn’t manage to find a school of small cocky salmon to keep me occupied I would have died of Hyperthermia!



Anyway, not satisfied with the trip, I decided to take my plastics and give Emu Bay a good flogging, targeting the humble flathead and possibly the odd whiting or two. I didn’t have high hopes as it was expected to be North Eastly winds for most of the day however, the tide was perfect so I decided to tough it out.
I arrived at the port as the tide was starting to come in and after all the recent rain, it was pretty dirty so I put on a yep that had a bit of sparkle to it. I was casting into whatever structure I could find whether it is pylons, ships, rocky out crops or cement walls. I was just using the basic ‘fluttering’ off the bottom technique and it seems to produce a little flathead every second or third cast. This continued for a good hour or two before the wind kicked in.

Once the water cleared up a bit I put on a sand worm in natural and flicked it around where the pylons meet the rocks and the sand. Had some pretty unusual hits there and eventually landed a nice blue spotted goatfish along with some flathead, mackerel and a tiny silver Trevally.

I moved on to the Toll ship and stuck with the sandworm as it was doing the damage. By now the tide had come in about half way and there was a fair bit of Couta in the water. 5 or 6 casts later, after 2 little flatties the Couta became so thick I had to move.

I went back to the previous spot and managed to hook two small whiting but it wasn’t long before the Couta moved in. I worked my way in between the two spots and worked out that I could get 5 or so casts in before the Couta arrived. Once you caught a Couta though, it was time to move as there would probably another 60 down there waiting. It started to pour down with rain and the wind changed to bang on Eastly. That’s when I took shelter underneath the pier and had some lunch while I waited for the weather to die down.

I returned to the Toll ship with a fresh leader and a fresh sandworm. I tried to cast as close as I could to the ship without actually hitting it and let it sink straight down. A couple of light flutters and I was on to something solid. After a couple of violent headshakes and a short hard run I lost it. I could almost have guaranteed that was a snapper so I quickly rigged up a new sandworm and tried again. I got smacked a few times on the drop but couldn’t set the hook. I paused for a moment and then went to wind up to cast again and something smashed it! It felt smaller than the one before but was still a solid fish. I was absolutely stoked when I brought it up and saw that it was a snapper because it was my first snapper on a plastic.. Who cares if it was on a gulp.

I casted for the next hour for a few flathead and countless amounts of Couta before I called it a day.

All in all was a pretty fun session with the plastics.
I will defiantly give Emu Bay a good flogging in the summer time with SP’s

Cheers,
Bryan

[Greenmachinekayak]

Decent Flatty caught on the yep

[Greenmachinekayak]

I have caught some small flathead in my time but this is just plain ridiculous!
The plastic is almost bigger than the fish!

[Greenmachinekayak]

Yellow-tail Mackerel.
One of the few I got past the Couta
Live bait?

[Greenmachinekayak]

Awesome looking Goatfish
Haven't caught one in a while and have forgotten how cool they look.
Picked him up near the rocks in the background.

[Greenmachinekayak]

Little Whiting on the pumpkinseed yep,
They are not just for trout

[Greenmachinekayak]

The song "Everyday's a good day for fishing" came into my head..

[Greenmachinekayak]

Gotta love the Couta
Great fun on 6lb braid.
Nearly got spooled by a bigger one.

[Greenmachinekayak]

First Snapper on a SP

It was on a Gulp

[Greenmachinekayak]

Same fish.
Gotta love the power in these little ones. Can't wait to hook a big one

[Greenmachinekayak]

Just gotta put up with these sly dogs
There is no getting away from them.

[Greenmachinekayak]

After the Toll ship left I soon followed as I was cold, wet and hungry

[eddystone]

Nice work mate,

Can't complain about snatching a snapper in winter

Pat

[eggar]

You are the king of multispecies..............

Nice work!

[Sherlock]

Those big couta really can go hard sometimes!

Great report and photos.