Hunters' wives out hunting ... for food !!!

It was a beautiful day with clear skies. The Hunter's wives decided to leave the hunters at home and have a night out on the town!

Beautiful Docklands. It was a mad scramble not to drop the camera when setting it up!

Our first course started with yummy steak and seafood at the Steakhouse. With a big screen plasma up on the wall so we could see our steaks cooking!
!

After freezing on the boardwalk trying to find the place, we ended up at the.. Chocolate shop! Yep... chocolate was the main substitute for alcohol that night! Unbenowst to all, 2 of the ladies were early pregnant!

Yummy dessert!

Hsu and Rita looking puzzled at the bill. Our accountant had preggy Mum syndrome even then!

Night shot of Melbourne from SouthBank 14-Oct-2006

This blog entry has nothing to do with fishing. But this night shot was taken so beautifully with my Canon PowerShot A95 that I had to share it with anyone out there in the net. Just click the photos for the original full size.

Warneet Jetty (7-Oct-2006)

The leatherjacket story !!!This trip was made by me and Daniel only. We arrived at around 7:30am, with the lowest tide. We were the only one there. High tide reached peak at around 12pm.

Both of us was using pasternoster rig with size 6 or 8 hooks. I was feeling very confident that I would catch a few mullets ... after all Daniel/Tanya had been successful in their past two trips.

Other anglers started coming in at around 9:30am.

While we were there, a young man reeled in four King George Whitings. A few others reeled in mullets.
A leatherjacket was caught by Daniel at around 10:25am.
Size limit: 20cm. (from the website - Department of Primary Industries and Water website)

We left the jetty at 12pm, feeling upset, because Daniel was unable to duplicate his previous success, and I ... well ... empty-handed again.
Daniel ended up giving me the fish because he said he does not know how to gut this little sucker.

We didn't know the legal size limit during the trip because leatherjacket legal size was not listed on the jetty size scale. This fish measured 18cm. If we had known this earlier, we would have released it back into the water immediately. We sworn we won't never do this again after today.

Warneet Jetty (1-Oct-2006)

Daniel and Tanya struck Mullets again, with a total of four. If this keeps going on, we will have to call them "The Mullet couple".

Daniel and Tanya wrote:
"It does not matter whether you use pipis or chicken as bait, timing is the most important factor. Pretty much these fishes were caught within that one hour.

It is not the am pm thing. It is the turn of the tide! We got there and the tide was going out and no fish at all! As soon as the tide started coming in, it was feeding frenzy! When it reached close to peak tide, the frenzy stopped. So... in conclusion, turn of the tide."

Hmm!!! Two of them seems to have drowned. Need to buy a keeper's net, to keep them alive in the water???

Fishing at Warneet Jetty (24 August 2006)

This report is brought to you by Daniel and Tanya only, as they set out for a field research on a very cold windy morning. Congratulations to Tanya again for that excellent fine catch.

Sunday- 10.45 to 12.30pm. Here is our success!

It was gale force winds, freezing (temperature drop from 17 degrees to 9 degrees!), also snow forecasted in the Dandenongs! Blowfish was caught before rain. Edible fish (mullet) was caught in between rain bouts! The tips..... pipis!!!!! Keep the line short!!!

Fishing at Patterson River mouth (9-Sep-2006)

It was a full moon night with bright stars and clear sky. It was a cold quiet night of 7degC. The water at the river mouth was very calm. We were baited up with chicken breast meat. We lost a few Paternoster Rig as our line got snagged.

So what went wrong? . . . (no fish).

Fishing at Patterson River mouth (2-Sep-2006)

The day was warmish of about 20degC. We decided to setup our fishing spot right at the river mouth. People on our left and right were pulling in mullets, and whitings of good sizes.

Despite trying our luck with soft plastics, lures, squid and silver baitfish; and Daniel praying hard for all of us (as shown in photo on the right), the day still ended up in frustration.

Mornington (Schnapper Point), 26th Aug 2006

Quotation from Boon (25th Aug 2006):

"Picture this 5000 years back. The men after supper going out to hunt for tommorrow's food. While the ladies stays home and take care of the young. So this is not a recreational night for the guys, its a night we go to work."

The hunt expedition started at around 9pm. One and a half hours later, the hunt was still fruitless. As hunger sets in at around 10:30pm, the five guys were forced to look for alternative food source ... KFC !!!

Surprise! Surprise!
At 11:43pm, I caught an ugly looking seastar on my handline baited with pipis. Could this seastar be a protective native species ... Coscinasterias muricata ?

Fishing at Warneet (19 August 2006)

The fishing craze has not stopped. As the spring approaches, the temperature gets warmer, and the hunger for catching any fish out of water increases.

Two new members joining us in this fishing expedition ... namely Stephen and Hsu.

This Warneet pier is different to the other pier. It is longer, which allows us to penetrate the deeper water.

Tanya was the only lucky one to catch something. But it turned out to be a poisonous inedible toad fish. But it was enough to earn herself the title "Angler of the week".

Fishing at Warneet, Victoria (29 July 2006)

Warneet is a beautiful, peaceful town with 3 beautiful little pier. This is one of them; do not exactly know what the name of this pier is. Fishing started at around 3:30pm with Boon/Rita and Daniel/Tanya. It lasted till around 6pm. We were bombarded with rain and small hailstones. My hands were freezing. I was armed with a raincoat and rainpants.

I will have to get myself one of those chemical hand warmer from Ray Outdoor's shop.

No fish was caught.

At around 8pm, we ended up back in Daniel/Tanya's place for a pizza dinner, and went to Mornington Pier to have a second try of fishing. Still no luck. Another cold night with no fish biting.

Fishing at Mornington (Schnapper Point) 23, July 2006

It has been approximately 2.5 years since I have last gone fishing. This fishing trip started right after a dinner in a Thai restaurant with friends (Daniel/Tanya and Boon/Rita).

We can't remember exactly how the conversation of fishing started during the meal. But there we were at around 9:15pm.

Fortunately for us, the temperature was around 6 or 7 degree Celsius (not too cold) that night.

At approximately 9:51pm, I managed to catch my first decent fish ... ever!!! A Red Rock Cod, 30cm in length.The fish was gutted at home. And surprise, a baby fish which appeared to be baby Snapper was found in its tummy.