Quick Flick Does The Trick

With the weather forecast for 10knot north westerlies and partly cloudy conditions I decided to head to my favourite southern metropolitan beach to target salmon trout. I was hoping to target smaller salmon trout to use as mulloway baits later in the week. With the tide coming in and 2 foot swell running conditions made bait fishing difficult. However from a vantage point I was able to locate a decent looking gutter which was quite deep with a rip funnelling out the back of the gutter. The depth of the water was easy to spot due to the sunshine and surprisingly high clarity of the water. I decided I would walk the beach flicking a 40gm silver with blue decal Raider metal lure. My outfit of choice for this kind of fishing is a 902 starlo stick classix matched with a Diawa Exceller 3000 running 15lb mono line.

Once I had ventured down the walkway to the beach I decided to keep casting and walking heading slowly south to where I saw the gutter. The water was very cold and made it almost unbearable to stand in the wash and flick lures, especially when the action was slow. After about 50 casts I was yet to have a hit and I was only ½ of the distance I needed to travel from the gutter. I decided I would give up on covering the whole beach and rather focus my efforts in the most likely area to hold fish.

This decision paid off as on my first cast I had a hit and after a short fight I was able to land a 30cm salmon trout. From here on the action continued every 4 or 5 casts I would hook up to a small salmon trout between 25-35cms which was exactly what I was after. I hooked one larger specimen that took me for a good run across the beach, however in my excitement I did not keep the rod tip low enough when the fish was nearing the shore break and as it happens the lack of pressure created by the high rod tip allowed the fish to shake free. After an hour of flicking I had caught 12 salmon trout and kept 6, two for dinner and 4 for bait not bad for a metro beach.

The best thing about fishing the southern metro beaches this time of year is that you are almost guaranteed to catch something, whether its mullet, salmon trout salmon or the occasional flathead or Mulloway the fishing allows plenty of opportunities and does not require a great deal of travel, energy or expense. My advice is to get out there find a likely looking section of beach and give it a go, when the sun comes out its almost warm now so make the most of the winter fishing while its still around.