Preston Angling Club

Club meets 8pm every thursday : 270 Murray Road, Preston, Victoria 3072 www.prestonac.com.au

The snapper bounty in Port Phillip Bay is now in full swing and all the competitors went out chasing the elusive reds.

Bob Beeson

John Costa

The reports leading up to this trip still had fish biting at Frankston, Mordialloc, Sandringham Black Rock, and Werribee. You only had to land in the right area to get amongst the action.

Again the weather gods did not look like working in our favour. Eleven members and a non competitor tried their luck on a windy Sunday morning.

The wind did its bit to keep us off the water blowing at least 20 knots WSW, luckily the showers that were forecast did not eventuate.

It was 1.30am when I got to the boat ramp to meet up with a couple of other members for the endearing task of catching a couple of decent Reds.

Once on the water my boat found its legs and we powered up the channel to our destination off Sandringham. When we got there, there were too many boats in the area we wanted to fish, so we decided to sound around to see if we could pick up some marks away from the main pack.

This ended up being a good decision as we came across some big arches over a patch of ground that was well away from any of the other boats in the area.

Boats were anchored and the berley organised. It was to say the least uncomfortable with the swell coming through at about a meter with the odd one at 1.5 metres. Still it was going to abate a little later.

Well it took the fish an eternity to come on and it wasn't until 5.30 that my first rod screamed off. (The reason for this was that the lice were exceptionally thick and were around until just after sun up which was quite unusual.) After a fight of about five minutes my first fish came to the net, a healthy snapper of about 4 kg.

The time seemed to drag before my next bite which saw line being taken only in small bursts, after missing the hook up a couple of times, I finally had the edge on what turned out to be a ray. Then another ray, a banjo, and then another banjo. It looked like the berley had done its job and we were going to be plagued by the carpet sweeping brigade.

Fishing is funny, and before I had a chance to sit down after re rigging and casting out the rod that I had just cast out took off. This run was a screamer, at least 50 meters, it wasn't until I felt the familiar head shakes that I knew I had a good fish on. It proved to be must best fish as it tipped the lie detector at 6,620 kg.

Meanwhile Bob Beeson and Steve Gusman were having their own time of it, continually hooking rays and banjos, at least Bob got rewarded as he told me he had landed a good fish.

From about 5.45am onwards the action continued till about 8.30 am, the fish showed a real liking to the Silver Whiting as they had done for most of the season. Both Bob and I were lucky enough to catch our limit of three Snapper over 50 cm; Steve however could not take a trick. Every hook up was either a ray or a good fish going through the line.

Meanwhile Alf, Peter, and Joe each got a Snapper; they were also fishing the Sandringham area. John Alexopoulos managed to tangle with a gummy, and was successful. Ron De Bono fished the P2 area.

Back at the clubrooms a BBQ was organised and a good meal and chat was had by all. I would like to thank, Mary Tonkin and grand daughter Andrea John Alexopoulos and Julian Costa for helping cook, and organise the food. The members that came back to the clubrooms enjoyed every mouthful.

At the weigh in the two outstanding bags came from Bob Besson and John Costa. Bob presented three beautifully conditioned Snapper to scale that went 17.50 kg. Bobs best fish came in at 6.940 kg. John Costa also presented three Snapper that weighed in at 14.560 kg.

Best bait by far was the humble Silver Whiting and conditions ended up for a perfect day to be out on the water.

I would like to thank our referees for their time and patience.