Went for a paddle yesterday apex to campbells and back. Between Skeleton creek and RAAF reef there were masses of bait fish everywhere. Not just small bait balls. It was similar a few days ago when passing through the area. Just inside and outside marine reserve.

Some guys in a boat towing a net, probably gathering bait fish, called me over and handed me a bag of fish which was probably a bycatch. Half a dozen pinkies and a small just legal gummy. Dont normally take hand out fish but freezers empty and a feeds a feed.

I also had the closest encounter yet with a pod of dolphins who grouped around me swimming within almost touching distance and directly below me for at least half an hour matching my speed and direction change the whole time. Went from WOW to WTF (Hitchcock moment). Didn't break off contact until I went into 1m water over the reef, then picked me up on the otherside. Would have made great gopro footage, with lots of tail slapping.

Had a lot of dolphin encounters before but this is the first time I have been deliberately ghosted by them

Sounds great Keith! Yet to encounter any wildlife other than the odd gull haha.

Interesting about the amount of bait fish you saw.

laneends wrote:
Some guys in a boat towing a net, probably gathering bait fish, called me over and handed me a bag of fish which was probably a bycatch.

I assume you are talking about a pro boat?

Rhino wrote:

laneends wrote:
Some guys in a boat towing a net, probably gathering bait fish, called me over and handed me a bag of fish which was probably a bycatch.

I assume you are talking about a pro boat?

TBH dont know, and it was only a small net,or at least a string of bouys, and average size boat, it was a bit of a mystery. No fishing rods, but some crates that looked like fish storage boxes. wasn't a big boat.

Hey Keith you've been eating up the kms lately, sounds like we'll be seeing you OS in the near future. Be warned though... I was tidying up some tackle the other day and I had to have a bit of a laugh at myself because I've got more gear for OS than for anything else yet I've hardly caught any fish!

A bit over a week ago when I was at WS I had a look around Point Cook as well and there's literally acres of bait, the flatties I caught were stuffed to the gills with whitebait.

Smish wrote:Hey Keith you've been eating up the kms lately, sounds like we'll be seeing you OS in the near future. Be warned though... I was tidying up some tackle the other day and I had to have a bit of a laugh at myself because I've got more gear for OS than for anything else yet I've hardly caught any fish!

Its really only because I cant get enough time away to drive the distance to justify many OS trips and hence the extra gear that prevents me "tooling up" for OS. If I could readily get to Portland or SWR for a few days etc then I would make the effort.