southport lagoon

[wrasseman]

Wow, what a place - yakking heaven. I headed out to southport lagoon yesterday, unfortunately with a very late start. The track in was remarkably easy despite the fairly dire warning signs though it did take about 30-40min to go just 5.9km (definitely 4wd only). Nevertheless upon arrival i was greeted by a glorious area of sheltered water - a lot larger than anticipated- with a few interesting looking islands in the middle. After launching I was disappointed to find that much of the bottom in the nearby shallows was covered with intermittant filamentous green weed which would make lure fishing difficult. Bibbed HBs were a waste of time and even weedless rigged SPs were picking the stuff up. Nothing for it but to explore further afield and find some less weedy spots. As I'd promptly forgotten my mental map of the place I (there was a map showing water depths and seagrass beds at the launch site) I simply headed out between a couple of islands towards the mouth and soon found some fishable areas. On my first drift flicking a small spoon, I scored a solid hookup to a nice flattie and after a couple of pics back he went another followed shortly after (camera went flat on this one so appologies for the few and dodgy pics) before I decided as the wind had dropped and I had no drift to head out to the mouth and see what was about there. On the way I periodically stopped for a cast and continued adding to my tally of flatties. Unfortunately at this point the wind came up quickly building to 30-35kts and blowing in exactly the wrong direction slowing me down substantially. When the rain came as well I decided to head back towards the car as I didn't want to get bogged on the way out if the rain really bucketed down so I never made the mouth, or the fishy looking back end of the lagoon. Trolling my way back, I picked two small salmon and another flattie (only undersized one for the day), and just off from the car I had a final drift for another nice flatty. In the end the tally for about 2-3hrs fishing was two salmon, what I think was a whiting (dropped boatside before I got a good look) and about seven or so flatties, all but one reasonable sized for tas. Although I didn't catch anything great or get onto any of the flounder this place is renowned for (as a species collector that was my real goal) I'll be back. As it recieves little fishing pressure I'm sure a more concerted effort could turn up some very pleasant surprises in this waterway and it is tailor made for yakking, I just need more time to explore it.
col.

[Nath86]

Sounds like a reasonable day out on the water wrasseman.
Is that an old halco wobbler that I see in that lizards mouth.
Have never used spoon lures, can you retrieve them a little slower than metal slugs like the twisty's and spanyid raiders?

Cheers Nath

[adidaspeteman]

There is something speacial about being out on a yak, looks like a promising place that I'm sure you will get back to soon. Good to hear you've been wetting a line Col...

Nath, the spoon is Wrassemans secret weapon and not a halco

[wrasseman]

yeah the spoon is a little (1/12oz, 2.5cm) acme phoebe, really a small stream trout lure. Retrieve is dead slow with occasional flicks.
Yeah Pete awesome spot, can't wait to get back I haven't even scratched the surface yet. went for a quick flick at work today but only scored a cod, worst sesh ever there.
Col.

[virty]

Nice one mate i have not seen one of those lures for a while.