2019 17th May – Fishing in Portland

 A quick run whats going on in Portland. We fished the waters on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A friend, Will, came along with his crew for the first time and of we go to Horse Shoe and continental shelf. Friday got really choppy out there, white caps everywhere, so after few hours we came back around the Bridgewater. No success. Back to Lee Break-water and we got onto King George Whitting and tons of Yakkas. That day only few tuas and a Mako came in. The very Next day (saturday) was perfect. We managed to get to the shelf in one hour. As we got there, Will landed 2 tunas in no time. He was over the moon. Then we kept going for 5-6 hours but that was it. Tons on boats at the shelf, and few sad stories that some people where fighting the fish while other boats where going over they line and cut it. Ouch, that would hurt. That Saturday, over 100 fish came in, all out from shelf, and only one barrel which was hooked just behind the Lowrance Rock. Bridgewater again no good.
Now, get this. Will over the moon, we went down to the new ramp and as he was holding the pair of tunas, the big MF seal shot out from the water (1.2m high) launched at Will, and grabbed one of the Tunas missing his hand by few centimeters. WTF. I was there on the 11th of April as well when this beast was terrorizing older couple, police and fisheries try to catch him, and the big beast even got his face on prime TV news. Well, his still there. They need to do something quick before someone gets killed! Anyway,
Sunday we packed up as the weather supposed to be shit, but we took of to the ramp just to check it out. Knowing me, we where in no time diggin the Bridge Water. Plenty of birds, dolphins and tons of seals around, but, for us, no tuna. We came back to 21 m close to Portland and got on to some massive Pike, Gurnard, Snook, seven gill shark and others, but no target – Snapper.
Conclusion from this trip – Lots of school tuna up horse sho and shelf, Bridge water very slow, and as per pic in the bin there was Snapper 3-5kg fished in 70m of water. Cheers, happy fisherman.
PS the happiest moment of the trip was Will had his 80yo dad with him. Father and son fishing together no matter what age – made our day!