Our Fishing Trip adventure
By Mark Carter

My dad (Barry) and I went with Darren and Tom on the Ricky Taylor Foundation Auction Fishing Trip on Sunday 10th January and had a great day. We headed off a 630am from Warneet boat ramp after queuing with more than 50 other fisherman with boats trying to catch the outgoing tide before the boat ramp was out of water. We carefully navigated the shallow water (~1m in places due to low tide) to start off near the mouth of the Tooradin river along with another ~30 boats including a charter boat.

After a short period of time we caught the first fish: Darren – a toad fish, shortly after it was Barry’s turn another toadfish, then Mark with a toadfish so we moved into slightly deeper water and Mark caught the first of the King George Whiting while everybody lost more bait to toadfish then Barry and Tom caught a Whiting each while Darren kept catching toadfish (Darren’s new nickname “Toad King!) At 9.30 am it was time for some of Tom’s favourite snacks: a thermos of coffee with sugar and the first of Ham, tomato, cheese and relish, and or a cup of tomato pasta soup that he’d brought.

The tide had now turned and was rising so we moved to another position near Mud Island. We moved around a few more times on our way toward French Island then headed out toward Hastings, near Esso Long Island where we saw an old rusting World War II submarine moored (see photos). Now the tide was high and we caught Calamari Squid, a few more Flathead and a few more King George Whiting.

Then the tide was going out again and by this time it was now ~4pm and we headed for the boat ramp wanting to get out before the boat ramp was out of water. We now had a moderate haul of 13 Whiting, 5 Flathead, 1 Leatherjacket, 2 Calamari amazingly mostly caught on pippies, squid and an appropriate sinker and circular hook. As the boat ramp no longer has an area to clean fish, we headed to Tom’s house to fillet the fish and cleanup.

I must say a big thank you to Tom Antoniou and iFish Cranbourne for providing the equipment, bait, boat and expertise as it made for a memorable trip, one which I hope to repeat.

Mark Carter