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outdoors Cape Schanck fishing.

Shorerider

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Cape Schanck is at the southern end of Victoria Australia, and is open ocean to Bass Straight. While I prefer to fish from under the water surface with a speargun, sometimes you just gotta make sacrifices.  :P
 
So, I headed out, fishing rod in hand for a days fishing with a few mates on Sunday. I have dived this location many times before, but this is the first time I have ever rod fished here.
 
Cape Schanck Lighthouse. 
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We had this roll past at 10:30am. It lasted for 5-10 minutes then disappeared to allow the sun to return. Cool, but creepy.
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The sandy beach in the distance is the location of my tussle with a large Stingray while spearfishing. 
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The fishing was tough, using a weighted setup combined with the ocean swell, would almost certainly result in a snag on the reef, and the loss of your hook and sinker. This became very frustrating, so when I noticed the Mullet had followed our burley trail, I switched to a small hook under a float and started having better luck.
 
The days catch, eight Yellow eyed Mullet. I knew these would be great smoked, but I wanted to try them straight from the pan.
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Simply dusted with plain flour, and seasoned with salt and pepper. 
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Fryin' & sizzlin'.
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Plated up with caramelized white and yellow capsicum with Basil & Parsley, seasoned Chunky chips, and garden salad with Kalamata olives, topped with yellow/orange Cayenne from the garden.
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And wouldn't you know it, as my (bad) luck would have it, Sundays conditions were absolutely ideal for diving. :banghead:

The Mullet tasted great, it has a subtle flavor which was surprising for an oily fish. I'll definitely land more if the opportunity arises. 


SR.
 
Nice looking plate Shorerider.
 
grantmichaels said:
Beautiful plate ... lovely setting and colors!

Smoked mullet is common where I live, and very tasty, but it sounds like you already know that!
  
Thanks Grant, yes, I have heard that Mullet is great smoked, never tried it myself though. I have smoked Australian Salmon which is a similar tasting fish and it turns out great.

SavinaRed said:
man that place looks awesome and the fish delicious.
 
Thanks SR, yes, it is certainly a beautiful stretch of coast, and one of my favorite places to be. Although there were many small bones, the fish was delicious.

Sizzle Lips said:
Nice looking plate Shorerider.
Thanks mate.

GhostPepperz said:
Thats amazing. How long does it take you to get to that point from where you live?
Just over two hours, I have Port Phillip bay within 40mins from me, but as far as fishing and diving go, the open ocean is where it's at.

Hopefully my next fishing trip will involve a speargun and the same weather conditions.


SR.
 
What are the top fish around there to go for? Never been to Australia, but would definitely would enjoy a trip there. Are there sharks around there too?
 
Well, that depends on what you mean by "top fish"?
 
Speaking for the waters of Southern Victoria, and based on my opinion/experience, King George Whiting (British influence  :banghead:) is the best table fish hands down. Other notable great tasting fish are Flathead, Leather Jacket, Bream, Trevally, Squid, and Snapper.
 
As far as sports fish go, Snapper would be the most commonly fished species here due to its fighting ability, size, and popularity. The smaller "Pinky" Snapper are best to eat as they tend to have a more delicate flavor. 
 
We also get Kingfish which is a Pelagic species with an exceptional fighting ability. We saw many boats trolling lures past us on Sunday as the Kingfish are in season.
 
Yellow fin tuna and Southern Blue fin tuna can also be found, but are usually located far off shore.
 
Further up north in the warmer waters off the coast of Queensland  (  :banghead:) the fishing gets much better. Fish like Blue Marlin, Cobia, Wahoo, Spanish Makerel, Yellow fin tuna, Giant Trevally, and Barramundi are all excellent sports and game fish.
 
I have seen many non-threatening species of sharks while diving like Port Jackson sharks, Swell sharks and Wobbegong sharks. They all just go about their own business, and occasionally take a closer look at what you may have to offer as a free meal.
 
I had a brief encounter with a 2.5 meter/7ft Blue shark whilst spearfishing off the coast of Eden in New South Wales  ( :banghead:) . It just swam past, I'm glad it did because they are considered dangerous. I also had a tug-of-war with a Wobbegong in Eden, after it stole a fish right off the end of my spear. I was glad to get my spear back, but it got the fish.
 
I consider myself lucky to live where I do,  such beautiful wilderness at my doorstep, and magical coastline only a short drive away. 
 
 
SR.
 
 
Wow you got some nice opportunities for fish. That snapper sounds real good. Id like to try to smoke some pole caught snapper.  So if you go far enough offshore you can catch your own tuna, and then how much would it cost to have it processed for you? 
 
This is our Snapper.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australasian_snapper
 
I've never heard of it being smoked as it isn't common to. It's more generally common to smoke oily fish which our Snapper isn't. Also, being a very desirable table fish, smoking would hide the already nice flavor of the flesh. 
 
Yes, we do have opportunities to land different species of Tuna, which are usually, but not always, located far offshore. 
 
Processing? It is usually just cut into steaks along the length of the fish by the fisherman that catch them. 
 
SR.
 
Spearfishing Cape Schanck.
 
I must say that after my last fishing trip to Cape Schanck I had an itch that wouldn't go away. Thankfully, it wasn't anything health related, Lol, rather my desire to jump in the water and take in the underwater scenery. That, and also hopefully taking some seafood home with me.  :P
 
Saturday 5th of March, conditions weren't supposed to be ideal, but they were forecast to be adequate for a dive. 
 
An early start saw me at Dromana beach  (Port Phillip Bay) to fill my Esky (cooler/ice box or whatever you want to call it) with salt water. With the addition of two pre frozen water filled two liter juice bottles, it keeps fish only ever in contact with salt water but cold enough to stay fresh and safe to eat all day.
 
Dromana beach.
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So then onto my favorite dive spot, conditions there were terrible, so I chose to look elsewhere. Sorry no pics.
 
Next spot to check out was St.Pauls (Lol) beach not far away. A beautiful spot,  with slightly better conditions. I met a diver here who had just got out of the water after collecting some Abalone. He told me that the visibility was poor, and that he hadn't seen many fish. I took his word for it and decided to move on.
 
St.Pauls beach, looking right.
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Looking left.
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On the beach, simply beautiful. 
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So, where to now? Cape Schanck of course, it has one of the most protected areas from the Southwesterly swell we get here in Victoria. And I wasn't disappointed. 
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So, I suited up and was in the water by 9:30am. Not quite the early start I had in mind, but oh well. Two and a half hours later and I chose to call it a day as I had started to get leg cramps. Not the sort of thing that you want to ignore while diving in the ocean by yourself.  :P
 
Left: Three Dusky Morwong. Right, top down: three Shortfinned Pike, one Longfinned Pike and one Bluethroat Wrasse. 
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I also picked up my five Blacklip Abalone (possible Greenlip/Blacklip cross left)
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There weren't many fish around, but I did manage to do fairly well. Although I did miss a shot on a Shortfinned Pike that would've been almost a meter/3ft long. I saw an Eagle Ray which was a first for me at this location. 
 
However, the highlight of the day was bumping into this guy while I was looking for Abalone. 
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He/she is a "Varied Catshark" and was easily caught by hand for a photo opportunity. This pic is actually a screenshot of the video I took of it. It struggled in my hand like an eel and kept twisting its body to get away. This is the first time I have ever seen one of these sharks, and was a great surprise. It was released unharmed. 
 
On another note, I did a dive with a breath hold of 1:37sec at a maximum depth of 5m which is very surprising due to my lack of time in the water over the past 12 months. I didn't even feel as though I was pushing myself, which I never do on solo dives regardless. 
 
Todays Dinner.
 
Shortfinned Pike with fresh Basil, Garlic, Lemon, Ground Thyme, Salt, Pepper and Olive oil.
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Wrapped up and onto my Grill for 25 minutes.
Just cooked through, perfect! 
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Plated up with salad and chips (fries for you Yanks)
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Delicious............
 
 
SR.
 
Heya shorerider, we should hook up for many dives and eating adventures!  I'ma scuba diver but can free dive too!  I'm near Dandenong so only 1 and bits hours from here to Portsea
 
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