Mitchell river, Eagle Point, Paynesville - quiet but serene

How's the serenity?

With nothing better to do I decided to take off to Lakes Entrance to find some prospective kayak fishing opportunities. Sadly I got out of town rather late and arrived in the darkness, which made it tricky to find a good place for an early morning launch - I was making it up as I went. Eagle Point looked good on Google Earth. I did well to find a car park with boat ramp and public jetty with no one around right on the Mitchell river, about 5km from the river mouth. A perfect home for the night, where I could have done some land based fishing if I wanted. I was too tired and lazy though, so I cracked a cold one, rigged my gear and prepared for an AM launch.

With the slight hint of a hangover I was on the water by 6:00AM and although I was in unfamiliar territory I figured that my chances were good. Trolling the legendary sx40 HB lure as well as a shiny little popper I slowly made my toward the river mouth. I managed to sound a few fish along the way but they were few and far between. I did manage to hook a nice fish along the way, about a km from the mouth. A nice 37cm Tailor, destined for the grill.

There's lunch

After this I picked up the pace to get out into the lakes to see if I could find anything interesting. Other than Pelicans and Jelly fish in plague proportions, there was nothing much around. Guessing my chances were probably better in the river, I went back and slowly trolled my way back - this time replacing the popper with a 3" power minnow (smelt).

I was well rewarded for doing that because although the sx40 only managed one more hook up (another tailor, dropped at the side of the boat) the SP caught 2 more tailor, one 32cm, the other 33. It was also attacked a few more times, although it to dropped a few fish.

I had to work hard for these fish, but when I throw em on the bbq (just as soon as I finish writing this) I'm sure it'll all be worth it. There were plenty of other fishoes about, but i was the only one of us (that I spoke to) that caught anything. I did meet some interesting blokes though. One on a sailboat, who asked loads of questions about the Hobie Outback. He'd been researching them online but had never seen them in the flesh, so he called me over and had a good look at it. Ironically, I also met another guy who knows the Victorian Hobie dealer, Scott Lovig.

Right now I'm sitting at a park with boat ramp at Metung, where I plan an early AM adventure, so another report will come tomorrow night.

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