trueblue
08-06-2009, 11:41 AM
Went for a run out off 1770 with Vertico over the long weekend. We left Brissie at about midnight on Friday night, arriving at the Round Hill ramp at about 6 am. Well not quite – arrived at the end of a massive queue of boats waiting to get to the ramp. There was a fishing competition on the go, and every man and his dog was there.
About 7 am the boat was in the water, and to be honest, for such a big line up of boats they all went into the water with a minimum of fuss and no dramas. Headed out to the bait grounds just offshore, and as we went around the corner there were heaps of boats all looking for bait. Sean put us onto a good patch of bait a fair way from the other boats and we had 30 odd yakkas in no time.
Conditions on Saturday morning were very flat, almost glassing out at times. We headed out towards lady Musgrave and fished a bit there, then went towards Fitzroy, fishing heaps of marks Sean had from previous trips, and a bunch of new ones found while traveling.
The morning started slowly, but by sundown Saturday night we had 33 fish in the box and only needed another 7 on the Sunday to bag out. Saturday saw coral trout, coral cod, maori cod, red throat, red emporer, sweetlip, pearl perch, parrot and hussar in the box. Live baits were the gun bait for the coral trout.
Red Emporers were frustrating, as they tended to be either just under, or just over legal size. Usual story, they seem to school in size selective groups.
I must say that Sean is a flamin’ fish whisperer or fish magnet. We would hit a spot and drop lines and before mine was on bottom, he would often be hooked up! I was using black magic leader on the first day and Sean was using flurocarbon – with more hits to the fluorocarbon. I changed to fluorocarbon on the Sunday and my catch rate improved dramatically. So the black magic is going back into the lure box, and the fluro is now the go on all bottom bashing occasions for me.
We forgot to eat on Saturday, so after finishing fishing on a good bite at sundown near Fitzroy, we headed into the lagoon after dark and were famished as well as totally rooted. After boiling the billy for a brew, and having a quick sandwich we were both flaked out by 8 pm.
I woke up in the middle of the night to a crap smell and found that my burley bucket contents had decided to grow and had popped the lid and was oozing out and into my blanket – not nice. Cleaned it up and back to sleep till 6 am.
Woke up to a stiff 15 to 20 knots blowing, so we veged out for a while till it was properly light. Saw a few boats venture out of the lagoon only to come straight back in.
After light we headed out and trolled a couple of hardbodies behind the breakers for no success, but didn’t continue trolling for very long. Changed the plan and came in close to the reef and started setting out a massive burley trail. Sort of expected big things to come from that burley trail, but nothing decent eventuated.
Gave that away and headed out in the slop to look for some more trout. We had 2 livies left on the Sunday morning. We decided to leave the livies till we thought we were on a good trout mark and used bait till then.
Big mullet baits were the go, half a fillet being the best. I was a bit too conservative the day before not using big enough baits, but lesson learned.
Sean converted his livie into a trout, and I decided to wait for a new mark to drop mine. When I finally did decide to drop it there was a bump, bump, bang and I got my first fish that actually took line and went for a run (all drags were set at sunset for the whole trip). Both Sean and I called it for a massive trout at first. Just to complicate life, we ended up with a tangle and Seans line was around mine so I could only hold pressure while Sean cut his leader free of my line. We were both worried about being sharked, firstly because of the delay untangling the lines, but also because the trusty old TLD doesn’t have the best retrieve rate. Sean was calling my rod the ‘parabolic rod’ because of how much it bends (8 to 22 kg rod – super soft tip with strong butt). Anyway, fish came up after a while and was a 12+ kg AJ or Sampson fish. Sean reckoned maybe a big king fish, but I thought kingies were more blue on top. The punters can tell me what it is – I’m not sure.
It was pretty sloppy all day Sunday, but it did seem to be settling in the late afternoon. We scored a last coral trout at about 4:30 pm about 65 k’s from the ramp, so were were destined to have a run back in the dark.
Final list of species caught was
Red Emporer
Coral Cod
Maori cod
Perl Perch
Spangled emperor
Hussar
Parrot
Coral trout
Red throat emporer
Moses perch
AJ? Sampson? Kingie (dunno)
chuck backs were: red bass, and a few MILF's
Back to brissie by 2 am Monday morning
Top trip, thanks Sean, and I look forward to another trip out there with you
Cheers
Mick
About 7 am the boat was in the water, and to be honest, for such a big line up of boats they all went into the water with a minimum of fuss and no dramas. Headed out to the bait grounds just offshore, and as we went around the corner there were heaps of boats all looking for bait. Sean put us onto a good patch of bait a fair way from the other boats and we had 30 odd yakkas in no time.
Conditions on Saturday morning were very flat, almost glassing out at times. We headed out towards lady Musgrave and fished a bit there, then went towards Fitzroy, fishing heaps of marks Sean had from previous trips, and a bunch of new ones found while traveling.
The morning started slowly, but by sundown Saturday night we had 33 fish in the box and only needed another 7 on the Sunday to bag out. Saturday saw coral trout, coral cod, maori cod, red throat, red emporer, sweetlip, pearl perch, parrot and hussar in the box. Live baits were the gun bait for the coral trout.
Red Emporers were frustrating, as they tended to be either just under, or just over legal size. Usual story, they seem to school in size selective groups.
I must say that Sean is a flamin’ fish whisperer or fish magnet. We would hit a spot and drop lines and before mine was on bottom, he would often be hooked up! I was using black magic leader on the first day and Sean was using flurocarbon – with more hits to the fluorocarbon. I changed to fluorocarbon on the Sunday and my catch rate improved dramatically. So the black magic is going back into the lure box, and the fluro is now the go on all bottom bashing occasions for me.
We forgot to eat on Saturday, so after finishing fishing on a good bite at sundown near Fitzroy, we headed into the lagoon after dark and were famished as well as totally rooted. After boiling the billy for a brew, and having a quick sandwich we were both flaked out by 8 pm.
I woke up in the middle of the night to a crap smell and found that my burley bucket contents had decided to grow and had popped the lid and was oozing out and into my blanket – not nice. Cleaned it up and back to sleep till 6 am.
Woke up to a stiff 15 to 20 knots blowing, so we veged out for a while till it was properly light. Saw a few boats venture out of the lagoon only to come straight back in.
After light we headed out and trolled a couple of hardbodies behind the breakers for no success, but didn’t continue trolling for very long. Changed the plan and came in close to the reef and started setting out a massive burley trail. Sort of expected big things to come from that burley trail, but nothing decent eventuated.
Gave that away and headed out in the slop to look for some more trout. We had 2 livies left on the Sunday morning. We decided to leave the livies till we thought we were on a good trout mark and used bait till then.
Big mullet baits were the go, half a fillet being the best. I was a bit too conservative the day before not using big enough baits, but lesson learned.
Sean converted his livie into a trout, and I decided to wait for a new mark to drop mine. When I finally did decide to drop it there was a bump, bump, bang and I got my first fish that actually took line and went for a run (all drags were set at sunset for the whole trip). Both Sean and I called it for a massive trout at first. Just to complicate life, we ended up with a tangle and Seans line was around mine so I could only hold pressure while Sean cut his leader free of my line. We were both worried about being sharked, firstly because of the delay untangling the lines, but also because the trusty old TLD doesn’t have the best retrieve rate. Sean was calling my rod the ‘parabolic rod’ because of how much it bends (8 to 22 kg rod – super soft tip with strong butt). Anyway, fish came up after a while and was a 12+ kg AJ or Sampson fish. Sean reckoned maybe a big king fish, but I thought kingies were more blue on top. The punters can tell me what it is – I’m not sure.
It was pretty sloppy all day Sunday, but it did seem to be settling in the late afternoon. We scored a last coral trout at about 4:30 pm about 65 k’s from the ramp, so were were destined to have a run back in the dark.
Final list of species caught was
Red Emporer
Coral Cod
Maori cod
Perl Perch
Spangled emperor
Hussar
Parrot
Coral trout
Red throat emporer
Moses perch
AJ? Sampson? Kingie (dunno)
chuck backs were: red bass, and a few MILF's
Back to brissie by 2 am Monday morning
Top trip, thanks Sean, and I look forward to another trip out there with you
Cheers
Mick