fishfreak01
29-03-2010, 11:20 AM
Hi all,
A bit of a late report as I was busy over the weekend and couldn't post anything.
I rang a mate earlier in the week and asked if he was keen for a fish friday as the weather, tides and swell was looking good also we were heading into the moon and I thought that the spaniards would come out to play.
We left the Grand boat ramp at 5.00 and crossed the bar with just enough light to see, our first stop was the 18's straight out from the seaway as this is where we got them a few weeks ago, but after a few trolls we couldn't see any bait so we trolled all the way to mermaid with no hits or bait to be seen anywhere.
Once we got to Mermaid we had one troll around a few of the boats that were there, but couldn't see anyone catching anything so we decided to anchor up and start a berly trail and see what we could bring to us, without a DOUT this is my preferred way of fishing.
There were about 10 other boats on the reef so we anchored away from them and started a good berly trail and had one of my mates jig up some live yakkas that we could send out under a ballon, we managed a dozen or so which I was pleased with, we set out the ballon first then cast two rods with half pilies and had two rods close in with small foam floats and kept on berlying, I love jigging up heaps of slimmies when I can find them and what I don't use I freeze, these make great berly because when
they thaw out, they become like mush when you try and cut them up which is perfect for berly.
I always have 3 soft rods with 6lb line for fun and a bit of sport, a bait runner with 8kg a spinning rod with 10kg braid and a TLD 25 with 15kg for ballooning, we had set all the rods out when my 6lb rod goes off, it was an unbelievable run on such light line and light drag and after 10 mins we gaff a nice 7kg spaniard, then 30 min later the bait runner goes off and another spaniard comes in, then the livie goes off and I get a birds nest as I had the drag set to lite but still managed to get it in, she topped the scales at 10kg, once I had her in the esky, it took me 10 mins to get the birds nest out before we could send out another livie.
Next rod that goes off was on the 6lb gear and we had a good fight on what I thought was another spaniard but turned out to be a small cobe, we dopped a few fish on the lite gear as we didn't get solid hook ups but we really didn't care as we were having heaps of fun, the next rod that went off was the livie and another spaniard goes into the esky, by this time it was almost low tide and everything was starting to shut down so we set out our last livie and we get another hit and eveything goes slack, when we bought the line in it had been snapped off at the knot where the balloon was attached to the line, I need to find a better way of attaching balloons so they let go when a fish hits. If any one can help me with this I would be grateful.
So the tally for the morning was 4 spaniard between 6 and 10kg, 1 small cobe and 3 missed fish. We fished for 7 hours and the fishing was fairly slow, there were 10 other boats around us that left early, we only saw 3 fish get caught around us from those boats, I have always done really well when all the boats have gone.
So if you don't see anyone on the reef, doesn't mean that the fish aren't there.
Fishfreak.
A bit of a late report as I was busy over the weekend and couldn't post anything.
I rang a mate earlier in the week and asked if he was keen for a fish friday as the weather, tides and swell was looking good also we were heading into the moon and I thought that the spaniards would come out to play.
We left the Grand boat ramp at 5.00 and crossed the bar with just enough light to see, our first stop was the 18's straight out from the seaway as this is where we got them a few weeks ago, but after a few trolls we couldn't see any bait so we trolled all the way to mermaid with no hits or bait to be seen anywhere.
Once we got to Mermaid we had one troll around a few of the boats that were there, but couldn't see anyone catching anything so we decided to anchor up and start a berly trail and see what we could bring to us, without a DOUT this is my preferred way of fishing.
There were about 10 other boats on the reef so we anchored away from them and started a good berly trail and had one of my mates jig up some live yakkas that we could send out under a ballon, we managed a dozen or so which I was pleased with, we set out the ballon first then cast two rods with half pilies and had two rods close in with small foam floats and kept on berlying, I love jigging up heaps of slimmies when I can find them and what I don't use I freeze, these make great berly because when
they thaw out, they become like mush when you try and cut them up which is perfect for berly.
I always have 3 soft rods with 6lb line for fun and a bit of sport, a bait runner with 8kg a spinning rod with 10kg braid and a TLD 25 with 15kg for ballooning, we had set all the rods out when my 6lb rod goes off, it was an unbelievable run on such light line and light drag and after 10 mins we gaff a nice 7kg spaniard, then 30 min later the bait runner goes off and another spaniard comes in, then the livie goes off and I get a birds nest as I had the drag set to lite but still managed to get it in, she topped the scales at 10kg, once I had her in the esky, it took me 10 mins to get the birds nest out before we could send out another livie.
Next rod that goes off was on the 6lb gear and we had a good fight on what I thought was another spaniard but turned out to be a small cobe, we dopped a few fish on the lite gear as we didn't get solid hook ups but we really didn't care as we were having heaps of fun, the next rod that went off was the livie and another spaniard goes into the esky, by this time it was almost low tide and everything was starting to shut down so we set out our last livie and we get another hit and eveything goes slack, when we bought the line in it had been snapped off at the knot where the balloon was attached to the line, I need to find a better way of attaching balloons so they let go when a fish hits. If any one can help me with this I would be grateful.
So the tally for the morning was 4 spaniard between 6 and 10kg, 1 small cobe and 3 missed fish. We fished for 7 hours and the fishing was fairly slow, there were 10 other boats around us that left early, we only saw 3 fish get caught around us from those boats, I have always done really well when all the boats have gone.
So if you don't see anyone on the reef, doesn't mean that the fish aren't there.
Fishfreak.