nezevic99
14-07-2011, 02:20 PM
It’s been a while since we dusted the cobwebs off the big boat and had a blast across the bay to Moreton. An early start on yesterday’s wintry morning saw us round the cape in the half light of dawn and first lines in the water as the sun was peeking over the horizon at Deep Tempest. The Nor-wester was a little stronger than we expected and coupled with the current had us drifting at 2kts south. A bit too quick to comfortably fish in 85m of water. After persevering for several drifts and only adding a lone pigfish to the bin we decided to head in close to Shallow Tempest and see if we could scratch together a feed in the shallows.
Lines deployed and drifting along, I rustled up a few whiptail and we proceeded to send them back with earrings. Dad’s started to bump then he’s on with a nice grassy of 50cm gracing the ice. He followed up shortly after with a similar sized snapper also on a livie. I laid a slightly smaller snapper in the ice on a squid tentacle. Then all went quiet. A short brunch break and a decision was made to shift again, we headed closer to the cape but still on the same grounds. Pulled up in around 28m of water and lowered my livie to the bottom, flicked a plastic out to start its decent and began feeding a paternoster to the bottom. The paternoster never made it. The livie rod buckled over and started to groan line.
The fish made a short run on the bottom then the line angled straight up to the surface. The dorsal and tail broke the surface with a splash and confirmed my suspicions. “Dad, we’re on a bloody good cobia”. Meanwhile, Dad is frantically trying to clear the gear we’ve just sent down. Within minutes the fish was beside the boat and I was calling for the gaff. Dad slipped it in and we rolled the fish over the gunnels onto the floor. You Beauty! My first cobia, and at 19kg and 139cm a good fish at that. We had enough fish now so called it a day and ran home over a glassy bay.
I’m a little perplexed as I’d heard that they are a rugged fighting fish. However it was more like leading a large dog. A fair bit of weight and the odd head shake but no real struggle. 30lb braid and TLD25 I don’t see as being world beater sort of tackle but I thought it would have given a better account of itself. However, when filleting it, two vertebrae close to the tail were diseased and enlarged. I wonder if it had arthritis and this was the cause of the poor fight.
5 whole small spanner crabs (about the size of a small avocado), 2 octopus and a whole 3 spot crab in its guts on cleaning.
Lines deployed and drifting along, I rustled up a few whiptail and we proceeded to send them back with earrings. Dad’s started to bump then he’s on with a nice grassy of 50cm gracing the ice. He followed up shortly after with a similar sized snapper also on a livie. I laid a slightly smaller snapper in the ice on a squid tentacle. Then all went quiet. A short brunch break and a decision was made to shift again, we headed closer to the cape but still on the same grounds. Pulled up in around 28m of water and lowered my livie to the bottom, flicked a plastic out to start its decent and began feeding a paternoster to the bottom. The paternoster never made it. The livie rod buckled over and started to groan line.
The fish made a short run on the bottom then the line angled straight up to the surface. The dorsal and tail broke the surface with a splash and confirmed my suspicions. “Dad, we’re on a bloody good cobia”. Meanwhile, Dad is frantically trying to clear the gear we’ve just sent down. Within minutes the fish was beside the boat and I was calling for the gaff. Dad slipped it in and we rolled the fish over the gunnels onto the floor. You Beauty! My first cobia, and at 19kg and 139cm a good fish at that. We had enough fish now so called it a day and ran home over a glassy bay.
I’m a little perplexed as I’d heard that they are a rugged fighting fish. However it was more like leading a large dog. A fair bit of weight and the odd head shake but no real struggle. 30lb braid and TLD25 I don’t see as being world beater sort of tackle but I thought it would have given a better account of itself. However, when filleting it, two vertebrae close to the tail were diseased and enlarged. I wonder if it had arthritis and this was the cause of the poor fight.
5 whole small spanner crabs (about the size of a small avocado), 2 octopus and a whole 3 spot crab in its guts on cleaning.