Coodgee
23-12-2011, 07:04 PM
I've been looking to get out again with Rob Smith pretty much as soon as I got back from my last trip with him. On that occasion we bagged out on amberjacks and I landed my first cobia, all on livies. That was back in August and this time we were chasing summer species with artificial offerings.
Rob made the call on Tuesday night to head out early in the hope of landing some Spotty Mackerel that had recently been spotted terrorising schools of baitfish on sunrise. So by four o'clock the crew, consisting of the skipper, my good mate Simon, one of Rob's regulars Corey, Corey's young relative Leylan, and me, were motoring out of the maloolaba spit as the sun was just peaking over the eastern horizon.
Cruising out to some likely territory, we found bait schools accumulating in good numbers but no predators to be seen - "too early" was the diagnosis from Rob. But it wasn't long before large flocks of Mutton birds sign-posted the spotties for us. Rob brought us up right beside the fast moving boil of airborne and submarine predators and their fishy breakfast. Simon and I were first to attach our slugs and our first casts resulted in instant hookups of decent sized spotties. Corey and Leylan were both soon in on the action with good fish of their own.
It was absolute mayhem and fantastic fun as we burned around chasing after the fast moving school. They'd pop up in one spot and be gone in a flash, only to surface again a couple of hundred metres away. This type of fishing was perfect for my new Pflueger Patriarch XTR 4-6kg spin rod and Diawa Fuego 3000 outfit; this rig is light as a feather but with more than enough power to handle the toothy speedsters. In about half an hour, amongst the bust offs and many pulled hooks we landed 10 good spotties between us, with hits on just about every cast. Action-packed sight fishing at it's best.
Pretty soon the spotties had wandered off for a post-breakfast snooze so Smithy made the call to head for the next spot. The time taken to get to the new spot gave Simon and me a chance to get to know Corey and Laylan and we were glad to be sharing the day with two laid back blokes, even if I was copping a bit of friendly sh*t from Corey for my face scarf.
I'd told Rob a couple of days before our trip that Simon and I were bringing out jig rods and we'd be stoked to get a chance to do some jigging on them. He was happy to oblige and not long after arriving at our second spot we were dropping knife jigs down to some very good shows on the sounder while the other two boys tried their luck on some big plastics. But although there were some very promising signs on the electronics we couldn't entice a bite on knife or Octo jigs, or the plastics.
Smithy made the call to try something different and this time we put the outriggers to use for some trolling action. Smithy handed me a nice looking silver minnow that I attached to my Monstermesh/Saragosa 8000 outfit while the other guys opted for skirts and a gold bomber style minnow on Rob's overhead gear. The change paid off almost immediately with two small yellowfin tuna hitting both the minnows. The trolling paid dividends all afternoon as we boated small tuna and Rainbow runners at regular intervals.
74974
After landing about 6 of the small tuna my minnow got hit and started peeling off a fair bit of line. Tightening up the drag a bit slowed him down, but I knew I was onto a much better fish when he shrugged off the extra drag pressure and continued to head deep. After a few minutes of pump and wind and a few more runs I had a good tuna at the boat and Rob was fast on the gaff to get the 8kg yellowfin on board. It was a great feeling to land such a good fish on the troll - a new experience for me.
74971
Not long after we motored over a large show of bait on the sounder and all four rods went off in unison, a quad-hookup! with all 4 tuna landed.
74973
Later we had a brief go bottom bashing on some good shows and Corey managed a good-sized tasty green job fish to finish off the day.
All-in-all another great day out on the water with Rob Smith from South Queensland Fishing Charters.
74972
Rob made the call on Tuesday night to head out early in the hope of landing some Spotty Mackerel that had recently been spotted terrorising schools of baitfish on sunrise. So by four o'clock the crew, consisting of the skipper, my good mate Simon, one of Rob's regulars Corey, Corey's young relative Leylan, and me, were motoring out of the maloolaba spit as the sun was just peaking over the eastern horizon.
Cruising out to some likely territory, we found bait schools accumulating in good numbers but no predators to be seen - "too early" was the diagnosis from Rob. But it wasn't long before large flocks of Mutton birds sign-posted the spotties for us. Rob brought us up right beside the fast moving boil of airborne and submarine predators and their fishy breakfast. Simon and I were first to attach our slugs and our first casts resulted in instant hookups of decent sized spotties. Corey and Leylan were both soon in on the action with good fish of their own.
It was absolute mayhem and fantastic fun as we burned around chasing after the fast moving school. They'd pop up in one spot and be gone in a flash, only to surface again a couple of hundred metres away. This type of fishing was perfect for my new Pflueger Patriarch XTR 4-6kg spin rod and Diawa Fuego 3000 outfit; this rig is light as a feather but with more than enough power to handle the toothy speedsters. In about half an hour, amongst the bust offs and many pulled hooks we landed 10 good spotties between us, with hits on just about every cast. Action-packed sight fishing at it's best.
Pretty soon the spotties had wandered off for a post-breakfast snooze so Smithy made the call to head for the next spot. The time taken to get to the new spot gave Simon and me a chance to get to know Corey and Laylan and we were glad to be sharing the day with two laid back blokes, even if I was copping a bit of friendly sh*t from Corey for my face scarf.
I'd told Rob a couple of days before our trip that Simon and I were bringing out jig rods and we'd be stoked to get a chance to do some jigging on them. He was happy to oblige and not long after arriving at our second spot we were dropping knife jigs down to some very good shows on the sounder while the other two boys tried their luck on some big plastics. But although there were some very promising signs on the electronics we couldn't entice a bite on knife or Octo jigs, or the plastics.
Smithy made the call to try something different and this time we put the outriggers to use for some trolling action. Smithy handed me a nice looking silver minnow that I attached to my Monstermesh/Saragosa 8000 outfit while the other guys opted for skirts and a gold bomber style minnow on Rob's overhead gear. The change paid off almost immediately with two small yellowfin tuna hitting both the minnows. The trolling paid dividends all afternoon as we boated small tuna and Rainbow runners at regular intervals.
74974
After landing about 6 of the small tuna my minnow got hit and started peeling off a fair bit of line. Tightening up the drag a bit slowed him down, but I knew I was onto a much better fish when he shrugged off the extra drag pressure and continued to head deep. After a few minutes of pump and wind and a few more runs I had a good tuna at the boat and Rob was fast on the gaff to get the 8kg yellowfin on board. It was a great feeling to land such a good fish on the troll - a new experience for me.
74971
Not long after we motored over a large show of bait on the sounder and all four rods went off in unison, a quad-hookup! with all 4 tuna landed.
74973
Later we had a brief go bottom bashing on some good shows and Corey managed a good-sized tasty green job fish to finish off the day.
All-in-all another great day out on the water with Rob Smith from South Queensland Fishing Charters.
74972