Offshore Straddy Report Today Sunday 8 Jan

[Captain Seaweed]

Well what a day!!!! I was up at 2am this morning as I couldnt sleep so off to the ramp I go, set the boat up and waited for my crew to turn up. There was Tim, Anthony and Bruce and what a team they turned out to be.
Out the bar at 5 and on the fishing ground at 5.30, the run out was great but soon 2m-3m swells started running through, it was strange actually, the wave rider at Southport reported 1m, Mooloolabah 1m but Point Lookout measuring 2m swell peaking at 4m!!!??? I thoght this was an error but soon proved to be true. They were well spaced so the conditions were comfortable but at times we were surfing down waves!!!
Anyway off to the 33's pulled 2 squire good size around 50cm then they shut down so off to Square Patch but almost impossible to fish the 3-4knot current, along the way to Deep Tempest we struck some ground that lit up on the Lowrance at 25knots!!! We doubled back and found the schools in the pictures and the vid link.

All in all we managed 12 fish for a half day fish as the Northerly blew up and made it too hard to fish, we did manage to find new ground which is a big plus.

Fish Caught
1 Fingermark
1 Trag
10 Squirey/Snapps

The team cleaned the boat down along the way home which made my job easy, thanks boys had an awesome day out!!!
Fish for dinner all round!!! You lucky buggers are going to have a ball at 1770 this year;)

Cheers
Marty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb8zTXHc4ak&feature=g-upl&context=G2ea053dAUAAAAAAAAAA

[Captain Seaweed]

on the screen shots you can see the SOG (speed over ground at 3+ knots) I will post a pic of a fish to id as well for those in the know

[Captain Seaweed]

75476

Caught this wrasse looking fish, nice colours but was a new one to us, can anyone assist? Looks like it has big fillets

[thedeckie]

Nice work gents, beats working!!;D

Cheers

Paul

[Yellowjack]

Nice work man, looks like plenty of fun!

Cheers,
Jack

[speedylures]

The Fish looks like a Southern Fusilier. Excellent eating and grows to about 15inches. Also What model HD sounder is yours, I like how it reads.

Cheers
Speedy

[OPTI]

good goin in difficult conditions guys ,i decided to can it today looking at the forecast

[BillyT2382]

Good going guys that fish looks like it can feed the whole family and some lol....Love those snappers!!

Cheers
Billy

[ffejsmada]

Yeah, either a Southern Fusilier or a Red - bellied Fusilier.

And your Fingermark is a Moses Perch.

Great sounder shots.

How are your Cycads going Marty?

[rosco1974]

another good trip out marty and crew well done.i got up at 3.30 looked at the waverider bouy seen the 2mtr swell and peaking just under 4mtrs so decided to have a sleep in b4 i head back to work tomorrow.looking at next weekend now hope the weather plays the game
cheers rosco

[Captain Seaweed]

Yeah, either a Southern Fusilier or a Red - bellied Fusilier.

And your Fingermark is a Moses Perch.

Great sounder shots.

How are your Cycads going Marty?

Cycads are going great, I did have a bad year with the moths but I am onto it now, I have one that stands taller than me and has the stag horn on the side which has reproduced and now there is two?????either way great!!! I may be moving up your way in 12 months or more....

[Captain Seaweed]

The Fish looks like a Southern Fusilier. Excellent eating and grows to about 15inches. Also What model HD sounder is yours, I like how it reads.

Cheers
Speedy

HDS 10 first edition with a 1KW tranny

[Captain Seaweed]

another good trip out marty and crew well done.i got up at 3.30 looked at the waverider bouy seen the 2mtr swell and peaking just under 4mtrs so decided to have a sleep in b4 i head back to work tomorrow.looking at next weekend now hope the weather plays the game
cheers rosco

I thought the wave rider was broken, but it wasnt.....either way they were very spaced out for once it was enjoyable driving in swell as apposed to shitty wind chop!!! I kept an eye out mate but couldnt see you, there were 2 boats on your 29's mark!!!

[Vitamin Sea]

Good going in the conditions Marty, glad I pulled the pin the young bloke would have been crook with that swell.
The fusaliers are great table fare, real nice.

Thanks for the report.

Bill

[Muddy Toes]

Thanks for the great trip today mate.....you and Bruce are a pleasure to fish with.I believe there were a few comments when the unidentified fish was released speculating about it's possible superb eating quality...:-?
Hopefully on Wednesday i can stop being the Ausfish super vee wh0re i've become lately and start using my boat again.
I'll let you know how i go with it all so we can do the o/nighter thing.......

[thelump]

well done boys. How was the bar Marty?

[Captain Seaweed]

The bar was fine, Northern channel as expected in fact deeper than in the past, the Amity is very flat although I have marks for a gutter that I recorded next to the old channel. I didnt see anything under 5m on the run out tide coming in through the Northern Channel.

[speedylures]

Thanks for the info. Will look into the first edition.
Good going on the fishing.

HDS 10 first edition with a 1KW tranny

[rosco1974]

marty did u use the track i give u through the northern channel.

[Captain Seaweed]

No had o e from bill corten but it hasn't changed for ages

[Lucky_Phill]

o e ? comon Marty, you're not texting now.... use the whole word... :P :)

one......


LP

[Tangles]

Marty,

look like you lot had a great day.... snapper and lazy big ocean swells, and Phil he only missed a 'n' not an 'L' :D

[hookinin]

We call those Southern Fusilier's bananas and don't rate them as great eating and you have to look after them as they have fairly soft flesh. But everyone has different tastes and they sure beat the stuff you have to buy. Sounds like you had some fun.
Gaven

[outwide1]

Good going Marty.
Those fusiliers are also called a banana fish and are real good chewing.
Well done,
mick

[tropicrows]

Back at work today, but it was a good way to end the hols with a trip out with Marty, Tim and
Anthony. The new ground we found looks very promising and I’m looking forward to fishing it with less current. Don’t know how you three faired but I got a bit sunburnt, head looks like a cherry today...

[Smithy]

All the other charter boats up here seem to keep those Fusilers. I never catch them. Don't think I have got one in 4.5years full time. I don't fish the top of the banks though like they do every single day.

[murf]

nice Trag and Moses to go with the snaps :) and the Parramatta fish (Southern Fusilier) are great smoked or treated like tailor
always good to get out and have a laugh with some mates :)

we couldn't get onto fish (Mackerel)so we loaded up on Sweep for the smoker whilst at Wooli for the next 10 days :)

cheers Murf

[Muddy Toes]

Back at work today, but it was a good way to end the hols with a trip out with Marty, Tim and
Anthony. The new ground we found looks very promising and I’m looking forward to fishing it with less current. Don’t know how you three faired but I got a bit sunburnt, head looks like a cherry today...

Green one day and red the next.....can't make up ya bloody mind Bruce.;D
Seriously through it didn't seem that hot while we were out there but both Tim and I both have a bit of redness about ourselves.

[honda900]

Marty,

Nice work there boys. Keep an eye on that outer bank through the northern channel, Every now and again it plays up. That shallow patch in the middle of the northern channel seems to have flattend out a bit over christmas.

Those sounder pictures are very interesting, most HDS8 and 10's dont run above 4% sensitiivity as they display too much garbage, yet yours can. Most people have never noticed but the 10's and 8's always run low sensitivity compared to the sevens and fives which are able to run the sensitivity up around the 70% mark.. I will take some photos of Mine at 14% sensitivity to explain but it will be a screen full of garbage.. interesting..

Regards
Honda.

[Captain Seaweed]

Marty,

Nice work there boys. Keep an eye on that outer bank through the northern channel, Every now and again it plays up. That shallow patch in the middle of the northern channel seems to have flattend out a bit over christmas.

Those sounder pictures are very interesting, most HDS8 and 10's dont run above 4% sensitiivity as they display too much garbage, yet yours can. Most people have never noticed but the 10's and 8's always run low sensitivity compared to the sevens and fives which are able to run the sensitivity up around the 70% mark.. I will take some photos of Mine at 14% sensitivity to explain but it will be a screen full of garbage.. interesting..

Regards
Honda.

I find if I run my sensativity in manual mode at 100% it doesnt fill scren with enough noise, yet on auto mode and added sensativity it gives me what I want??? I also find that after about 60m depth my screen scroll slows down too much, if I manually speed it up it simply stretches what appears on the screen. It has me stuffed BUT for once this last trip it all worked perfectly and fish were found travelling at 25knots. It would be good to do a comparison as I am also running a 1KW tranny so I would like to compare 600w to 1kw.
Thanks for your reply
Marty

[theoldlegend]

Bill Corten has an article in today's Courier Mail about how to get the best out of your sounder. Pages 38/39.

Might be worth having a look at.


TOL

[fisho8]

Good lot of fish there Marty for the conditions you guys were up against 4m swells would have been fun well done mate good to see everyone had fun.

[XtremeBoony]

Thanks for the post Marty always good to get out on the water with fellow ausfishers, least if u don't catch much u still have a good time.

Cheers from boony

P.s not that u guys did as that a nice feed in the pics :)

[Camhawk88]

Fusiliers are common as muck in the north. Fishing the reef- these are the schools of bait you look for. They make a fantastic strip bait for trout- slab one side and leave the yellow tail on to flap in the current. They are also a gun bait for mackeral when floated out live. They rarely last long.
When looking for GTs on the reef the fusiliers are also what you need to keep an eye out for. A good school of fussies will have GTs hanging around. They are the mullet of the GBR.