Spot82
10-02-2012, 02:37 PM
My old man was dying to get out for a fish after he had had his second full knee replacement on the same leg in October last year and it is now only just starting to come good now. I tried to talk him out of it but after being cooped up at home for 3 months there was nothing I could say that would keep him at home! Anyways the weather looked like it would be near perfect for a couple of days so off we went. I took Scott also who had never caught a red before nor been to 1770. I also hadn't been since the start of December and was hanging out to scratch the red itch!
Headed out Sunday in 15knots of SE'er, mucked around on the way out and got a dozen little Mac tuna for bait and then stopped off at Sykes for a snorkel. If you want an awesome snorkel this is the place, some of the best coral and life I have seen on the bunker group! With 30 secs of hopping in I had seen a big trout, 2 big barramundi cod and heaps of other fish, and that was only the first bommie and only in 3-4m of water! Paddled round for 45mins or so and then it was time to go find some fish.
Headed out to some contours on the map and started looking around, didn't take long to find a nice bit of a show on a bit of a plateau which come up to 50m out of 65m. Wasn't a big show but it looked promising and it wasn't long before 2 school reds about 6kg made it to the esky, Scott getting his first red, and he was hooked! The red itch had bitten him hard and in his words "bottom bashing will never be the same again" He did also manage to catch a massive barracuda about 4-5ft long, 6kg spangle (released as they are too tough at this size) and a big reef toad and small chinaman earlier in the arvo, so the verminator was his new nickname :P
Lost a couple of good fish and they seemed to go off the bite, so was just about to up and move when on the sounder appeared a much better show not far from where we were previously fishing. The fish were hanging on the edge of the drop of and pic of the show is below. Just on sunset we had a near triple hook-up with Scott getting an awesome fish at 13kg and me and dad with 2 school models. I scored a nice 11kg model after a fair few drifts and by this time it was about 8pm and time for dinner so we anchored up on the show. Cooked up some rump sausages from Cav's for dinner with salad and demolished them before having a few more drops, a couple of bust ups later and Scott got a 65cm model to the boat.
By 10pm we were buggered and went to sleep, the wind had been backing out from around 4pm and by the time we went to sleep it was almost glassy besides a bit of small swell. Woke at 4am and had a few drops with no success as we had swung around with the tide, upped the anchor and had a drift but not much was happening to went off to search some more, 10 mins later I found a nice little rock about 5m high with a lot of life on it, not much bigger than a boat but it was what I was looking for. First drift Scott and I both got busted by good reds, and second drift I got a small one around 6kg with Scott getting another the same size next drift, then the spot shut down, typically the case on small structure when u lose a fish or two.
Headed further east and come across and awesome looking rock which was about 6-8m high and probably 50m across, this thing was covered in life (pic below). Had a couple of drifts and got a few tentative bites but no reds, decided to anchor on the best looking area and try create some action. The first 30 mins was every bait getting plagued by hussar, but then all hell broke loose! I'm not sure how many times we got busted up before we got a fish up but in total I would say we got bricked 15-20 times easy between the 3 of us! Scott managed to snare nice 8kg model. I then got busted up big time twice in a row, video below! Next I grabbed the rod off the old man as he was hooked up to an solid fish, low and behold I just got him out of the bottom and turned his head when what happens.... The reel handle snaps clean off!! there wasn't much I could do, but grab the spool and watch as the fish turned and went straight back to his coral home :(
Next drop I jumped on the side the old man was on and well I'll let the video tell the story, not that it does justice to how much hurt I am having to put on the fish and how hard it is fighting!
Dad swapped outfits and he was off again, next drop he was on and the video can tell the story again!
By dark we were buggered and it was time to head in behind Sykes to have a feed as a the arvo breeze had shown up, got in anchored in 10m of water and had some food and put fuel in the boat and then caught a couple of red throats before deciding that we were happy to head in while the ocean was pretty flat rather than risk staying and possibly copping a bumpy ride home on Tuesday, also meant we didn't have to rush to get all the boat and fish cleaned that day either.
Once again PEtackle flys were used for most of the trip, except when we getting busted up left right and centre as it becomes an expensive exercise! Pilchard Glow, Red Zebra and Tailor Glow all worked well in the big flys and the Green Goblin and Red Zebra Shrimps also accounted for a few fish.
Another trip I won't be forgetting anytime soon for the fishing, diving, conditions and the company, good times!
All the videos are on youtube and I haven't posted them directly on here as they contain swearing so if you don't like it turn your sound off, otherwise enjoy! First 4 vids on the link below are from this trip.
http://www.youtube.com/user/PEtackle?feature=mhee
Headed out Sunday in 15knots of SE'er, mucked around on the way out and got a dozen little Mac tuna for bait and then stopped off at Sykes for a snorkel. If you want an awesome snorkel this is the place, some of the best coral and life I have seen on the bunker group! With 30 secs of hopping in I had seen a big trout, 2 big barramundi cod and heaps of other fish, and that was only the first bommie and only in 3-4m of water! Paddled round for 45mins or so and then it was time to go find some fish.
Headed out to some contours on the map and started looking around, didn't take long to find a nice bit of a show on a bit of a plateau which come up to 50m out of 65m. Wasn't a big show but it looked promising and it wasn't long before 2 school reds about 6kg made it to the esky, Scott getting his first red, and he was hooked! The red itch had bitten him hard and in his words "bottom bashing will never be the same again" He did also manage to catch a massive barracuda about 4-5ft long, 6kg spangle (released as they are too tough at this size) and a big reef toad and small chinaman earlier in the arvo, so the verminator was his new nickname :P
Lost a couple of good fish and they seemed to go off the bite, so was just about to up and move when on the sounder appeared a much better show not far from where we were previously fishing. The fish were hanging on the edge of the drop of and pic of the show is below. Just on sunset we had a near triple hook-up with Scott getting an awesome fish at 13kg and me and dad with 2 school models. I scored a nice 11kg model after a fair few drifts and by this time it was about 8pm and time for dinner so we anchored up on the show. Cooked up some rump sausages from Cav's for dinner with salad and demolished them before having a few more drops, a couple of bust ups later and Scott got a 65cm model to the boat.
By 10pm we were buggered and went to sleep, the wind had been backing out from around 4pm and by the time we went to sleep it was almost glassy besides a bit of small swell. Woke at 4am and had a few drops with no success as we had swung around with the tide, upped the anchor and had a drift but not much was happening to went off to search some more, 10 mins later I found a nice little rock about 5m high with a lot of life on it, not much bigger than a boat but it was what I was looking for. First drift Scott and I both got busted by good reds, and second drift I got a small one around 6kg with Scott getting another the same size next drift, then the spot shut down, typically the case on small structure when u lose a fish or two.
Headed further east and come across and awesome looking rock which was about 6-8m high and probably 50m across, this thing was covered in life (pic below). Had a couple of drifts and got a few tentative bites but no reds, decided to anchor on the best looking area and try create some action. The first 30 mins was every bait getting plagued by hussar, but then all hell broke loose! I'm not sure how many times we got busted up before we got a fish up but in total I would say we got bricked 15-20 times easy between the 3 of us! Scott managed to snare nice 8kg model. I then got busted up big time twice in a row, video below! Next I grabbed the rod off the old man as he was hooked up to an solid fish, low and behold I just got him out of the bottom and turned his head when what happens.... The reel handle snaps clean off!! there wasn't much I could do, but grab the spool and watch as the fish turned and went straight back to his coral home :(
Next drop I jumped on the side the old man was on and well I'll let the video tell the story, not that it does justice to how much hurt I am having to put on the fish and how hard it is fighting!
Dad swapped outfits and he was off again, next drop he was on and the video can tell the story again!
By dark we were buggered and it was time to head in behind Sykes to have a feed as a the arvo breeze had shown up, got in anchored in 10m of water and had some food and put fuel in the boat and then caught a couple of red throats before deciding that we were happy to head in while the ocean was pretty flat rather than risk staying and possibly copping a bumpy ride home on Tuesday, also meant we didn't have to rush to get all the boat and fish cleaned that day either.
Once again PEtackle flys were used for most of the trip, except when we getting busted up left right and centre as it becomes an expensive exercise! Pilchard Glow, Red Zebra and Tailor Glow all worked well in the big flys and the Green Goblin and Red Zebra Shrimps also accounted for a few fish.
Another trip I won't be forgetting anytime soon for the fishing, diving, conditions and the company, good times!
All the videos are on youtube and I haven't posted them directly on here as they contain swearing so if you don't like it turn your sound off, otherwise enjoy! First 4 vids on the link below are from this trip.
http://www.youtube.com/user/PEtackle?feature=mhee