Hards Easter Monday

[Back In Black]

Went for a run to the Hards as the weather was great. Water clarity was at least 20m. Pulling up a snapper, Juna looked over the edge & laughed at the size. I said give me a minute! Landed it & it went 2kg. Thats how clear it was, warm too, at 28.3 degrees.
Not a big haul, a mix of snapper, pearlies, moses, red throat & tuskies, about 20 in total, but the best part was took a mate who has never been that far out & never caught a snapper in his life. Within 20 minutes, he landed a 4kg model, & you could not wipe the smile off his dial. He backed it up with a 3kg snapper, & then got a 2.5kg pearlie to the edge of the boat, but didn't call for the net & it spat the hook within arms distance. My other mate & I just pissed ourselves laughing at the look on his face. Just got a bit too complacent. Great day with great company, & had the Hards to ourself. The only other boat we saw had Gaven (Hookinin) on board. Bonus was no current at all. The picture is Ben, no longer a snapper virgin!
Tony

[outwide1]

Nice going Tony,about 6 or so years ago the hards was all you read about on here from a small group of fisherman
that fished it.
It did become a popular place but has since died down a bit.Still a very good area and gets better the further you go(as you already may know)
Well done.
Mick

[hookinin]

Hey Tony
With the conditions that good we stopped for a few drops on the hards not far from where we saw you and found no current and wind dropping out so we went for a run out to the shelf East of DI to fish the deeper water. We ended up with about fifty fish for the day but didn't manage to land any of the big fish we had on and we had quite a few. Most lost to sharks and some we just coudn't get of the bottom. At one stage all four of us had big fish on and we lost the lot of them. Thats fishing some days they come up and others you just have to talk about the ones that got away. I had one of my mates onboard that hadn't done any of this type of fishing and he lost about four big fish before he got one to about twenty metres from the boat before loosing it, were still giving him tissues. The only reds we got were 53 and 54cm this had him nearly crying when we told him they had to go back aswell.
Cheers Gaven

[champion]

yeah good trip Tony
We fish the very northern end of the banks for the same result as you, we then went south cause the weather was perfect and pick up a few more perlies.

Gavin we too lost big fish all day.... hooks kept pulling half way up, but we did manage to keep some 4-6 kg snapper.

Joe

[Getout]

Nice going Tony,about 6 or so years ago the hards was all you read about on here from a small group of fisherman
that fished it.
It did become a popular place but has since died down a bit.
Mick
New bag limits have buggered it for me. Too far to go to keep only 4 snapper each.

[Back In Black]

Getout,
It is a long way, & if its only Juna & I fishing, 8 snapper is plenty. Chuck in the pearlies & tusks you always get, & it is worth while. Sick of heading "just" offshore & getting stuff all, along with everyone else you meet back at the ramp. I reckon Sunshine Reef must have been like a carpark. Every 2nd boat logging on was going there- must have been 50 boats, whereas Gaven was the only other boat we saw. The other upside is you get mote time to drink beer as you have a lot of time to fill in!
Tony

[Snap Dog]

well done mate , my mate and i fished out that way on the same day . we fished the 100mtr line out from the hards and then moved in to the 65mtr grounds later in the morning. we only saw one orther boat out there it may had been you. i was in a 7.6mt white cuddycab. we got a good feed baging out on trag jew, snapper,tuskies, a few moses perch and some perlys. lost some nice fish to sharks.

[Back In Black]

Snapdog,
We were in a black 8.4m Sailfish catamaran. Funny you & Hookinin were having trouble with sharks, as we had no dramas. Maybe our fish weren't big enough for them to worry about! Juna isn't big on large fish-she likes them just big enough for the frying pan or whole in the oven, & trust me, thats all I seem to get.
Tony