Deep Water Prospecting

[Blane11]

Hi all,

Saturday saw us heading out again off Ballina, and after battling the westerly on the 42's all morning, the wind finally dropped enough to venture deeper.

With no real mark in the chosen area we decided to have sniff around and see if we could find something to make the esky look a little better. At that stage we had a handful of pearlies, one dollie going about 1m and a stripped tuna.

First drop onto a ledge we found in approx 360m had us hooked up instantly with that setting the standard for the remaining drifts we had over the same ground.

Ended up with 1 good bar cod, a few smaller models, some snapper, kingfish, mowong, nannygai, pigfish, banded foxfish (or banded pigfish??) ruby jobfish, green-eyed sharks, and some big-eye bullseye thingy.

Turned a sad day into a reasonable day. Cod went 17.5kg

Cheers

Brett
8033480336

[Goodoo haven]

Nice days fishing there. Some nice eating fish there. Well done mate.

[lucee81]

Good feed there. cracking cod as well. Are the bar cod good eating?

[Blane11]

To be honest I'm not the hugest fan, I find them quite a bit firmer than other fish. In saying that, I'm not the best cook either ha ha.

[meggawatti]

Good fish boys,what weight and current were out wide.

[Blane11]

We were hitting bottom with 1 pound sinkers, and 400 gram jigs. Drifting at half a knot and fishing straight up and down. Prior to the wind dropping we were having difficulty fishing the 42's with that amount if weight.

We also got hammered a few times by things we couldn't stop, good times all-round .

[lucee81]

So your jigging 360mt+?

[Blane11]

Only the bottom 20 - 30m. The WA guys do it quite a bit, albeit more successfully.

[cobiaman]

So your jigging 360mt+?

Thats madmackrel territory...

[lucee81]

20-30 meters ain't so bad.

[Muddy Toes]

20-30 meters ain't so bad.


And then you gotta wind the fish up the other 330mtrs!!!!

[lucee81]

Not with my jigging skills won't be bringing jack all backup.

[Blane11]

Don't need to use a crazy action, just nice and slow........or chuck it in the rod holder and let the swells do the work.

[kock81]

hey mate
make sure you brain spike as soon as you can theres enough stress on the flesh taking soo long to come up let alone takeing 20 mins to die in esky that size and smaller are the better ones to eat.having a suitable ice slurry to submerge fish entirely is also important to flesh quality bigger boys need bigger ice boxes.
slice flesh thin on the big ones and steam or use in thai curry. if frying thin slices do not over cook. hope this helps otherwise can be a bit like thong a very prized fish in some circles.

[kock81]

bar cod that is, not thong is prized just read my post and i know it would be coming.
under 8kgs are much better chewing
kock

[samsy]

well done guys.

i might see you out there again next time. look for the hydrofield boat

[onerabbit]

YEAH, NICE WORK GUYS,

sounds like you were working north?? Only one steep drop-off I can think of at that depth.

What Hydrofield are you fishing out of Marc?

I'm just getting serious again after some "family time",
wont see you out there, but I might see you at the ramp/cutting tables.

Muzz

[Blane11]

We were not fishing that mark, much further south actually, but that depth mentioned earlier may not be 100% accurate ;-) ha ha.

Muzz have you ever fished any marks past the thousand metre mark off evans?

To be honest some of the ground we've caught bar cod off has been very uninteresting. We've only just started fishing out wider and I'm surprised by the amount of ground out there. Obviously the better rocks out there fish better, I'm impressed you can stop the bigger ones with 50lb gear, because we struggled with 80lb and got busted up on that quite a few times.

[samsy]

gday Muzz

Havent seen you for ages. Hows the young ones. Are they big enough yet to pull in snapper.

Its a hydrofield 6.6 metres with a 200 merc on it. great fishinbg boat. Very comfortable and stable.

For those from ballina, check out this facebook page. we use it to get the latest reports and crap. Muzza one of your old deckies from our RSL club days together uses it.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/273123776081214/

[onerabbit]

To be honest some of the ground we've caught bar cod off has been very uninteresting. We've only just started fishing out wider and I'm surprised by the amount of ground out there. Obviously the better rocks out there fish better, I'm impressed you can stop the bigger ones with 50lb gear, because we struggled with 80lb and got busted up on that quite a few times


shhhh, dont tell anyone, hehehehe.

As it happens, most of our better marks are south of the bar also,
we are lucky that we had access to a list of trawler snag marks,
so most of our marks are in the middle of what most people think is just a desert of sand.
Might sound crazy, but we still fish out there with our standard bottom gear, thats Sealine 600s with 30lb braid, although I do carry 80lb gear as well.
Sure we have hooked some monsters, & lost them, but we have no trouble landing some pretty decent cod on that gear (15-18kg).
I think that it's better to loose a huge fish, that would probably be only average to eat, & take a huge amount of time out of your fishing day, then get on with the job of catching the target fish..

Its pretty hard to get better eating fish than a 15kg Bar Cod.

As for fishing 1000mtrs, I only have one set of gear with line enough to try it, & I reckon you would need muscles in your sh!t to wind it back in with a fish on, ...so, no, thats not my idea of fun.

G'day Marc,

Ty is nearly 2years, so not quite ready for 48 fishing, but we are getting closer.
Life here is pretty damn good, Huyen (Wing) has her permanent residency now, so thats a huge load of our minds, now we are just enjoying getting on with it.
I'll look for the Hydrofield, we might catch up some time, you still at Retravision?

[onerabbit]

looks like I need an invite to that group Marc.......

do you know Ryan?

Muzz

[samsy]

gday muzza

glad to hear your little one is starting to grow. I had my first little one 4 months ago. what a great feeling she (Charlie Mae Sams) has added to our lives immensly. I already have a pink fishing rod hanging in her room :). when she is big enough to take it off the wall herself she can come fishibng with dad.


i have added you as one of my friends on facebook. if you accept my "friend request" i can than invite you to the group "ballina - lennox fishing". I am happy to do that for anybody else as well.

[onerabbit]

WOW, a huge congratulations to you & wife,
parenthood is not always a fun journey,
but you wouldn't change a thing.
I truly offer you & wife the very best wishes.

Muzz