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Some great fish Keith - well done!
Thanks for posting
Ive done a few trips since Easter this year and getting back into the fishing grove again after all the hassle with my boat last year. I must say its great to be back on the water and like any addict I'm always looking for my next fix but to be honest i'm getting a little over it so this will probably be my last trip for a while. I need something different and its time to do the breaksea properly so probably my last 1770 post for a while also. After reading Shane's post maybe DI if I can get my boat down that way. It appears to be a good challenge and holds good fish. If only it had shelter..lol
Anyway a few other guys I know were taking there boats up to 1770 along with a few guys on Ausfish and A/C so I decided to take the weather window and take out Rob (one of the guys I've fished with a few years ago) & Sean (a good family friend) out for a couple of days off the bunker group. Rob brought his son Adam along for the trip and the plan was to head out late Saturday afternoon and anchor up for an early start on Sunday morning. Rob and Adam arrived early so we hit the water and were out to the reef by 4pm. I asked the boys if they were keen on a drop for a few reds and a big hell yeah was the call... I turned of my sounder and anchored up current from a spot I found last trip and only pulled the 1 fish. I knew it was good ground (small rise but flat rubble bottom) and reds should hold in the area and let out enough rope to position ourselves on the mark without spooking the fish.
Anyway we sat and waited about 10 mins for the boat to settle so not to spook the fish. The guys were great with no silly noises and everything went to plan. After about 20 mins we had two 7kg trout in the box and 6 reds to 10kg's. Unfortunatley young Adam was sea sick as the sun was going down, moon rising and the tide slowing so we decided to take him in close to the reef and anchor up for the night. Its always hard to leave the fish biting especially when its a school of reds coming on dust and up to a tide change but this was a good young guy and if we stayed it wouldn't have been right. Lucky enough after we anchored in smooth conditions he came good..... so we all had a good feed and had a few beers talking about the next day. There was plenty more fish be be had there but thats life and theres always tomorrow. It was a great night catching up with the fellas and the fish were a bonus anyway.
Just a quick tip for anyone who's interested...Too many guys have a good bit of ground here and there and wonder why when they anchor up theres nothing there or why they only get one or two fish... its easy... the fish spook and move or shut down completly. Some people spook them before they even put a bait in the water while other guys spook them while fishing on top of them by making a racket... usually the first fish landed that hits the deck and bangs around will do it. But either way the best approach if you know a spot that you want to fish on is have confidence in the spot so no matter what don't sound over it!!!!!!!!!!... Stop a k away from it and get everything ready, rods and rigs, baits cut up to the correct size, spare rigs, spare rods with rigs on, clean deck, sounder turned of, radio of, no noise, a place to put the fish quietly, gaffs and so on and everything ready to go. While your doing this a few k's away you'll work out what direction your drifting. Once you have done this mark an area 50-100 mtrs up current from your mark on your GPS and slowly (not at 4000RPM) idle up to and around (never drive over it!!!!) your mark with the sounder off and place your anchor over the side..... No electric anchors... That would be stupid!!!... Basically as little noise as possible. Then sit and wait to your boat settles and bingo... game on. Big baits and this will burley the fish under the boat. Its not rocket science.
Anyway on the Sunday morning I knew the fishing would be slow so the plan was to hit the shallows until the fishing turned on after lunch. I fished the 60mtr ground for a couple of hrs with no luck and moved over to the closest reef and started on one corner of the reef and found bugger all, I then hit the diagonal corner for a similar result before finding them on the third corner of the reef.... a couple of hrs latter we had our bag of 28 quality trout, 32 red throat to 4kg's and plenty more of the usual suspects. Some of these latter cut up for bait so we could maximise our bag limits... the trout were good bait as well!!!
So midday on the Sunday with a return time of 5pm Monday I said to the boys we are in trouble... Too many fish. What do you want to do I asked them and the call was for more. I said if we are to continue to fish we must use the fish in the box for bait so we don't exceed our bag limits. So I headed wide and chased a few gold bands and after 8 hit the floor I decided to go deeper and look for some pearlies and snapper as the afternoon went on because they were not in our CRF bag limit. We came across a show in 80mtrs on the way out that was pretty intense.... I didn't get a pic of it but it was a cracker of a show...I went back around (after we stopped fishing the drift)and took a pic of what we could get but not as good as the first show. I said to the guys "F$%^" me theres no way we will get a bait to the bottom. Shaun was loaded up in seconds as was my self. In a couple of minutes we had our 4 max size snapper over 70cm for the boat and with nothing coming in under 70cm we had to move..... The guys said whats next??? I said maybe pearlies or more reds tomorrow or we can just go home.... No more reds tomorrow will be good so I headed back to the reef for a a cook up and few beers to get prepped for the next day and on the way stopped on another show for a couple more legal sized snapper and cod.
The next day we filleted more red throats, trout & parrot for bait to reduce our box (not to over bag) and chased a few more reds. I always kept under my bag limit including what was on the bait board as bait. We threw another 9 reds with a few pealies and mixed bag in the box and I was over it and said come on lads what do you recon.... We had bagged in basically the first 5hrs of fishing for the trip but utilised red throats, parrot and trout etc for bait along the way and threw reds & gold band in there place. I also would of released another 100 legal fish including multiple trout, spangles, AJ's, Trevally, Snapper and god knows what else. If we were catching fish not targeted we moved on. We could of grabbed another 5 reds as we were coming up to another bite period but with 92 fish in the box enough was enough and the boys were pumped so we headed in and cleaned up and hit the pub for dinner.
It was a good trip and the fellas were great. Young Adam who's never reef fished caught some great fish including a nice 10kg red and some beautiful trout and was absolutley stoked. Its great watching young guys who don't know what there in for come away with the memories for a life time. Rob his dad who I've fished with a few years before once again it was a pleasure having him on the boat and he too put a 10kg red on the deck and some massive trout and Goldband. Shaun was his usual selfless self and like the other guys was always chipping in and helping out which makes trips like these so easy. Cheers guys thanks for the trip and good memories.
Some great fish Keith - well done!
Thanks for posting
Cheers
Trev
No wonder your looking for more of a challenge when your bagged out that quick.
Well done mate.
Go the Keithstar!!!!!!!
As always, On fire........
Well done all.
You are improving nicely mate
Great report & good advice as usual.
Tony
Nice stuff and your tips are greatly appreciated cheers
happy days ahead summer is coming
Just spent a lot of time up there in the last couple of months mate and getting a bit like groundhog day. If most guys spent the same time on the water up there as i have over the past few years they would have similar or better results.Originally Posted by marto78
To be honest I had a better time catching a few squire at mud island with my son a few weeks back than I do up there so I need to have a break and fish somewhere different with different species for a while. I see a decent fish come over the side and don't get the least bit excited unless someone else is catching it. But when I catch a 2kg squire at mud me and my son high five each other and are pumped...So time for a change I think.
Thanks for the kind words.
Well done Keith on getting your crew onto some amazing fish again and you only had to see the looks on their faces to see how happy they all were.
Also mate thank you so much for your generosity yesterday helping us out with our trailer issue, the use of your house and tools and having us there for the night.
Please thank all the guys for us that helped us out as well if they are not on here and to the guys that are here, thank you very much.
The trailer towed like a dream coming home and the trip went well.
Thanks guys.
Great report Keith,
Nothing beats time with family and seeing their excitement.
Max
Great report. Thanks for taking the time to post.
No Probs at all lance. Anytime and good to have a beer with you guys. Pitty there was about a dozen blokes there and didn't get enough time to chat but i think we were all busted and keen for a sleep anyway. i hope Shane's getting an easy night at work tonight he must be rooted.
You guys were not the only rooted ones there.
We were all stuffed after the 3 days at sea and then the trailer issue totally wrecked out early mark home but that 3am start this morning was a real killer,lol
I hope we didn't wake you guys up too, sorry if we did.
Anyway mate thanks again and thanks for dinner and the beers,it was a real pleasure to meet you all.
All good Lance you didn't wake me I snored my way threw all you guys leaving. Shaun was up all night.. he reckons he couldn't get to sleep with my snoring.lol
hahaha, the loft was rocking pretty well last night too.
I could hear the shed rattling in the wind for a while but that got drowned out by the ferals snoring.
Cracker of a trip. Reports like these are what makes this site great. I'm over in Iraq drooling for a trip like this when I get home in 3 weeks. Hope you guys haven't stolen all the good weather.
Democracy: Simply a system that allows the 51% to steal from the other 49%.
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