Just back from 5 days of beach fishing on Fraser.
Great conditions, no weed, light sweep, NE winds and last day straight offshore. Hook point pretty soft going with the trailer - even at dead lowHeaps of great gutters all the way from Happy Valley to Indian Head .... that still doesn't stop the masses from all trying to muscle in on "your spot" when they see a tailor coming in.
Once you found tailor the bite was on for young and old on lures and baits - but seldom lasted more than 45 min. Of course we just needed the tailor for livies on our slide bait rigs, and to eat for lunch on the beach
Scorecard for Team Africa, The LionHearts & Kroozah Krew (our three 4x4 team names) :
Tailor : Unsure ~ as said above we eat them for lunch, and swim them out to be eaten. Brought home 80 fillets for those who like frozen mushy fish ... not for me!
Jewfish : 73cm (released) ; 83cm eaten on the braai that night .... on tailor fillets.
Whaler Sharks : 1.2m ; 1.3m & 2m (cracked the spool on my overhead) ... all on live tailor
Longtail Tuna : 1.18m (18kg) ..... on semi-alive whiting
Spanish Macks : 1.61m (21kg) on live dart ; 1.55m (30kg) live tailor ; and 3 others unmeasured at around 1.3m on live tailor
.... and then another 2 dozen or so hookups that either burnt off with being hit as we were sliding the baits out still (slide rig not at the stopper at the wind-on leader), bit through the trace wire, or spat the hooks when we couldn't run fast enough to get to the rods and strike!
It's good to see the number of guys who are asking about, and wanting to learn the slide bait technique .... but is a massive mindset change and start from fresh if you want to learn to cast overheads. As Shay knows - it can be done, and is HUGELY rewarding for those who do the hard-yards. Who knows - maybe waders/Alveys/ball sinkers/gang hooks and sloppy rods will be a thing of the past at Fraser by the turn of the century(and before you all bite my head off, I know that the 54kg horse Spano was caught in waders with an Alvey .... sometimes you just get lucky
...... hee hee hee hee
A great trip and many memories made
Good stuff Rob. You guys are obviously targeting the macks with great results - what signs are you looking for before deciding where to fish? Just birds & baitfish or have you got some specific spots where the school? Not asking for location specifics just what you are identifying when prospecting sites.
Epic Rob, love your work mate.
No secrets .... Blue, clean water, and mostly a spot where you can cast beyond the backline without having to wade too deep amongst the sharks to get out there :-)Originally Posted by Greg P
It's also luck of the draw if they're there ... sometimes you get 10 sharks before your 1st Spano arrives. Last year all we got were sharks :-( They are a good fight, but not our target!!
One spot was very crowded with the usual line-up .... we hooked a tailor on lure and saw it being swallowed whole by a Spano in the wave amongst all the Alvey gang .... 15 min later I hooked the 30kg model 200m down the beach from them. Sometimes you also see Spanos launching into the air beyond the backline as they hunt (or are being hunted)
All you gotta do is have livebaits out there and your turn will come - 1 year or another.
Amazing job Rob and Saffa crew!
You guys really sound like you had some serious fun and got the just rewards for all of your hard work this year.
Top report thanks mate
Nice work Rob!! Fantastic effort. Definitely seem to be a lot of Spanos around this year, lots of reports of catches. Have mates there now who caught 2 with their first 2 tailor!
You are right about the effort and reward though! Lots of hard work, long hours learning but very very rewarding.
Glad you guys had an awesome trip!
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