revs57
15-08-2007, 10:48 PM
Or should that be "Flamin Riptide" smokes at the banks!
The crew for this mornings outing was the ever reliable Swano complete with his dainty new pretty pink shoes, a mate of his Rolly, and new dad, the big galoot Hodgie.
We left M'ba 3.45am to find quite sloppy but managable conditions although as we punched through the NE swell with SE chop, our first plan was to hit Coronation Rock again, but found the going pretty tough. So we amended the plan to cut across the washing machine conditions for an easier run out and head up to the Northern Banks/Hard area. We've had great success up there before, although the last couple of trips to the area have been quite lean. But given the snapps had a spawning run on the new moon a couple of nights ago, we figured they'd be pretty hungry - so out we go.
As we traveled further out, the conditions deteriorated and the going was quite laborious. When we were travelling parallel to the banks, after a brief conference with the crew, we decided to punch through the last few k's to Coronation and get fishing as the morning pre dawn hue was beginning to happen. It had been a 1 3/4hr trip out so far such were the conditions - quite lumpy!
We decided to anchor and burley as the stiff SEastely had not abated and the drift was way too fast...even for a shuted drift we felt.
So we dropped anchor and Swano was first in with his SP outfit while everyone else is rigging up. He has a nice snap around4-5kg in the kill in a blink...nuclear chicken takes its first scalp for the day. He drops again and matches his first effort! Go the SP brigade! The smellypoofterbaitfishos hadn't even got a bait in the water at this point, Swano had boated his first 2 fish for the day pretty good effort at least his pink shoes weren't a negative factor!
I chimed in with a nice Gold spot wrass and a moses on pillie and these proved to be the only fish taken on dead bait all day.
We pulled a few more snaps (by this time we'd all gone to the dark side)...you guessed it - Nuclear Chicken stick bait!
By the time the sun was well up we had the beginnings of a good catch in the kill tank. We decided to move into deeper water and went for a bit of a reccie looking for some new ground on the way to the North.
We reached our northern mark and the wind was still a fresh 15ktsish, so we anchored and burleyed again. A few more snapps came aboard including my first decent snapp on SP...a nice fish of around 3ish kgs. I was pretty happy with that. Rolly had chimed in with a pb snapp of around 4kg and the kill is looking quite full now.
Swano pulls a spangled Emporer to around 75cm and 6kg...a nice solid fish...
Hodgie just cant seem to get into a rhythm and boat a fish, changing rigs and fishing hard but to no avail. Things then go a tad quiet, so we moved to the front edge of the reef system we were working, to bag a couple more Snapps.
I remembered a patch some 5ks SW so we motored down. By then the wind had backed off a bit so we shuted a few drifts for more snapps, picking up 2 or 3 each drift...then the AJ's moved in!
We played with Gulps and knife jigs with these pup AJ's,but the snapps were still on the chew.
I loaded up into an absolute snodger again...and got smoked again! This time I had a 5mt leader of 40lb fluro, and there was no chance of stopping that freight train...done over by another good Snapper...but man it was a lot of fun.
Come 2pm the wind had kicked in again, so we decided to begin the slowish trip home in very lumpy conditions, but with a box full of very nice fish. Nuclear Chicken was the clear successful pattern. We had tried others types and styles, but the NC Stickbait was by far and away the one. apart for the two fish earlier mentioned and a couple of AJ pups hodgie knife jigged...every other fish fell to a SP!
Swano has the photos and will probably put them up when he picks up the thread.
A great day had by all, fantastic crew and excellent to be among them again.
Til next time
Cheers
Rhys
(Smokin' Flamin' Riptide)
The crew for this mornings outing was the ever reliable Swano complete with his dainty new pretty pink shoes, a mate of his Rolly, and new dad, the big galoot Hodgie.
We left M'ba 3.45am to find quite sloppy but managable conditions although as we punched through the NE swell with SE chop, our first plan was to hit Coronation Rock again, but found the going pretty tough. So we amended the plan to cut across the washing machine conditions for an easier run out and head up to the Northern Banks/Hard area. We've had great success up there before, although the last couple of trips to the area have been quite lean. But given the snapps had a spawning run on the new moon a couple of nights ago, we figured they'd be pretty hungry - so out we go.
As we traveled further out, the conditions deteriorated and the going was quite laborious. When we were travelling parallel to the banks, after a brief conference with the crew, we decided to punch through the last few k's to Coronation and get fishing as the morning pre dawn hue was beginning to happen. It had been a 1 3/4hr trip out so far such were the conditions - quite lumpy!
We decided to anchor and burley as the stiff SEastely had not abated and the drift was way too fast...even for a shuted drift we felt.
So we dropped anchor and Swano was first in with his SP outfit while everyone else is rigging up. He has a nice snap around4-5kg in the kill in a blink...nuclear chicken takes its first scalp for the day. He drops again and matches his first effort! Go the SP brigade! The smellypoofterbaitfishos hadn't even got a bait in the water at this point, Swano had boated his first 2 fish for the day pretty good effort at least his pink shoes weren't a negative factor!
I chimed in with a nice Gold spot wrass and a moses on pillie and these proved to be the only fish taken on dead bait all day.
We pulled a few more snaps (by this time we'd all gone to the dark side)...you guessed it - Nuclear Chicken stick bait!
By the time the sun was well up we had the beginnings of a good catch in the kill tank. We decided to move into deeper water and went for a bit of a reccie looking for some new ground on the way to the North.
We reached our northern mark and the wind was still a fresh 15ktsish, so we anchored and burleyed again. A few more snapps came aboard including my first decent snapp on SP...a nice fish of around 3ish kgs. I was pretty happy with that. Rolly had chimed in with a pb snapp of around 4kg and the kill is looking quite full now.
Swano pulls a spangled Emporer to around 75cm and 6kg...a nice solid fish...
Hodgie just cant seem to get into a rhythm and boat a fish, changing rigs and fishing hard but to no avail. Things then go a tad quiet, so we moved to the front edge of the reef system we were working, to bag a couple more Snapps.
I remembered a patch some 5ks SW so we motored down. By then the wind had backed off a bit so we shuted a few drifts for more snapps, picking up 2 or 3 each drift...then the AJ's moved in!
We played with Gulps and knife jigs with these pup AJ's,but the snapps were still on the chew.
I loaded up into an absolute snodger again...and got smoked again! This time I had a 5mt leader of 40lb fluro, and there was no chance of stopping that freight train...done over by another good Snapper...but man it was a lot of fun.
Come 2pm the wind had kicked in again, so we decided to begin the slowish trip home in very lumpy conditions, but with a box full of very nice fish. Nuclear Chicken was the clear successful pattern. We had tried others types and styles, but the NC Stickbait was by far and away the one. apart for the two fish earlier mentioned and a couple of AJ pups hodgie knife jigged...every other fish fell to a SP!
Swano has the photos and will probably put them up when he picks up the thread.
A great day had by all, fantastic crew and excellent to be among them again.
Til next time
Cheers
Rhys
(Smokin' Flamin' Riptide)