Spangled Emps On Soft Plastics

[Goldfinch]

Adam (Adobaz) and myself crawled out of bed at 1.45am on Friday to get out as early as possible for a sunrise session. Left Manly at just after 3am and ploughed through the choppy bay for what seemed like way too long.

Got to our spot where we'd been catching some great snapper lately just on sun up and setup our first drift. Nothing hit us in the usual spot but further into the drift whilst I was setting up a 2nd rig my rig in the rod holder with a 6" Atomic Shad bends over and some line starts to peel. Wasn't behaving like a snapper and after a pretty easy fight a nice 5kg Spangled Emperor hits the net. On the 2nd drift same again, nothing in the usual spot then Adam hooks up on the 7" Gulp and after a pretty easy battle lands a 6kg Spangled Emp. Great start for the day !!! On the next drift I got a good strike and run but the hook didn't set.

Things shut down after this so we went for a troll and picked up a small Bonito for strip bait. Threw some poppers and plastics around some shallow ground, grabbed a few live pikies and headed out again once the tide started running. Managed to pick up a 3kg, just legal, Kingfish on the drop with a 7" Nuc Chook. Then on the next drift a floating slab of Bonito went nuts on the baitrunner and after a short battle it spat the hooks. Felt like fish of the day too. Then we had 3 other boats within an hour decide to troll within talking distance of us and they obviously didn't understand our hand gestures which meant P** O**. This was enough to spook anything else we might have caught so we decided to pull the pin about Midday and head back in.

Still need to get Adam his 2009 trophy snapper. Maybe next time !!!

Will post a link to YouTube footage in the Videos Section this week. Here's a couple of pics.

Cheers
dave

[littlemac]

great fish goldfinch

good to see you at it nice and early (lucky bugger). cant wait to see the video.

you will get adam his snap no doubt

cheers

brett

[Scalem]

Hi Dave,

Nice report, and my wife called me crazy setting the alarm for 3.30am:o

You are really getting into some nice fish, it's only a matter of time B4 Adam gets that trophie Snap if he hangs around you long enough8-)

I on the other hand had a shocker trip out of the seaway today, it's like I had to put the trainer wheels back on. Broke a rod - snapped in two, but on the bright side it was not one of Erics:D

Scalem

[lethal098]

DAVE, some nice spanglies there mate well done, will have to tee up a trip with you sometime soon, cheers Lee

[addobaz]

I need to get that Snap soon! I think it might be getting a little late in the season. One small correction there Davo, I got my spangled on a 7 inch zoom, not gulp. Watching the weather again already.

[Kdog]

Hi Dave,

Mate, well done, top effort, looks like you were doing it hard in those conditions though.
I`m slowly being turned around to fish with plastics mate, especially at the rate you blokes are bringing in "quailty" fish.

[TimD]

Nice Spangled's Dave and Adam...What is Adam's current Snapper PB ??



cheers tim :)

[addobaz]

Hey Tim D. My current best snapper is 7.5kg caught at Yamba on bait(yuk word) though. On plastics its in the low 70cm's caught at Scarborough of all places.

[Pistol_P]

Pretty fish the spanglies...

Great fighters on the plastic gear too....well done to ya..!8-)

Pete

[TimD]

Hey Tim D. My current best snapper is 7.5kg caught at Yamba on bait(yuk word) though. On plastics its in the low 70cm's caught at Scarborough of all places.

Yeah my PB so far is 75cm taken this year at mud island on plastic, I can't wait to get a 90cm model.


cheers tim :)

[Tim_N]

Dave,
We had a tool troll within casting distance this week too. It wasn't a very big cast either considering I was casting 3/8 oz jig heads so I would guess he was about 20 meters away.
We had been hooking up to really big Cobia and had been continually getting blown away, so I wasn't in the best of humour. One of the lads boated a 28 kg model and these fish we were having a crack at were in that league.
Really bad fishing etiquette in anyones book but.......
When I politely told him that there were plenty of fish in the Moreton Bay region and he should really go forth and multiply, he got offended. Mind you, he didn't come back for another pass.
Ripper Spanglies, especially on SP's, well done again.
Tim

[SWANO1]

well done on the spangled dave,adam , its unusual you say they were an easy fight as the one we hit go like the clappers and would pull a snap backwards , what line/rod class you guys using? recall an earlier was it an s10 ?
cheers swano

[addobaz]

well done on the spangled dave,adam , its unusual you say they were an easy fight as the one we hit go like the clappers and would pull a snap backwards , what line/rod class you guys using? recall an earlier was it an s10 ?
cheers swano
Hey swano. Mate, mine hit hard and fought hard early on down deep, but once I started moving him up the water column he gave up the ghost pretty much. I was using a little Daiwa HRF baitcaster with 14lb braid and 20lb leader with a vintage shimano Beastmaster 6kg rod. So as you can see I wasn't exactly skull dragging it in. Adam

[MattChew]

Hi Dave, a couple of quality fish there. I've only caught small ones around Mud but they went very hard for their size. What sort of outfits are you using for your plastics out there?

Thanks
Matt

[Goldfinch]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Hard work gettin up that early when that's the time I normally hit the sack. We need day light saving in QLD !!!

Lethal098....Lee, hanging to come and fish up your way on the Sunny Coast. I need a guide. Whenever your ready mate, just PM me.

Tim_N.....mate, I am so sick of idiot boaties coming within 50m of my boat when we are drift fishing. It just ruins the whole drift, spooks the fish and kills it for at least an hour. I think I'm going to fit the Haines out with torpedos or maybe a tank of fart gas. What can you do???

Swano1....mate I was surprised how easy the Spangles fought compared to snapper the same size that we have caught in the area. I was using a Starlo Tournament 7kg rod and Daiwa Heartland 4000 spooled with 20lb braid and 20ld leader. Pretty light gear for this type of fishing but easy fight. My mate Pete has the S10 and he caught a 9kg Spangled last year which fought very very hard. Extra few kilos made a massive difference.

Come on good weather!!!!!

[lethal098]

dave, no worries mate, will definately let you know, just hard at the moment to get a day off mid week, cheers Lee

[levinge]

Good to see you squeaked a couple of good fish in before the CRFF Closure.

Great weather up here in NQ at present and noone can touch anything on the reef.

Guess I'll just have to go chasing macks