mattooty
12-01-2012, 12:29 PM
Had a pm a week or so ago from Rando saying he was heading down to his onsite van near Yamba and that he was batchin' for a few days and needed a decky if I was keen.
Was I ever!
We managed to get out 2 consecutive days, Tuesday & Wednesday, both with beautiful conditions. I will also thank Rob for bringing out one of my mates who is as keen as anyone yet very rarely gets offshore.
Our first day, we stopped at Rando's never-fail-to-get-a-feed mark for.....a few red rockies, a wirrah, a shovel-nose and some very hard hits that failed to hook up. We had some great shows on the sounder but unfortunately we couldn't temp them, not with floaters, not with baits on the bottom, not with liveys nor lures. It just hadn't turned on. What was on though was the monster amounts of bait patches everywhere we went, over every reef, patch of sand, rubble and weed. They were absolutely EVERYWHERE!
Bugger.
With not much happening and the sun starting to creep up from under the horizon we thought we'd take a chance at an early season mack. A pair of skirts was deployed as well as a rapala slashbait and the search was on. We circled patches of bait, we followed birds, and we checked nearby marks. Nadda, zippo.
Oh well, lets keep going along a contour that rises from 29ft into 6ft. Surely something will be hunting along that drop. I wound in the rapala as it was getting in the way. Maybe things would have turned out better if I left it in.
What a difference that pair of screaming reels did to our day. Within seconds of passing by the drop-off both reels sprung into life, with screaming runs!
Rob grabbed the nearest rod to himself, while I handed the other rod to my mate Isaac.
Both fish performed uncannily similar to the point I though one fish may have fouled the other rod.
I feel at this point I should mention I have been fortunate enough to be on the fighting end of a fish, rather than needing a gaffman over the last several months so to say my gaffing skills were a little rusty would be an understatement.
the first fish to the boat was a great sized spotty at around 3.5-4kg which was quickly brought aboard, belted around over the head and bled.
The second. Well. The shout was up, "It's a Spanish!". Maybe if I knew it was his first then I would have been a touch more careful. A wild swing and a miss stirred the spanny up so that it roared along the side of the boat collecting the line under one of the nav lights and pinging off the lucky skirt and mainline. The fish was still boatside in a daze, and a determined dive over the side, barely keeping myself dry felt the gaff find its mark, bringing the now-free-swimming fish aboard.
High fives and woohoo's all round as we headed back in, pleased with day 1.
Day 2 started very differently to day 1, although I did still have to wake Rob up with a phonecall when I got to the ramp.
Robs first bait had barely gotten 2 foot under the boat before it took off at a rate of knots along the surface. Mono and macky teeth rarely mix and he was soon winding in a clean snip off.
We drifted onto another mark. The burleying began and soon enough we had fish under the boat. The wrong kind. Sharks. Hundreds off them. They were feeding right off the bottom behind the boat sucking anything down they could fit in their mouths.
We kept 2 black tips for a feed and managed a sneaky just-legal snapper past them from a kelp reef. 2 large screaming runs ending up bust-offs had us keen again and soon enough I was hooked up on what we were calling everything from shark to tuna, to mammoth spanish and whales. (I never did come through with my end of the bargain that I'd eat a pilly if it was a shark)
A bit over 30 minutes passed and I had a comparatively large shark at the side of the boat, either a mid-sized bull at about 7-8ft or an over-sized black-tip. It had quite a wide head, though without a good look from above and it still being quite deep I won't say for sure. One look at the boat and he was gone. Ping!
With the shadow of having to work that day, we headed in. Happy with a pair of great days out, happy with a few first, good fights and good company.
Pics to come!
Was I ever!
We managed to get out 2 consecutive days, Tuesday & Wednesday, both with beautiful conditions. I will also thank Rob for bringing out one of my mates who is as keen as anyone yet very rarely gets offshore.
Our first day, we stopped at Rando's never-fail-to-get-a-feed mark for.....a few red rockies, a wirrah, a shovel-nose and some very hard hits that failed to hook up. We had some great shows on the sounder but unfortunately we couldn't temp them, not with floaters, not with baits on the bottom, not with liveys nor lures. It just hadn't turned on. What was on though was the monster amounts of bait patches everywhere we went, over every reef, patch of sand, rubble and weed. They were absolutely EVERYWHERE!
Bugger.
With not much happening and the sun starting to creep up from under the horizon we thought we'd take a chance at an early season mack. A pair of skirts was deployed as well as a rapala slashbait and the search was on. We circled patches of bait, we followed birds, and we checked nearby marks. Nadda, zippo.
Oh well, lets keep going along a contour that rises from 29ft into 6ft. Surely something will be hunting along that drop. I wound in the rapala as it was getting in the way. Maybe things would have turned out better if I left it in.
What a difference that pair of screaming reels did to our day. Within seconds of passing by the drop-off both reels sprung into life, with screaming runs!
Rob grabbed the nearest rod to himself, while I handed the other rod to my mate Isaac.
Both fish performed uncannily similar to the point I though one fish may have fouled the other rod.
I feel at this point I should mention I have been fortunate enough to be on the fighting end of a fish, rather than needing a gaffman over the last several months so to say my gaffing skills were a little rusty would be an understatement.
the first fish to the boat was a great sized spotty at around 3.5-4kg which was quickly brought aboard, belted around over the head and bled.
The second. Well. The shout was up, "It's a Spanish!". Maybe if I knew it was his first then I would have been a touch more careful. A wild swing and a miss stirred the spanny up so that it roared along the side of the boat collecting the line under one of the nav lights and pinging off the lucky skirt and mainline. The fish was still boatside in a daze, and a determined dive over the side, barely keeping myself dry felt the gaff find its mark, bringing the now-free-swimming fish aboard.
High fives and woohoo's all round as we headed back in, pleased with day 1.
Day 2 started very differently to day 1, although I did still have to wake Rob up with a phonecall when I got to the ramp.
Robs first bait had barely gotten 2 foot under the boat before it took off at a rate of knots along the surface. Mono and macky teeth rarely mix and he was soon winding in a clean snip off.
We drifted onto another mark. The burleying began and soon enough we had fish under the boat. The wrong kind. Sharks. Hundreds off them. They were feeding right off the bottom behind the boat sucking anything down they could fit in their mouths.
We kept 2 black tips for a feed and managed a sneaky just-legal snapper past them from a kelp reef. 2 large screaming runs ending up bust-offs had us keen again and soon enough I was hooked up on what we were calling everything from shark to tuna, to mammoth spanish and whales. (I never did come through with my end of the bargain that I'd eat a pilly if it was a shark)
A bit over 30 minutes passed and I had a comparatively large shark at the side of the boat, either a mid-sized bull at about 7-8ft or an over-sized black-tip. It had quite a wide head, though without a good look from above and it still being quite deep I won't say for sure. One look at the boat and he was gone. Ping!
With the shadow of having to work that day, we headed in. Happy with a pair of great days out, happy with a few first, good fights and good company.
Pics to come!