Tunzafun
02-07-2006, 09:48 AM
I took Ausfisher Fadd for his maiden voyage out to the Banks to spot x (thanks Hoga) leaving Mooloolaba about 1230 pm. Fairly comfortable trip out and had lines in the water by 1430. Sea was quite calm, winds were light and the sun was shining. Turned on the radio to listen to the footy and we wondered does it get any better than this? All we needed now were some fish.
It didn't take long before Fadd had a nice 1kg squire in the boat and the look on his face was one of delight ;D. This soon changed when I told him to throw it back as it was too small :(. I explained that unless it had a hump on its head, it was not worth keeping and as the fish was in good condition and would easily live, he should return it to grow. #Relunctantly he complied but I sensed some doubt as to why he should be returning such a lovely plate size culinary delight to King Neptune :-/.
It wasn't long before his new rod took a nose dive to the water. He struck at it and started cranking on his new reel. This time he knew he had a real fish on. A couple of minutes later he had cranked a big snapper (4-5 kg) to the surface and it had a big hump on its head........ Yea mate, you can keep him. I had one excited fisherman in the boat! ;D
I had a slow start landing a couple of squire, a big grinner thing and a hussar. Then I had something quite heavy take the bait and it seemed to be doing a lot of head shaking on the way up. Unfortunately it was a double hook up of two very nice squire however, I had made the rule, no big hump, no keep. ::) Back they went. I was wondering if I would regret this rule but, as we had planned for an allnighter, I thought we can always top up the bag in the morning if the dusk bite doesn't produce good fish. Mind you, this was all in the first 40 minutes or so. #:)
Things slowed down a bit as we drifted across our mark a couple of more times and then we decided to anchor up on the area that had promised the most. By 1600 we were set and lines in with nice squid baits on. Bingo, we were on a patch. I won't bore you with the rest of the tales but we caught quality snapper and had bagged out (but one) by 1800 :). We decided to change our fishing style and try some jigging for Amberjack or Kingfish (Fadd had already caught one nice Kingy). #As we pulled our lines in to change the rigs Fadd hooked another big snapper. He said bugger, that's our bag (just no pleasing some people) :D. Anyway we decided to take a litle hiatus, have a well earned Jim Beam and a feed. 8-)
30 minutes later we were well fed, a couple of cold Jimmy's down and rigs changed to ganged hooks with big flesh baits; lets see whats down there. Fadd's new rod took a big nose dive and his reel screamed. The look on his face was priceless. He was fishing with 30lb braid and he never looked like stopping whatever he had hooked. This baby had decided it wanted to spool him and although Fadd did a great job at slowing him down, this sucker would not give in. #After about 5 minutes, the fish decided he was going to put a real run on, Fadd had braced himself in the back of the boat and knew he was in for one hell of a fight. The real screamed again and Fadd thought I will just thumb this reel to add a touch more drag. Twang......... lost him. Monofilament lead snapped. A check of the line revealed no chaffing or rough line and it appeared to be a claen break where the line just let go. Fadd sat in the chair (with every muscle in his back screaming) wondering what the hell it had been? :'(
We caught another couple of large snapper (which we let go) we decided that rather than stay out all night and be knackered all Sunday, we could be in bed by midnight. #We pulled the pick and headed home. #Easy run home in glass conditions and at the ramp in an hour :). #All in all we kept:
10 x humpheads,
1 x lge tusk fish and a smaller one
1 x pearl Perch (32cm)
1 x Moses Perch (good size)
1 x Kingfish (couple of kilos).
We threw back numerous squire, small pearlies and parrot fish. #A great trip, quality fish and quality company (thanks Fadd) ;). The only downer on the trip was the open 4.5m tinny that was fishing near us. #His berley trail consisted of a constant stream of empty XXXX cans, cigarette packets and general rubish >:(.
I will endeavour to get some pictures and upload them later but right now I have a boat to wash and fish to clean. Hope all those other bobbing lights out there did just as well.
Ross
It didn't take long before Fadd had a nice 1kg squire in the boat and the look on his face was one of delight ;D. This soon changed when I told him to throw it back as it was too small :(. I explained that unless it had a hump on its head, it was not worth keeping and as the fish was in good condition and would easily live, he should return it to grow. #Relunctantly he complied but I sensed some doubt as to why he should be returning such a lovely plate size culinary delight to King Neptune :-/.
It wasn't long before his new rod took a nose dive to the water. He struck at it and started cranking on his new reel. This time he knew he had a real fish on. A couple of minutes later he had cranked a big snapper (4-5 kg) to the surface and it had a big hump on its head........ Yea mate, you can keep him. I had one excited fisherman in the boat! ;D
I had a slow start landing a couple of squire, a big grinner thing and a hussar. Then I had something quite heavy take the bait and it seemed to be doing a lot of head shaking on the way up. Unfortunately it was a double hook up of two very nice squire however, I had made the rule, no big hump, no keep. ::) Back they went. I was wondering if I would regret this rule but, as we had planned for an allnighter, I thought we can always top up the bag in the morning if the dusk bite doesn't produce good fish. Mind you, this was all in the first 40 minutes or so. #:)
Things slowed down a bit as we drifted across our mark a couple of more times and then we decided to anchor up on the area that had promised the most. By 1600 we were set and lines in with nice squid baits on. Bingo, we were on a patch. I won't bore you with the rest of the tales but we caught quality snapper and had bagged out (but one) by 1800 :). We decided to change our fishing style and try some jigging for Amberjack or Kingfish (Fadd had already caught one nice Kingy). #As we pulled our lines in to change the rigs Fadd hooked another big snapper. He said bugger, that's our bag (just no pleasing some people) :D. Anyway we decided to take a litle hiatus, have a well earned Jim Beam and a feed. 8-)
30 minutes later we were well fed, a couple of cold Jimmy's down and rigs changed to ganged hooks with big flesh baits; lets see whats down there. Fadd's new rod took a big nose dive and his reel screamed. The look on his face was priceless. He was fishing with 30lb braid and he never looked like stopping whatever he had hooked. This baby had decided it wanted to spool him and although Fadd did a great job at slowing him down, this sucker would not give in. #After about 5 minutes, the fish decided he was going to put a real run on, Fadd had braced himself in the back of the boat and knew he was in for one hell of a fight. The real screamed again and Fadd thought I will just thumb this reel to add a touch more drag. Twang......... lost him. Monofilament lead snapped. A check of the line revealed no chaffing or rough line and it appeared to be a claen break where the line just let go. Fadd sat in the chair (with every muscle in his back screaming) wondering what the hell it had been? :'(
We caught another couple of large snapper (which we let go) we decided that rather than stay out all night and be knackered all Sunday, we could be in bed by midnight. #We pulled the pick and headed home. #Easy run home in glass conditions and at the ramp in an hour :). #All in all we kept:
10 x humpheads,
1 x lge tusk fish and a smaller one
1 x pearl Perch (32cm)
1 x Moses Perch (good size)
1 x Kingfish (couple of kilos).
We threw back numerous squire, small pearlies and parrot fish. #A great trip, quality fish and quality company (thanks Fadd) ;). The only downer on the trip was the open 4.5m tinny that was fishing near us. #His berley trail consisted of a constant stream of empty XXXX cans, cigarette packets and general rubish >:(.
I will endeavour to get some pictures and upload them later but right now I have a boat to wash and fish to clean. Hope all those other bobbing lights out there did just as well.
Ross