Sounds like a great day out mate! Personally i've never snapped off a fish intentionally but each to their own. Good read anyway!
So my neighbour and I headed out last night to chase a few snaps and possibly a bully..
First up he pulls in a small bully, around 60cm. Too small to get a fillet off so back he went.
I went to wind in and check my bait and noticed a tug then I pulled up a nice wobbygong around 70cm... Back he went..
A bit later the same thing, checking bait.. TUG... TUG... F&*K this is heavy!! 5mins later I eventually get him to the surface, a very nice ~1.4m wobbygong. Didn't land it as he spat the hook beside the boat, but he was pretty big. We estimated his head to be around 30cm across.
A couple more small bullies were thrown back then I pulled in a taylor. Chucked a 6'0 on the line and threaded through his back... Here sharky sharky!!!
Had him out for a while, no takers then Phil got "something" big.. Fishing with 2-5kg rig he couldn't put any hurt on it at all. We followed it around for about 20mins but everytime we got him up off the bottom just a little bit, he would see the boat and piss-off again. Eventually we just cut the line as we had no other choice. I think the closest we got was about 2-3 meters from seeing color in the water.. Oh well...
Then we went back and I threw my now "dead" taylor back in with the 6'0 through the eyes... A while later and Zzzzzzz.. stop..... Zzzzz... Stop.... Zzzzzzzz... Stop... Zzzzzzz... Stop... I'm thinking, do I hit this thing or what...
So I gave him a hit and wound my line in with nothing...
Sadly no photo's of the big wobbygong.
Sounds like a great day out mate! Personally i've never snapped off a fish intentionally but each to their own. Good read anyway!
Thanks for the report!
Sounds like a fun night out. Shame you didn't get a meal out of it though.
We didn't want to cut the line, but rather we had no choice. We wound in as much as possible, the line was vertical from the rod tip, the rod was bent like a banana and cut it at the water line. I said to Phil to hold the spool and try and bring it up but he said the rod would break. Unsure what pound braid he had on it but the rod was a tcurve 2-5kg and it was hurting ALOT... lol
I've done it....when I've been pretty confident it was a ray...behaviour of this fish could have been that, hugging the bottom etc directly below the boat?? What do you think?
Good session ,mate.
Definitely a ray by the sounds. If it happens again, and she hugs the bottom, try 'the guitar' method, where you strum your lline like you would a guitar. Be fairly forceful with the action. This usually get them off the bottom and moving again.
Cuzza
Thanks Cuzza, I've never heard of that... Must try and remember that next time.
Dunno for sure as I don't use braid, but it's sure worth a try. The vibrations would be more direct (less absorption of the shock via stretch), so as long as you were careful not to snap the fine braid with your finger's strumming action, should still serve exactly the same purpose. Probably even better.
Cuzza