Si
27-07-2012, 08:04 PM
I have just had the pleasure of fishing the Swains again. The weather was quite rough for the first three days. 20-25kts winds made for some large swells experienced on the way over in the channel. While there is a bit of protection in the reefs the high winds made for choppy conditions around the reefs at times with fast drifts being the norm. Anchoring and berleying was the better option at times. The last couple of days saw the wind abate and allowed us to move out into some shoal country were we scored nice catches it on Red-Throat Emperors, Venus Tusk Fish, Coral Trout, Jobfish and some Mack Tuna, Spanish Mackerel and a nice Red caught by my mate.
I had some fun on my 30lb Norfork Composite rod managing to hook two large GT’s when targeting to trout. One of them nailed a halco rooster popper and rubbed me off on the reef after about twenty seconds. The other took a 8” Zman StreakZXL when I casted ahead of the drift near a reef edge. The fight lasted a bit longer nearly pulling me out of the boat but the fish was unbelievably strong and fast and I’m sure my drag seized on my 8000 Stradic and the braid parted just below the rod tip. I didn’t expect to land them really but great fun. Unfortunately my casting rod broke when a shark grabbed the plastic just below the boat and the drag was still stuck a bit and put a crazy bend in it that went too far. It all happened in a blink of an eye and was quite distressing. I tried to forget the pain of it by tussling with red throats etc. Sht happens they say.
As a parting salute a massive hammerhead harassed our little tinny in the last ten minutes of fishing. Unfortunately I didn’t get my Spaniard despite float lining with live variegated emperor most of the time and lost as many fish as I caught but was still a great trip. We also lost some bigger trout. Looking forward to doing it again.
Cheers Fellas.
I had some fun on my 30lb Norfork Composite rod managing to hook two large GT’s when targeting to trout. One of them nailed a halco rooster popper and rubbed me off on the reef after about twenty seconds. The other took a 8” Zman StreakZXL when I casted ahead of the drift near a reef edge. The fight lasted a bit longer nearly pulling me out of the boat but the fish was unbelievably strong and fast and I’m sure my drag seized on my 8000 Stradic and the braid parted just below the rod tip. I didn’t expect to land them really but great fun. Unfortunately my casting rod broke when a shark grabbed the plastic just below the boat and the drag was still stuck a bit and put a crazy bend in it that went too far. It all happened in a blink of an eye and was quite distressing. I tried to forget the pain of it by tussling with red throats etc. Sht happens they say.
As a parting salute a massive hammerhead harassed our little tinny in the last ten minutes of fishing. Unfortunately I didn’t get my Spaniard despite float lining with live variegated emperor most of the time and lost as many fish as I caught but was still a great trip. We also lost some bigger trout. Looking forward to doing it again.
Cheers Fellas.