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13-01-2006, 08:54 PM
No hot sweaty chrissy this year, but a rugged up one in tassie.
Just spent the last 3 weeks fishing and craying around the scenic coast of convict land ;D, where icy winds, cool days and big big seas are the norm, and watches are 1 hour fast and they have this twilight of an evening and the sun dont set till around 9.30pm, which made for some late nights.
We stayed at a cousins place in the mts above hobart where the clouds come through the front door and out the back,
Wind & wild seas stopped us the first week, yes 6-7m swells are common and they measure the distance between swells in seconds :-?.
My first trip was down the tasman pennisula not far from pt arthur, where i met up with Yockman (steve), our intended trip to the shelf to fish the 500-600ft line was called off due to big seas.
So we fished in close up the northern end of storm bay, and trolled for salmon and couta using the same slug we chase spotties with, after hooking up to a few, we to some ruggered coast line to drop the craypots, and it was now Jim turned to don the scuba gear and search for some crays and abs.
Steve had seen great whites in the area he was diving, so we left it all to him :o
The bays and quite waters seem to be filled with salmon, trout and tuna farms, big round floating type ones(pic somewhere below).
We manged to score a few crays and abs, then went drifting for lizards, and the waters are full of them down there.
After a successful day we retired to steves shack(holiday hut) and downed a few ales and dined on fresh caught cray.
Thanks Yockman for a enjoyable day.
My second trip was to link up with two Derwent river bream fishos, both had just won prizes in the ABT held recently in tassie, Leroy Mackenzie and Steve Steers, both these bloke certainly no there stuff when chasing big black bream on plastics, and my bay gear was no match for their Loomis rods and diawa reels.
I certainly learnt a lot about the art of soft plastics from these two, and by the end of trip, was getting us to casting around structures or into places i would never have tried before.
just have to get one of those loomis rods.
By midday we had caught and released a fair few bream, keeping the big suckers for some shots later.
Other specis to be landed on plastics, lizards, couta, salmon, mullet plus a nice 2-3kg blue nose wrasse.
After the phtoto shoot the big fellas were released.
Steve is in the process of starting his own charter in the lakes and rivers, havent the details of the name but will let those who are insterested later when i find out. Even leroy if your down that way will take you for a trip on the derwent and these southern bream make our yellows look small.
Thanks to you both for a very enjoyable day.
My next trip was over to Strahan on the west coast, where i linked up with Bugman and Leanne and their Uncle Barry.
Barry has a shack acrooss macquarie harbour where the mighty gordon river flows into and his shack in down in the Australian Wildnerness Area, and he has the only private land in this area.
Transport through this area is in old 4 x 4 held together with chequer plate and the gear box is the only breaking system, which made for some nail biting rides through this ruggered country.
Wild life is everywhere, with Bennet wallablies visiting the shack every evening, its also home to the tiger snake and the screaming howls of the tassie devil, which we tried to entice in one night with a carcass, but after a long wait and no show we woke the next morning to find the carcasse demolished.
Fishing and craying we done further south along the wild coast line, where the next bit of land is south america.
They are also allowed to use gill nets down there, which we mainlyused for catching bait for the cray pots, but you do catch a range of fish, from trumpters, wrasse, jack mackeral, mullet, cod, drummer and kelpies and a few other i never new existed.
Crays were in abundance, and lunch was usually cray or fresh fish.
Tried my first abs, cooked the right way hey Brett ;D, and there not bad tucker.
Duck shooting, scenic drives along tracks where the tracks were no wider then the 4x4 and the scrubs brushed the sides of the batter fourbee.
Otherwise is was lazy around and down the odd ales or two or three.
Most of the vegegation doesnt grow much higher then 2-3m due to the constant winds, and there as tough as teak to withstand the cold and snow.
Our last night was spend floundering, with spears and spotlights, and it only took half a hour to round up 30 odd.
So also learnt the art of cleaning, cooking and eating flounder.
Bugman managed to do a few dives, but the 4-5m high kelp made life difficult down below, and it was all his as the water was icey cold ;D
But hedid manage a few crays and abs, and the blue ness left his face after a few hours in the sun ;D
The 4 days were brilliant, living and fishing in an area that 99% will never get to see or visit, so i'll be back.
Thanks to Barry (The Wilderness Man), Bugman and Leanne for a bloody great 4 days.
Im sure youll add more to this and the photos ive posted below.
regards
Just spent the last 3 weeks fishing and craying around the scenic coast of convict land ;D, where icy winds, cool days and big big seas are the norm, and watches are 1 hour fast and they have this twilight of an evening and the sun dont set till around 9.30pm, which made for some late nights.
We stayed at a cousins place in the mts above hobart where the clouds come through the front door and out the back,
Wind & wild seas stopped us the first week, yes 6-7m swells are common and they measure the distance between swells in seconds :-?.
My first trip was down the tasman pennisula not far from pt arthur, where i met up with Yockman (steve), our intended trip to the shelf to fish the 500-600ft line was called off due to big seas.
So we fished in close up the northern end of storm bay, and trolled for salmon and couta using the same slug we chase spotties with, after hooking up to a few, we to some ruggered coast line to drop the craypots, and it was now Jim turned to don the scuba gear and search for some crays and abs.
Steve had seen great whites in the area he was diving, so we left it all to him :o
The bays and quite waters seem to be filled with salmon, trout and tuna farms, big round floating type ones(pic somewhere below).
We manged to score a few crays and abs, then went drifting for lizards, and the waters are full of them down there.
After a successful day we retired to steves shack(holiday hut) and downed a few ales and dined on fresh caught cray.
Thanks Yockman for a enjoyable day.
My second trip was to link up with two Derwent river bream fishos, both had just won prizes in the ABT held recently in tassie, Leroy Mackenzie and Steve Steers, both these bloke certainly no there stuff when chasing big black bream on plastics, and my bay gear was no match for their Loomis rods and diawa reels.
I certainly learnt a lot about the art of soft plastics from these two, and by the end of trip, was getting us to casting around structures or into places i would never have tried before.
just have to get one of those loomis rods.
By midday we had caught and released a fair few bream, keeping the big suckers for some shots later.
Other specis to be landed on plastics, lizards, couta, salmon, mullet plus a nice 2-3kg blue nose wrasse.
After the phtoto shoot the big fellas were released.
Steve is in the process of starting his own charter in the lakes and rivers, havent the details of the name but will let those who are insterested later when i find out. Even leroy if your down that way will take you for a trip on the derwent and these southern bream make our yellows look small.
Thanks to you both for a very enjoyable day.
My next trip was over to Strahan on the west coast, where i linked up with Bugman and Leanne and their Uncle Barry.
Barry has a shack acrooss macquarie harbour where the mighty gordon river flows into and his shack in down in the Australian Wildnerness Area, and he has the only private land in this area.
Transport through this area is in old 4 x 4 held together with chequer plate and the gear box is the only breaking system, which made for some nail biting rides through this ruggered country.
Wild life is everywhere, with Bennet wallablies visiting the shack every evening, its also home to the tiger snake and the screaming howls of the tassie devil, which we tried to entice in one night with a carcass, but after a long wait and no show we woke the next morning to find the carcasse demolished.
Fishing and craying we done further south along the wild coast line, where the next bit of land is south america.
They are also allowed to use gill nets down there, which we mainlyused for catching bait for the cray pots, but you do catch a range of fish, from trumpters, wrasse, jack mackeral, mullet, cod, drummer and kelpies and a few other i never new existed.
Crays were in abundance, and lunch was usually cray or fresh fish.
Tried my first abs, cooked the right way hey Brett ;D, and there not bad tucker.
Duck shooting, scenic drives along tracks where the tracks were no wider then the 4x4 and the scrubs brushed the sides of the batter fourbee.
Otherwise is was lazy around and down the odd ales or two or three.
Most of the vegegation doesnt grow much higher then 2-3m due to the constant winds, and there as tough as teak to withstand the cold and snow.
Our last night was spend floundering, with spears and spotlights, and it only took half a hour to round up 30 odd.
So also learnt the art of cleaning, cooking and eating flounder.
Bugman managed to do a few dives, but the 4-5m high kelp made life difficult down below, and it was all his as the water was icey cold ;D
But hedid manage a few crays and abs, and the blue ness left his face after a few hours in the sun ;D
The 4 days were brilliant, living and fishing in an area that 99% will never get to see or visit, so i'll be back.
Thanks to Barry (The Wilderness Man), Bugman and Leanne for a bloody great 4 days.
Im sure youll add more to this and the photos ive posted below.
regards