Making a Father's day offshore Straddie

[bugman]

Gents,

Had the absolute pleasure of taking my dad fishing for Father's Day. I don't get to take him anywhere near as I'd like to and in fact it was his first trip since getting the new boat.

Karma must have played it's part because everything turned out as best as it could be. Weather was stunning - as best I've seen - and the fish were on the chew pretty much all day. Only down side was the loss of half a dozen big fish to bust offs.

Headed to grounds of North Straddie and put 3 squire in the eskie on the first 3 drops. Dad was over the moon already. Ground was pretty small so drifting was a bit hit and miss. Decided to anchor and fish were thick for the next 3 hours or so. Moved to a couple of different positions close by which all produced fish. Decided to have another "look around" and found another good looking bit of ground which produced a maori cod, squire and pearlie for the eskie on one drift. Punched into the GPS for another time.

Keepers were probably in the 1-5 fish boated ratio with a real mixed bag of everything under the sun. Nearly had to stop fishing for pearlies which I've never had happen before.

Finshed the day with a troll past Boat Rock trying to land Dad "The Biggen". Within 15 mins the left rod with one of Rob's blue pillie lures went WACK - doubled in half and nearly snapped - CRACK went the line - and BLOODY HELL DID YOU SEE THAT went Dad and I. Lasted all of 1/2 second.

Went over and checked the rod and the drag seemed fined but the line parted at the top eye which had me thinking the line probably got caught. Probably now a big HOO with a lovely blue pillie and 50 metre of braid running around out of it's gob.

Great Day

Bugman

Here's the man of the moment - Daryl Bugg

[bugman]

One from me and one from him - his best fish.

[bugman]

My best fish - his big brothers played havoc on our gear

[bugman]

My biggest cod - photo doesn't do it justice

[bugman]

My best catch in the new rig

[bugman]

Can you believe we were the only boat out there all day - Where was everyone?

[Streaker]

Well done Brett good to see.
Wayne

[mackmauler]

thats the sort of weather you want 8) top fishing as well!

have seen the odd diver around boat brett, they would run hard ;D
rob

[bugman]

Rob, didn't see any boats or flags around Boat Rock - then again didn't see the bloody thing that hit the lure. I've never seen anything like it. I think I need to take you to get some expert advice - plus i need another blue pillie.

Wayne - good to put a decent catch together for once. 17 keepers all up which is heaps better than I have been doing. The size of the table fish (snapper/pearlies) weren't really there with nothing going over 45-48 cms but the variety was amazing.

Only probs is the 1.5 hour run out there. On the bright side I had cleaned almost all the fish by the time we hit the ramp ;D

PS Craigie - I found a box of hooks, box of swivels and a pair of fisherman's pliers in the boat - I'm guessing they're yours.

Brett

[Maria]

Brett,

Good to see you got out there with your old man for what appears to have been a great day's fishing.

With these sorts of trips, me thinks you need to ask Santa Claus for a bigger esky come Christmas. ;D

Good on ya bloke.

Ben

[agnes_jack]

Well done Brett!
Mate thats probably as good a fathers day pressie as he's ever had.
And what a day weather wise.
Theres a couple of very nice Maori's there. Have often found that when you are getting them that size, it often means you are on fairly good ground that hasn't been hit too hard.

Good one, Brett Regards Tony

[craigie]

Good work Brett :D

Nice box of fish you put together there mate. Didn't think that particular species of cod was too common down our way ???

Geez, how flat is that ocean :o :o needles to say the bar would have been a piece of cake ?

Was going to ask you about the plyers etc, thought I may have left them onboard "Bogey".

Regards
Craig.

[bugman]

I'll hold on to them for you Craig ;)

Funny the cod came from two different locations kilometres apart. Now all kept secret in my GPS.

Tony - I'm just warming up for my trip north :D. Only 3 weeks to go - not that I'm excited or anything.

Brett

[mackmauler]

Brett, let me know how the maouri eats, last one from out there was really fatty! worse than oversize yellabelly :o new meaning to melt in the mouth ???

keep those marks in hardcopy if you dont, personal exp with gps failing lately backs this up :'(
let me know the dates of the northern trip, have a reccy to do, may see you somewhere along the line! that goes for you to Craig..

Rob

[craigie]

Brett,

Your GPS is becoming quite valuable with all those fishy marks in it.

Did you fish the "Pearly Patch" west of the WRB ??

Craig.

[searaider]

Good catch Brett ,
Top size mouri's & check out the flat conditions in the photo's.
Looks like the current has dropped out wide , hopefully I'll be following Reel-Job to the Banks this Sat.

Peter
Searaider 2

[Lucky_Phill]

Are you sure you couldn't get the pics any bigger Brett ?

Maori are supposed to the best of the Cods to eat, Rob. not that I eat a lot of Cods. :-X

Well Bugmeister, you certainly gave the old fella ( who looks distinctly like a small version of Hulk Hogan ), a Fathers Day to remember.

Cheers Phill ;)

[no_worries]

ARRRG what weather.
A lot of us dad's are not ALLOWED to go fishing on fathers day,gotta have brekky in bed ,etc.
Still i can fish all the rest ,except chrissy and easter day,cheers no worries

[skippa]

As captain Binginton from Mc Hale's navy says, I could just scream :'(

Looked out the back window to glassed out seas, quick trip to the ramp confirmed it too. A late night before put an end to an early morning session on Sunday, had nothing prepared cause it was supposed to be wet. Thought I'd be smart and get some brownie points (double points on fathers day u know) offering to setup inlaws DVD player.

Those pic's look like they are outside too, I could just scream :'(

Cheers,
Tony 8)

[Payneful]

Nice Fish there Brett

I was off north straddy on Sunday arvo, jumped into the water with the spear gun and didn't see anything decent to shoot all day. There were lots of mac tuna around ... had about 1000 turn up underneath me. Had a good show of fish on the sounder around middle reef ... lots of bait ... and a couple of big ones lurking underneath the bait:( Found out that spearing in 15 meters of water is quite challenging!!

Next time I think I will dump the spear gun idea and go back to good old line fishing ... always seem to do better! Have never been a big fan of spear fishing ... and last Sunday confirmed it!

Those Maori cod should be good eating ... just finished devouring one that I caught a few weekends ago when we went out to the banks!

Cheers

Sam

[bugman]

Rob,

I've got to tell you that both of those Maoris were extremely fatty. Your analogy to a yellowbelly was spot on. I filleted dad's and he wrapped one fillet up in foil with butter etc and cooked on top of the wood heater. He said he couldn't eat it because it went mushy.

I baked mine whole last night and din't use butter but there was probably 1/2inch lick liquid in the bottom of the foil. Made sure not to over cook and as a result left a big fatty line running down the backbone. Flavour was fantastic it though and the guests sure didn't mind.

Sam,

Coming back from Boat Rock towards the bar ran over a very very very big school of baitfish that stretched for 100 metres it seemed. Certainly made the sounder light up. On the way out in the morning before getting to the group we chased littel mac tunas for about 30 mins. They were everywhere but we couldn't get a strike on a variety of lures.

While we were collecting livies at Boat rock a local in his tinny landed a 10+kg Jew - RIGHT BESIDE US.

Craig,

Yeah we anchored very close to that pearly spot (50 metres) ;) but also found a few other patches around the place. I'm guessing they're no secret and anyone could find them but they're safe with me for a while ;D

Brett