bidkev
26-04-2004, 03:54 PM
Did the Bay from 5am to 5 pm Saturday with me good mate Ross Bressow from Pimpama. Now if you want a feed of crab, tailor, bream, or Lizard, you can rely on Ross as he knows the Pin like the back of his hand, but he's never chased a "biggie" before.
I took him out to the Rous early morning to try and get him onto a shark or one of the big shovellies there. Put out a full 1 kilo spottie 12 foot under a 3 litre milk bottle and before I had time to tackle up the 2nd rod the reel screamed and the bottle was hurtling towards the transom. I took up the slack as fast as I could and about 5 metres from the back the bottle did a sharp right turn, ran for about 50 metres, did an about face and did the same. This went on for about twenty minutes before (whatever it was) decided to show me how easy it could snap 50lb line!
Ross got a line into the water baited with a large squid fished hard on the bottom. and within 5 minutes was into something big. This came straight for the side of the boat and under. Ross negotiated the bimini and anchor warp, all the time holding his rod tip under the water to prevent chaffing on the keel and immediately had to repeat the process as whatever it was decided to go back from whence it came and shoot off into the distance. 30 lb line held it for about 30 minutes until once again, a mysterious visitor decided it didn't like our company.
Similar scenarios were repeated over and over throughout the next 6 hours with hardly a break until the action ceased around slack water. Throughout this time we'd seen only grinners on the small rods and on one occasion a large Cobia and on another occasion a Samson fish following the grinners to the surface. We'd seen none of our hookups other than two turtles which we managed to release relatively unscathed and the 50lb line had been trashed in the space of 5 minutes on more than a couple of occasions. Could've taken things a bit slower, but when you're near to being spooled then the pressure has to go on,and unfortunately, we weren't as lucky as we would have liked.
By this time we were buggered. Ross kept repeating "top day" with the most inane grin on his face, to chorus my continual whining about, "my bloody back's knackered!"
For hook bait we'd done in 4 large spotties, 4 kilo of squid, 2 kilo of Pillies, 2 kilo of cuttle and 4 mullet and add to this, we'd done 12 lots of terminal tackle. Tight-arse here was bemoaning the lack of a fish in the boat and how much it had cost me whilst all the time Ross was beaming like a kid at Xmas saying things like, "my reels on fire", "Keriiiiiiiiist, my arms ache" and the now all too familiar "top day mate"
Only a kilo of squid left when they came back on so we decided to stretch the bait out by making a few grinner sandwiches. This consisted of the fillets from large grinners sandwiching a strip of squid.
The next 2 hours were more hectic and as non-productive as earlier, if anything, this bait outmatched what we had used earlier. When I finally boated a shovelly, we agreed that we were so knackered that we would call it a day. Just as the anchor came up we spotted some gulls working and scooted over, slowing as we arrived. It appeared to be a school of Spaniards working some bait fish so we edged upcurrent of 'em, cut the engine, and commenced throwing slugs in the hope that the drift would keep up with them. They were moving too fast though, so I fired her up and Ross changed to a smaller slug as we'd cast the first well over 'em, reeled through 'em, and hadn't had a take in about 8 chucks. We chased 'em to Mud and back again over a period nearing 2 hours, and never had a take!
We were really knackered by then and it had blown up so we decided to have a last hour at Mud. We fished prawn and herring, got plenty of undersize squire and a few parrot and of course, the grinners, which we kept to freeze as we now appreciated their worth as bait.
A hard day, not too much to show for it other than a bit of flake, but experience gained, (The anchor is going on a ball float to throw off if we need to chase, as I obviously need game tackle but can't afford it, and chasing is the only way that I will be able to work 50lb line). Back ache, arm ache, head ache, losing good fish (ball ache!)...all in all..........what Ross would call a "top day" :-)
Before and after pictures
kev.......still recovering :-)
I took him out to the Rous early morning to try and get him onto a shark or one of the big shovellies there. Put out a full 1 kilo spottie 12 foot under a 3 litre milk bottle and before I had time to tackle up the 2nd rod the reel screamed and the bottle was hurtling towards the transom. I took up the slack as fast as I could and about 5 metres from the back the bottle did a sharp right turn, ran for about 50 metres, did an about face and did the same. This went on for about twenty minutes before (whatever it was) decided to show me how easy it could snap 50lb line!
Ross got a line into the water baited with a large squid fished hard on the bottom. and within 5 minutes was into something big. This came straight for the side of the boat and under. Ross negotiated the bimini and anchor warp, all the time holding his rod tip under the water to prevent chaffing on the keel and immediately had to repeat the process as whatever it was decided to go back from whence it came and shoot off into the distance. 30 lb line held it for about 30 minutes until once again, a mysterious visitor decided it didn't like our company.
Similar scenarios were repeated over and over throughout the next 6 hours with hardly a break until the action ceased around slack water. Throughout this time we'd seen only grinners on the small rods and on one occasion a large Cobia and on another occasion a Samson fish following the grinners to the surface. We'd seen none of our hookups other than two turtles which we managed to release relatively unscathed and the 50lb line had been trashed in the space of 5 minutes on more than a couple of occasions. Could've taken things a bit slower, but when you're near to being spooled then the pressure has to go on,and unfortunately, we weren't as lucky as we would have liked.
By this time we were buggered. Ross kept repeating "top day" with the most inane grin on his face, to chorus my continual whining about, "my bloody back's knackered!"
For hook bait we'd done in 4 large spotties, 4 kilo of squid, 2 kilo of Pillies, 2 kilo of cuttle and 4 mullet and add to this, we'd done 12 lots of terminal tackle. Tight-arse here was bemoaning the lack of a fish in the boat and how much it had cost me whilst all the time Ross was beaming like a kid at Xmas saying things like, "my reels on fire", "Keriiiiiiiiist, my arms ache" and the now all too familiar "top day mate"
Only a kilo of squid left when they came back on so we decided to stretch the bait out by making a few grinner sandwiches. This consisted of the fillets from large grinners sandwiching a strip of squid.
The next 2 hours were more hectic and as non-productive as earlier, if anything, this bait outmatched what we had used earlier. When I finally boated a shovelly, we agreed that we were so knackered that we would call it a day. Just as the anchor came up we spotted some gulls working and scooted over, slowing as we arrived. It appeared to be a school of Spaniards working some bait fish so we edged upcurrent of 'em, cut the engine, and commenced throwing slugs in the hope that the drift would keep up with them. They were moving too fast though, so I fired her up and Ross changed to a smaller slug as we'd cast the first well over 'em, reeled through 'em, and hadn't had a take in about 8 chucks. We chased 'em to Mud and back again over a period nearing 2 hours, and never had a take!
We were really knackered by then and it had blown up so we decided to have a last hour at Mud. We fished prawn and herring, got plenty of undersize squire and a few parrot and of course, the grinners, which we kept to freeze as we now appreciated their worth as bait.
A hard day, not too much to show for it other than a bit of flake, but experience gained, (The anchor is going on a ball float to throw off if we need to chase, as I obviously need game tackle but can't afford it, and chasing is the only way that I will be able to work 50lb line). Back ache, arm ache, head ache, losing good fish (ball ache!)...all in all..........what Ross would call a "top day" :-)
Before and after pictures
kev.......still recovering :-)