if u want a short read just read the bold print
Gday everyone,
Haven't had anything fantastic to report about for a while but this session was definently worth the report.
We live in Brisbane but we had some basketball commitments in Mackay for the weekend, and we thought we might take a few rods up. We originally werent going to bother but im bloody glad we did. So we threw in a couple of medium outfits for a mess around on the Harbour wall or something.
After training for basketball all day we went down to the harbour wall to have a spin with the light gear armed with slugs and poppers. We saw a guy catch a massive stingray but it was uneventful for us.
For those who know the area we went to east Point and we saw a bloke next to us who had been busted off about 3 limes on plastics. Im pretty skeptic on plastics and have bought them but they never seem to produce but as soon as we tied a few on BANNGGGGGGGG. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I landed the first tarpon and i couldn't believe it!! these things actually do work.
The way that fish jumped out of the water and ran was amazing and it was about 1.5 kg. we had no landing net which proved to be our down fall so he got a bit dinged up from jumping on the rocks.
A few boils began to surface and next cast i nailed a much better one , About 2.5 kg and i got him all the way to the rocks then he jumped and took my squidgy. we we only using 20lb leader as the wouldnt touch the 45lb which is all we had cause we weren't expecting to catch much.
The fish really started to boil all over the place and we landed about 4 fish to 3kg and lost about 5-6 right on the rocks as they wore through the leaders and we couldnt lift them out of the water due to 12lb line. Also missed plenty of hits and shake-offs in the jumps and few bite-offs. We went through the whole pack of squidies
i tell you getting those those hooks to stick is bloody hard on those fish as the jump about 8-10 times during the fight.
In the end we threw on a gold bomber for a few last casts and we hooked a big one about 4+ kg. we got him to the rocks and simply could not bring him in after 10 minutes he was still 1-2 meters away down deep and eventually the hooks straightened. it was a big fish but good fun and he pretty much just released himself- save us doing it.
The next morning we went back there at about 7 via the tackle shop and they were there still there but the boats kept putting them down. after 20 minutes we hook a monster on a barra outfit - 20lb braid and 20lb leader. it nearly spooled my brother but before that it took to the air and it was a massive queen fish est 1 m'ish. and he promptly snapped the leader about 120meters from us. After that excitement we landed a few tarpon which once again kept shaking loose at the rocks where a landing net was required and then the Mackeral made there presence felt with 3 or 4 instant bite offs. still landed 2-3 fish lost 6-7 and went through another pack of squidgies
overall it was our best ever session in a river with tarpon to 4kg, queenfish, mackeral all hooked and most lost but great fun all the smae because they we all to be released anyway.
we used 80mm squidgy slick rigs (true blue), gold bomber, spoons all which caught fish.
sorry for such a long post but it was all great stuff.
a few average pics was all that we took of some of the smaller ones. and ill post them up soon.
cheers connor
these pics are of the first couple we caught. they are two of the smallest we landed about 1.5 and 2.5 kg as the camera ran out of battreries so no pics of the bigger ones caught later on. The largest were lost at our feet within touching distance anyway. They just released themselves whilst jumping. We got a good idea of their size though.
connor
Sounds like great fun Connor. All very fast, aggressive fish that really let you know when you've found them. It always happens that the minute you leave the net or the camera at home you find a great patch of fish!
Joel
Fishing for the thrill, not for the kill
Hi connor, exciting stuff mate!
Sounds like it all was going off up there. Those Tarpon are slippery suckers & world champions at jumping off arn't they. I noticed the scales comming off that one you are holding, Boga Grips are perfect 4 better control of the fish when photographing.
Its just a thought, I've caught a few tarpon over the years & found the Boga's gives them a better chance if you intend to release fish.
Cheers
Toppy
Great Fun them tarpon. I got onto a school in the boyne river monday morn just gone and landed 7 biggest measuring 50cm. I fished 4kilo mainline with a 7 kilo mono leader and small hardbodies for multiple hits every cast but as you say their acrobatics certainly make them hard to hook and hold not to mention land an light string.
Toppy,
Normally we have a net or lip grippers with us, however we flew up for the weekend and quite frankly didnt think there would be any point in bringing anything too serious up.
That fish in the picture was a bit unlucky, he inhaled the lot and the hook was through the back of his eye and he jumped and flailed on the rocks as we were about to grab him. He got pretty dinged up and i felt bad for the little fella.
Thanks for the tip mate, next time ill be taking so more serious fishing gear
shoulda put them on as live bait
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