Mack Tuna Mayhem!!!
Bruce (tropicrows) Dale (my 22 yo) and I decided to head out before 6 yesterday to the usual stamping grounds. After a quick check for bananas, we hopped into the car, Dale looking marginally delerious from being scared up so early in the morning. My wife is still shocked that I talked him into a sickie to come fishing, but he needed the break, IMO!
The weather was making us a little nervous, more breeze than expected, but still fairly flat. Bar crossing was a cinch, although VMR seemed to be having some problems, damn near had to yell at them to acknowledge us. Bruce said he must've been getting a cuppa, but I reckon he was in the dunny...
The bait grounds, yet again, showed little if any action, so we didn't spend much time there. We motored up to Shallow Tempest and surrounds for a squizz, and settled on a nice patch of structure, with OK shows. We chucked the pick over the side (had to do that a couple of times to line her up right) and started to berley up.
Bruce hauled up a red rock cod which I decided I was going to cook, so in the box he went. A bit later a semi decent Grassie came in, but all in all the action was less than dramatic. Then Dale says, "is that a shark over there?" Bruce and I, being old farts and struggling to see a hand in front of our faces said "Dunno..." Anyway, in due course I saw one too. Tuna, and big. Maybe a metre between dorsal and tail, it was a big mother. Dale went back to his bottom bashing (he's learning), and pulled up a couple more little Grassies.
A few more minutes, and suddenly Bruce's floater is off. No kidding, I have never seen line strip that fast. I was laughing my head off, and Dale was just gobsmacked. Bruce's BR6500 was emptying out damned fast, he'd wound the drag down all the way, and he asked for a wet towel, the reel was heating up substantially. He was nearly spooled when the train let go, chewed through. A wild ride - the fish just... did... not... STOP!!!
So, "Hey Bruce, how much weight was on that pillie?" The response had me taking the cannon ball off my floater and trying a size 4. We had a fair bit of run happening, so that would have it near the top. Shortly thereafter, I'm on! Not as big as Bruce's but a good fish. The most I could get him to do was stop and look at the scenery, then he's chewed me off as well. Then Bruce is on again, gaining a bit of line, but losing it again, have a decent argument with this leviathan, but it chewed him off. By this time I'm back out there again with an 80lb Jinkai leader.
Things went a bit quiet, so we were thinking "well that was fun" and I decided to work the floater a bit harder. Picked it up and started to do just that. BAM! This time he's not too big, but a little bird told me to take it easy. In a fight that took WAYYYY too long, we finally boated the little beauty you see below. We tried to net him several times, but he still had a fair bit of puff. Finally he came in, happy angling! He had one hook, just in his lip - had I pushed hard, I would have lost him. The little bird was right!
By now we'd pretty much decided to try something else, then Bruce got smashed again by another BIG one, so while he was watching his line peel off, we pulled the anchor and started after it. He was bitten off soon after, and we decided to hit Deep Tempest, and get an idea of current. 10's were just grazing the bottom, and I decided to try the new jigging gear (been working out a bit!) The only two fish to come up from DT were two half decent Sergeant Majors on the jig. They went back.
By this time Dale's suffering from what he calls a headache, and went to lie down, we didn't see much from him again for the day. Torn Heartilage, I reckon...
In for a few drifts on the 29's, and it dawned on me that with the direction of our drift, the 35's would have us over good ground for ages. So off we went. Good shows, but no fish again!!! Oh, sorry, 1 sweep went in the box. Bruce BBQ'd it last night, and liked it! We're all from SA, and sweep are a target species there.
So, floated pillies did the damage, but for the rest of the day no joy from plastics, squid, fresh mack tuna (where did that come from???) pillies. Starting to get a little narky. Glad the Cruiser arrives next week. Next trip will be around the Cape and North, then off chasing around Mooloolaba, I reckon. Home for a clean boat, and that was that!
Cheers,
Tim
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