Last Part of July

[Smithy]

31 July

Here are a few stray photos that have found their way back to me.

This is George with a yellowfin tuna back in May.



Also the new boat record grass sweetlip that fell to a soft plastic. It was 67cm and landed by the kid but hooked up initially by his dad Leigh. Crappy picture but you get the idea.



Now the actual trip on the 31st consisted of Laurie and his two friends. We started out soft plasticing with Laurie in fine form landing a couple on octopus jigs and one on a soft plastic. We went chasing cobia and busted off one about a 16kg at the rod tip on 10kg line on the baitrunner and landed this smaller one.







30 July PM

Tony and his son Jordy were up from SA with a school Australian Football carnival so he booked in for a dusk snapper trip. We tried a few places and things were pretty slow but a change of location right on dusk saw them bite there heads off for a couple of minutes getting another 4 good size squire on both soft plastics and octopus jigs.

30 July AM

Tony, Brian and Garyth were on a dawn snapper trip this morning but we could only scratch up 3 squire. This season is so hit and miss so far. Hopefully they come in soon.

29 July

Jim was back again with mate Wayne and his son Luke. Luke started off on fire landing this 725mm snapper on a soft plastic.



We ended up getting 6 snapper on soft plastics at a variety of locations before heading off to chase AJs and yellowtail kingfish. We were successful there with 4 AJs added to the tally so it was off to chase pigfish. The first spot we added another two squire but at the next spot we pulled a nice pearl perch, a couple of pigfish and two real good snapper. Jim ended up with a 76cm snapper trouncing Luke who had been checky about his all day long. It's not over till it's over though and Jim had the last laugh.





28 July

Today was a mixed trip with Ryan and Roger booking and I chased up Jeff to make up the numbers. It got off to an interesting start with a US aircraft carrier passing us by, by about 200m.



Ryan got off to the best start with a couple of squire on the soft plastics.



Rory got a couple and I think there were a couple of bust-offs as well. We ended up with 8 squire for the morning session anyway at a couple of spots. We then took the livies out I had been collecting to play with the AJs and kingfish. We got our bag here with Jeff connectining with what I think was one of the resident GTs and probably something in the 50+ pound class the way it took off nearly spooling him before dragging the leader through the reef. Jeff had a ball anyway spinning quite a few of the Seirola clan up on the spin rod with jigs and letting the go.





We then went chasing mixed reefies and pearlies with Ryan coming up trumps with this nice one. A good way to end the day.





26 July PM

Had a ring around and organised Mark, Steve and Mark for a dusk snapper trip. Once again it was pretty inconsistent with us landing 4 keepers for the session, missing a couple plus the mandatory bust-up and letting a couple of undersize ones go.

26 July AM

Roger, Hamish and Garyth made up a mixed dawn snapper trip. Again it didn't really happen like past seasons with only 4 keepers landed. As per usual one person usually cottons onto the technique the best with Hamish landing 3 of the keepers, Roger one of them and poor Garyth missing out yet again even though he comes out quite regularly. Jeff fishing beside us in his boat got his 5 solo so a bit of luck and we could have done the same.

[thelump]

Smithy do you bleed or spike your fish at all?

[Smithy]

Pretty much 100% bleed everything and it is only during a fast and furious session I might miss one or two, but not intentionally. I brain spike the snapper and pearlies and other reefies that are easy to do. The pelagics are hard to deal with on the deck. I just like to get them in the tub I use for bleeding out and get it over and done with to keep the blood and thrashing to a minimum. Cod etc. are hard to spike being quite boney, hard to hit the right spot and then they seem to trash around anyway for a long time afterwards.

[Skusto]

why do u spike them sorry never heard of that? is it just to stop the thrashing when there bleeding out?

[mookyandlumpy]

from ,,,,fish.gov.au

For maximum product quality and minimum stress to a finfish the iki jime (live killing) method can be used. This instant killing method reduces the accumulation of waste products in the flesh, minimises physical damage (including the loss of scales) caused by the animal’s sometimes violent body movements and keeps the finfish intact apart from a small hole in the head. For best effect the fish must be bled and chilled in an ice slurry immediately after it has been spiked.

In iki jime (pronounced “ick-ee jee-mee”) a spike or awl is inserted directly into the brain causing immediate brain death and the cessation of all motion. Iki jime also prolongs the process of rigor mortis—the natural stiffening of muscle tissues after death. Deterioration of flesh quality occurs mainly after rigor mortis, so delaying the onset and process of rigor mortis through “quick kill and chill” techniques produces a higher-quality product with a longer shelf life.

Some practice is required to perfect the iki jime technique. The position and angle of spike entry required differs between species and one example of each species may need to be cut lengthwise through the head to locate the position of the brain. When spiked correctly, a fish will exhibit a short but violent convulsion (due to the physical stimulation of the brain) before relaxing.

To use the iki jime technique:
Hold the fish firmly and insert a spike into the brain. This should be done as soon as possible after capture.
Bleed the fish by cutting through the top of the gills. Access the gills by lifting the gill cover.
Place the fish in an ice slurry. Use mostly freshwater and freshwater ice to produce a slurry with the consistency of wet concrete and a temperature between –1°C and +4°C for no more than 2 hours.
Remove fish from the ice slurry and process further or store as required.

[Jeremy]

I like to try to brain spike the fish I keep also. Would be interesting for someone to put up photos of differennt fish of where to spike the fish to get the brain. Not sure I always manage.
Jeremy

[TCSunCoast]

Nice work Smithy, some great snapps. The carrier would have been value that close.

Tony

[Apollo]

Rob

It was good to get out with you and as always learnt a bit more.

Cheers
Steve