Nicole's Black

[Ninja]

Nicole put in a solid effort today to tag her first black and the boat's first for the year. Nicole is convinced that dragging in the small tuna that hit the shotty seconds earlier raised the fish on an otherwise quiet day.

[wags on the water]

Nice work mate. Conditions look pretty good too.

Cheers,
Wags

[Horse]

Nice to see a Black this season. Not too many about. She is probably right about the Tuna. Next time just drag some live ones around for a while (perhaps with some 10/0s in them) and see what happens .
It looks pretty solid. How big do you reckon?

[3rd degree]

Nice work Ninja and Nicole!

Whereabouts were you fishing?

Cheers
Jim

[Dezzer]

Nice one J. You won't be able to keep her out of the boat now.

[sleepygreg]

Nice one Ninja, and congrats to Nicole on her first Black.

Perhaps can I suggest you invest in a pair of riggers gloves for holdin onto the beaks. If that towel slips its sore hands for a fortnight - not fun at all.

Well Done
Cheers
Greg

[wak69]

Good to see the ladies getting stuck into them, well done Nicole, are you hooked yet.

cheers Sam.

[jeffo]

well done. Funny you should say that about the tuna. We had a black follow a 6kg Mac tuna to the boat on Sunday morning. He sat there for about 40 seconds...you could see him working out how he was going to fit it in his mouth. He wouldnt touch the yakka we dropped next to him though.

One thing I might add though that may keep you out of harms way when handling a billfish, that is your hand and arm position. Its always best to grab a billfish with your hand on top of the bill rather than undernieth it as you have in the photo. Its far easier and more powerful to hold the fish away should he decide to thrash his head at the boat. The way you are holding it there could easily see his bill rear up into your face and your arm wouldnt have nearly as much force to push him away as ifyou were holding the bill from the top. (try it at home with a broome stick and you will see what i mean).

[Ninja]

I'm not real good at est weights but the fish was 295cm TL but thick. Almost converted to dragging baits but it's hard to loose the appeal of the lack of work involved with lures and the ground you can cover. Might just run one skip off the LR at the start of a day next trip to see how it lasts.
Jim- Inside the shelf off the seaway
Greg n Jeffo- I was aiming for a feed of dollies so had all the gear packed away. The fish worked most tricks after exploding onto the LR and didn't really settle down much....which was great to watch. Nicole just wouldn't beleive me that it was her fish tailwalking meters off the bow while I'm getting her to tighten up all the line the fish dumped at the back of the boat. Missed the strike and jumps and worst, forgot to get a shot with Nicole holding the fish. One camera had a flat battery and the video card was full but I managed to get the glove, billrope and spare camera from a bag packed away during a moment the fish settled. I accidently grabbed the wrong glove and so was left with a very angry fish in my wrong hand while trying to remove the hooks. Once it settled slightly I was able to swap hands, get the hooks out and tag in. Very good advice though Jeffo. I learned that one the hard way from a bigger blue. She smacked my own fist against my head and gave me a sore elbow for a week . You're not still fishing out of that tin can are you Jeffo or have you found your next project?

[Smithy]

He's racking the numbers up in this these days!

Well done to Nicole and good to get the monkey off the back hey Ninja?

[bondy99]

G'day Smithy,

Mate, could not send you a message earlier as your mailbox was full, sent you a pm a few minutes ago and went through.

Send me a pm when you can.

Cheers, Peter

[finding_time]

Nice fish Ninja!! Congrats to the misses!

Ian

Ps. there something very odd with that pic of you holding the marlin, i didn't think you owned a shirt!!!!

[Ninja]

Sorry Ian....this one's for you

[finding_time]

That's more like it! I see your still on the juice.

ian

Ps. Are you fishing the comp this weekend?

[Ninja]

Not any more...the funds have all been spent . I am hoping to get out for a fish Thursday if all goes well though.