The night of the great unspooling

[Chamelion]

Jesus, what a night...

Mr Haapy and I went chasing Jewies tonight, the first time we've seriously targeted them in the Maroochy river.

Whilst we were waiting for our larger baits to defrost we chucked out some prawn halves on 2/0 hooks in case there were some bream or jacks hanging about... I was holding mine when I felt it load up, a small strike and she was on. My drag was going absolutely bonkers, so I tightened it up, still running, little tighter, fish slows down to a near stop.. I try to turn it but nope, off it runs again... and again... and again. It wasn't long before I saw my backing and not long after that my backing went to work and *POP* goes the backing knot, shit...

Whilst I was fighting mine Mr Haapy's rod went off too... Same story, but his ran right down to the spool and *pop* lines all gone. Mr Haapy's spool was very warm afterward.... heh

The bait these fish took.. We're talking small chunks of prawn designed to catch bream.

My outfit at the time - Starlo stix 4-8kg rod, Pflueger Medalist 6040 reel, 230m~ of 14lb rapala titanium braid, 20lb fluro leader, 15lb mono backing...

Intended jewie outfit waiting to be baited - Penn Slammer 6-10kg rod, Daiwa emblem pro 5500a reel, 290m of 50lb mojiko tournament braid, 60lb penn 10x leader

Mr Haapy's outfit at the time - Pflueger President 2-4kg rod, Pflueger President 6730, 20lb dolphin braid, 20lb fluro leader, no backing. (yes, mr haapy likes to fish heavy.. now I see why haha)

Unfortunately nothing happened after that... we tried hanging around once the tide started to run back out but I ended up having to use a 4oz snapper lead to stop the tide from swinging my bait right back around within a couple of minutes.

We then went to a backup spot to see if any jacks were on the prowl... Nope.

Score -

Me - two moses and a bream
Jason - three moses

Bugger I'll try again tomorrow night!

[flatzie]

Sounds like big rays to me mate, everyones been loading up on them the last few days with these huge tides. I couldnt escape them and shovel nose at the Passage a few days ago.
Cheers
Flatzie

[Rainbowrunner]

my guess was rays or sharks, but yeh big rays would be closer

[Fishobloke]

I reckon rays mate, especially if you had your bait running on the bottom of your leader.
Good fun all the same.

[Chamelion]

It didn't really feel like a ray and it would be the first time I've seen a double ray hookup.. But who knows?

[ddobson]

One thing to want one but it is another thing to actually hook it and bring it to the surface. I had the same experience down the pin at the mouth with a 7 inch plastic on heavy gear out the back free drifting and i was throwing a light plastic in the shallow for flatty and the light line hooked the jewy and boy did i feel the weight until i had to say goodby. Good feeling even if you don't see it eh. Well done boyz.

[tunaticer]

My money is going on Eagle Rays, currently they are really thick and they do enter the rivers regularly. Stopping a metre wide eagle is a hell of an effort regardless of the tackle used and they do not suck down to the bottom as a rule like normal rays. I hooked up on one this time last year that i fought for 93 minutes and it towed the kayak for 1.3km off Queens beach Redcliffe. I also nailed another one 4 weeks ago off Queens as well and it took an hour to get first glimpse of it and some 900 metres away from hook up point. I am growing an intense dislike for them these days as they always seem to hit just prior to the good bite period for snapper and you completely miss the snapper. 80cm fork length snapps are boated within about 5 minutes as a guide for the duration of the fight.

[nuggstar]

mmmmmm got me thinking matty. could it be what im thinking it is bud. going spot x tonight, see if the rain fires em up

[brisbane_boy]

i wana see the blokes face when he comes along in his tinny then gets 200m of line hangin off the prop, starts untanglin it only to near lose his fingers if the animal is still on the end

[Stroadman]

i wana see the blokes face when he comes along in his tinny then gets 200m of line hangin off the prop, starts untanglin it only to near lose his fingers if the animal is still on the end

haha, same..................litterbug

[Chamelion]

mmmmmm got me thinking matty. could it be what im thinking it is bud. going spot x tonight, see if the rain fires em up

Depends what you're thinking it is?

i wana see the blokes face when he comes along in his tinny then gets 200m of line hangin off the prop, starts untanglin it only to near lose his fingers if the animal is still on the end

lol, well, there are two fish in the river with a dirty great long length of line trailing behind them. Getting caught around someones prop is possible.

Well, tonight I did land a ray.. a great big 110-120cm across the wings leopard ray... Took a couple of hours on a 6-10kg rod, 50lb mojiko superstring braid, 60lb penn 10x leader and a Daiwa emblem pro 5500a.

Mr Haapy also hooked up.. He was having a great fight on his surf rod (in the river) with 50lb braid. It ran, direction changed, head shook and then rubbed through his 60lb leader. Hooked up on a piece of prawn...

What I can say with utmost confidence is that what we hooked and were spooled by last night definitely weren't rays.. Mr Haapy's hookup tonight is a bit of a mystery.

Only real downside to the night was that Mr Haapy snapped his favourite rod, a pflueger trion baitcaster. It fell over and into the path of his tailgate as he was closing it. Broke it about 30cm from the tip.

Might go try again tomorrow night... With livies hopefully.

Matt.

[flatzie]

Yes none wants to admit it, being spooled by a greasy old ray, it was a jewie!
Rays just dont work well years later when your a grandad spinning yarns to your grandkids about years ago ! Worst part is you have to buy more braid!
Cheers
Flatzie

[the gecko]

Rays are easily identified by their ground hugging stops and dead weight in between runs. Its hard to get a ray and a jew mixed up.

Im sure it was a fish but jew or shark, who knows? It keeps you coming back tho, go get em.

ANdrew

[Chamelion]

Yes none wants to admit it, being spooled by a greasy old ray, it was a jewie!
Rays just dont work well years later when your a grandad spinning yarns to your grandkids about years ago ! Worst part is you have to buy more braid!
Cheers
Flatzie

If I thought even for a moment that rays spooled us two nights ago I would freely admit it... There's nothing embarrassing or unworthy about being spooled by such a magnificent creature.

Rays are easily identified by their ground hugging stops and dead weight in between runs. Its hard to get a ray and a jew mixed up.

Im sure it was a fish but jew or shark, who knows? It keeps you coming back tho, go get em.

ANdrew

Heheh yeah, plenty of that last night.. The bugger buried himself half a dozen times in the last 15m.

We're certainly not ruling out the possibility of a shark on Jason's heavy gear last night. Next time he's chucking a bit of wire on just in case.

What does make me happy is that the spot we've been fishing is one we had spent considerable time at in the past and caught very little... In the last 12 months we've tried to put a whole lot more thought and planning into where we fish based on tides, moon, salinity etc.

Cheers mate, back for more most certainly.

[Jeremy]

when you know you are going to get spooled, it is worthwhile clamping your thumbs on the spool while there are still a few wraps of line on it. Hopefully the line will break at your leader knot or maybe even your hook. Saves a full respool job.