January Trips

[Smithy]

This is what I got up to in January minus anything that has been posted before.


Ben Half Day His Boat

January 26th, 2010

Went out with Ben in his Bayliner on Australia day to teach him a bit about anchoring, GPS usage and sounder usage. We headed straight to the Barwon Banks and started drifting. The iodine bream and undersize red throat sweetlip were on straight away. We also caught a few undersize parrot but took home a nice corontation trout and a nice red throat emperor.

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Matt His Boat

January 23rd, 2010

With my boat out of action I headed out with Matt and Rob on Matt's 36' Riviera. We were chasing marlin but opened the account a short while later with a wahoo for Rob. A while later we had a marlin on and this time it was Matt on the rod. We were successful on that fish so kept trolling. Sure enough a bit later a rubber band popped and we had a marlin up and jumping the boat but this guy jumped on on his first or second jump and it happened in an instant. On the troll back in we hooked up on our third marlin for the day right next to a few boats that had been working that area all day. Rob ended up on this fish and we fought it all the way to the boat before accidentily popping it off on the 8kg line we were using due to too much drag pressure.

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Alex & Vince 1/2 Day Trip

January 21st, 2010

Alex and Vince were a couple of Dutch guys who wanted to chase some big fish but wanted a later start as they were travelling up from Brisbane. We started off chasing the spotty mackerel which had been going pretty well the previous few days but it seemed there were more boats than fish there chasing them. We cast at a few mack tuna schools but they were being their finnicky best so we trolled small minnows going for the spotties. We saw only a handfull caught but we were going no good. On the radio the boys on the marlin grounds were into a heap of wahoo and marlin so the temptation got too much for us and we headed out. As soon as we got out there we saw one boat land a nice wahoo so we kept trolling around. We would have been happy with a wahoo or two but sure enough a marlin pounded on one of lures giving us a good look at it but we were in a turn and couldn't get any weight on him and he didn't stay connected. We watched some other boats play some marlin but our luck wasn't in and the boys had to get back to do some shopping or something so we headed in with my motor on its last legs.

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Andrew Full Day Trip

January 20th, 2010

Today I had my regular Chinese jigging crew out comprising Andrew, Ming and Ching. We jigged bait one yakka at a time but eventually we had enough to head wider. First drop on the kingfish spot and Andrew was on on a jig. I think Ming missed one but then he caught one. They were proving to be 6-7kg yellowtail kingfish. The jig was definately outfishing the livies today. After a few of them the boys wanted to chase AJs in 60-70m to save energy so we worked our way along the Caloundra Wide reef complex stopping and dropping on any likely shows. We ended up 5Nm from one of my AJ spots so we headed there. There were little shows everywhere but eventually we found the show loaded with the AJs. Unfortunately they were only little guys and not the trophy size fish the boys were chasing but they much prefer the fight of the AJs compared to a king and we racked a few up in this spot before they wanted to head in. The jig once again outfished livies here too.



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Roger & Mitch 1/2 Day Trip

January 13th, 2010

Roger was shouting Mitch a trip out for Christmas. First off we chased the spotty mackerel but we had one fall off the hooks right at the boat and we got snipped off about 5 times. Too many boats and not enough fish and with the radio cackling about the amount of marlin out wider we had to check it out. We started off trolling as the boys were finding it hard to jig slimeys and we thought we would be a chance of a wahoo or mahi mahi for the esky trolling. We found some nice bait and started live baiting away from the pack but it didn't happen. Back to trolling.



We ended up in the pack so dropped a livebait down resulting in this mack tuna for Mitch.



Next drop and we hooked up to this marlin.



The crimp expoloded on this one which I had never seen before, blowing out on the outside side.

Anyway back to the bait school, drop down again and sure enough we were on and fighting.



Roger handed over to Mitch after a while.



And unfortunately a spot of water ended up on the lens.




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Mark, Dave, Trent 1/2 Day Trip

January 12th, 2010

This was a mixed trip with Trent and Dave looking for a third crew member to make up the numbers so I ran regular charter guy Mark. We were successful in bagging out on spotty mackerel throwing slugs in about an hour flat. That left us time to head wide and live bait for a few mahi mahi or marlin. A few were dropped near us so we went on the troll for the last 45mins to see if we could get something to happen but it didn't and we headed in with an ice box full of mackerel.

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Kevin 1/2 Day Trip

January 11th, 2010

Kevin booked in with his two sons, more to kill a day than to do some hard core fishing. Staying in an apartment they had no need for a big heap of fish so we started out on the spotty mackerel which came very easy and everyone got a couple spinning slugs through the schools without too much effort. That achieved the lure of tangling with a big gamefish became too much so we headed wider to the marlin grounds. It didn't really happen for us and with the young fella seasick for the second time we headed back in.

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[Smithy]

Phil T Full Day Trip


January 10th, 2010

Phil was back again with regulars Dallas and Justin. We headed to Mudjimba Island and bagged out on our 15 spotty mackerel in about 45mins flat throwing slugs into the shcools. That achieve, we headed wider going for marlin. We started live baiting watching boats tag marlin all around us so we decied to go for a troll. This was better option this day and a little while later Justin had this nice 9.5kg wahoo to the boat.



A few minutes later and Phil was connected to this black marlin.



We were fishing 8kg this day so Phil could get some club points up and he was stoked with his first marlin in quite a few years and also first one on 8kg breaking strain line. Since this fish he went on to tag his first sailfish on 8kg line on another boat and that got them into 2nd place at the recent Redcliffe Gamefish Tournament.

We kept trolling and had another fish up on a skip gar as we had to retire one lure due to a wahoo bite but this big marlin which got head and shoulders up and out of the water missed the hook point. The bite died with the other boats so we headed in.

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Andy 1/2 Day Trip

January 9th, 2010

Andy invited his English tourist mate Richard and Aussie mate John out for a morning trip. We started out on the spotties and took home half a bag limit of 7 but we could have stayed and got our 15 as they were biting well. The lure of something bigger like a mahi mahi or two was a great lure to leave the spotties chewing after an hour or so. We got to the grounds just as Reel Capture was tagging yet another black marlin. We stuck at live baiting and sure enough hooked up to a mahi mahi. It had mates following it in so we kept it boatside and hooked another one. With the 2nd one on we pulled the first one in and fed out a third bait. About then the 2nd fish got unhooked but we were soon hooked up on a third fish as all the game boats competing in the Bribie Island Tournament circled around us. We tried for some late wahoo or marlin but they didn't play the game so we headed in.

John and a mahi mahi.




The catch.



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Dan Full Day

January 8th, 2010

Dan was back again with Rick as well as new guy Gareth or G3. After a cruisey start we headed out to get live bait. Conditions were a bit rough and the bait was hard work but we soon had enough. We headed to the mackerel grounds and did a few laps. No good. We pulled in the gear and ran to the next spot. Sure enough as soon as we put out the first livey it was on before we could get a second one deployed. This was the best fish I we had been connected to for a few weeks but it pulled the hooks. A while later the band popped on the downrigger which was attached to Dan's Tyrnos/Live Fibre outfit and we were on. We successfully landed this spanish so it was all good. The fishing was slow so we decided to try for spotty mackerel. We cleaned up and ended up with eleven for the arvo. All in all a not bad day if a bit windy.

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Ron, Mark & Brett 1/2 Day

January 7th, 2010

This was a mixed charter and we started off chasing spanish mackerel. We had around 10 hits but it was very frustrating with about 6 coming to the boat but only 2 made they way aboard due to some inexperience. We headed to the marlin grounds to try for a wahoo or a mahi mahi and one boat beside us ended up tagging three marlin for the day but Mark was over trolling so we had a bottom bash and pulled up tailor two at time every drop out of 53m of water.

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Jim Full Day Trip

January 3rd, 2010

I had Jim out again this time with one of his clients Ian. We went and got live bait which took us near on two hours, more from the sloppy sea rather than the bait which was quite plentiful. We jigged up yakkas, tailor and bonito. We ran these to the mackerel spot but things were quiet. We eventually got a bite but missed it after it took 10m of line which would have been a good spanish mackerel. A while later we got a bite on the downrigger which turned out being a school mackerel. I stuck to my guns and stayed in on the high spot which I know so well and which has been good to me over the years but I should have gone a bit wider where one boat was going ok but it was an area that was unfamiliar territory to me. We headed back where we caught the bait to jig a bit more and to try for some wahoo, mahi mahi and marlin. We got some more bait but one of the club boats was into the marlin a bit wider with two tagged from three hooked up plus some other boats in the area were onto the dolphinfish so we headed out. We found some nice bait straight away and started working it. Around then a few boats got some nice wahoo which is what we were hoping for but our luck wasn't in with what I think was a marlin taking 20m of line before dropping the garfish. We were near the boat who had two marlin and sure enough they hooked up 300m away from us on another one. They tagged it and we worked the area with the bait looking good. Sure enough we had a sailfish up belting the daylights out of one of our garfish for 20seconds before losing interest and not hooking up. We tried for a last minute mackerel but it wasn't to be then the rain set in for the rest of the evening.

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Alvin Mackerel Trip

January 2nd, 2010

I had Alvin out again and each time we had been pretty lucky on the fishing front with good fish each time. This time our luck ran out and I taught him about the perils of bringing bananas aboard and even though we had four good mackerel on we couldn't get one to the boat which was pretty frustrating. The curse of the bent fruit continues!

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[wags on the water]

Thanks for your reports Smithy. A great read with some good fish boated and ones that got away.

Cheers,
Wags

[PinHead]

excellent report Smithy.
I will have to get up there again soon.

[honda900]

Nice one Rob,

what happened with your engine?

Hows the new Yam compare?

Regards
HOnda

[Smithy]

Chris,

I have a thread on the new motor on Boating Chat.

Rob

[aerordauto]

great report smithy keep them coming.
cheers mark

[business class]

Some nice fish there smithy, well done mate.

Cheers
Mat

[trueblue]

great report there Rob

Hopefully I can make things work for a trip this Feb / march

cheers

Mick