Mooloolaba Sails on Grim Reefer. 5,5,5

[Midnight]

Gday,
Report with photos to follow tomorrow.

My Berty was found to be unservicable on Wednesday prior to the planned trip up to the Mooloolaba grounds for Thursday to try and get involved in the hot Sailfish bite that had been on since about Monday or Tuesday.

I was bummed to say the least!

One of my crew Dan, has a 4.5m Bluefin with a 60 Mercury tiller steer, asked was the weather suitable and was I keen to take his tinnie in place of my Bertram. I said hell yeah! Lets go get em!

So, we headed out from Mooloolaba to the 8 mile and jigged up some yakkas and then headed out to the pilchard school where the Sailies had been.

We decided to have a lure troll first up to see what was around and check out the bait on the sounder. We got a Black Marlin around 30kg on in the first 5 minutes of being there, right in the middle of the live baiters. The liitle bloke went off with a great run of jumps throught the middle of the fleet ( thanks fellas for moving out of the way!) and after a good show we got him to the boat and Dan made perfect tag shot to make him count. First Billfish for the year for me, as I normally do the wheel work while others crank em in. Also the first Black Marlin for Dan's boat the "Grim Reefer"

We set off again for a troll and got a double of good mac tuna.

We then thought we would get on the live baiting scene and within 5 mins of the first bait going down, Dan was onto a nice Sailfish. He put on a good show and was smoking line off at sunset drag. We got him tagged after good set of runs and released him in excellent condition.

The livies went down again, and just as we were getting a bit bored and talking about going for another troll, we got a great run and I locked him up to strike to have a great Sailfish going mad right at the back of the boat! I thought he was going to end up in the boat shortly after we got him on, with the first few jumps coming straight at us!

He was a good lively one, and my first ever Sailfish, and put on a great show!

We got him tagged and measured at 2170mm short length. A nice one in my opinion, and certainly a good performer. Anyway I was over the moon with him as my first Sailie!

Thanks for an awesome day on the "Grim Reefer" Dan, it sure beat sitting at home, moping around about my boat woes! hahaha

Thanks to all the boats on the bait school too for a good day. Everyone worked well together through the hook ups throught the middle of the fleet that I saw.

Good stuff!

Cheers,
Myles

[trueblue]

well done Myles. hopefully they will still be there in a few weeks

cheers

Mick

[lido76]

Sounds like a great day Myles.I was planning on heading out tomorrow in my 4.5 tinny but the fan has been switched on (typical) so its up the passage with the kids chasing whiting.Cheers Brendan...............

[JACE...]

GO THE GRIM REEFER
I hear there is a few nice bill slashes up the side now
I cant wait to see the footage and flicks

[trueblue]

they certainly do seem to be the only scratches in the boat that don't cause bother.........

bit more like a battle scar to brag about rather than a scratch in the side of the boat

[fishandchips]

nice work mate i heard they were on the chew out there. luke

[supa29]

hey myles saw you 2 out there thursday and was very impressed with the effort, i was in the 6.5m ally craft centre consol "flying fish" we scored 2 and a couple of mac tunas, it was a great day and every one there was a keen fisho so they always work together when it comes to other people. hope the berty is back on the water soon but well done on the catch.

[Midnight]

Thanks very much for the replies fellas. We had a great day. Something about going Marlin fishing in a tiller steer tinnie gets me excited hahaha

I told Dan the Bill marks were something to be proud of and not to polish them out

Good one Flying Fish. Yeah it was a great relaxed day on the bait school. Things can get a bit edgy if people don't be polite and play the game, but that was a great crowd out there on Thursday. To say I enjoyed my self is a huge under statement!!

A few piccies here of Dan's Sail and mine too. A couple of good ones there of mine jumping thanks to Dan's good camera work.

Cheers,
Myles

[bushweek]

dam living in the redlands and having a large travel to get to the spots, going to have to change this soon, myles did you fish light tackle?
that will get some tag points up for sunny coast game fish club haha

been new to the gamefish scene(half season under my belt) will the sails be around for a month or two now, whats the main catching time with them?

good fishing and good luck in the future
troy.

[Midnight]

Gday Troy,
Nah we cheated and used 15kg. I only have one 8kg outfit and only use it for tournament fishing. I use 15kg for this sort of stuff otherwise and find it a good balance between some good sport, and not have it drag on forever if you get a good one. So, not much on the points count, only 250 points in that depth, but I'm never gonna be up there with the points leaders, just out there for the fun.

Don't let being in the Redlands stop ya, just drag it up to Mooloolaba or down to the Gold Coast and go from there. With a bit of luck, the fish will move down past the Cape and Point Lookout at some stage.

I think (hope) that the fish will stay around for a while yet, the water is still warm and while ever the bait stays there, the fish most likely will too. But who knows, they could have moved on already.
I am heading out on Wednesday for another bash.

Cheers,
Myles

[the baker]

You do get your small blacks through winter here it would not surprise me if the run stuck around for rest of the year.

Dave.

[TCSunCoast]

Great to see you getting out there in some good weather with the fish around.
not sure how guys went today but I was down LaBalsa Park with the kids this arvo and it was a constant sail past of the usual suspects returning about 5:30pm. I am sure they are still around.

[Liberty]

Great stuff on the Sails and Blacks. 5/5/5 is a great effort, let alone in a tiller steer tinnie!

Bad luck on your boat being out of action. Could it be time for an upgrade?

I can help you there .... ;-)

Cheers!
Nigel

[nougs]

well done on your first saily! great stuff

[Midnight]

Thanks Nigel,
I would love to upgrade, but the finances don't allow for it at this stage unfortunately.
I thought that fine rig of yours would have sold by now. What are you upgrading or down sizing to?

Hopefully I will be up and running again soon. Jimmy is on the job, so I'm looking forward to having a quality job done on my boat this time, unlike the previous bloke who did the work 300 hours ago!

Cheers,
Myles