G’day lads,
Last week the boat GPS antenna went on the fritz. I figured I had time to fix it but, with an unbroken forecast for dirty weather, it wasn’t on the top of the list. Then a weather window opened for today and I realised I’d shot myself in the foot again. Thankfully Ed G called up on Tuesday looking for crew and I gratefully accepted.
Ed, his mate Ian and I launched his new Barcrusher 560 at Roseville yesterday, and headed straight for Browns. About five miles out we passed a longliner heading back into Sydney. I wasn’t sure whether this was good news – meaning the tuna were off Sydney – or bad news, meaning they’d all been cleaned out! With a light five knot wind on the tail we got there quickly.
On arrival five or six of the regulars were on station, but I wasn’t seeing a lot of action. The water looked horrible, murky green and ranging between 16.8 and 17.2. Ed deployed a whole mullet under a balloon at the back, while we prepared for our first drop to the bottom.
That never happened. About five minutes after the bait was put over the side, the Tiagra growled once. Ian picked it up and, as the line moved off, slid the drag lever up to strike. That produced a sight we’ve seen plenty of times this season, yet one that’s never boring – a solid mako launching itself skywards, and making a huge splash on return. Three or four jumps, one of which I caught on video, and then the crash dive.
This fish was unusual as, after the initial dive, there was very little action. Just a big dead weight on the line. We steadily planed it up using the boat and finally had the fish boat side. It was severely tailed wrapped in the wire leader and appeared almost dead, so we decided to boat it. In went the flyer, we tied it off and bled it then with three of us pulling hard, brought it in through the handy transom door. About 90-100 kilos, ideal size for a freezers worth of barbeque cutlets.
Soon after, I checked in with Phil B on the VHF. He was a little north-west of us and had found a large, dead swordfish, maybe 150 kilos. A longline hook – but no trace – could be seen in its jaw. He took some photos and will be forwarding them to me, I’ll post them when they arrive.
It was time to drop to the bottom using Phil’s electric reel. Two small strips of bonito were applied to the heavy circle hooks and down went the rig, to the bottom 470 metres below.
At first, things were quiet. We drifted across the mountain towards the north-east for 20 minutes without a touch. Next drift, we bounced the rig over Old Reliable, aka the south-west corner of Browns. That turned the trick and a steady procession of solid gemfish came aboard.
I checked in with Phil on the VHF, who told me a solid mako had been circling their boat for 90 minutes, refusing all offerings. By 1:30pm we had our bag limit of gemfish, plus a solid mako cluttering up the deck.
The call was made to head back in, considering that filleting the mako and the other fish would take the better part of an hour. Before departing, I tried a jig or two for albacore, a long shot considering the murkiness of the water. As expected, no result. Going through major jigging withdrawal symptoms, I asked Ed if we could stop at the Twelve Mile en route. I hadn’t realised that, with the new GPS/sounder in the Barcrusher, there had not been time to load a full set of way points in. So although we had the main mark, we were basically flying blind. With the wind steadily picking up I had a couple of quick drops with my heavy overhead outfit, but no joy. Back to the ramp, where the seagulls were most excited to see us unload around 140 kilos of fish.
Thanks to Ed for a great day on the water, and to Ian for being great company and dealing with his sore back like a true stoic. Looking forward to next week already, Andy
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Originally Posted by lethal098
