Mysterious Peel Beast Lost

[Cody]

Fished peel yesterday for 3 snaps to 45. Little slow but there was a fair amount of bait so looks good for the next couple of months. Just before we left my mate saw some massive bust ups on the edge of the reef. We drove over and I cast my small plastic out. Soon as it hit the water there was a massive swirl on my lure. My line all of a sudden was heading under the boat. Winding as fast as my little 2500 Luvius could go I was tight onto a fish. However this was not your regular peel island fish. It headed for deep water at a great rate of knots. At peel I am used to them heading for the shallows and dusting me. Within 10 seconds I was down to about 30 meters of line and said to my mate get on the motor. By this time there was about 10 wraps of line left on my spool. The motor was going and we were traveling at about 10ks and the fish was swimming about the same speed. It finally stopped and I made a little line. Then the most unexpected thing happened the fish now 100 meters away jumped clear of the water. I couldn't see what it was but it looked at least 1 metre long. After about 5 minutes the fish was fighting very eratically we were slugging it out in the deep water. By this time my wrist was getting sore as I only had a light rod with a short but. For some stupid reason I was trying to get the rod into a more comfortable position I gave it enough slack that my little 4 inch plastic fell out of its mouth. Unbelievable. I am still spewing even more now that it is bugging me about the identification of this beast. It kind of looked like a Queenfish but does anyone know of one that big caught in the bay. Spanish mackerel? Longtail? Kingfish? I am not sure. Anyone have any ideas? Also caught some Australian Salmon around peel last week. They went 65cm and did fight well and jump but didn't peel one tenth of the line this thing did. Could it have been a 1 meter Aussie Salmon? Do they grow that big? Anyway someone put me out of my misery. Just after this my mate also hooked something we thought was small but by the time it got to the boat it was a good fish. Then it chewed through the leader. I think this one was a nice snapper that swallowed the plastic as the leader had some wear on it. Anyway this is what fishing is about and why I spend half my bloody pay check on gear.


Cheers Cody

[BLOOEY]

Who knows really cody, could be anything. Longtails,spannos and kingies don't generally jump unless they have a shark on their ass which may explain the erratic fight. Ben

[brisbane_boy]

id say longtail, been some monsters around, but the jumping thing is a bit weird, they usually only jump when chasing bait, but it could of been one of its pack members as the large ones usually dont leave the school they are travelling with for a while after hookup.

[gaintsquid]

Could of been a huge Giant Herring?

[mattooty]

Very likely a Queenie if it was jumping. Distance and hookups on the water always make for interesting guesstimations from a fisherman.

[carnster]

Depends on the jump. Queenies fight erratically and will generally jump to the side a bit and may even flip around. LT are very fast and there beating tail can be felt vibrating thru the rod tip, if they jump not common unless busting up its more of a straight leap.

[Cody]

Yeah guys could have been anything. It jumped of to the side like a queenie. Interesting was there was no teeth marks on the plastic and no wear marks on the leader. A giant herring definately could be a possibility. Anyway I will get it next time.

Cody

[BAR UP]

I recently spoke to one of the boys at Doug Burts tackle shop at Southport he told me that someone recently caught a Australian Salmon at Narrow Neck that went 110cm. So it seams they do grow very big, Peter.

[Peter4]

Have seen a few big longtails around Peel in recent weeks...

[Scalem]

Cody I'll put in a vote they were Giant Herring also. It was a long time ago ( 2007) when my brother and I caught a few just north of Peel and the fight is just as you describe. They can stay deep and slug it out, then in a matter of seconds come up to the surface, and do a dance like a Marlin or queenfish.

We didn't know what they were at the time, but here are a couple of photos. I recall they have soft mouths which can easilly tare if you put too much hurt on them, which might be what happened when you dropped the fish.

Scalem

[mattooty]

Scalem, I was just thinking about your report of those GH and was going to say I recall them being in that general area.

[Cody]

It sounds like it was in the same area on the Northern side of peel Scalem. I heard they go like the clappers to. We hooked and lost a few at Weipa a couple of months ago. They are a hard fish to land. Peter there was a few schools of LT's and Mac Tuna getting around out in the channel just north of peel on Friday but they where very flighty and would not eat any of our offerings. Going to give peel a go on Thursday so will see how I go. Looks a great week to go fishing.
Cody

[ddobson]

Cody it was a long tail tuna as we hooked a large 1 a few weeks ago we landed and we lost 1 on saturday in the rain and i watched a guy loose another 1 today on sunday and they were a good metre long plus out there and run hard for miles. nd on the way back to ramp i saw 1 jump out of the water in glassy water but no birds or return for a go.I have never seen a fish ru so hard so i know what you went through as we chased it for so long and the speed was a good 10 knotts with no slowing. Look at the size of the one we caught on my last few posts and you see what you missed out on. Cheers DD.....

[tfish]

Hey mate, a friend of mine caught 2 queenies off peel last week.He said one was quite a solid fish.possibilities are endless....just gotta get back out there!!!!

[nathank]

Really hard to say mate.. doubt it would have been a salmon they dont near have the pull of a tuna.. i have caught 1000's of them down south.. including one that went 6.8kgs on a live pike.. im with carnster... Prob a queenfish, have never had a Kingie jump and almost lived at montague island in kingie season including seals chasing them.. have seen a giant herring of a touch under a meter get caught and it was stopped with 125m of 4kg... Sux not knowing.. but is what makes fishing so fun sometimes....