I’ve been keen to do a drop on the shelf ever since I did a job for an old pro long liner who told stories of the large ooglies that inhabit those depths. Saturday was looking good with 5 knot westerlies to gently drift us over the edge of the abyss. My good luck fishing mate Paul and I headed off with an Alvey Reef Queen loaded with 200lb braid, a range of homemade sinkers in 1kg and 2kg weights, 12 o circle hooks and a commitment to stick to the plan. Upon arriving at the ledge I was surprised and relieved that my sounder showed a reader in 360m of water, but was concerned that the current was cobalt blue and running hard to the south. First drop with a 1kg sinker confirmed our fears as we touched bottom for a couple of seconds and had to drop back 30 – 40 ms of line to touch again only to lose contact straight away and quickly had around 650m of line out. The sinker was upgraded to 2 kg’s and winding in the rig after a couple of drops was so arduous that we were concerned about dealing with a fish let alone the sinker. On the 4th drop a solid thump resonated through the braid then came up tight, and then the work began. A tag team effort on the groaning hand winch finally saw a solid ooglie hit the deck and our plan come to fruition. Only got the 1 but we weren’t complaining. Had a troll on the way home and got smoked by a couple of large top water ooglies. A memorable day we will both treasure.
(Hapuka)
(One handle came off early in the fight)
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Originally Posted by TREVELLY
