there's something BIG hiding in the kaptjen neilson

[netmaker]

hi all. well, after a busy morning distributing flyers at wello and kindly informing arriving tourists of their illegal parking i thought i would wind down with a relaxing fishing trip. reports from the point indicated no available trailer parking as at 4pm so hung at home and waited till 4.30 before leaving to fill up and inflate tyres on the way to the point. had my larger than life pommy mate deckying up front and it was a good thing there were no parks as we sat at huybers light till 10pm waiting for the wind and swell to drop. then off to the kaptjen neilson. whilst we had been at huybers we had caught catfish, rays, sharks, 3 well over legal crabs and 3 squid. the crabs and squid went into the livewell although sadly, the squid didn't make it. so as soon as we anchored i deployed a live sandie over the side on an 8/0 single paternoster rig. and it sat there until i fell asleep and it was still there when i was woken up at dawn. 5 minutes later it was gooooooone. old mate points out rod is going off and i pick it up and call it for a... moving snag???? the other boats were still relative. why was my line slowly going out like i was drifting on a snag???? needless to say a minute later i was left with a busted line scratching my head. that was the 25lb gear. okay, out comes the 40lb. sand crab no. 2 deployed over the side. wait about oh, a minute, and weight on rod again. this time after the initial wander away with my hook trick, this thing just put on the steam and tore some heavy drag out of the catalina. then stopped and just started "wandering" away again. again it made it's way back to it's hole - at it's own pace, as i futilely hung on until the line was cut. crab no. 3 had died while i slept and unfortunately made no impression at all although i can honestly say if it had there would simply be another lip piercing in the beast hiding in the neilson. my guess is XOS cod or groper. i may just have another go at him one day... think i will need a rope and motor idling ready to rock. may even need to fit a ski pole first

[Moonlighter]

They dont call cobia "crab eaters" for nothing, Dave. Some very big ones up that way. Also some very big black spot tuskies around there too. They like crabs too!

ML

[Horse]

Sounds like a nice big Cod to me Dave. I have had Squire snavelled by them. They sometimes come back already scaled

[burleygu]

big cod daveo! I had the same problem lastnight at bulwer on the ledge. Be a nice fish down there with a few trinkets in its gob! Lost 4 livies due to the same scenario threw over the 100lb handline with a live hussar on and it didnt get touched! Cant win.

[netmaker]

They dont call cobia "crab eaters" for nothing, Dave. Some very big ones up that way. Also some very big black spot tuskies around there too. They like crabs too!

ML

not thinking cobia grant. caught a lot of them up north but never one that behaved like that. on the other hand i have caught 6 foot long cod that did behave exactly that way. it is a little unnerving when you realise that all your effort is going virtually unnoticed...

[Jarrah Jack]

Great report Netty. Look forward to learning all your tricks, 255 sleeps away.

[jm82]

I have a scuba diving mate who has dived the wheel house and there are a few very large and very territorial cod on whats left of that wreck, probably the best part 70-80kg... Also there is one very nosy 12ft tiger shark that likes that particular wreck and the ledge in sits on.

Cheers
Josh

[shy guys]

took the old boy out for a bay bash today dave fished the captain we had the same problem but we only had 20 lb gear on the boat got hit on slimys did manage 1 spotty and seen two cobes follow the under size snapper we caught up still was a perfect day on the bay

[Jeremy]

I had an 80 cm jewie inhaled by something in the Eastern part of the bay towards Moreton in December. Got taken into it's hole, but I backed off the tension and waited for a bit and got the jewie back totally scaled and mauled. I was thinking a big Queensland Groper.

[kingtin]

This feller came from there. Came up like a wheelie bin. Had several other hits on the same day that felt like the fish was just taking a stroll around it's surroundings. This was a couple of years back though.............also caught on sandies, although dead ones butt hooked.

[cobiaman]

There is certainly some monsters that live down there, this 23kg longtail come from there a few years ago...

[Fish_gutz]

Queensland Groper or Cod would be my Guess .this pic is from there. few years ago though.

[J-MAN]

There's also some massive sand sharks (white spot shovelnose / guitarfish) that call that area home. My brother in law brought one boat side after a two hour fight on 37kg stand up gear which I reckon was near 15ft. Bloody thing looked like a whale shark! He was not impressed as he had already landed three cobia between 28 and 36kg and thought it was a 45kg+ model.
Cheers,
J-Man.