Gday all,
Had a reliable source tell me of six sailfish hook-ups off Noosa recently. The best part of the story was that "Bait was Everywhere".
We'll I challenged that reliable source to "Show me" so with Ian (finding time) and Jeffo (Jeffo ) on board Bogey crossed the very very placid Noosa bar at about 6:00am Sunday.
A run to a few of the marks found us struggling to find bait. A spread was put out the back with Jeffo working magic on the swimming and skip gar as we searched for bait schools. A couple of little shows yielded bugger all and after an hour or so it was decided to move on.
Not long after a little Hoo to Jeffo had a us interested but it was a loner. Working towards some other marks took a couple of hours and we searched every nook and cranny for bigger bait schools that may be holding fish. Closer to the headland another Hoo jumped on but I dropped it at the boat as my leader knot gave way (What a wally )
Moving wider we found some small bait patches again but down low and scattered. We kept trolling and trolling before finally deciding to livebait the small showings. With slimies on board the baits went down but nothing really happening. Ian has weight but brings up a 35 cm moses pearch. Jeff has a better run on the 6kg outfit and it fights stubborn down low. We're calling everything from shark to cobe to bottom and when someone offered pearlie he was severely chastised. Low and behold 10mins later a 6kg (that's right weighed on new scales) pearlie hit the decks. We looked at each other an considered anchoring and baitfishing but as Ian pointed out "It was meant to be a marling trip". Jeffo hooked another decent fish but turned out to be a big stubborn mac tuna.
Lures went out again and it was a slow troll home for no hits. The bar was placid with weather remaining calm all day.
Still a good day despite no target species - but on the bright side I have a new pearlie mark.
Bugman
Jeffo with the world's skinniest hoo