2nd tanga trip report

[imnotoriginal]

The second trip to tangalooma saw plenty of fishing done despite a lot of wind earlier in the week. Myself and carl particularly spent a lot of time on the water and the beach and we had quite a few successes.

Night time fishing off the jetty wasn't as productive as the last trip. While we did have 3 or 4 hook ups during the week, nothing was landed or past the first run except for regular to the island, who hooked and fought to the shallows a massive stingray. However, he didn't have the strength of line or rod to lift him past the shallow water and eventually snapped the line after a long effort. I did have my 15lb outfit emptied (of course they grabbed the light line!) on the first night before fighting back, but as he got close in the line finally gave out, making for a disappointing end.

Off the beach there were a few flathead on the dropping tide which made for a little bit of fun. I landed 3 one day but only one would have been a keeper. The flathead were quite lazy though, putting up no fight until they got right into the shallows.

Early evenings/late afternoons at the wrecks were the most fun, with GTs hanging around and making for some real entertainment. Carl got quite a few over the week, and I landed 3 and lost one which must have been an absolute thumper. Its first run was 30 or 40 seconds and just as he slowed he managed to twist the treble out of his mouth. Very disappointing result, but still quite thrilling. We've been having our best success with the cheap force ten poppers, which seem to be as rare as hens teeth at the moment.

We also fished off the jetty a few times for some bream and a hook up to what was either a drummer or a blue puller. Went like a rocket straight for the pylon. Fight was over, round one, no contest.

Anyways, that's the general run down on the week. Was my last big holiday before starting work. My lazy days as a student are over now, time to work for my fishing supplies May have to sneak over to Moreton again one weekend, just to keep Carl company
Joel

[imnotoriginal]

Another nice trevor. This one smacked the popper in very dark conditions. There was only a small number of boats there that night and it was after sunset.
Joel

[imnotoriginal]

One of the smaller flathead hooked near the logs. I definitely had more looks once I started using smaller plastics. One 60cm+ flatty actually swam in the opposite direction when I cruised a 5" jerkbait in front of him. Quite different to what I'm used to.

[imnotoriginal]

And I'll throw this one in too. This was the shovelnose we landed the first trip.

[nuggstar]

haha i got 1 of them poppers yestaday i gess i will be geting some more then i will pick sum up 4 ya mate and i will give them to ya next time i see ya

[choppa]

looks like you had a good time mate,,,,and by the number of ""feet"" on the jetty in the shovelnose pic,,,you had a bit of an audience to share your excitement with,,,,lol,,,,

choppa

[bidkev]

Sounds like you had fun mate.............that shovelly's a pearler...........the deckie would be proud of you

Yer eyes look better now

[bidkev]

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[bidkev]

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[imnotoriginal]

Cheers for that Kev. I'm still waiting to get my own digi cam before I get stuck into learning all the little tricks. That shovelly had a weird looking nose on him. He's different to most of the ones I've caught. Is it a sub species or some sort of deformity???

Choppa- had about 20 or 30 people watching me at one point. I was sure glad I didn't lose him with a crowd like that!

Nuggstar- I've got video of the landing of that GT with the cheap popper in his mouth. The last frame of it he takes a big shake and just about lodges the treble in my cheek!
Joel

[bidkev]

Cheers for that Kev. I'm still waiting to get my own digi cam before I get stuck into learning all the little tricks. That shovelly had a weird looking nose on him. He's different to most of the ones I've caught. Is it a sub species or some sort of deformity???

Was the colour normal? If it's a different to the usual shovelly and had depressions behind it's larger than normal eyes, I would hazard a guess that it's a shark ray. If it's the normal sandy brown then it's likely that it could be some species of banjo ray.

It's definately not a deformity, as it's wings are also more rounded than the everyday shovelly.

kev

[imnotoriginal]

The colour seemed normal to me... but like you said, its head looked fairly different, far more rounded than what i'm used to seeing. I will have to some more investigating.
Joel

[imnotoriginal]

In shape, but not in colour it most closely resembles the Eastern Fiddler Ray.
http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fi...h/tfasciat.htm

It has that rounded shape, but with the shovelnose tail rather than a stinger. However, according to this they only get to 1.2m and that fish was bigger than 1.2m, it was closer to 1.8m

I looked at the shark ray http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fi...ish/rancyl.htm
but it has those wing like pectoral fins which this one doesn't have. I couldn't find any reference to banjo rays on the AMonline site.

looking through there, I think I might alos have mis-identified the trevor. Looks like a big eye rather than a GT, but still great fun either way.
Joel

[imnotoriginal]

I've emailed the photo to Qld Museum and they'll get back to me when their fish curator gets back from holidays in early january. I'll be interested to find out just what fish it is.
Joel