Not even boating....

[Fishin_Dan]

Well what an interesting fishing trip we had.... Left Scarborough Friday arvo around 7pm. Weather had cleared up quite nicely, and the bay was quite nice. Not much chop, and little wind. Thinking to myself "In for a good night".... That's about where it went downhill...

Run over towards Moreton was great. There was no moonlight, so very dark run over. We saw a Container Ship go across our path a long way ahead. No problem. Ages away...

About 10 minutes later there was no boat underneath us, and no water under the boat! Then all 3 (Us, boat, water) came together again quite hard! Then the second and third wave did the same!!!

Anyway, after we changed our underwear and got going again we finally made it over to Cowan Ledge. Sounded around and tried to anchor up on a mark we had. There was a bit of chop which made it a little difficult to get where we wanted... Finally anchored up, and started to berley up. The current running was a nightmare! I had a lot of trouble getting anywhere near the bottom (Even with 2 BIG snapper leads!). The chop just got worse and worse along witht he wind as the night went on. Had no fish at all, and very few bites even... Was using fresh squid and mullet strips (All bought that morning!) but nothing!

It finally got a little too nasty to stay where we were.... It was now about 2am, so we up and moved around into Tangalooma to get out of the weather. Threw the lines in for the fun of it, and Carleton pulls in a Grinner! So he went into the esky to get fillets removed for bait... Next I hooked up to a small shovelnose shark Carleton then got a 22cm Summer Whiting (which went back)... Then the bite pretty much stopped...

Frustrated as hell, and with the sun about to come up, we decided to go back out to Cowan Ledge to try a drift... First drift resulted in a hook up for Carleton but it dropped after a quick run (Sounded good!). That lifted our spirits, but after a few more drifts (At around 3-4 knots due to the crappy conditions) and no more bites, we decided to pull the pin and head back home.

Ran down towards the 4 beacons, and thought we would give the Captain Nielson a quick run (We came with 2kg of squid and a whole fresh mullet which still had hardly been touched). The chop was insane, and we found the structure once, but just couldn't get it again... Damn weather!

So we headed home... 20 minutes later, it became glass! We were planning on going out wide for sunrise, but decided against it due to weather... We were about half way back to Redcliffe and it was perfect! Hot sunny day, flat water, and what's that.... TUNA!!!! So we started chasing the Mac Tuna for a while. Carleton hooked up first on 12lb line, and had a very good fight. Unfortunately as it got to the boat ready for the gaff, his hooks straightened Would've been his first Mac Tuna...

I then hooked up on one on 15lb Penn 10x. Didn't fight as hard as I would've thought they would, but it just wouldn't give up! He actually fought harder the longer the fight went on. Finally got him into the esky, and at least we had 1 fish.... (Apart from his grinner! )

Carleton did hook another one, but his knot broke... They were just too skittish after that to get anymore. So we went to a beacon nearby and had a drift down the Pearl Channel. No bites, so we went back to Redcliffe shallows. Threw a few plastics around, and Carleton got another Grinner...

Gave up after that, and pulled the boat out.

Utter frustration! Good bait int he water for SOOOO many hours, and not 1 decent fish to show for it apart from the Mac Tuna!!! (My first Mac Tuna though, so can cross it off the list....)

[Fishin_Dan]

My best effort at a FishinMission shot....

[Fishin_Dan]

The weather on the way home....

[Fishin_Dan]

The skipper "hard" at work in the nasty conditions...

[Commodore]

Boys,
You got a watch for those bow waves , can catch you unawares….
From some of the other reports there seemed to be some fish around, think you were unlucky not to hook up, but that’s fishing. Still good to be on the water.
Cheers

[Vic1]

I know what you mean about the weather. Left Cleveland for 4 bacons at 5.30am on Sat morning, took 1 1/4 hours to get there due to a stiff wind and nasty chop. Once arrived wind dropped to the point where it was a glass out at 9.30am. Went home at 11.30 (35 min trip) only to encounter a strong se wind for the last 10 minutes of the journey making conditions again bumpy. Got to be careful out there......

[Vic1]

4 bacons.......hmmm not a new butchers over at Moreton......try beacons

[Fishin_Dan]

We had just finished washing the boat down when that wind came through... Glad we were out by then... We'd had enough wind and chop for one weekend!

[bidkev]

Unlucky mate. I copped for the same kind of crap on thursday and friday. Hardly a wink of sleep it was *that* rough.......and that was *inside* the wrecks!!!! Still, you've virgined out on that mack so that's one less for you to go for.

kev

[Fishin_Dan]

Yeah it was still a bit choppy in there wannit.... We were anchored right at the southern end of the wrecks (About 300m south of the most southern wreck).

[sunny]

Well, wasn't that a lot of fun? Not!! > > >

I woke up yesterday morning and thought my shoulders had siezed. Don't those mack tuna go hard? Next time I'm not letting it go. That's the second time recently I've had a fish swim up to the side and go "Ptooey! Thanks for the game, here's ya lure back"

I've learned my lesson with the lures though. After I got home I had a look at all my slices and noticed that a couple had dodgy blunt hooks. That's all been fixed now [smiley=evilgrin.gif]

So, my summary for our trip. Scary weather, lumpy seas, no luck all night, lost mack tuna twice, stiff shoulders. Grand total for the trip, two grinner and an undersize whiting.

Ah well. That's fishing for you. Got to have a few bad days, otherwise the good days wouldn't be so sweet.

[Jeremy]

Dan, the bad days make the good days worthwhile.

BTW, I think that is a frigate mackerel rather than a mack tuna. The lines on the sides of a mack tuna go about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way down the flanks of the fish. Can anyone (who knows) confirm?

Jeremy

[sunny]

Dunno, Jeremy.
Dan gave it to me and I did some steaks in a lemon, soy and ginger marinade. I know mack tuna isn't supposed to be tasty, but done like a beef steak they were pretty fine.

[Scott15]

Dan, the bad days make the good days worthwhile.

BTW, I think that is a frigate mackerel rather than a mack tuna. The lines on the sides of a mack tuna go about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way down the flanks of the fish. Can anyone (who knows) confirm?

nah its a mack tuna, got those spots whcih a few of em have

[gogecko]

HI dan,
sounds like my effort on friday. I stayed in the coomera river to get out of the winds, and got nuthin worth keepin. It was blowin 15-25 knts.

Still havent blooded that rod of yours yet, but the new baitrunner looks good on it. Waiting for a calm day to happen when my day off work happens, then I can get outside.