Mackeral Rematch

[Outsider]

Reefmaster wasn't available for the original Mackeral Mayhem last Sunday so I took him out today for one of our own.

Despite a dodgy weather report of 10-20kn N/NE we headed out from Bribie at 5am after 2 slight setbacks.

1. I had left the winch handle for the trailer in the tow car from Sundays trip...lucky my tyre brace fits the nuts on the winch hey!

2. For some strange reason I had taken the keys from the boats ignition during the week and hung them on the key rack at home - normally they stay in the ignition - which meant that after we finally got the boat off the trailer using the tyre brace, I realized they were still hanging on the key rack at home! We had no way of starting the boat!

We tried every key on every keyring we could find with no luck...but you know those little tools that come in the box with a new reel? Hang on to those...they can come in real handy!

So off we went. Stopped at a few beacons with the tide just coming full. Both lost a few slugs to the razor gang even though they were very skitish.

I tried a weighted pillie in the eddy behing the pylon and BANG! Caught my first Mackeral in the new boat with several others shadowing him in but eventually choosing not to join their mate in the esky.

1 or 2 drifts past and the fish would disappear which meant we needed to keep moving from Beacon to Beacon (just like Brownie).

Anchored up to a beacon as the tide started going out and this proved much more profitable. A yellow tailed kingfish was hanging round the Beacon and following our slugs back to the boat but never striking. Threw out a weighted pillie with the same result. Jigged the pillie right infront of him and hey Presto... kingy grabs pillie, kingie takes off with pillie, kingy swims around the beacon, beacon and line are introduced to each
other, fishos swear at kingy.

To make matters worse he reappeared about an hour latter with my hooks still plainly visible in his gob.

Reefmaster jigged up some livies (you owe me 2 jigs) so we thought we should head outside and see what was happening.

After anchoring up Reefy threw out a livie on his 15-24kg Live Fibre with Penn 6/0 reel and 55lb mono. Rod bent double in the holder, peeled line then "twang". Whatever that was it was BIG.

I have exactly the same outfit but was using mullet fillets on 3 gangs - not a single taker except for a grinner the size of a bus.

Reefy was going through takle and livies at a great rate of knots and managed a Cod and a Mowong.

I hooked something HEAVY that refused to show its face even after 10 mins of "pump and wind". I'd get a little, it'd take it back - no idea what it was but it felt like a big ray. Eventually it bust me off.

The men in brown suits rocked up and really turned up the heat. 3 or 4 at a time and 6-8 feet long. We should have just emptied our tackle boxes over the side - would have been easier. 55lb trace - see ya! 150lb trace - bite off. Wire Trace - spit the hooks. The harder we tried the more they hurt us.

And every now and again we'd make it down through the sharks, cod, mowong and grinners and BAM! The great unknowns would bust us up all overagain. No idea what they were but with the drag fully locked up it looked like one of us was going to get pulled out the back of the boat when they hit.

As soon as the wind started to pick up the action stopped. We upped stumps and headed back to Bulwer for a nice legal squire and 1.4 million grinners.

All in all a bloody great day with some great fish, good company, fantastic weather, no-one else around,
some awsome fights and heaps of memorable bustoffs.

Looks like we'll both be heading down to Amart before the weekend!

[Outsider]

Reefmaster's cod

[Outsider]

Reefy's Mowong

[snappa]

hi
i knew i should have tag along what a great day i missed but only because i had a appointment with the boss >
otherwise

where were you anchored... not giving any marks away

i phone amart and getting live fibre from them at the price you said pick up friday
match it with the 6500 bait runner and then off to the beacons
what slugs do you use or was bait the better out there
ps did you berley when anchored ???

[adamleah]

Peter,
when you said "At price you said" Did you know that Amart also sells Live fibre seconds rods that have some runs in the rod enamel etc.... I think the 15kg is $160..

Also if you grab the latest Modern fishing mag and get the free Moto catalogue out of it "as well as the free rapala" , ..they are offering 10% off everything in catalogue...If you take this into Amart they give another 10% off guaranteed
....15-24kg overhead livefibre you can get for around $169 doing this way... 10 -15kg spin will be a little cheaper ...

Maybe Im of help maybe Im not... good luck with the fishing anyhow...

[Jethro]

You guys shore have some funny looking fish up there. What is the go with the cods tail??

It looks way to small for the rest of the fish.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Jethro,
I noticed the same with the cod's tail.
I think they just caught a 1lb fish and blew it up with a bicycle pump. (like what Shrek did to the frog)
Cheers,
Jeff

[Outsider]

After many great (mine) and not so great (reefys) jokes about the size of that cod's tail we had a close inspection.

It had healed scars which looked like something had taken a piece out of it at some point and as a result the back of it's tail didn't seem to have grown much.

Reefy could probably give you a much better explanation as he spent a long time looking and poking at the back end of that fish...some might say a little too long...

Snappa, missed a great day. Hope Amart look after you as well as they do us, but I'd pay twice as much for a Live Fibre anyway 'cause I reckon they're just that good!

[MICHAELG]

Outsided

these prices on the live fibres, are they from all Amart stores
Michael

[Outsider]

Michael,

I'm not sure but I would assume so. Amart says they'll beat all competitors by 10% so they must all have the same pricing.

Snappa,
We use slugs from 10g to 50g for mackeral, tuna etc but I caught mine on Wednesday on a weighted pillie drifted behind the beacon.

[Reefmaster]

Gday all
It was a top day on the water and hardly a boat on the water. seems a few mackeral are around but get spooked very easy and after a few drifts the fish would turn off. lost alot of gear but it was good fun.It also seems that a few yellow tail king are around as we sighted a few at different beacons but only one had a good size to him which demolished Outsider in several seconds .Live bait was thick but the chopper tailor was destroying the jigs in no time. The real fun was at my secret spot out from moreton which me and a mate found accidently while heading to another spot a few years ago The area around the spot is flat and sandy and the size of this rise and the fish that hang off this spot makes me think this is a wreck which is not shown on any maps and no boats have been seen fishing this area. Big Bat fish are usaully spotted and we hooked one last year with a floating pillie and made a top fight all the way to the boat the fish was about the size of a wheelie bin lid. It seems to hold bloody huge morwong on it much to my disapointment but there top fun when most are around 8kg and 1metre long But it seems that it holds some monster critters that bust us of most times from bite offs to rubb offs.After sighting a few nice sharks which we almost got to the boat it soon made my mind up what these big buggers could be but you never no and next time i will use bigger gear to stop the loss of tackle.I thought using 55lb main and 150 lb leader with the drag locked would slow them down but i was wrong and almost resulted in being ripped out the back of the boat.The poor cod I caught had some major old battle scars with nearly no rear end left on him but much to my surprise put up a good fight and was released to fight another day like all fish on this spot. Thanks Outsider for the ride and congrats on not making berly,but having 4 kwells before 10 oclock is going to kill a few brain cells mate.
# # # # # # # # # Cheers Greg

[Outsider]

Unlike youself I've got a few brain cells to spare mate!

Next time I'll focus them on remembering the keys to the boat...

[Lachie1]

Sounds like a bloody riper of a day u fellas had! Look how good the seas are not often ya see conditions like that. Nice fish and piccys, Top Report keep it up.


Cheers, Lachie

[snappa]

mickaelg

i pick up my live fibre tomorrow from strathpine
coming from the sunshine coast
only one left in their stores
$169 is the price.