wacko

Hey Josh! Thats awesome fishing mate! And great pics. We gotta organise a fish soon! Catch ya later, Jacko

Hi guys, For everyone thats not out there fishing due to the weather.......... Just put up a few new Youtube clips....fills in the time between sessions! Marlin on Popper rod: Gt Fishing Fiji Part one: Gt Fishing Fiji Part Two Cheers, Wacko

That dogtooth is mental! Looking forward to the report! Wack'

Nice Jewies! Well done mate. Cheers, Wacko

Just my 2 cents worth............ It's a known fact that Yellowfin tuna eat baby jackets and green toads... these have been found in the gut of many yellowfin and marlin over the years....so much so, that it is known as a 'staple' food for these pelagics. What happened to all of our inshore Yellowfin that used to get caught at locations like the Peak, 12 mile, etc etc????.................they got decimated by the longline/commercial fleet.......................what has happened to leatherjacket stocks in the last say....10-15years???.....yep you guessed it, exploded in numbers. One theory is the decline of Yellowfin stocks has boosted the numbers of Jackets. It's only natural.....if nothing is eating you....your not threatened and you flourish. Wacko

Hi mate, On the troll with Braid, I would normally run around 5-6kg of drag?.....It's hard to gauge because your running off a Spin reel with no pre-set drag settings. I just set the lure to the desired postion and pull drag off the reel with my hand....if it feels like good tension without the rod popping from the holder, I will leave it at that. The braid won't break upon strike and you should be running decent leader to absorb some of the shock.....say at least 6-10feet After the strike though, I normally crank the drag up and get stuck into it best I can......not so much line capacity on the Spin reels! On this occasion, I had 200lb Jinkai connected to 80lb braid using the 'FG' knot. At the end of this I had a Ball/bearing snap........ Clipped the lure on which also had about 8 feet of 200lb Jinkai. Cheers, Wack'

Thanks to every one who replied! Much appreciated! It is a special fish and one I wont forget! I can't take all the credit for the capture though, team work driving and clearing lines etc......... and 45mins into the fight, I gave my screaming back muscles a quick rest and Drove the Boat while Rob fought the fish for about 20mins.......I resumed the fight and when the Marlin got close....I went to leader and tag/gaff duties....Andrew finished the fish off from the rod when I had leader in hand. A nice team effort, and 3 of us on-board got to share some PAIN!! LOL Cheers, Wack'

Awesome fish bud! Firsts of anything you catch you never forget! Well done. Cheers, Wack'

Hi guys, Well what a day! I found myself free of things to do on Sunday, and as you do when you have some time on your hands.....you go Fishing!!! So I hastily organised a trip out with good mates Rob and Drew. The plan was to troll north/east of Botany, then set up a cube trail for tuna somewhere past the shelf. Intentions were for Yellowfin Tuna... but in the back of my head I was thinking 'marlin' as we hooked and fought one last week. I always rig my lures with the foresight that a marlin could also 'crash the party'..............well it happened!!!......... about 5 miles past the Shelf line and trolling back west. We had a good spread of lures out.....Two 10" Pushers in closer......One 7" lure on right hand corner, a trembler on left hand corner...and for a bit of fun I ran a shotgun lure which was a small 6" Pakula Zipper in Hot pink colour. Problem was....we left the outriggers at home so I ran the shotgun lure off my tall 7'6" Saltiga popper rod which was tall enough to clear the other lines. This was matched to a Saltiga Reel and about 330mtrs of 80lb braid. Murphy's Law usually sees good fish eat the smallest or most inappropiate rig in the spread..............sunday was no exception!!!! The Blue crash tackled the little Pakula and made for the horizon like there was no tomorrow!!!! Andrew was quick to clear the lines and Rob had control of the boat............by this stage I literally had 10 or 20mtrs left on the spool!!!! (You could see the metal of the spool under the braid!) A 'hyper drive' kinda first run, sizzling even under some heavy drag pressure.....I could smell the burn of the drag washers! Rob spun the boat round' and gave chase hard!.........I wound like mad and found I re-gained about 3 quarters line back. With a bit of confidence I got stuck into the fish under hefty drag..........the fish replied with another blistering run of around 200mtrs!!! We ran the fish down hard again just to get some line back then things started to go our way..... The marlin hung deep after the burn-outs and this is probably where I was wishing I had'nt hooked it on a Popper rod!!! (My back is destroyed!!!! lol) Steady pressure put hurt on the fish (and us!!!).... a few more short, tired runs from the marlin....and an Hour and a bit later we had the leader in hand!!! A decision was made to boat the fish and I can honestly say that this is the first Marlin I have killed (all previous have been released and swam off strongly). He won't go to waste and there are 3 family's who wont go hungry for a while!!!! So there you have it, 90 odd kilos of Blue marlin caught on a small lure and a Popper/Threadine outfit! Side note: We did about 3 hours cubing afterwards for zip yellowfin.....trolled on the way home and found good sized striped-tuna x4 and saw a free jumper marlin just inside the wide Fad off Botany. Cheers guys, and sorry for the long-ass write up! Will put up video at a later stage.... Wacko. The marlin...... The lure that did the damage: Pakula 6inch Zipper in Hot Pink, rigged on 200lb Jinkai and a solid s/s single hook.

Bring these as a starter: Poppers- Halco Rooster poppers 195 Haymakers (Any colour- they all work) Halco Rooster poppers 105 (Perfect for smaller fish inside the lagoon) Minnows- Rapala CD-9 and CD-14 (Most colours will work) Softplastics- Any big (5-12inch) plastics work- Just have heavyduty jigheads. All lures including poppers should be re-fitted with strong (Decoy) split rings and Owner 66TN Trebles. Have fun!!!! Wacko

Hi Jewhunter- No worries about the post ......Golden Eagle looks the goods too, and he fishes some of those reefs off Kandavu (basically we were just north of there). Might look at booking a trip (I know, I'm addicted!) Dogtooth- Cheers mate, thanks. The Jigging was a bit hit and miss. We would jig reef edges and passages and although we did catch some nice fish (dogtooth and trevs plus a big whaler shark)....it was fairly slow on the jigging front. The jigging there certainly needs some more exploring. The ideal bit of structure would be a close-by seamount.....the closest good seamount was a good 2.5hours away. Jigging the passages was a little bit 'blind' but if there was a passing fish, you would normally catch it. We made the decision to Popper our hearts out instead on most days fishing! Cheers, Wack'

Nice fish mate! My suggestion for your connection would be to tie your leader straight to the braid using a good knot (Reverse albright is easy).....once this is done cut your leader in half and pit your swivel in between using a 4 turn Uni-knot......mega strong and gives you a chance to land those hoods. If you really want to tie your braid straight to a swivel......just use a uni knot but make sure you use plenty of turns (Like 10) and lubricate well. Cheers, Wacko

Thanks again for the replies fellas! Cheers, Wacko

Thanks for the replies guys! Heres a few more random shots...

I have many, many more nice photos, but this post would be way to long if I put them up. I will post later on some video of the action. Some great bust-offs and some awesome fish landed! So there you have it! What a place, I can't recommend the lodge enough. These people would serve us fantastic brekfast, lunch and dinners every day.....they even washed and dried our clothes every day!!! It was basically David, Andrew, Bernard and myself and the lodge staff at the resort.....remote and secluded. Our skipper and resort owner, Piero, was just awesome. Really cool guy to hang-out with....he even caught some great fish as well! (and got dusted a couple of times by unstoppables!!) Our decky, Sim, was also a ledgend! I miss everyone there already! Going back really soon I hope! Wack'

Hi everyone, Just got back from an amazing trip to Fiji. We fished and stayed on a relatively small island called ONO which sits just off Kandavu island. The place, the people, the lodge and the fishing was just spectacular! I will keep the report short and let the photos (I have many) do the talking. Many Gt's were caught with some of these fish pushing over 40kg!! The 'by-catch' was just as awesome with many Big Red Bass, Jobfish, Coral Trout, Bluefin Trevally, Sharks, dogtooth tuna all caught. We basically pushed our gear to the limit (Saltigas and Stellas) trying to stop some of these brutes from rampaging back to the shallow coral edges or bommies. If you have seen it on video......times the pressure and hurt by 30 and you will get a jist of what I'm talking about!!! (locked drags and someone grabbing your back just to stay in the boat!) The big Gt's pulled drag like there was no tomorrow! Pound for Pound, these are one nasty fish!! Plus....we did'nt have the best conditions for most of the trip.....high winds and big seas made for tough poppering...but we persisted and came up trumps with some horses! What a wicked place! Can't wait to get back!!! Cheers, Wacko Some reef system we flew over: The lodge, front view: more photos:: This was a big guy...pushing 40kg maybe more who knows!!! Another monster!! Dave's big fish....the video for this is awesome! Dave did really well pulling this fish from 3 feet of coral edge!! Bernard did fantastic holding on as this fish swam over a reef edge.....heavy drag and some solid work got the fish back over and in the boat!!! Another brute! Big jobfish ate big poppers worked in the shallow lagoon flats! These big Red bass are tough brutes! We found em' in the lagoon and on the reef edge. They love big poppers!! Another nice Gt.... Lots of Gt's in the 'fun bracket'

Hi Dan, I have 3d imaging on my Hummingbird sounder....works great, in shallower waters. As far as I know...there is no 3d imaging technology for deep areas like Browns etc. I think the limit for my sounder (3d image only, sonar is different) is something like 70mtrs deep....my sounder is the best one you can buy from Hummingbird....cost around $3500 Just check to see if Lowrance's new units can 'image' deeper than 100mtrs. Sonar readings will get down much deeper.....for Browns mountain you will certainly need at least a 1Kwatt transducer. Cheers, Wack'

Great fish Nicko!!! What a top effort for a night time king! Wack'

Hi guys, Thanks for the replies,cheers Yeah, I should'nt whinge.....6 fish is a good session......but the reason I say it was hard, we started our day at 4am and finished at roughly 4pm...so thats approx 12hours on the water (give or take time gathering live bait).......6 kings during that period roughly equates to 1 fish per 2 hours.....still good fishing but a little slow compared to previous sessions. Cheers fellas! Wack'

Hi guys, For anyone stuck at work and can't get out for a fish. Heres a couple of Jewie youtube vids to fill-in the time. I know some of you Raider's are keen on the ole' mulloway. P.S: Moderators, I'm not quite sure if posting links to youtube is allowed. Please feel free to delete post if I'm not allowed to do so. Thanks Jewfish part 1: Jewfish Part 2: Cheers, Wack'

Hi guys, Quick report. Awesome weather last tuesday. Decided to meet my good mate Mitch up north and have a go at these big kings cruising around Catho. Got plenty of big live Calamari (which proved very successful) and a few yakkas for bait. Long story short............hard fishing....only managed 6 kings....but every fish were nice ones... round' 90cm and 1 pushing the meter mark. Did'nt find the humungous ones that have been lunking around but Mitch got to test his brand new Daiwa Saltist 6500 spin reel. (Passed with flying colours). Every fish was hooked in very reefy country...5-9mtrs deep...behind bommies. All fish ate really big squid...yakkas were untouched. Nice day out. Looking forward to Fiji next week!:headbang: One of Mitch's nice kings: Cheers, Wacko