quintrex480

great catch there man! now that was the jewie I was hoping to hook up onto last week ehhehe so you reckon the hairtail will slow down after all the rain?

Holly cow! Nice haul Nick!!! Love the pose on as well!!! Haha

Tell ya what, I was fearing the worse b4 the trip thinking it's going to be freezing but being inside wararah bay, you're shielded by the wind. Slap on the beanie and a jacket and it's like being at home .

Great read mate, shame about the bust offs, what do u reckon they were? We're planning a bellambi snapper trip soon too so would be great to hear if it's got the goods.

Yeah buddy, there's something different about night fishing. Guess it's more relaxing compared to what we normally do. We might be out next weekend as well, let us know if you want to join the convoy.

Thanks mate! Exactly how you described it! After talking to a friend afterwards who's a hairtail veteran, he says to do the same thing. Will definitely take the advice on board and see if we can improve the hookup rate next time.

hahahaha yes I did scream it out like a girl didn't I? but was pretty excited seeing that king come out of the dark waters! and it was also Tan's first legal so I was pretty happy for him as well. thanks for showing us the ropes buddy, definitely wouldn't have been able to do it without you guys there also.

yeah def a fluke but we'll take it! ahhaha thanks buddy, yeah launched at appletree, wished they put a couple more lights there, being a first timer, did several zig-zags down the ramp thanks Luke, hahaha king at jindabyne, how have you been doing lately? thanks mate, we had the 'fishing crew' over at my place last night, sashimi'ed the king and had some hairtail steaks, didn't do much to it but it was very nice eating all the same! downrigging and bring my saltiga a long as well! hahahaha that's it Dan, they can run but they can't hide!!! well done on the trevs and bream, I am thinking of a trip to the bay tomorrow maybe, that is if I can get out of bed. Yeah, I've been told it's a decent size, I wonder what the FR record is? the thing is we had the yakka down only 5 metres as well, must have been a very hungry king!

hey mate, I believe we were fishing the same place as you, and I believe we headed out as you were heading in.

Hi Raiders, sorry for the long report but being my first hairtail trip, just wanted to go into more detail of the session. With all this recent talk of hairtail, decided to head out on a 2 boat convoy with Formosan to Cowan to try and land myself my first hairtail. Prepared myself all week with all the gear required to catch these awesome looking fish, we got the boats onto the water about 9pm and ventured out into the dark valleys of Cowan and being the first time I've ever taken the boat there, I was amazed at how dark and eerie the place was but at the same time very peaceful. Got to our spot in WB and dropped anchor, put 2 rods out for hairtail and another one for a possible jewie, started to throw some burley out and soon enough these weird ass looking lines started appearing across the sounder, and they were thick, there were so many that it was playing tricks on the sounder making it think it was the bottom and gave a reading of 2.9 metres when I knew I was in 18+ metres. Never have caught a hairtail before, I was not sure what to expect, then I see my rod tip just start bending really slowly and just stayed bent and I was on, picked the rod out of the holder and started to wind, and then nothing, strange, thinking to myself I am sure I was on. Anyways, the other rod starts doing the same thing, bending straight down and then races sideways, pick the rod up and it's heavy, start fighting, and then nothing. The same thing happened another 4 times! thinking to myself WTF is going on here!! :ranting2: This is all happening whilst my mate is pulling in breams, thinking to myself, you keep on pulling in breams, I am going to get myself a hairtail!!!! Anyways all go's quiet for a little while, and then my mates rod starts doing the bending thing, he picks it up and he's on, and soon enough we see the silvery shine of the hairtail, net it and it goes 1.3ish meters, happy that we boated a hairtail, a little bit pee'ed off that it wasn't me!!!! ahahhaha I made a slight change in the way I was gang'ing the pillie to see if maybe that would do the trick, and straight away I am on but it's on my lightest rod holding only 8lb line, SHITE!!! took it easy, and in what seemed like an eternity we see the long thick chrome of a thing appear, netted it, my first hairtail and it goes 1.6m! WOOHOO!!!! mission accomplished!!!! We start pulling in some yakkas around mid-night and decided to give them a go, put the biggest yak on my mates rod and settle it into the rod holder, nothing touched it for a good 30 mins, but then tap-tap-tap and ZZZZZZZZZZ.... it takes off, no way this was a hairy, I called it for a jew, it zips my mate around the boat, and I quickly gather all the rods in but it takes out the 2 rods on the other side of the boat, got the knife and I start cutting line, making sure I didn't cut the line with the fish! it was only 30lb line with 12lb wire trace, so the drag was eased off quite a bit, and this thing just kept on going, get a metre of line back, it takes 10, did this about 5 times. I was thinking to myself, this sure fights like something I am kinda use to (hint: it's got a big yellow tail and starts with K), but I am thinking NAH NO FREAKIN WAY, NOT on a gang'ed yellowtail at 1am in the morning. Shine the torch into the water to try and see what it is and I see a glimpse and OMG!!! HUH?? it can't be!! NOOOOO!!! I shout at my mate, IT'S A KING!!! ahhaha netted it to 92cm. My mates first legal king, he was stoked!!!! We land another hairtail, salmon and a couple of tailor, all quiet by 3am, packed up and headed home... satisfied to have ticked a hairtail off the list. Formosan's boat netted another 2 hairtail and a stack of bream. Sorry for the blurry pictures, the camera doesn't do too good a job in the dark.

Awesome job dude! Bream and jewies instead of hairtail, take that any day! Don't worry we'll go get them hairtail soon.

Mate, good on ya for getting out there today, I got up, looked out the window and went straight back to bed Good to see the squid are still around, what did u land the tailor on? Pillies? And yes, hope the balls are better too! Hahahaha

hey hey! donut man is no more... well done buddy! hope I can get onto them soon as well.

Ahhh doh!! If only you had squid at the time, they look like substantial kings! Hmmm... Who films themselves catching kings, what show offs! Hahaha Always worth a couple of passes at molli when you have squid.

Great job on the squid Luke! And great choice of sounder! and that's a great showing of kings! Did you try dr'ing a squid pass them? Sluggo is a plastic.

Try a natural colour, greens, blues, browns.

what colour jigs have you tried?

Great report mate! Any tips on how I can convince my wife to let me go on a weeks fishing trip hehe Sorry to hear about the stolen gear, I would be so pee'ed off if it happened to me!!

Hey Rich! Nice to meet you too mate! That's an awesone showing of fish and there are some pretty large arches there, definitely not rats! Put a whole squid down next time and I can almost gurantee you'll hook up onto them! But please use heavier gear . How long did you stay there for?

well done mate! they are some massive trevs you got! what bait did they take? are you guys under a bridge or something?

Seems like I am missing out on meeting all the raiders, think I should plan a trip for a weekend next time. Yes, the water temp has definitely dropped inside the bay, but I was still getting 20-21 degrees outside. Yeah I've been hearing decent kings being caught further down south, so I'll definitely be trying the area again, yeah the forecast isn't looking too good past the morning on Friday heys? doh! HAHAhAHAHA yes it was a big fat DONUT! man out both days? you have a very very understanding wife! well done on the 85'er, good to hear that they are still around. I heard about Formosan wanting to steal your skirts hahahaha what? when do i get an invite onto the poly? how did you go with the flatties? think I'll be heading back to the bream and flatties soon.

g'day Dan, too bad about the peak, I am waiting for someone to get out there and jig up some big kings! yeah when the bay is too calm, the fish fall asleep also, always tend to do better when there is a bit of a chop. but nice sambo anyway!

Took the Mrs along this time and hopefully show her what it's like getting hooked up onto a hoodie, started the day a little late therefore the squidding was a little tough but after an hour we had a few of them in the live well. Headed out to the reefs and I did a couple of passes to sound it out and it wasn't looking too promising, the sounder was bare, not a spec, not anything, but decided to drop a squid down anyway. After a few passes, hooked up to a sambo, wife initially thought it was a king and her comment was "is that it?" put it back it in the drink. I then decided to use the day to go exploring to see if I can find more reefs, so I headed south, and kept heading south, before I knew it was outside of the hacking, kept on heading further and then the sounder came alive, some decent arches littered the lowrance and this reef was very impressive, and I was salivating. Quickly rigged up one of the squid and dropped it down, a couple of passes saw it being smashed up by pickers DOH! and then a couple of rats, I can't believe they are still this size, some yakkas are bigger than these guys, they didn't even break the elastic band! Cut up the big squid and dropped the head down, but nothing after several passes, decided to text Formosan to tell him of this reef I found, and it ALWAYS FREAKEN HAPPENS when you're not paying attention , I look up and I see the rod out the back buckled all the way over, hit the throttle but then to only see the rod bounce back up . The wife was sleeping by the way so she had no idea what was going on, but I still blame her for not keeping an eye out will definitely visit this reef again. Getting quite late so headed back, on the way in, decided to sound out the stretch of water where the "Yellow" boat downrig's and it was alive! fish everywhere, stripped up the hood, but on every pass it was just the pickers smashing it. The kings weren't interested, oh wells, until next time.

HOLY COW! that's a lotta squid! Awesome haul, well done! what colour jig did most of the damage?

AHAHAHA I've never thought of that, yeah! BIG WUSS! setting the drag down to make it easier on your back. He forgot to mention that his report is for Saturday not today, he's a fishing nut but not that crazy to go out in today's conditions. yeah weekend looks great, let's hope the forecast remains the same