CaptainTrav

Good effort lads!!! Sounds awesome! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hooked into a small Mako off Sydney on Saturday, We were bottom bashing off North Head with the westerly blowing, we turned off the engine about 30meters away from the rocks (super protected area, pretty much glass conditions) using pilchards and squid drifting due east. Originally we were going to head out but we saw some colour on the sounder so stuck around for a few drifts. Picked up a few snapper just over legal, and bits and pieces of other reefies. Got a nice size yellow tail and a nice size slimmy. We decided to head further out, so we went out to that wreck that is 2 miles due east of bluefish point, Got the game rod, main line to swivel, then to a half pound sinker then to a 25kg leader then to a double live bait hook setup. Hooked the yellow tail through the shoulders and the tail and dropped it to the bottom. About 20 minutes and a steady drift east the reel started loosing line, jerked the rod to set the hooks, which set good until about a minute of fighting when it bit through the leader. 1 minutes later our small 850 Penn reel started loosing line. Running a simple padagoster rig, and a cube of pilchard. Good little fight produced a 1.2m Mako Shark. Got the head in the net when the line got cut by the teeth, and he was off. We were only running 15kg leader on the rigs. Turned out to be a good day, I was a little surprised the Mako took the baits from the sea floor. Has anyone else had this happen before? Cheers Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi Guy, Been reading fishing forums for a long time but figured it's time to give something back, with out giving away to many of my secret spots. I'm located in Sydney, always floating around on the harbour and offshore, I grew up in Sydney fishing all over my whole life. Was out yesterday, I didn't manage any photos but here's how the day went down, Hit up a couple of known reefs just off south head, around the 70 meter depth mark, a few legal snapper, mowies, good size flathead, Around the tide changes I like to target a variety of wrecks which are all mapped on the charts, ensure there's plenty of fish on the sounder and focus on drifts over the fish, We picked up a number of good size snapper ranging in the 55cm to the 61cm, we were finding the big snapper were on the edges of the fish on the sounder as if they were circling the bait fish down there on the wrecks, Whilst driving to a few of my secret spots I saw fish on the sounder and on the afternoon charter did a number of very successful drifts producing a great size and quality fish. A couple of tips when setting up the drift, keep in mind I have paying customers so I like to get them on the fish asap so I try and minimise wasted time. 1. When you spot fish on the sounder mark them on your GPS, I use navtronics on my phone, as I work on a number of boats and it makes things easy. 2. Always have a track on your Gps following your every move. Makes it easy to see where your last drift went then you can adjust for your next one. 3. When setting up a drift, use a S pattern so as you sight the fish on the sounder you can go past them and you can cross reference your GPS mark, GPS track, and the slick on the water surface which gives you an idea of where the fish are. 4. Currents change, wind changes, even your rudder direction can change the drift, so always watch that sounder and if you haven't seen fish on it and your not getting any bites, it's time to reset for the next drift. I am going to try and post more regularly, my goal this summer is to catch a Marlin on The Fly rod, so stay tuned for that. Cheers Captain Trav Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk