Browns Mountain 19/8/06

[mako1]

Headed out to browns mountain to see if we could get into some fin again.

Got to the ramp at 7:00am.Went to the drums to get some livies but found they were really hard to catch.

Still managed to get five.Headed out of the heads and pointed the boat for browns.The wind was blowing from the sw at about 10-15 knots creating abit of chop.Passed afew bigger boats on the way out that were trolling.About 8km from browns the lures went out.Trolled to browns and around browns for some time but didn't get a hit,not even from a stripie.Went over to our bottom fishing mark and got the deck winch ready.

The wind was still up and was going to make bottom fishing difficult.On the first three drops there were only small bites and we couldn't hook anything.On the fourth drop we caught an ocean pearch.On the next two drops we lost the sinkers.The fishing was difficult as the strong wind was going against the current.On the next drop dad kept the boat going so that we stayed on top of the spot while I tried to hook a fish.It worked and we pulled up a ribbon fish.On the next drop we did the same thing and I got a much better bite.It pulled the braid from my hands and I knew we had a much better fish on.I started winching the fish up and it was quite a struggle to get it off the bottom with the fish fighting hard and the waves rocking the boat.After a 5-10min fight and taking turns on the winch we had a beautiful 11kg blue eye next to the boat ready for the gaff.Excitedly I rigged the next set of baits while dad went back to the mark.Down went the baits.As soon as it hit the bottom I got another good bite and I set the hook.At first the fish didn't fight as much and it was quite easy to get off the bottom but about 40m off the bottom it began to kick and I knew we had another good fish on.After another good fight there was another good bule eye next to the boat ready to be gaffed.It went 10kg.Both of these fish fought all the way to the top which is strange as they usually blow their swim bladder and stop fighting from half way,only the gemfish fight all the way up.Had one more drop but got snagged.Called it a day for bottom fishing as our arms were stuffed(very unfit) and decided to try for a fin.The wind was supposed to drop in the arvo according to the weather reports but it actually increased.

Had two livies out and some pilchards and cubed till 3:30pm,but didn't get anything.The wind was still up and not looking forward to the rough trip home we called it a day.The trip back wasn't to bad.We did hear that the fin came on the bite at about 4:00pm which was abit anoying as we just missed them,but we did have a good day and caught a couple of great fish.Both of them were PBs for us.

Some pics of the fish.

[James]

mate awesome fish.

the blue eyed cod are an awesome specie and even better on your plate.

[Flattieman]

Beautiful pair of cod there.

Flattieman.

[Outnumbered]

nice fish mako

you said you were stuffed after a few drops???????

mate i'd be stuffed on the way down on the first drop just thinking about the retrieve

my hat goes off to anyone keen enough to fish those deep waters.

[Martin]

You came home with a feed of fish so a big congratulations to all. Its always hard work when the wind is working against you. Sorry you could not cao off the day with a few fin.

Well done guys

Cheers

[netic]

Well done mate, nice pair of fish, I saw a few guys bottom fishing at browns yesterday and i have to say you guys must have heaps of energy because i saw a guy reeling for what seemed 30 minutes non stop.

Well Done

[Penguin]

Well done guys,nice cod

penguin

[kantong]

good looking fish, congrats!~

[SEAFEARER]

Headed out to browns mountain to see if we could get into some fin again.

Got to the ramp at 7:00am.Went to the drums to get some livies but found they were really hard to catch.

Still managed to get five.Headed out of the heads and pointed the boat for browns.The wind was blowing from the sw at about 10-15 knots creating abit of chop.Passed afew bigger boats on the way out that were trolling.About 8km from browns the lures went out.Trolled to browns and around browns for some time but didn't get a hit,not even from a stripie.Went over to our bottom fishing mark and got the deck winch ready.

The wind was still up and was going to make bottom fishing difficult.On the first three drops there were only small bites and we couldn't hook anything.On the fourth drop we caught an ocean pearch.On the next two drops we lost the sinkers.The fishing was difficult as the strong wind was going against the current.On the next drop dad kept the boat going so that we stayed on top of the spot while I tried to hook a fish.It worked and we pulled up a ribbon fish.On the next drop we did the same thing and I got a much better bite.It pulled the braid from my hands and I knew we had a much better fish on.I started winching the fish up and it was quite a struggle to get it off the bottom with the fish fighting hard and the waves rocking the boat.After a 5-10min fight and taking turns on the winch we had a beautiful 11kg blue eye next to the boat ready for the gaff.Excitedly I rigged the next set of baits while dad went back to the mark.Down went the baits.As soon as it hit the bottom I got another good bite and I set the hook.At first the fish didn't fight as much and it was quite easy to get off the bottom but about 40m off the bottom it began to kick and I knew we had another good fish on.After another good fight there was another good bule eye next to the boat ready to be gaffed.It went 10kg.Both of these fish fought all the way to the top which is strange as they usually blow their swim bladder and stop fighting from half way,only the gemfish fight all the way up.Had one more drop but got snagged.Called it a day for bottom fishing as our arms were stuffed(very unfit) and decided to try for a fin.The wind was supposed to drop in the arvo according to the weather reports but it actually increased.

Had two livies out and some pilchards and cubed till 3:30pm,but didn't get anything.The wind was still up and not looking forward to the rough trip home we called it a day.The trip back wasn't to bad.We did hear that the fin came on the bite at about 4:00pm which was abit anoying as we just missed them,but we did have a good day and caught a couple of great fish.Both of them were PBs for us.

Some pics of the fish.

Nice fish there mako, i've been trying to get one of those suckers for a while.Just out of curiosity the boat your fishing from is that a seafarer,because it looks similar to mine

[R_Zee]

good effort guys.

whats the biggest cod u got at browns

[abiasin]

decent sized fish you got there mate, how are those for eating?

cheers.

[jewnut]

good stuff Mako,

we were at Browns on Saturday in Foreverfishings Signature. Cubed for 4 hours without a touch and only saw one other boat hook up but they had to chase the fish so we didnt see what it was, probably a fin. shitty now you say they came on after 4 but like you we knew the ride home was going to be bumpy so we pulled the pin at 1.30. the signature ate through the chop with ease, awsome boats they are

we spotted a marlin which popped up in front of the boat three times just passed the shelf but he was not interested in our lures, we trolled on for a lone stripie which we dropped at the boat.

i take my hat off to you, bottom bashing looks like heart attack stuff, saw a guy winching in for a good 20-25 minutes

[inhlanzi]

Another great report Mako

I learned something new - again!

cheers

inhlanzi

[mako1]

Thanks raiders for all the kind words.

It's a tough form of fishing but very rewarding at the end of the day when the BBQ gets fired up.

My dad and I have only been doing this sort of fishing since last september and we are always learning new techniques on the water and I am always trying to improve the rigs and sinker designs so as to reduce drag and reduce tangles on the trace.The setup we have now seems to be doing the job well.We are going to be experimenting with concrete sinkers soon as they are much easier to make and mould into a good shape and we don't have to sit for hours melting lead and then trying to get it out of the homemade moulds.Also I think it's better to have concrete sitting on the ocean floor then lead as we loose quite afew sinkers.Can you imagine the amount of 3kg sinkers that have been lost at browns.Might have to start calling it lead mountain.

Outnumbered it takes anything up to five minutes(depending on the conditions) to get to the bottom so there is pleanty of time to think about the loooooooooooong wind up.Some guys use electric winches but I think that takes the challenge out of it.Atleast at the end of the day(using a manual winch)you can say you earnt the fish.I also think fish taste that much sweeter when you have gone to all that effort.I did abit of calculating and on this trip we did ten drops at about 500m a drop so we pulled in 5km of braid 2km of that with fish.The reef queen get about 1m per turn so that's 5000 turns.Makes me tired just thinking about it again.

Spooled Again it is a Seafarer.It's a victory 6m.There excellent boats.It handles the offshore swell and chop with ease and we have put it through some rough tests on really bad conditions and its always passed with ease.

R_Zee these two were the best cods we have caught from browns.We did get afew to 4kg last year during our first runs.Last weekend we hooked something really big which was hard to get off the bottom but it got taken by a shark half way up.We now think it was a big blue eye cod as it was a very similar fight.They can get to 40kg and 1.4m.I'd love to hook one that big.I find that the cod are more spread out and you have to drop in afew places to get them.On the other hand gemfish school during the day and you can get the max bag limit of two each easy so if you catch acouple of gemfish move to try to find other fish.

When I gutted the bigger one the stomach had two bright red prawns or shrimp in it plus a very bony unrecognisable fish with huge fangs.Pull some very strange things from the stomachs of these deep water fish.It may seem disgusting but I find it fascinating looking at all the strange things live down there.

Kingies Till I Die as afew of the raiders have already stated these fish are excellent eating and worth going to all that efort for.

You can't always count on the surface fish to turn up so it's nice to get a good feed first and then chase the surface fish.Also alot of money is spent to get outthere and on tackle so it's great to get something back.

Jewnut we also saw acouple of boats hook up.One was lost straight away so we thought it was a shark while we didn't see the other fish boated.Pitty you couldn't tempt the marlin.Looks like it's going to be a great marlin season this summer from these early reports and all that bait in the water.

Edited August 21, 2006 by Mako