Browns Mountain 15/1/07

[mako1]

Dad and I went out to Browns Mountain yesterday in search of some big pelagics.Dropped the crab traps before we went out and caught some livies.Trolled from the 150m mark to Browns with a large swim bait,some skip baits and a jet head.The weather was excellent and we hit 24 degree water at the 150m mark and it rose to 25 degrees at the shelf and we even hit some 26 degree water before it dropped back to 24.5 degrees at Browns.Even with all of that hot water we only got one hit from a striped tuna on the jet head.

We decided to drop a bottom rig to see if we can catch dinner before we went for a drift.First drop I got some good bites and we pulled up three nice gemfish.

With afew dinners sorted we found some 25.5 degree water close to Browns and went for a drift.I had one surface and one deep livie,two shark baits and one floating pilchard out.The current was running at about 3 knots and there was a light NE wind blowing so the drift was fast.We burlied hard but didn't get a touch even after drifting 12km.There was alot of brown slime on the surface which kept sticking to the line.

We ended up trolling back to browns and all the way we passed large pods of dolphins.The troll back to botany was nice and easy with the wind behind us.I put two pushers,one jethead and two large squidgies out.About 21km from Botany one of the rods with the squidgy on it buckled over then released then buckled over again then released again.When I got to the rod the squidgy kept coming out of the water so I pulled it in and the end tail section had been bitten off and it had a gash in the side.We went back and continued to troll but didn't get anymore hits.

Went over to Towra and picked up the traps.Ended up with five nice male blue swimmers and one female with eggs which was released(Forgot to take a pic of the crabs).

It's a pitty the surface fish didn't want to play but it was a nice day to be on the water and we ended up with a good feed.

[Mondo Rock]

Great report Mako - I don't think I've ever seen a gemfish before. They look a bit like hairtail.

Bad luck on the pelagics.

[Chaos]

Sounds like a god day out with a feed and some crabs at the end. Hopefully you'll hook up next time. Wonder what the brown slime was?

[riggem]

better luck next time.

[Guest IFishSick.]

Yeah the surface activity is pretty rubbish with that temperature of water. It's too hot for the fish.

You'll soon see that all the Marlin and Dollies will stick to the water that's 21 - 23 degrees.

Good stuff on the Gemfish thought it would have been tough work with such a fast current.

[Guest Reel Addiction (Sea Jay)]

Great bag of fish there mate.

Thats the thing with pelagics there is alot of dissapointment, that hot water there what was the biggest temperatur break that you found????

[CR@ZY OS@M@]

better luck next time mate.

good to bring home feed esp the blue swimmers.

well done

[Penguin]

Sounds like u done a lot of kms,

at least u got a nice feed of Gemmies and

Blue swimmers,

What bait do u use in ur pots,mine hardly catch anything

in the bay.

penguin

[mako1]

Reel Addiction the biggest temp break was about half a degree,but mostly the temp just gradually rose and then gradually fell.

Penguin I try to put a variety of baits out and always try different baits as I keep any heads or frames after cleaning fish at home.The bloody fish like mackrel and tuna are good but don't last that long in the traps.I've found sweep to be a very good bait so if they annoy you on the reefs keep some and turn them into crabs.On this trip sergent baker fillets took the crabs while the pike and striped tuna didn't get touched.The traps were out all day as we were offshore but I prefer to move them every 1-2hrs as it covers more ground.