Sammy0884 Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 (edited) Hey Raiders, CFD and I made the call to hit the FAD's on Saturday the 14th and see if we could better our efforts on the dollies as some promising reports had come up. Some of you may have noticed our post in the desperate and boatless section looking for a 3rd crew person... well we barely got any responce (strangely, and unfortunately for you all ), we had settled the deal with wildfish however we came to the conclusion that he should take his boat out for a bit of practice... Chris arrived at my house at 4am, a quick load up saw us on the road, we met up at cooks river ramp with wildfish and friend at 5am with the plan for them to get live bait inside the bay and then follow us (no GPS) to the close fad in their own rig. After wasting an hour and trying three different spots we still had not produced a single yakka, plans for yakkas were tossed overboard and we decided to chase OFFTAP and make way for the fad before the masses spoil our fun and take all the dollies (namely james1990 and co. ) We were met at the botany bay heads with a rolling 2m swell and very little chop, so 15 minutes @ 25 knots later and we had the FAD in our sights, we dropped some small skirts and started trolling for zippo, there were a few boats already at the FAD and a one of them was hooked up already, things were looking promising. The first drift with a prawn and pillie out on our 6lb bream outfits saw me hook up on the first dollie for the day, a great little dollie that carried on well above his weight and hit the ice measuring 65cm. A few more drifts saw one fish taken on each drift, the action was less than hot but we were determined to keep at it and find what would turn them on because it certainly wasn't prawns, pichards or live yakkas... one of the early dollies With the action dead for the last 20 minutes, it was time to start experimenting, i took a gamble and decided to have a crack at my previously aborted summer goal, a dollie on a popper... i grabbed my new Fishfinder Snapper Plastics custom rod and tied on a Halco rooser popper and threw it infront of the fad as we drifted... bloop... bloop... bloop.... there were some interesting looking swirls behind my lure, then BOOF! the popper was headbutted a metre out of the water with a number of dollies in hot persuit. Things were looking up as the popper had awoken the previously dormant school, and they were chasing the popper back to the boat all lit up an ready to eat.. another cast saw another missed strike and plently of dollies following. Chris then had the idea of teasing them to the back of the boat and then switchbaiting them with a prawn or pillie behind the popper, the next cast was worked back to the boat, again with the dollies in hot persuit, chris landed his prawn on the back of the popper and was instantly onto a good dollie, i'll let the video fill in the remaining details. The end result A few more dollies was taken switchbaiting, eventually they were so stirred up we were able to tag team for the next six fish taking the whole school about 500m from the FAD with a combination of pillie cubes and the popper. With the action now quite hot, it was fairly easy to keep the fish excited at the back of the boat by cubing once we had one hooked drifting past the fad, the dollies were taking cubes straight off the back of the boat. i dropped another dollie on the popper when the fish threw the hooks mid jump, bastard... A few more dollies hit the ice including one cracker that took a screaing run when i left my rod in the holder to apply some banana boat sunscreen chris whipped out the camera again and took some cool video footage of the 2500 twinpowers singing drag. Chris' next dollie came on the back of a school of dollies that were getting into our cube trail, the only issue was that this critter was a somewhat larger model, with a big square head indicating that this guy wears his plumbing on the outside... our fears and excitement were confirmed when we saw a bull dollie pushing 1m leap clear of the water and start ripping line off Chris' reel like it was in freespool, with the drag done up tighter than i would ever dare to use on 6lb fireline chris was forced to palm the spool to try and turn this beast before it made friends with the FAD mooring line again. this was going to be the mother of all challenges for bream gear with 6lb line... Unfortunately it was not meant to be, making a desperate run to the FAD from 70 metres away and winning its freedom and slicing through the braid like cotton. You can appreciate the frustration and dissapointment in the video, but thats half the fun of fishing light. (look in the edge of screen, infront of the flybridge cruiser for the dollie splash) For the next few hours Chris was putting us right back over the same mark and we were continuously pulling 5-6 each drift. With enough dollies for a feed (having kept most things above 50cm) i decided to upsize my weapon and put some more hurt on these little fluro pocket rockets! I tied on my favourite 3/0 Gamakatsu octopus hook, a pillie and dropped it in the water... the first three fish saw me pull the hooks with some excessive drag pressure, a lighter touch and another drift saw me take my first dollie on the Fishfinder snapper plastics 4-6kg.. it was fun being able to show them who was boss... Here my little doco... We caught a few more, with the action slowing down (probably sick of pilchards, poppers and prawns) our arms were aching, the boat looked like a murder scene and i was hanging for a large quarter pounder meal we decided to have a quick bash at the peak before heading home, highlights included one boat fighting "the plug" for a solid 30 minutes... pumping and winding..hahahahah and a 2 kilo sweep... no thanks... We left wildfish and made haste back to botany with james1990 and offtap1 in convoy... Back at the ramp we(chris) spent about 1 1/2 hours cleaning the 22 dollies that we decided to keep amongst the 40 odd that were caught and deliver them to everyone who had asked me to bring some fillets home for them. Heres a few more pics of the day, team Wildfish hooked up half of the convoy back at the ramp... how's the size of that cougarcraft cheers Sammy0884 and CFD Edited April 15, 2007 by crazedfisherdude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flightmanager Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Top report , you 2 sure cleaned up !! Ross Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbietola Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 great report guys, good to see the dolies are shown up. cheers craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piss'n'Broke Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Hey Chris Awesome report there mate! an somt TOP video footage,,,, love that sound ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Well done! Dan (D&G) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offtap1 Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Great Catch , Great Videos and Great to catch up again on the water Guys. See u all soon Cheers Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netic Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Well done on a good days fishing mate.....top report also and thanks for the vids...great stuff guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luringbream Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Great fishing boys!! Top catch!! Im spewing that i didnt get out today, my mate bailed out last minute. Did you get em off the close fad or the wide fad? DAN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmoshe Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Top session and a great report. Those videos sure put you there in the action and the sound of that drag is like music to a fisho's ears. Looks like you fellas have sussed the dollies to get 'em on the go with that popper & switcheroo technique. Great stuff. Thanks for a great report guys, Cheers, Pete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Stumpy Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Love the video footage. But who needs mates though to call you a looser, when one gets of the line when you almost landed it. Great catch guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingsRule Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Nice one guys!, love the video's aswell Shame the big one found the FAD though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDiko Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Great stuff guys! Let's see if I can out do you on Tuesday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ophet Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Totally awesome !!! Great report and great results !!! I imagine there was carnage on your boat, would have taken a while to get the blood washed off. Great photos and vids, and good thinking about the switch baiting. Gives me a couple of options next time !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james1990 Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 (edited) Ryan mate, you may be able to out do the boys in biggest fish as they were using light tackle, but in the ammount of fish caught noooo way everytime i looked at them they were onto a double hookup or atleast one of them was on. What time did you get back to the ramp OFFTAP? Top day, good company and top weather. The pic of my boat, im sitting up the front, that was just after i was woken from my sea sickness sleep by sam throwing peices of pillies at me. Heres sammy, cfd, offtap crew in convoy Edited April 15, 2007 by james1990 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ophet Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 A question guys, were you using a trace for the dollies? If so, what type? Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sammy0884 Posted April 15, 2007 Author Share Posted April 15, 2007 Hey mate, i was using 16lb Nitlon Flurocarbon and chris was using 20lb Jinkai Mrs Stumpy.... "looser" is a term on endearment between chris and i... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ophet Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Hey mate, i was using 16lb Nitlon Flurocarbon and chris was using 20lb Jinkai Mrs Stumpy.... "looser" is a term on endearment between chris and i... Thanks Sammy, I thought their teeth were razor like and the bulls would shred light traces. Seems like they are not too finicky with thickness of trace, one would think the 20lb Jinkai would be enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james1990 Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Meh i don't care, i'll looser you one day cfd anyways atleast i can find my bits and im nearlly 17 years old your 19 cheers james Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankp Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 top report guys shame about losing the bull though. would have been an awesome fight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazzassj6 Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 finally! another member that posted videos! goodjob i enjoy fishing videos very much! keep posting in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dart Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 well done chris and sam i really enjoyed the videos great catch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUFFO Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 (edited) Great Catch , Great Videos and Great to catch up again on the water Guys. See u all soon Cheers Dave Hey Dave, you live out west?I think I passed You on the M4 Near Arnotts.Very Nice boat. Cheers Suffo Edited April 16, 2007 by rzep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharky Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Great report guys. Good to see the Dollies have finally turned up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbielites Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Nice report mate, Looks like you guys had a ball out there ! As for the vids, I have already sent a PM to fishermandan telling him to watch his back Cheers. Robbie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolan Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 How hot is that!. Well done boys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grantkingfish Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 great days work guys! The last time i went out with off tap and his young bloke we came home with 15 dollies to 750 and 1 king 750 and i thought that was a great day. excellent post and great vids, keep up the good work... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now