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A Loooong Day At Sea


fishmaniac

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Headed out to browns mountain today with some mates adam and ross. We were in search of yellowfin tuna and in the past two weeks many have been caught. The current that had been holding all the fish had moved south from browns and reports coming in from yesterday were not encouraging with many boats returning with no fish at all. Nonetheless us first timers had a shot.

Left in the 6.5m boat from drummoyne at 5:20am. We arrived at quarantine and collected live baits (although we were successful this turned out to be a waste of time as nothing touched a livie). We then made the push for browns mountain. The conditions were good and we made the trip from the heads in about 1hr 15mins. We pulled up and saw some fish on the surface. We trolled some lures to no avail. We then set up our cube trail and waited... And waited.... And waited.... It was not looking good as last week people were on to solid fish within 15-30minutes.. By one o'clock it was again my turn to be in charge of the cubes. Then some torpedo like figures dash across the smooth sea. Suddenly, i had new found energy after only having about 3hours sleep the previous night.

My reel goes off in a very slight an tentative manner. Nothing which indicated when i should perhaps strinke. Then nothing.. my bait is gone... bugger... So i re-rig and out goes another pilchard in the berley trail. Its hit within a couple of minutes. I set the reel in gear and tighten up. The fish went for a few explosive runs but was a stubborn bugger and most of the fight was a blunt tug of war to gain line. After about a 15-20 minute battle, he's boatside and landed. It was my first YFT and weighed around i think somewhere between 20-30kg (didn't weigh it :wacko: ).

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As i play my fish ross gets a solid hit on his rod of a similar size fish and strikes too early. And so no fish... I put my bait in and hit again. The first run was fast and hard and i was thinking this may be a better fish. Put some more pressure on him and landed it within about 3-5 mins. A small striped tuna about 75-85cm (also my first stripey). Then we waited and waited again till dark for nothing before trecking home. Only two fish landed but could have been 3-5 if adam and ross hadn't lost theirs. All in all a great experience being out that far to sea and catching some fish although not as big as i would have hoped. But one is beter than none for a first time!

I was not using emmaculate game reels and copped a bit of stick from my mate who was rigged up with a penn 50. I was using a saltist 30 on an ugly stick. Anyone who is planning to go out and give it a shot. A good inshore or jiging outfit is fine, if not more callenging and fun. This YFT was easily under control and the drag on this little beauty was no where near locked (it s a star drag). I personally beleive i could have handled a fish up to 60kg.

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I was not using emmaculate game reels and copped a bit of stick from my mate who was rigged up with a penn 50. I was using a saltist 30 on an ugly stick. Anyone who is planning to go out and give it a shot. A good inshore or jiging outfit is fine, if not more callenging and fun. This YFT was easily under control and the drag on this little beauty was no where near locked (it s a star drag). I personally beleive i could have handled a fish up to 60kg.

Great report and well done on the fin.

Im not so sure I'd agree with you about the 60kg model but then again with time anything is possible. Bloody hard and long work though.

It's good seeing the fish in the water aye? I get all excited just thinking about it.

Edited by Boban
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Yea boys it was a fantastic expeience. It was our first time out and we sorta had no idea what we were doing! We have an idea now... Looking at some other reports who managed a few around the 45kg mark and you only headed out at 12:30!!!!

How far from browns did you gus cube? We couldn't realy find a temp break it hivered around 21.5 degrees every where we went.

As for the net... Well Ross went in the cabin and got and after seeing the fish suddenly realised that it might not be big enuf :074: So yes, the gaff was used. Hoping to get out again for another shot and maybe some better fish!

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