Offshore Birds

[pauljm]

Thought i would try beat the wind and rain and get a fish in yesterday arvo....couldnt raise a yakka at balmoral after half hour of solid burleying so gave up and although it was looking a bit rough i punched in to the swell for a few miles and did a few drifts....got 1 50cm flattie which i am about to eat but struggled to hold bottom to get anymore....long story short i anchored up and caught undersized squire 1 after the other for a good half hour...must have caught 1 every drop for about 10 drops all around the old legal mark being 28cm....i then hooked something more solid which i was hoping was a jewy as it was fighting a bit weird... turned out to be a double hook up of 30cm trev and 40cm mowie..fighting against each other and me! After that all fish went off the bite and the sun went down....wanted to hang round and try for a jew but having no livies on me i decided the pub was a better option....Wondering if anyone else saw the amount of birds out there yesterday arvo..i have never seen so many....it was an amazing sight as they covered the whole horizon and were often smashing in to the surface but always seemed to come up empty handed....couldnt see any surface action either so i was wondering what they were chasing?and also what type of birds they are?most of them were smallish black birds with a white front...never really noticed them b4 but it made for an enjoyable arvo....home and boat washed by 830.....pub by nine hope the weather clears up for a fish monday....we need the rain but its a long weekend goddammit!

[yakfishing]

They were probably smashing a huge ball of small baitfish. They would be getting demolished from below too, I would have loved to have a lure in there.

[pauljm]

They were probably smashing a huge ball of small baitfish. They would be getting demolished from below too, I would have loved to have a lure in there, mate how does the yak go on your your back? been thnking of buying one of getting one but my dodgy back comes and goes so dont wanna spend a k and use it rarely....the birds were swooping the whole horizoncovering manykms....i have never seen anything like it. seemed to be hitting the surface at random....flouro specs in the water might have been been why. gotta get a yak to get closer to the elements....tight lines .....

[Ray R]

and also what type of birds they are?

Good report there mate, those little black birds might be Shearwater birds, (not sure of the spelling)..

Shearwater..

Edited October 3, 2009 by Ray R

[fishmaniac]

They could be striped tuna. I noticed Ross Hunter posted a report saying he caught around 50 a couple of days ago on the troll in relatively close.

About this time last year, my mate and I bumped into some birds, doing what described. Diving, coming up seemigly empty handed and working the area without any surface splashes. We trolled around the birds and got hookup after hookup on stripies. So many i started spinning them up on 8lb. Yet not one broke the surface while on the chew.

We then trolled the fringes and I got destroyed on 8lb (probably stupid to be trolling at sea with 8lb) and my mate hooked a nice albi or fin around 10kg which pulled the hook metres from the gaff.

[tan the fisherman]

I troll the heads with a 300 series overhead reel with 25lb line, lure tied straight onto the end. Have caught plenty of bonnies, salmon etc without a problem.

[yakfishing]

Gday payatz

I had a back injury for a while back and had to restrict myself to estuaries for no longer than 3 hr sessions . I'd be a bit sore afterwards but not too bad unless I pushed myself too hard. I would never take it outside unless I had complete confidence in my back and fitness levels. I'm still working my way up to it.