Sunday Offshore Fishing

[fishmaniac]

Went out today in search of some dolphin fish. We went to a few fish traps my mate had marked the previos weekend. The conditions were ideal, completely glassed out seas made for an easy trip.

On the way out to the mark we stumbled across some other trap markers and upon arrival we were on to fish immediately. We were using pilchards and live yakkas to score fish. I was running 8lb line on a 4-8lb spin stick to have a bit of fun with a heavier leader to reduce the chances of a bite-off on a bigger fish.

We moved onto other traps as the fish went off the bite (usually after 4-5 drifts) and overall caught around 30-40 dollies with 8 legal fish, predominatly in the 70-76cm range.

After about 11 i had completely hit the wall having been out the previous night and only getting 2.5hrs sleep. We went to 12 mile and the sounder was pretty much dead so we headed back home.

Back to kingies later this week for a bit more pulling power!

[prawn*]

well done mate they are good fun on light tackle thats for sure!! if only saturday was as glassy as 2day! hope u enjoy the nice feed they are quite nice on the tooth

[wchh]

I once went to a dolly fishing trip a few year back with a charter operates off Terri gal. We did not find any challenge dolly fishing because you literally take a fish straight after you drop the pilly cube into the water. I did not get to take many fish because of seasick but among 5 of us, we caught more than 80 fish, size not that great though. That was in 2005 and I guess there was no size limit for dolphin fish at that time?

[Pumped - Up]

well done on the dollies mate, they are top fun when they are there

Lee

[jim77]

Well done Andrew - at least you got a few for the table.

What about those conditions??!!

Thanks for your message yesterday - it was too late for us as we were back in by then. Funny as we were going to try where you mentioned but in the end didn't bother... If only we had!!

Cheers mate

[Penguin]

Well done Andrew sounds like a fun day on the Dollies,

One of my fav eating fish.

cheers

[FISHARK]

Well done on the dollies mate .....

[craigbutcher]

HI Andrew

Great post.

Any chance on advising me the GPS you had? I have been thinking of heading out to the Sydney fad and I am trying to get some marks

Thanks

Craig

[fishmaniac]

Yea i really enjoy a few dolphin fish fillets. They have a soft texture with excellent flavour, one of my favourites to be honest!

Some days they go ballistic. I had one day last year when we caught about 100 between two of us. It was just stupid, we went home as we had enough. I think it is good that they have introduced the size and bag limits. You don't get much meat out of one that is less than 60cm anyways as they are such a narrow fish.

I have a handheld GPS76 from Garmin. It is waterproof and floats, which is great for me as i usually fish from my tinnie. You can look up the co-ordinates of the FAD but when it comes to traps its more of a luck game. We just troll to known reefs and hope to bump into some. They move them every few weeks anyways as we have tried marking and returning to traps. Sometimes they are still there, other times they have been removed.