nightstalker Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Hi guys, just back from our annual South West Rocks trip. We arrived last Friday with 2 boats and five guys renting a house in the rocks. We were fishing out of a 5.3 Barcrusher and a 5.5 Sportsfish for the week. Weather reports were pretty average but in the end we managed to get across the bar six days out of seven which continues a very lucky run we've had for about six or seven years now only missing out on about 3 or 4 days out of over 50. The bar was a bit nasty though so it did mean starting later at times and coming in early enough to have a decent bar crossing. Most days we fished roughly six to eleven. The fishing too, was a bit tough this trip with the quantity of snapper down but we did still get some good fish. There seemed to be a lot of pilchards around with thousands of gannets, skuas (the things that try to eat happy feet) and albatross in the bay hunting them. I'd say the snapper were a bit full this year. We did manage in the end though snapper of 5.41kg and 3.5kg which are good fish for sure. We also found a lot of tuna hunting the pilchards and caught dozens of bonito both regular and watsons leaping from turbo charged midgets through to 3kg models. One day they were in plague proportions and we had a lot of fun catching them on a Sebile Stickshad that we picked up on our recent reef trip. They went crazy for it and we even caught them teabagging the lure that is slapping it on the surface on about six foot of trace hanging off the rod tip. The boys on the barcrusher got raided one morning landing a triple hookup of five kilo striped tuna that gave them some antics for ten minutes or so. I was also lucky enough to score a nice Mack Tuna of 6.6kg on a floater. Some nice smoking runs from that fish for sure. We also got the usual by catch and it really was an aquarium at times with 30 species caught over the week including bream (out on the reef in 20m, tarwhine, flathead, tusk fish, pearl perch, jew, trag and just about anything else you can think of. All in all a fantastic week of good mates and good fishing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukedfluke Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 WOW well done mate! those are some very nice fish.. must have been a great trip your lucky to catch such big snapper, keep it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogtooth Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Great report Nightstalker , Were the reds caught on bait or plastics ? Its a great area to fish ... cheers Dogtooth..... John..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordan.widz Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 good on ya Nightstalker for getting out there and haveing what sounds to be the perfect fishing trip!! keep up the fantastic fishing cheers, Prawn Star Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyboutfishing Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Great work mate, sounds like you all a great time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightstalker Posted July 20, 2010 Author Share Posted July 20, 2010 All caught on bait doggie, we only use iqf pilchards - which are very high quality. I know good reds are caught on plastics but dont subscribe to the theory that its better than bait. We berley hard an get good results with bait. I even tried a rig where i snelled a 5/0 hook above our regular 2 hook rig and put on a six inch plastic. This was the rig that the 5.4kg snapper hit but what do you think he hit, the plastic or the pilchard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
czy0058 Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Congratulations. Nice fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FISHARK Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Well done guys Crossing The Bar is a killer there !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickb Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Well done again Mat,sorry I missed you,were U in Sabbatical,sounds like the boys might have given U a shake up this time. we were there last night on the full,biggest 3.5 at pinnacle. Did U try the jewie spot. Sent you email,when got no answer Thought U had put trip off. we have been fishing Valla,good reds around Mate caught 1 same as your big fella well done agin,with the good stuff IQF. catch up next time. Cheers Rick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil D Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Nice trip Guys, Its hard enough to organise these trips while family matters are always around, its good to see you guys were able to put that aside and go for a weekend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightstalker Posted July 22, 2010 Author Share Posted July 22, 2010 Well done again Mat,sorry I missed you,were U in Sabbatical,sounds like the boys might have given U a shake up this time. we were there last night on the full,biggest 3.5 at pinnacle. Did U try the jewie spot. Sent you email,when got no answer Thought U had put trip off. we have been fishing Valla,good reds around Mate caught 1 same as your big fella well done agin,with the good stuff IQF. catch up next time. Cheers Rick. Hey Rick, yeh, we were fishing in Sabbatical and yeh, the boys probably caught more fish than us this year but we had a bung GPS and had to go back to dead reckoning and sounding out our spots. We did end up with the best three fish of the trip but. Due to the GPS issues we didnt fish the jewie spot or bother with in too close.... bar was a bit iffy so didnt get out as early as we like either. Good result really given we had a few issues. Heard of a friend of the barcrusher boys who goes to Nambucca at same time as us each year had been fishing 11m off Valla and had gotten a 6.2 and 5.5. Would like to try Valla one day. Whats the launch like there ...... could i fish it in my 3.5 fishnipper on a good day ...... does it fish around Christmas when i'm at Bello. My mate bought 2 boughts off Brian at the boatshed so he's running up to pick one up this weekend and fish with the boys who are there for another 2 1/2 weeks in the barcrusher (Blind Faith Ltd) but if the weathers good next weekend i'll drive up to and he'll tow sabbatical so we can fish and i'll tow the other boat home. Will let you know if were coming. Cheers, Mat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickb Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 (edited) Hi Mat, Mate it would be have to be good day in a 3.5. The month before U go to below is great ,all the big ones come in to spawn real close,those big ones I mentioned were caught inside two clicks.U launch off shelley beach or U can take on the Bar no troubles with king tides,shelleys great as long as U line up markers. How's the missus and little girl. Cheers Rick. P.S. Fancy blaming the GPS for the mates getting on top.True FISHO. At the moment Sunday thru to wed.looks great,but U know how quick it changes. Edited July 23, 2010 by rickb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Buzzard Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Well done fella's, nice feed there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightstalker Posted July 23, 2010 Author Share Posted July 23, 2010 Hi Mat, Mate it would be have to be good day in a 3.5. The month before U go to below is great ,all the big ones come in to spawn real close,those big ones I mentioned were caught inside two clicks.U launch off shelley beach or U can take on the Bar no troubles with king tides,shelleys great as long as U line up markers. How's the missus and little girl. Cheers Rick. P.S. Fancy blaming the GPS for the mates getting on top.True FISHO. At the moment Sunday thru to wed.looks great,but U know how quick it changes. Family is great thanks Rick with one just turned 1 and the other about to turn 5. Missus is great or at least will be until i tell her i'm going back up the coast next weekend. I'll save that one until i see what the weather is doing. And as for the PS - if I cant blame the GPS how else can i explain them getting more fish than us for the first time in five years. As far as the 3.5 goes, if its looking flat at Chrissie i'll tow it up and have a look. Its a great little hull which my mate originally bought with a view to launch at Bendagen so why not give it a go if its flat. Dont need an EPIRB, radio or flares in that close and i can swim that far. Mat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dobson_c Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 A great report - well done. Just on the GPS issue, if you have an iPhone with a GPS, download the navionics maps from the app store for $15. Best $15 I ever spent and a great backup incase the boat's GPS dies. The app has full high-quality maps of all Australian Coastal waterways. 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