Port Stephens - 30/01/11

[jimboner]

Hey guys,

went out for our second trip of the season yesterday and hard probly the shittest good day we have ever had.

The morning started off well with little wind and little swell. We tried to get some bonnies off the inside of the of fingal spit to no avail. So bait-less we headed out to the FAD to maybe have some early fun only to find the FAD not where it used to be so we continued out to the carpark to troll some lures and look for bait. After about an hour we had a nice sized stripey in the spread hovering about 6ft under the short corner lit up like a christmas tree. However since we had no bait we couldn't switch anything to it and unfortunately it didn't take any lures and so came the first disappointment of the day. We stayed for about an hours looking around with some other boats around but didn't see anything else. A few hours later we headed north to some canyons off the shelf. About 1 mile from there the long rigger got taken by a big blue that the people in the fly bridge estimated at around 10ft long. Its tail got wrapped in the first jump and after about half an hour we got it to within about a ft of a tag shot but couldn't get one in. It then decided to go deep and with the tail wrap there was nothing we could do. After about an hour fighting and getting within around 100m of line left on the spool we started getting some line back to about 3/4 spool. However it decided to go deep again (whether it was dead by now we can't be sure) and as we started losing line we bumped the drag up onto the strike button to try and restrict it but it just snapped and we lost the fish, the lure, the rig and about 400m of line. The only positive was that it all happened on one of 2 24kg outfits we had out so we were at least able to put up some fight. Ok so we regrouped and after a few turns we headed further north to catch the NE'er home. Around 4 or 4.30 we got a hit on the long rigger again, this time a 10 or 15kg dollie with a friend in tow were up at the boat in a few minutes. Since we are tag and release fishermen we never have a gaf on hand so after some scrambling i found one under the deck. However it was stuck under there and after a very colourful exchange with my dad who stored it under there i had to try n carefully lift it on board, only to have him fall off instantly and he and his friend disappear forever.

So after a long day it was back to port and there was plenty of bait and bird action around 3 mile off the Tomaree heads to we dragged a few lures for 10 minutes to try n get one of the stripeys we heard was lurking around but didn't get anything.

Like i said....shit for a good day, not good for a shit day.

[issue]

Wow thats an exciting shit day.....Any day with a bite off a Blue is a good day. Bad luck how it ended but still exciting.

[Hundgie]

Gday guys, sounds like you had fun despite the lost fish. Do you mind if i ask a few quick questions about switch baiting? Do you slow down from your trolling speed when feeding the bait back? And do yakkas work ok if i cant find any slimies?

Cheers Josh

Edited February 1, 2011 by Hundgie