dobson_c Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 (edited) G'day all, Just thought I'd post a message from a newbie YFT devotee. We headed out of Sydney on Saturday around 7am with beautiful conditions, 10 or so yakkas, 14kg of pillies and 400lt of fuel in our Grady-White 228. Along with the rest of Sydney, we pointed the bow at Browns Mountain and got out there in about an hour and 15 minutes. At one point I counted 25 boats on the mountain - it was busy! All the talk during the week was of fin SE of Browns so we trolled in that direction for about 5 miles for not much and then looped back to Browns in an easterly direction. We trolled hydro magnums and bibless lures and didn't turn a reel. Back to Browns we started cubing and drifted a live yakka under a party balloon out back. After about 40 mins we had a hit and reeled in a nice stripey. Continued cubing and live baiting and drifted south until about 2:30pm where we pulled up stumps. We were now 7 miles from Browns and 26.5nm from the Heads we had nothing to show for it! It was a beautiful cruise back to the Heads at between 22 & 24kts and stopping occassionaly to take in the whale migration and to play with the dolphins. A couple of observations / questions: - What's the general VHF chit-chat channel most people use while out-wide? - We subscribe to the SST charts and haven't really found much value in them to date. Main reason is that if it's cloudy, they don't work and Sydney is cloudy very frequently. Not sure we'll be re-newing the membership. If the charts had worked on the Friday, we would have seen that the temp break was north rather than south of Browns! As it was, we headed out 'blind' and travelled SE as was suggested throughout the week - I asked the guy at the fishing shop how many kg's of cubes we'd need. He said he sometimes goes through 30kg!. We didn't get close to using our 14kg, I would suggest 8 or 10kg is about right for a session like ours (reasonably early start (at the ramp at 6am), pillies cut into 3rds, a bit of a troll and back through the heads around 4:30pm). - We used 100lt of fuel for the day. What do other people use? Our boat is 23+ ft with 200Hp - (which we are looking to sell by the way if anyone is interested!) - Did anyone have any luck on Saturday? I saw Reef Magic tangled with a blue shark and an awesome 60Kg fin - nice work! - For cubing we used a 24kg rig with a plaited double, Sampo style snap swivel, 1.5m 80lb leader and 8/0 J hook. The rig seemed to sink a lot faster than the cubes - anyone have any thoughts on the keeping a rig like this in the cube trail? - Water was about 21.9 degrees. Not sure if this is good or bad? - We had a new moon on Sat. Ross Hunter reckons the week before the full is the best (http://www.fishraider.com.au/fishing-articles/how-to-catch-tuna.php). Next new is on the 15th of this month - let's hope there's some good weather around from the 8th/9th of July! That's about it, even though we didn't catch much, I thought I'd share our experiences. Hope some others had more luck than us - it was a beautiful day out there and loved getting out wide to the infamous Browns for the first time! Cheers SG Edited July 4, 2011 by Sand Grouper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tackle Junkie Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Nice Report Anyway Mate.. If you put the hours in I am sure that You will get the reward. I hope to get my first Yellowfin sometime soon. See you at Browns next weekend. Cheers, Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REEF MAGIC CHARTERS Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Hi Sand Grouper great report and very informative for new comers to the art of catching yellowfin. PM has been sent. Cheers Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
short corner Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Don't think about it too much mate, just keep on getting out there, k.i.s.s. and you will get em, all ya rods will go off and FISH LOTTO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warnie Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Question For cubing we used a 24kg rig with a plaited double, Sampo style snap swivel, 1.5m 80lb leader and 8/0 J hook. The rig seemed to sink a lot faster than the cubes - anyone have any thoughts on the keeping a rig like this in the cube trail? SG What you have described above can best be summed up as being a typical set up......However to those that fish for Y/Fin on a regular basis a noticeable difference would be in that person’s ability to quickly read the conditions and then to accordingly adjust and change over to suit. IE.....Firstly by removing the double (which for y/fin is not really necessary) Then in downsizing your swivel to as light as a lineclass as possible with a preference given to black over chrome. Substitute the 8/0 J over to say an 8/0 Eagle claw el2004 Circle hook in helping to effect a more positive hook up and in cases for example where the fish are hanging back in the trail and acting timidly a common tactic is to tie the hook direct to your 24kg mainline and then strip it back. This also helps in answering your question as to how you can keep your bait up in the trail as well as taking care in stripping your bait back at the same rate as your trail is drifting another tactic is to add variety to the trail by laying down say 3rds, Halves, pieces, and throwing in 2 or 3 full ones every now and then which helps to stagger the trail (depth wise) over a greater distance. Off course there can be days when regardless as to what tackle or bait you use it gets eaten however these days seem to be getting fewer and farther apart ..... I hope that helps you a little. Cheers Warnie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dobson_c Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 Hi all, Thanks for the positive responses and practical, logical advice. Can't wait to get back out there and give it another go soon! Cheers, SG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erroll Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Great report there SG. Don't worry mate, it is going to happen. I'll take my boat out with you next time and we will cover more ground and smash em! If you hit the jackpot first time, every bugger would be doing it. Cheers Erroll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotbite Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 All goodstuff ther SG. You can also try wind-on leaders...very effective. When useing circle hooks don't "strike" the fish on the take...very important. Just push the drag up slowly (alot easeier with a lever drag)....& just lean back on the rod. The hook will do the rest & should pin its self in the corner of the jaw........unfortunenately 100,000 longliners can't be wrong!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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