My First Hairtail - Cowan 8/6

[quintrex480]

Hi Raiders, sorry for the long report but being my first hairtail trip, just wanted to go into more detail of the session.

With all this recent talk of hairtail, decided to head out on a 2 boat convoy with Formosan to Cowan to try and land myself my first hairtail. Prepared myself all week with all the gear required to catch these awesome looking fish, we got the boats onto the water about 9pm and ventured out into the dark valleys of Cowan and being the first time I've ever taken the boat there, I was amazed at how dark and eerie the place was but at the same time very peaceful.

Got to our spot in WB and dropped anchor, put 2 rods out for hairtail and another one for a possible jewie, started to throw some burley out and soon enough these weird ass looking lines started appearing across the sounder, and they were thick, there were so many that it was playing tricks on the sounder making it think it was the bottom and gave a reading of 2.9 metres when I knew I was in 18+ metres.

Never have caught a hairtail before, I was not sure what to expect, then I see my rod tip just start bending really slowly and just stayed bent and I was on, picked the rod out of the holder and started to wind, and then nothing, strange, thinking to myself I am sure I was on. Anyways, the other rod starts doing the same thing, bending straight down and then races sideways, pick the rod up and it's heavy, start fighting, and then nothing. The same thing happened another 4 times! thinking to myself WTF is going on here!! :ranting2:

This is all happening whilst my mate is pulling in breams, thinking to myself, you keep on pulling in breams, I am going to get myself a hairtail!!!!

Anyways all go's quiet for a little while, and then my mates rod starts doing the bending thing, he picks it up and he's on, and soon enough we see the silvery shine of the hairtail, net it and it goes 1.3ish meters, happy that we boated a hairtail, a little bit pee'ed off that it wasn't me!!!! ahahhaha

I made a slight change in the way I was gang'ing the pillie to see if maybe that would do the trick, and straight away I am on but it's on my lightest rod holding only 8lb line, SHITE!!! took it easy, and in what seemed like an eternity we see the long thick chrome of a thing appear, netted it, my first hairtail and it goes 1.6m! WOOHOO!!!! mission accomplished!!!!

We start pulling in some yakkas around mid-night and decided to give them a go, put the biggest yak on my mates rod and settle it into the rod holder, nothing touched it for a good 30 mins, but then tap-tap-tap and ZZZZZZZZZZ.... it takes off, no way this was a hairy, I called it for a jew, it zips my mate around the boat, and I quickly gather all the rods in but it takes out the 2 rods on the other side of the boat, got the knife and I start cutting line, making sure I didn't cut the line with the fish! it was only 30lb line with 12lb wire trace, so the drag was eased off quite a bit, and this thing just kept on going, get a metre of line back, it takes 10, did this about 5 times.

I was thinking to myself, this sure fights like something I am kinda use to (hint: it's got a big yellow tail and starts with K), but I am thinking NAH NO FREAKIN WAY, NOT on a gang'ed yellowtail at 1am in the morning.

Shine the torch into the water to try and see what it is and I see a glimpse and OMG!!! HUH?? it can't be!! NOOOOO!!! I shout at my mate, IT'S A KING!!! ahhaha netted it to 92cm. My mates first legal king, he was stoked!!!!

We land another hairtail, salmon and a couple of tailor, all quiet by 3am, packed up and headed home... satisfied to have ticked a hairtail off the list.

Formosan's boat netted another 2 hairtail and a stack of bream. Sorry for the blurry pictures, the camera doesn't do too good a job in the dark.

Edited June 10, 2012 by quintrex480

[fish311]

nice buddy ... where you fishing for this hairtail ?

[PowerFisher]

Thats an awesome report Congrats on your first hairtail.

Thats amazing catching a kingfish in the middle of the night.

[J Hooked]

Mate WELL DONE! I'm just as exited as you are. Those hairies give you a shock the first time you see them don't they! They’re tasty too.

You’re the second person I've heard of to land a kingie at night. That's absolutely amazing!

I’ve got my two nights off work and thinking of going up if the rain is good to me. Did you launch at Apple tree in Bobbin head or somewhere else?

Congrats

[Plumb]

Nice work on your 1st hair tail. And another great read.

Are you serious about the king, next you'll be reeling them in when targeting trout.... In Jindabyne

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mimyo]

Awesome work!! Congrats on your first hairy!! Theyre very bony, I find if you fillet them they're delish. Maybe should start down rigging there at night... That's unreal!!!!

[350chev]

Hey buddy,

Those kings can't seem to hide from you, not even in the dark lol. Congrats on scoring your first hairy, always a great feeling to land a different species especially when targeting them.

I hit botany yesterday avo thinking I might score another red around molli after that weather we just had, but things were very quiet. Only managed 3 Trevally, and a really fat bream.

Conditions were great but water temp was hovering around 16-16.4, might have put the fish to sleep haha.

We used to fish the hawksbury years ago in my dads boat and we used to get huge bream, nothing under 45 and quite a few as well. I think it's time I paid the hawksbury a visit again.

Cheers

Daniel

[rjc123]

Solid effort mate! Thats a very respectable first hairtail too Its one thing to land a kingie on a yakka but at night in Cowan Creek in WINTER!!! Crazy stuff!

Cheers, Tom

[Formosan]

Congrats on the hairys, and the WTF king ! all I can hear was drag zzzzzzz ZZZZZ and someone yell at the top of their voice a king.. a king! ..Bring the DR next time.

Was a good night, the mist and calmness of the water is pretty surreal.

[nautica]

Nice work mate and a big congrats on the king .i should be there tues night for a crack my self

[quintrex480]

nice buddy ... where you fishing for this hairtail ?

hey mate, I believe we were fishing the same place as you, and I believe we headed out as you were heading in.

[quintrex480]

Thats an awesome report Congrats on your first hairtail.

Thats amazing catching a kingfish in the middle of the night.

yeah def a fluke but we'll take it! ahhaha

Mate WELL DONE! I'm just as exited as you are. Those hairies give you a shock the first time you see them don't they! They're tasty too.

You're the second person I've heard of to land a kingie at night. That's absolutely amazing!

I've got my two nights off work and thinking of going up if the rain is good to me. Did you launch at Apple tree in Bobbin head or somewhere else?

Congrats

thanks buddy, yeah launched at appletree, wished they put a couple more lights there, being a first timer, did several zig-zags down the ramp

Nice work on your 1st hair tail. And another great read.

Are you serious about the king, next you'll be reeling them in when targeting trout.... In Jindabyne

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

thanks Luke, hahaha king at jindabyne, how have you been doing lately?

Awesome work!! Congrats on your first hairy!! Theyre very bony, I find if you fillet them they're delish. Maybe should start down rigging there at night... That's unreal!!!!

thanks mate, we had the 'fishing crew' over at my place last night, sashimi'ed the king and had some hairtail steaks, didn't do much to it but it was very nice eating all the same!

downrigging and bring my saltiga a long as well!

Hey buddy,

Those kings can't seem to hide from you, not even in the dark lol. Congrats on scoring your first hairy, always a great feeling to land a different species especially when targeting them.

I hit botany yesterday avo thinking I might score another red around molli after that weather we just had, but things were very quiet. Only managed 3 Trevally, and a really fat bream.

Conditions were great but water temp was hovering around 16-16.4, might have put the fish to sleep haha.

We used to fish the hawksbury years ago in my dads boat and we used to get huge bream, nothing under 45 and quite a few as well. I think it's time I paid the hawksbury a visit again.

Cheers

Daniel

hahahaha that's it Dan, they can run but they can't hide!!! well done on the trevs and bream, I am thinking of a trip to the bay tomorrow maybe, that is if I can get out of bed.

Solid effort mate! Thats a very respectable first hairtail too Its one thing to land a kingie on a yakka but at night in Cowan Creek in WINTER!!! Crazy stuff!

Cheers, Tom

Yeah, I've been told it's a decent size, I wonder what the FR record is? the thing is we had the yakka down only 5 metres as well, must have been a very hungry king!

Edited June 10, 2012 by quintrex480

[quintrex480]

Congrats on the hairys, and the WTF king ! all I can hear was drag zzzzzzz ZZZZZ and someone yell at the top of their voice a king.. a king! ..Bring the DR next time.

Was a good night, the mist and calmness of the water is pretty surreal.

hahahaha yes I did scream it out like a girl didn't I? but was pretty excited seeing that king come out of the dark waters! and it was also Tan's first legal so I was pretty happy for him as well.

thanks for showing us the ropes buddy, definitely wouldn't have been able to do it without you guys there also.

[gianniz]

hairtails in big school will eat crazy, but when they aren't they can be very playful with their food.

they tend to lightly grab the bait with their teeth and they take it side to side very slowly. If you yank it, you will most likley loose it.

What you need to do is slow retreive the line, when you do this, soon or later hair tail will pull the line drastically, this is when you strike

[dhype]

Looks like you all had a mad night out and had heaps of fun catching the hairtails.... well done fellows

I first learnt about hairtail about 20 years ago watching a VHS tape and thought holly crap I would love to catch one of these ugly bastards one day.... I guess that day is coming up this winter! Thanks for the informative post!

[quintrex480]

hairtails in big school will eat crazy, but when they aren't they can be very playful with their food.

they tend to lightly grab the bait with their teeth and they take it side to side very slowly. If you yank it, you will most likley loose it.

What you need to do is slow retreive the line, when you do this, soon or later hair tail will pull the line drastically, this is when you strike

Thanks mate! Exactly how you described it! After talking to a friend afterwards who's a hairtail veteran, he says to do the same thing. Will definitely take the advice on board and see if we can improve the hookup rate next time.

[quintrex480]

Looks like you all had a mad night out and had heaps of fun catching the hairtails.... well done fellows

I first learnt about hairtail about 20 years ago watching a VHS tape and thought holly crap I would love to catch one of these ugly bastards one day.... I guess that day is coming up this winter! Thanks for the informative post!

Yeah buddy, there's something different about night fishing. Guess it's more relaxing compared to what we normally do. We might be out next weekend as well, let us know if you want to join the convoy.

[cdol9]

Well done mate must've been freezing out there .

[Formosan]

Looks like you all had a mad night out and had heaps of fun catching the hairtails.... well done fellows

I first learnt about hairtail about 20 years ago watching a VHS tape and thought holly crap I would love to catch one of these ugly bastards one day.... I guess that day is coming up this winter! Thanks for the informative post!

Come join the hair tail convoy ! There are kingies there so it should keep you interested.

[locodave]

That is awesome! I was there Saturday night! It is freezing out there! I was at Jersualem bay, i didn't catch anything there though.

The water is warmer than outside! I was in the water loading my boat in apple tree bay haha!

What is WB?

[dhype]

Yeah buddy, there's something different about night fishing. Guess it's more relaxing compared to what we normally do. We might be out next weekend as well, let us know if you want to join the convoy.

Come join the hair tail convoy ! There are kingies there so it should keep you interested.

Thanks guys... I'll take you up the offer when I get back from sunny Hawaii in a few weeks time!

Hopefully by the time I get back you both would have found a few more spots and mastered the art! This way you can put me right on the hairs!

Looking forward to it!

Trung

[billseeker]

Nice work great catch especially the kingy

[Connor11]

Awesome report fellas, what an awesome night and considering the gay weather top effort! I wish i had your motivation ?

[mrsswordfisherman]

That is awesome! I was there Saturday night! It is freezing out there! I was at Jersualem bay, i didn't catch anything there though.

The water is warmer than outside! I was in the water loading my boat in apple tree bay haha!

What is WB?

That would be Waratah Bay and where the fishraider mothership will be moored for our annual Hairtail trip. Why not join us CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS FOR HAIRTAIL WEEKEND

[quintrex480]

Awesome report fellas, what an awesome night and considering the gay weather top effort! I wish i had your motivation ?

Tell ya what, I was fearing the worse b4 the trip thinking it's going to be freezing but being inside wararah bay, you're shielded by the wind. Slap on the beanie and a jacket and it's like being at home .