Middle Harbour strikes again

[mrsquid]

Hi again Raiders

Well the weekend couldn't have come fast enough this week, with lessons learnt from previous weeks catches the plan was to re visit the Middle harbour hotspot that hadn’t let me down since breaking my duck, with low tide coinciding nicely with first light on Saturday morning and a seemingly perfect break in the strong winds there was going to be plenty of long days and sleepless nights before the weekend came.

As usual first priority before any Jew hunt is to spend hours in the week before collecting your golden baits!!! but as murphy's law would have it the Squid this week have been really slow (for me anyway) maybe a combination of low tides at dusk or strong winds and my favourite theory, the increase of predators in middle harbour have sent the squid into conservation mode. After a fruitless 3 nights of squiding, its Friday afternoon and I still don't have anything to present on my hook! Then things get desperate after watching the squid been caught all around me, an hour after dark with a the tide slowly coming in I reel in my only freshy for the night a small arrow about pinky size ahhhhhh with the outlook of rain and no fresh bait a sleep in was looking likely.

Then again there's more than one way to skin a cat!! New plan, instead of sleeping and getting a 4am start I’d head out super early, or late (I get confused! either way). With the lovely Diana (just in case haha) far from impressed with my new plan some serious negotiating was in need (begging). But Diana been the beautiful reasonable women that she is, wrote out and signed me permission note Woooo Hooooo and after a few hours of guilt and the loss of all rights to the tv remote forever I was on my way again.

I arrived at Tunks at 130 am the tide had been going down for an hour and a half and the weather was looking good, almost no wind and a large moon breaking through the clouds. I had one goal bait!!! there had been plenty of yakka’s on the go in middle harbour this week so I headed straight to my jewy hotspot with the intention of anchoring up and burlying hard with 4kg of pilchards, slight over kill you might think but my rule with burly is more is ALWAYS better, I like to keep a steady stream of small cubes running down current, maybe 1-2 pillies every 5 min. Over 6 hours something’s got to come by!! After only a few min I had 3 yakkas in the bucket, I don’t have much experience with yakka’s for bait but the first rod to go went into the deep with a live yakka, tail chopped off using 6-10kg rod, 30lb brain, new upgraded 60lb fluro leader, as per some good advice from fellow obsessed jewy hunters! About 2 meters long with small 10gram lead bead running between swivel and double 4/0 hooks. Seconded a large butterflied yakka on a super heavy 10-15kg rod 40lb braid, once again 60lb fluro leader setup but using 5/0 circle hooks (first time circle hook user) I was saving my favourite, all be it a little under gunned 2-4 kg rod with 20lb braid and 40lb flour leader for my one and only pinky size squid which I planning to send out on first light.

For me it takes a pretty awesome wave, probably involving a nice barrel to top the feeling of having rods set in the water, plenty of good bait in the bucket and now the anticipation of what's to come. Not long back this anticipation was the only thing I was bringing back to the boat ramp, but now things were different with fingers crossed, prayers said and ritual sacrifices made let the waiting game begin.

Good times eh!! Well not for long, just before 3am the first of what went on to be regular fixture for the night set in! Sometimes like a fog moving slowly into a valley! But not this time, just big heavy rain drops and a cold wind driving the dampness, attacking any warmth I had left under my raincoat! Meanwhile back inside my head I’m thinking it’s all good!!! jewy's love the rain 'yea it’s going to be AWESOME' Just not for another few hours After a few hours of checking, adjusting resetting baits and the all-important bailing rain water out of the tinny, nothing was happening the only high light was been joined by a fellow raider who's name escapes me (sorry mate send us a mgs let us know how ya went)

530am came and the pale light struggled to light up the dull grey sky. With the dawn of a new day the rain stopped and things started to get interesting! I through out my one squid GUN bait and checked the yakka’s only to find the livey chopped in half and nothing happening with the butterflied yakka. Rods set again and the cold slowly leaving my body a few tugs hit the butterflied yakka then quite again for 5 min before the heavy duty reel screams into life!!! ahhhhhh this is what’s it’s all about. A heavy dirty fight followed by multiply runs and I had the beautiful jewfish side on next to the tinny I reached out to grab the tail and without notice it roars into life almost pulling the rod from my left hand luckily I’d backed off the drag! but without a net and 3 more attempts to get the beauty on board I was getting very very nervous! last resort was to wait till it was side on them slid my hand up into the gills hahahaha it was on board groaning away on the tiny floor awesome another jewy and looking like a Pb and it was going 76cm, I hadn’t noticed before but the jew'y had swam around the livey's line and now I had 10 or so meters of brain tangled around the leader. With the excitement of my catch I just cut the braid and tied the line still attached to the livey to my oar for later collection while I sorted out the mess and got bait back in the water!

5 min later I get about retrieving the livey but as soon as I go to pull in the line I feel a heavy bite/pull then nothing... ok maybe just the livey giving a last ditch effort to escape but as I retrieved the line, out of the depths come silver!! A whole lot bigger than my livey but with no fight!! Up comes an incredible looking small soapy at 55cm, I’m more amazed than anything of the randomness of the catch! And even better I was going to release my first jewy hahah awesome!! I put her back in the water and held her there for a min doing what ya see on tv haha cpr for a fish, but when I let go it just turned on its side and nothing, another release same! Does anybody know why jewfish seem to throw up their stomachs when caught, because all the fish I have caught have had that symptom (all 23 m deep) maybe barra trauma???? Any methods to save these fish? I ended up keeping the soapy but I would like to make sure I can release the next one!

I kept looking at my catch proud as anything haha more jew'y action and this time on Yakka’s awesome another lesson learnt and more mistakes made. I ran out of yakka’s and burly at about 730, with the action disappearing and traffic increasing I pulled in my line and prepared to head off, with a fellow raider doing the same! Said goodbye and powered back through the showers to tunks awesome!!!! Awesome!!

Going to treat the lovely Diana to a nice Sunday so will have to wait till next week to head out again but already can’t wait! Sorry there’s no photos I brought the camera out with me was sadly was taken away by the rain gods, next time! I hope everybody is a lucky as me and thanks for reading tight lines!! Everybody!

Fast facts:

fish size: 76 and 55cm

Water temp: 19.6C

Bait:livey and butterflied yakka

Line/leader 76cm: 40lb braid/60lb fluro on 10-15 kg rod

55cm: 30lb braid/60lbfluro 6-10kg rod

Rig: swivel and light sinker running to the hooks

Weather: rain overcast

Burly: pilchards

Tide: fish caught 1 hour after low tide at 630am

Moon:????

The jewfish was landed using butterflied yakka on 2 5/0 circle hooks

[tw9635]

Great report. Terrific detail and plenty of action. Well done

[plankton]

Another successful raid. Well done.

Mine fell to a Yakka too. It's not always squid that does the damage.

Brett

[herdsman]

Hi again Raiders

Well the weekend couldn't have come fast enough this week, with lessons learnt from previous weeks catches the plan was to re visit the Middle harbour hotspot that hadn’t let me down since breaking my duck, with low tide coinciding nicely with first light on Saturday morning and a seemingly perfect break in the strong winds there was going to be plenty of long days and sleepless nights before the weekend came.

As usual first priority before any Jew hunt is to spend hours in the week before collecting your golden baits!!! but as murphy's law would have it the Squid this week have been really slow (for me anyway) maybe a combination of low tides at dusk or strong winds and my favourite theory, the increase of predators in middle harbour have sent the squid into conservation mode. After a fruitless 3 nights of squiding, its Friday afternoon and I still don't have anything to present on my hook! Then things get desperate after watching the squid been caught all around me, an hour after dark with a the tide slowly coming in I reel in my only freshy for the night a small arrow about pinky size ahhhhhh with the outlook of rain and no fresh bait a sleep in was looking likely.

Then again there's more than one way to skin a cat!! New plan, instead of sleeping and getting a 4am start I’d head out super early, or late (I get confused! either way). With the lovely Diana (just in case haha) far from impressed with my new plan some serious negotiating was in need (begging). But Diana been the beautiful reasonable women that she is, wrote out and signed me permission note Woooo Hooooo and after a few hours of guilt and the loss of all rights to the tv remote forever I was on my way again.

I arrived at Tunks at 130 am the tide had been going down for an hour and a half and the weather was looking good, almost no wind and a large moon breaking through the clouds. I had one goal bait!!! there had been plenty of yakka’s on the go in middle harbour this week so I headed straight to my jewy hotspot with the intention of anchoring up and burlying hard with 4kg of pilchards, slight over kill you might think but my rule with burly is more is ALWAYS better, I like to keep a steady stream of small cubes running down current, maybe 1-2 pillies every 5 min. Over 6 hours something’s got to come by!! After only a few min I had 3 yakkas in the bucket, I don’t have much experience with yakka’s for bait but the first rod to go went into the deep with a live yakka, tail chopped off using 6-10kg rod, 30lb brain, new upgraded 60lb fluro leader, as per some good advice from fellow obsessed jewy hunters! About 2 meters long with small 10gram lead bead running between swivel and double 4/0 hooks. Seconded a large butterflied yakka on a super heavy 10-15kg rod 40lb braid, once again 60lb fluro leader setup but using 5/0 circle hooks (first time circle hook user) I was saving my favourite, all be it a little under gunned 2-4 kg rod with 20lb braid and 40lb flour leader for my one and only pinky size squid which I planning to send out on first light.

For me it takes a pretty awesome wave, probably involving a nice barrel to top the feeling of having rods set in the water, plenty of good bait in the bucket and now the anticipation of what's to come. Not long back this anticipation was the only thing I was bringing back to the boat ramp, but now things were different with fingers crossed, prayers said and ritual sacrifices made let the waiting game begin.

Good times eh!! Well not for long, just before 3am the first of what went on to be regular fixture for the night set in! Sometimes like a fog moving slowly into a valley! But not this time, just big heavy rain drops and a cold wind driving the dampness, attacking any warmth I had left under my raincoat! Meanwhile back inside my head I’m thinking it’s all good!!! jewy's love the rain 'yea it’s going to be AWESOME' Just not for another few hours After a few hours of checking, adjusting resetting baits and the all-important bailing rain water out of the tinny, nothing was happening the only high light was been joined by a fellow raider who's name escapes me (sorry mate send us a mgs let us know how ya went)

530am came and the pale light struggled to light up the dull grey sky. With the dawn of a new day the rain stopped and things started to get interesting! I through out my one squid GUN bait and checked the yakka’s only to find the livey chopped in half and nothing happening with the butterflied yakka. Rods set again and the cold slowly leaving my body a few tugs hit the butterflied yakka then quite again for 5 min before the heavy duty reel screams into life!!! ahhhhhh this is what’s it’s all about. A heavy dirty fight followed by multiply runs and I had the beautiful jewfish side on next to the tinny I reached out to grab the tail and without notice it roars into life almost pulling the rod from my left hand luckily I’d backed off the drag! but without a net and 3 more attempts to get the beauty on board I was getting very very nervous! last resort was to wait till it was side on them slid my hand up into the gills hahahaha it was on board groaning away on the tiny floor awesome another jewy and looking like a Pb and it was going 76cm, I hadn’t noticed before but the jew'y had swam around the livey's line and now I had 10 or so meters of brain tangled around the leader. With the excitement of my catch I just cut the braid and tied the line still attached to the livey to my oar for later collection while I sorted out the mess and got bait back in the water!

5 min later I get about retrieving the livey but as soon as I go to pull in the line I feel a heavy bite/pull then nothing... ok maybe just the livey giving a last ditch effort to escape but as I retrieved the line, out of the depths come silver!! A whole lot bigger than my livey but with no fight!! Up comes an incredible looking small soapy at 55cm, I’m more amazed than anything of the randomness of the catch! And even better I was going to release my first jewy hahah awesome!! I put her back in the water and held her there for a min doing what ya see on tv haha cpr for a fish, but when I let go it just turned on its side and nothing, another release same! Does anybody know why jewfish seem to throw up their stomachs when caught, because all the fish I have caught have had that symptom (all 23 m deep) maybe barra trauma???? Any methods to save these fish? I ended up keeping the soapy but I would like to make sure I can release the next one!

I kept looking at my catch proud as anything haha more jew'y action and this time on Yakka’s awesome another lesson learnt and more mistakes made. I ran out of yakka’s and burly at about 730, with the action disappearing and traffic increasing I pulled in my line and prepared to head off, with a fellow raider doing the same! Said goodbye and powered back through the showers to tunks awesome!!!! Awesome!!

Going to treat the lovely Diana to a nice Sunday so will have to wait till next week to head out again but already can’t wait! Sorry there’s no photos I brought the camera out with me was sadly was taken away by the rain gods, next time! I hope everybody is a lucky as me and thanks for reading tight lines!! Everybody!

Fast facts:

fish size: 76 and 55cm

Water temp: 19.6C

Bait:livey and butterflied yakka

Line/leader 76cm: 40lb braid/60lb fluro on 10-15 kg rod

55cm: 30lb braid/60lbfluro 6-10kg rod

Rig: swivel and light sinker running to the hooks

Weather: rain overcast

Burly: pilchards

Tide: fish caught 1 hour after low tide at 630am

Moon:????

The jewfish was landed using butterflied yakka on 2 5/0 circle hooks

hello mate its herdsman here, i was next to you,congrats on your jewie, might want to get a net for the next one,the way your going it will be over the mtr mark,hope to see you out there soon.

[dwan8337]

Awesome report buddy!

[rvdwalt]

Greate report mate. Thanks for sharing in so much detail. I'm following your posts weekly and have learned a lot. Hopefully i will have something to share soon when all your good tips pay off.

[disturb3d]

Good write up mate.

Btw that 'stomach' they throw up, I think that's their bouyancy Bladder. Usually get that from deeper water fish like gems/blue eye.

Persistance is key with Jewie fishing.

[ginko]

onya mr squid! nice one on bailing the tinnie in the rain, waiting for jewies. I hope you have a better day's weather when you take out missusquid at the weekend.

[luvbigfish]

what a top report , well done mate keep up the good work , also luv the fast facts ,great idea! ,we should all do that in future reports.

cheers paul

[Robinsoi]

Tremendous report Mr Squid and well done again on a fine catch

Your prayers have certainly been answered!

With all that preparation and negotiation you deserve it, although relinquishing your rights to the tv remote with the Test Series coming up might be a bit painful!

Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing

Ian