LuckyFil Posted December 3, 2015 Share Posted December 3, 2015 Just back from 12 days helping some mates bring a 40 foot catamaran back from the Whitsundays. I got off at Hervey Bay, the remaining crew were sailing it the rest of the way to Sydney. A 40 foot cat is not your typical sport fishing machine but we managed to drag some lures for nearly all of the approximately 1200ks of the part of the trip I was on. Only 2 of us were keen fishos but we all enjoyed the madness of trying to retrieve a fish while bringing an 8 tonne sailing boat to a stop and negotiating a snapping mackerel up the back step with nothing more than an average size landing net! We had some long stretches with no hits but other days scored more although not always sinking the hooks . Lure losses were high losing 3 rapala CD18s with one spooled fish, one broken leader trying to drag a massive spanish up the steps and one wire trace broken - we think that fish was sharked. Strangely all strikes were on one side of the boat, not a single hit on the rod with similar lures on the other side - any theories on that? We switched sides a few days but same thing every day, only hits on the starboard side. Species were cobia, Mack tuna , Spotted mackerel, Also a spanish mackerel (no pic as we lost him on the way in but he was too big in any case - definite candidate for ciguatera), long tail tuna (very nice sashimi) and a cracker coral trout caught on bait from the little tender (interesting getting that on board while bobbing around 80 miles to sea in an 8 foot tender!!). Will try to add more pics in further post along with a few underwater shots as we did a lot of snorkelling at Fitzroy reef, Lady Musgrave and Heron Island - fantastic water colour and temp (28 degrees). Cheers Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuckyFil Posted December 4, 2015 Author Share Posted December 4, 2015 More pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
night_rider Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 That trout is a monster! Sounds like a really cool trip! Hiccup free? Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Boukaseff Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 Lucky blokes, how did you manage that gig? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuckyFil Posted December 4, 2015 Author Share Posted December 4, 2015 That trout is a monster! Sounds like a really cool trip! Hiccup free? Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk Yeah apart from one night of sea sickness when it was pretty bumpy. Very lucky with the conditions, 7-10 knot winds every day meant calm seas although that also meant we had to motor/sail a lot of the time. Just got into Hervey Bay before a big southerly front thats due to last 3 days, so the remaining crew will have to sit that out behind Frazer Island till it passes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuckyFil Posted December 4, 2015 Author Share Posted December 4, 2015 Lucky blokes, how did you manage that gig? Yeah can't believe my luck. Two of my mates have shares in the boat and asked me along . I've had plenty of time on different sized boats but am not much of a sailor so just helped out with all the odd jobs and tried to learn a bit about it. The boat has a fantastic chart plotter, auto pilot, depth sounder and radar as well as very comfortable cabins bathrooms galley etc, and the skipper has 40 plus years of sailing including a lot of blue water experience so I was in good hands and tried to learn as much as I could while enjoying the company of good blokes in a top location. Gotta be lucky sometimes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevefish Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 You asked for a theory, Electrolysis problem on the fishless side. Electrolysis will lower your catch rate in game fishing boats and you were running 2 boats a bit apart from each other. Second and lesser theory, which side has the transducer and anything else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuckyFil Posted December 4, 2015 Author Share Posted December 4, 2015 You asked for a theory, Electrolysis problem on the fishless side. Electrolysis will lower your catch rate in game fishing boats and you were running 2 boats a bit apart from each other. Second and lesser theory, which side has the transducer and anything else? I'll ask about the transducer when they get into Sydney in a couple of weeks - interesting thought. What causes electrolysis? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevefish Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 (edited) Electrical current leaking from the wiring/battery into the hull, running gear or elsewhere that it shouldn't. I guess on a rig like that there might be a wind generator or solar to be considered as well. A quick search will tell you more than I know. Maybe also ask where are the anodes are located? Edit, further details Edited December 4, 2015 by stevefish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RexSenior Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 Awesome report Phil! Has to be on the bucket list getting up there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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