Coffs last week-zigging when we should of been zagging!!

[PaddyT]

Just got back from a bit of  frustrating but none the less very enjoyable week in Coffs. There was reasonable numbers of macks around of both the spotted and spanish kind but we found all sorts of interesting ways to lose them , bustoffs, biteoffs , crossovers,sharks , missed gaff shots. We spent one day looking for wahoo which had been around in good numbers the week before but spent the day hooking tuna after tuna-mainly mack tuna of course but did get one small yellowfin of about 7-8 kgs. Live bait were very hard to get but i did get a lot of pike which proved to be the bait the mackies wanted and this guy-50kgs plus of black cod (protected species so released of course).To put it mildly it was like hooking a freight train -not something im sure i want to repeat in a hurry!!.

The sharks were a real issue this trip- we hooked a couple on livies as well as the ones that were eating our macks. In terms of fish for the freezer it was a lean trip, in terms of action with everything else it was great fun. Booked again for next year already.

[Hoods]

Thanks for the report Paddy,

You are not on your own. The Macks have been sporadic and problematic to boat.

The Tax Man has been having a field day too.

Seems like small patches of fish and spread out.

Can someone tell me why the Mac Tuna are never taxed but the others are!!??

Better luck next year.

[Yowie]

Plenty of action, but donating food the the sharks is not on.

Big cod, and the yellowfin could be eaten if others were not being landed.

[Jiggy]

I know that we turn our noses up at Mac Tuna, great fighting fish and bait but eating them...🤢. But if you give them the tuna treatment (spike them, bleed them out, gill and gut then get them on ice); then fillet and discard all the blood line, what's left is not too bad on the plate. Cook them the same as you would yellowfin, or not cook, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Cheers

Rob

[Rebel]

Sounds like a fun trip.

Well done.

[bessell1955]

There was certainly a lot of action.

[PaddyT]

3 hours ago, bessell1955 said:

There was certainly a lot of action.

That there was-it is funny how familiarity breeds a degree of contempt-as a young bloke a mack tuna was a prize-my first decent tuna was a mack tuna, we had plenty of hookups, spotted a couple of marlin freeswimming , got smashed up a few times , swore a lot at the fish we lost, fished really hard and had a thoroughly enjoyable time away. Found a few new (to me anyway) mackeral spots and bait grounds-if you aint learning you aint living!! The coast between Urunga and Wooli just keeps sucking me back-its a great area.

[PaddyT]

7 hours ago, Jiggy said:

I know that we turn our noses up at Mac Tuna, great fighting fish and bait but eating them...🤢. But if you give them the tuna treatment (spike them, bleed them out, gill and gut then get them on ice); then fillet and discard all the blood line, what's left is not too bad on the plate. Cook them the same as you would yellowfin, or not cook, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Cheers

Rob

Ive tried them Rob-i must admit they just taste like raw fish blood to me as do striped tuna-AND -when what you hope is a spannie or wahoo turns into a mack tuna -well---but you are right they an excellent sportsfish.

[Jiggy]

16 hours ago, PaddyT said:

Ive tried them Rob-i must admit they just taste like raw fish blood to me as do striped tuna-AND -when what you hope is a spannie or wahoo turns into a mack tuna -well---but you are right they an excellent sportsfish.

Isn't it just disappointing when your hoped for decent spanish turns into a big mac. I really need to head north and find some new ways to lose mackerel. 

[Hoods]

Plenty of Mackeral getting lost atm. Solid reports from Grassy Head north of SWR - mostly spotties.

Those Mac Tuna are dirty bait thieving B@st@rds. However they seem less intrusive this year

 

[Pickles]

Thanks for sharing @PaddyT, a real bummer to lose a good fish to sharks (there are lots and lots of sharks around sydney, both in-shore and off-shore lately). I’ve done a bit of SCUBA diving up north and the big cod are the apex feeders and sharks take second place (not so when the cod are little)

[JonD]

Fantastic trip. What depth was the cod in and do you think it went back down ok ?

Its hard to believe how good the fishing is along the coast this year, even getting macks down here in the south as well as the marlin still firing up. 

[PaddyT]

59 minutes ago, JonD said:

Fantastic trip. What depth was the cod in and do you think it went back down ok ?

Its hard to believe how good the fishing is along the coast this year, even getting macks down here in the south as well as the marlin still firing up. 

I caught the cod in about 15 m of water on a downrigged pike , i wasnt 100% happy with the release , towed him for a bit which he didnt like at all , he kicked off the gaff, floated and thrashed for a bit so we spun the boat back to try again but he'd disappeared , i think if i ever get one again i will try to deflate  , actually the fight is pretty distinctive so i will just bust it off down deep. Hopefully he was OK

[JonD]

1 hour ago, PaddyT said:

I caught the cod in about 15 m of water on a downrigged pike , i wasnt 100% happy with the release , towed him for a bit which he didnt like at all , he kicked off the gaff, floated and thrashed for a bit so we spun the boat back to try again but he'd disappeared , i think if i ever get one again i will try to deflate  , actually the fight is pretty distinctive so i will just bust it off down deep. Hopefully he was OK

We had a fair few cod on my last trip up north which all struggled to get back down (on the other two boats). I carry a venting needle which I bought from the USA which seemed to work well on our boat, they all seemed to take off back down well.