Mixed bag at the fads

[AlbertW]

Hey Everyone,

With the spectacular weather this Easter long weekend, I decided to head out with some mates to deep drop for blue eye cod at browns mountain. Seems like everyone else had the same plan as we counted 25 boats before leaving. We planned to send down some fresh squid on the electric and do some jigging with a 600g jig. Literal first drop on the jig my mate snags it and instantly looses 400m of line . That was the end of jigging for us so we just sat around eating chips waiting for something to happen to the electric. I got bored waiting around so I got the squidtrex out on the baitcaster and made a few casts. Much to my delight a couple of bright blue dollies started to circle it but wouldn’t commit. As I thought that it was a lost cause I see two blue fast moving shapes derail and speed towards the squidtrex, they circle it for a bit and finally commit, unfortunately it was a small mack tuna but was still exhilarating sight fishing for them. When we were preparing for another drop on the electric I suffered the first of many injuries on this trip which was catching a hook on the hand as my mate dropped the sinker too early.  Luckily it didn’t do too much damage and after a bandaid or two we got back to fishing. Finally we decided to cut our losses and head to a FAD. The dollies weren’t out to play so we dropped down some fresh bonito fillets. This ended the fish drought and rewarded us with around 10 longfin perch, 3 snapper, a massive leatherjacket and a huge John Dory. On the way in we decided to troll around the heads and after multiple missed hookups and bites we managed to land a 60cm Bonnie! Overall, not a bad day out and pretty good for my first time offshore!

(No more seasickness! )

Cheers,

Albert

[AlbertW]

My portion of the haul 

 

 

[Yowie]

A nice mixed bag there, certainly worth the time and effort to head out.

[jenno64]

Very nice variety of species there!

[Larkin]

Nice catch Albert!
love the Dory! Top eating

[frankS]

Apart from the Dory those longfin Perch are the sweetest fish you will ever eat. Enjoy

Great days fishing, well done.

Frank

[99FishingWorld]

just a tip about dollies, you're less likely to catch them after 9 AM. It would've been better to head to the FAD first, then to Browns. Last weekend's current was very slow, not ideal for dollies because they feed harder when the current is stronger, but you can still catch them (we did for bait lol). Wait for that new moon phase, they should be on fire this weekend and next weekend 

[AlbertW]

On 4/1/2024 at 1:38 PM, Yowie said:

A nice mixed bag there, certainly worth the time and effort to head out.

Cheers Yowie!

 

On 4/2/2024 at 4:17 PM, jenno64 said:

Very nice variety of species there!

Thanks Jenno!

 

22 hours ago, Larkin said:

Nice catch Albert!
love the Dory! Top eating

The bonnie was really good as well, bled and then marinated in some lime juice for the frying pan!

20 hours ago, frankS said:

Apart from the Dory those longfin Perch are the sweetest fish you will ever eat. Enjoy

Great days fishing, well done.

Frank

Just don't know how to prepare them haha, maybe in a nice soup

1 hour ago, 99FishingWorld said:

just a tip about dollies, you're less likely to catch them after 9 AM. It would've been better to head to the FAD first, then to Browns. Last weekend's current was very slow, not ideal for dollies because they feed harder when the current is stronger, but you can still catch them (we did for bait lol). Wait for that new moon phase, they should be on fire this weekend and next weekend 

Thanks for the advice mate, next weekend looks tempting haha, just gotta convince my mate now as we all have school cadet camp next week.

[faker]

very well done. i struggle to get similar results on land. boat fishos make me drool at some of the stuff they catch but i will have to be content hanging around rocks for now