queensland Chasing the mackerel - reporting in

[tekung]

DAY 1

After the bad weather passed us by, my friends were dying to head out for a fish and with the gold coast looking sweet they made the call and came over to rig up the gear.

we launched off and headed to the bait grounds with not much luck. so out went the lures and we trolled to palm beach.

10 minutes in we get a hit from a bill fish, it pulled decent amount of drag but shook off the hooks eventually. as we pass mermaid another hookup, this time a yellowfin around 60-70cm, it ran towards the boat and was still pretty green, old mate thomas for some reason decides to man handle the line and pull him in, seconds later the fish shakes the hooks boatside, my mate peter reeling in the fish was gutted haha, we now give thomas shit for losing countless fishes we pull in. not long after, another bite and it pulls decent drag, after a few blistering runs at the boat and it comes in, a 99cm spotty mackerel.

there were 1 million birds out and mac tuna everywhere but not much hookups for us, we manage 2 macs. there were also 1 million boats out. the fishing went quiet in the early morning. so we called it quits.

DAY 2

My mate peter was happy to lend his boat to me for a fish in the bay, so i called a friend and brother to head out the very next day. our trip was mainly to chase mackerel, the idea was to get my little brother and his friend on their first mackerel spinning. we lost quite abit of lures and only 2 survived to tell the story

they pulled hooks on so many fish early morning but got around to lightening things up. we bagged a few bonitos and with my brother pulling in the best fish of the day, a 85cm schoolie. there were 1 million bonitos out that day and after a few triple hook ups we left that beacon. i also got a blistering run from a longtail that followed the boat, he took 50m in 1 run and 30 on the 2nd which threw the hook. gutted but pleased with the haul so we headed back in

Day 3

After this session my mate peter wanted to go out again, so we headed out early in the bay again with the weather forcast to be bad northernlys by midday. we had a blast, triple hook ups on mackerel, juvenile amber jacks and at 1 stage a decent kingy tried to swallow my amberjack. my mate hooked onto a kingy right next to my lure but spat it after a few big runs. I would say everyone was tired as hell by the end of the day and we lost alot of fish due to bite offs but I couldnt complain, the day was epic. 9:30am comes around and i make the call to head in just incase the weather man was slightly off time.

these lures survived the day, i hope they have more time in them before it gets snagged or bitten off

we kept some for a feed, they tasted amazing, the rest went to family and friends, they loved it.

[Manni79]

good stuff mate, they bay seems to be firing with mackerel at the moment

[grantbudd74]

I hooked into a big northern blur fin on the top lure you have there. After 2 hours the hook finally broke so it would be a good idea to change the trebles because you never know! Great work there, you will be eating fish for a very long time to come.....

cheers

Grant

[ellicat]

A few fun sessions there and a good haul on the last. Well done. :woohoo:

[kmcrosby78]

Awesome stuff mate, you certainly have the macks sussed out. Are those lures the Halco Twisty copies that I've seen on Ebay?

[tekung]

cheers guys, nah they're actual halco twisties, bought afew when bcf had their 25% off, i prefer the gillies slugs though, its proven to work quite well in the early morning when the sun isnt quite up to par or behind clouds. if i had known how much lures we would go through i would've stocked up on more. so far the count is 9 lures lost all up on 3 trips

[Manni79]

cheers guys, nah they're actual halco twisties, bought afew when bcf had their 25% off, i prefer the gillies slugs though, its proven to work quite well in the early morning when the sun isnt quite up to par or behind clouds. if i had known how much lures we would go through i would've stocked up on more. so far the count is 9 lures lost all up on 3 trips

Yeah mackerel can be brutal when it comes to losing lures, last Sunday I lost 3 DUO press baits in 4 casts, 2 got bitten off on the drop and one during the fight so that was 60 bucks goooone, after that plenty of gillies slugs disappeared too but thankfully are very cheap haha

if there is a break in the wind i think i'll head out and chase them, need to stock up on slugs first

[tekung]

u jinx me, we hooked up onto 2 big long tails today, 1 hour fight each fish only for both to get sharked. =( 1 was on an exist 3012H (20lb braid, 30-50lb rod) and the other on a ci4 4000 (15lb, 6-8kg rod).

i got smoked, was on the ci4, never thought i'd see 100m+ of line peel off in seconds, got me panicking with less than half a spool left, luckily we got into steering the boat quickly. cooked my reel, it was a monster of a fish. mate got one boat side on the exist, 30mins in at almost lock drag but it got munched on down deep later on in the fight, i couldnt believe it was still green.

I hooked into a big northern blur fin on the top lure you have there. After 2 hours the hook finally broke so it would be a good idea to change the trebles because you never know! Great work there, you will be eating fish for a very long time to come.....

cheers

Grant

[Binder]

Some good fish there.

Looking at that first photo where your rigging up, your going to need a bigger boat to fit that new LG Sounder you have in the background there......

[Angus]

Nice one mate. Well fed!