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Moreton mixed bag and missed opportunities. 27/4

dhess

By dhess
in Saltwater

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dhess Newbie

dhess

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Having not been out offshore fishing for nearly six weeks due to the arrival of our first child and the ordinary weather, I was itching to get back into it.

For the past two weeks I watched the weather looking for a nice window and Monday (yesterday) looked half decent. Well good according to seabreeze but a bit ordinary according to bom. I waited for the 9pm forecast before calling my regular deckie to say "We're going".

We launched Spinnaker Marina at 3:30am and set out to Shallow Tempest. Only a light NW wind under 10 knots, but wind against a run out tide meant the bay was pretty sloppy, so we putted across at around 25kph. Not much point going any faster because it was a moonless night and approaching dead low tide.

As we rounded Cape Moreton and moved into deeper water it completely smoothed out. Slight wind chop with less than a metre swell.

I lined up for the first drift and we had a drop. First drop, up came a nice moses perch and my deckie Karol dropped a solid unkown fish. Things were looking good. While Karol continued to fish bait I decided to put a shimano lucanus jig i bought the other day, out on my plastics rod. Dropped it straight to the bottom and wound it up a metre or two, shoved the rod in rod holder and took a leak. Rod buckles over and after a short tussle and nearly pissing all over myself, up comes a nice little snapper. Wow, impressive these things really work. Send it back down and action again almost instantly, up comes an undersized maori cod. Next drop up comes a just under redthroat emperor. Meanwhile I began feeling sorry for my poor deckie who was getting no love on bait, when his rod buckles over and nearly gets ripped from his hands. After an intense fight that would have lasted for about five minutes, up comes a very respectable amberjack weighing in at 19kg. We tried to release it but it wouldn't swim, so ended up taking it for what will no doubt be several fish curry and fish and chip meals for several families. It was caught on a whole 20cm long dead mullet.

We redrifted across the reef a few more times and I lost what would have been several sizeable snapper due to the flimsy little hooks on the lucanus jigs being straightened. Next drop Karol pulled in a decent maori cod, and I got another moses perch on bait. Soon after things shut down. Redrifted a few more times to no avail. We had hoped to have a go on the 80-90m line for some snapper and pearlies but didn't bother trying as the wind had swung around from the NW to SSW. Drift fishing in deep water becomes a chore when you have the current runnning one way and the wind pushing you in the other direction.

The time had come to have a troll. Out went a Halco Crazy Deep, a regular Halco Laser Pro 190 and a Magnum X-Rap. Trolled over a few promising looking shows around the Shalow Tempest for no love. We decided to pull the lures in and motor north to Hutchies. The south wester was gaining intensity to around 15 knots and it was starting to chop up. Trolled from about Flinders Reef to the Northern end of Hutchies with zero action. Just as I started the turn to pass over a few bait congregations off goes the Laser Pro and soon after in comes a nice little yellowfin tuna. We redeployed the lures and lined up for another pass and this time the Crazy Deep goes off. It would'nt have been a big fish, but it spat the lure. Not to worry, next pass the Laser Pro gets walloped and line starts peeling off at a great rate of knots. After a less than a minute, frustration again, another dropped fish. This time what would have been a very good one, possibly a wahoo. Trolled around a bit longer and picked up another couple of rat yellowfin and a couple of mac tuna. Tried trolling the 40m line east of Hutchies and almost straight away a lure gets smashed, the Laser Pro again. Fought the fish for a few minutes before getting my arse handed to me on 10kg line. The line went slack after a powerful run and that was the end of that. Lure gone. This fish had some serious power, but not so much speed. Don't know what it was but it wasn't any tuna or wahoo, it wasn't quick enough. I am speculating it could have been a cobia or a GT. Its hard to believe but last year I saw some big GT's getting into bait around Hutchies.

The weather had further deteriorated and we were getting slapped around and drenched by slop driven by winds that were now gusting to 20knots. Trolled back to Cape Moreton and conditions improved a bit as we headed south. Once close in to the leeward side of Moreton Island it flattened out nicely and we could travel again at a decent speed. I was really dreading crossing the bay as I knew it would be uncomfortable with a 15knot wind against the tide. We got to the bay and my fears were allayed as it was sub 10 knots and pretty flat. We had a good run home and overall a very fun trip. Disapointingly we missed out on some solid fish but hey thats fishing. I was also very happy to have caught a few fish on the lucanus jig and will definitely be picking up a few more of these. I seriously need to look into upgrading the flimsy little hooks on them though. I wonder how far I can go with hook size without ruining the presentation and action though.

That night we had some delicious yellowfin tuna sashimi, with our four legged companions getting in on the act too. Followed it up tonight with some seared yellowfin steaks. Yum! [img size=1000]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/sunrise.jpg

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dhess Newbie

dhess

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happywally wrote:

what colour was the tail mate?

according to my guide... AJs have a dark blue to olive tan coloured tail... whereas Kingies have a yellow tail...

I would call the tail olivie yellow to confuse matters. :silly: Have caught plenty of both species before and this definitely looked AJ to me. Kingies have a slightly different profile and their facial markings just look different. Don't forget that there a few species of AJ in our waters too.

LOL Feral. Yellowfin and longtail tuna are great. It just goes to show my cats have better taste than you do. :P

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dhess Newbie

dhess

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Just had a look at google images and now I am a bit confused. It possibly is a kingie. I have only caught AJ's at this size so I am not sure what certain what a larger kingie exactly looks like. Biggest YTK I have seen was about 10kg and it looked very different. Slenderer and a more prominent, darker stripe down its flank. AJ's seem to be thicker set with more of a golden stripe.

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dhess Newbie

dhess

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Angus wrote:

Nice one Dom and great report!

Getting in form for the ROTM I suspect? :P

Angus

Possibly. :huh: Long way to go yet though. When winter hits full swing I am going to hire a couple of stripper deckies and that will guarantee the win for me.

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Feral Newbie

Feral

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dhess wrote:

Possibly. :huh: Long way to go yet though. When winter hits full swing I am going to hire a couple of stripper deckies and that will guarantee the win for me.

Some how Dom I doubt they will be able to help to much with the "writing words" bit. So I suspect your report will be relying heavily on the old "a picture is worth a thousand words" :woohoo:

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