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Rainbow Beach Wide 14/5 - 15/5

dhess

By dhess
in Saltwater

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dhess Newbie

dhess

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Got a text message from a fishing buddy on wednesday asking me if I was keen to join him and a few friends for an overnight trip out of wide bay bar. After telling a few white lies :evil: and reshuffling some work commiments I called back with a "lets do it!".

We met up at 4am and began the long drive north. As usual I only got a few hours sleep. It must the excitement and anticipation, but I can never seem to get a good nights sleep before any fishing outing. After the usual fuel, ice and toilet stops we arrived at Carlo Pt boat ramp at about 8am and made our way to the bar. Hardly a breath of wind but a 1.5m-2m SE swell made things interesting. At one point where you have to take a NE course copping some stand uppy stuff side on ended up being unavoidable. Some careful manouvering and we made it through safely. Attempting it on a runout tide would have been suicidal.

After unsuccessfully searching for livies near the bar we made our way about 25km NE to our first group of marks. Lacklustre shows greeted us on the sounder but we drift-fished a few patches of wire weed and rubble. Conditions were magic, fishing was very slow. A few undersize fish came aboard including pearlies, snapper and maori cod. Caught plenty of grinners and kept a few for bait. Eventually we caught a legal snapper and a pearly (on a lucanus jig) before we decided to try a few more spot in the general area. Things weren't going our way and morale was nosediving out of control in a downwards spiral. We proceeded to crack homosexual jokes about sleeping arrangements for the night ahead. Its not easy to sleep 4 guys on a 6.5m half cab boat. Three of the crew were bottom bashing (for those new to fishing lingo, this has nothing to do with the sleeping arrangements) and I was float lining on my lonesome. Soon after we put the rods in rod holders and cracked open a few beers. My rod got absolutely smacked and after a relatively short tussle in came an 83cm snapper. Pretty sure it was a PB for me. Bait was a thrice refrozen pillie that was still covered in ice. Looked at my phone and the time was 11:30 am, I can't remember ever having caught a decent snapper that late in the morning. Soon after Jansen, owner of the boat brought in a double header of baby red emperor. We have been desperately trying to catch a legal one for the last year so we started hoping a few bigger ones would be around. Not long after I sent down a live pinkie (not sure of the proper name but they are common up there and make good flesh baits, apparently taste like whiting too). It sat there for a while before getting walloped. After a good fight up came a fairly sizeable mac tuna which we kept for bait. Rest of boys were pissed off as so far I had caught the two biggest fish and we have a tradition off putting in $20 each and the winner takes all.

Things went quiet and we made our way south trying a few marks here and there. Not much happening on the sounder but managed a few unspectacular fish in dribs and drabs. Mostly small snapper, grassies and venus tuskfish. The sun was dipping so we decided to find a decent spot close in to anchor up for the dusk session. We ended anchoring up about 5km east of Double Island point on a nice looking show. It didn't take long for things to fire up and for about an hour and a half the action was hot with a few small snapper but plenty of grassies around the 45cm mark coming aboard. Had an interesting moment when I felt my line twitch. Looked down with mu head torch and there was the biggest sea snake I had ever seen. It had swum directly into my braid. Mac tuna was the gun bait for the session. We also caught several small sharks. Not sure what they were but if I had to hazard a guess I would say school sharks. They were slender with sharp whaler like teeth. Looked a bit like a blue shark but not quite as pointy a snout. I also caught a nice little bronze whaler that was about 1m long. A few wobeggongs also graced the decks of the barcrusher. Things had shut down and we were struggling to lose bait and when we were they were sharks, so we headed in behind the point and anchored up for the night. We had a decent nights sleep. A westerly of about 10-15 knots blew through the night but being in that close sheltered by the sand dunes things remained very comfortable.

We woke up at 3:30am and headed east in the search of fish. Once again conditions were great. We drift-fished a few marks about 20kms east of Double Island Point before finding one worth anchoring on. The fishing was good and we added several snapper and grassies to the esky. We caught heaps of undersized red emperor. At least 10 of them and they were slowly get bigger to about 40cm. Our optimism was growing. Just as things were going quiet again my rod nearly gets ripped from my hands and it was on. A few minutes later and woohoo another snodger snapper (caught on a pillie inside a squid tube condom) and an upgrade on my very recent PB. This time 88cm. The boys were really pissed now. Not to be out done Nick sends over a huge slab of tuna down on his patternoster. Soon after he gets slammed by something big. The fight went on for about 20 minutes. It was cool being able to see how deep the fish was on the sounder. Each time Nick got it to within 20m of the surface and it saw the boat it would take a powerful run down to 40m. Eventually he got it boatside and it was whaler (probably a bullie) at least 1.5m long. It was cut free and off it went. We quickly decided 3 to 1 that the shark didn't count as biggest fish and continued fishing. Meanwhile I managed a 50cm morwong on a lucanus jig. Soon after something bigger straightened the hooks on it on the way up. Minutes later George gets slammed on the way down by what we're convinced was another shark. We were able to watch George gain and lose line on the sounder and began making fun of him telling him he will never get it up, and poke him in the ribs with rod tips. he eventually won the battle and up came an amberjack of around 20kg. Nooooooo! :angry: There went my biggest fish cash prize. George tried to swim the AJ beside the boat and let it go. It appeared to be ok, but popped back up and swam around on the surface. We gave it the benefit of doubt and fished on for half an hour but things had sut down. We pulled up anchor and retrieved the AJ. It was a shame not being able to release it. Better than feeding it to the sharks I guess. We were all completely shagged so we made our way back through the bar and back on the trailer by lunch time, ready for the long drive home.

We gave a medium sized snapper to some people who were checking out our catch and 5 minutes later they came back with a six pack of crownies. :cheer:

All up a very fun trip. [img size=1000]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/snap1-d00f6c9d88ac8e6546321e6dd95ba840.jpg

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ellicat Grand Master

ellicat

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dhess wrote:

A Bactrian snapper by the looks :dry:

Good read and pics. Nice entry for both F & R OTM :woohoo: The snap will take some beating, especially with the forecast for the remainder of May. (Unless the boys can get another 105cm one from the river ;) )

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Angus Rookie

Angus

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Holy moly good report mate!

Did you get a picture on the mat for FOTM?

Also someone should nominate this for ROTM!!

In relation to your picture of the mack tuna and in the words of Heath Ledgers Joker "Why so seriousss....".

Angus

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dhess Newbie

dhess

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Thanks for the kind words fellas.

Ellicat, Thats exactly what I thought. Two hump bactrian camel mutant. :blink:

Feral, don't know what it is but I rarely have a toothy smile. Believe me I couldn't have been any happier getting a PB.

Brian, Not sure I get the "Why did you bring the live bait home?" comment? Are you referring to the baby or the smaller fish? :ohmy:

Angus, I put up a few pics on the measure in FOTM. Copping glare directly in the face was the reason for the serious face in the mac tuna pic. You should see me when I am unhappy.

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Brian D Newbie

Brian D

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wesfish wrote:

dhess wrote:

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: funny as mate, good read and good pics too!!!!!!!!!! massive aj!! and great snapper!!!!!!!

Mate how do I answer that without you wanting to tear my head off - I was jesting you know!

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dhess Newbie

dhess

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Early days yet as only half way through May. A few people going on charters too. Winning something for once in my life would be pretty sweet though.

Just cooked beer battered snapper pieces for dinner at my mum's and must say, to me big snapper taste every bit as good as smaller ones. Though, I have heard people say that bigger snapper that are a bit beaten up and in poor condition aren't the tastiest.

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