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Terrorised by men in grey suits at north west isl.

Hfisho77

By Hfisho77
in Saltwater

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Hfisho77 Newbie

Hfisho77

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Hey all,

Well the trip to North West Island has unfortunately come to an end. It was an amazing trip and although nothing huge was landed plenty of beasts were hooked and many fish were still boated. It was a 14 day trip and every second day was a designated fish eating night, however we tried to get out more often than that between other activities to scratch the itch.

Day 2 was the ‘warm up fishing day’ where we explored the area to see what was around. We headed out for a 3 hour sesh and pulled up on a nice patch of reef with plenty of lumps on it. The setup was a 4-8kg outfit with 10lb braid and 30lb leader and a 5 inch gulp. First cast and I am letting my plastic sink to the bottom and admiring my surroundings when my line starts peeling of the open spool faster than usual and I see my bright orange plastic speed under the boat. A big pelagic had grabbed it and the locked drag began to scream. This thing wasn’t stopping until it reached New Zealand so it was probably lucky when it sliced through the leader. Im guessing it was a decent Spanish. It went quiet for a little while until I got hit by something decent and up came a nice little red-throat emperor a bit over 40cm. post-9541-144598692836_thumb.jpg

Soon after my bro opened his account with a purple cod which are delicious on the table.

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We continued to catch red-throat and tiddlers for a while before moving on. First cast at the new spot and I get smashed and after a short tussle I boat my first spangled emperor. It was only small at 45cm but I was pretty stoked with it.

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A couple more casts before the call was made to chase some tuna to end the session. A small school popped up nice and close to the boat. I wanted some fun so I pulled out my 2-4kg bream rod spooled with 5lb braid and 10lb leader and sent out a 14 gram slug. My bro did the same on his reef rod with 15lb braid. First cast for me and my slug fell short of the school. I began bringing it back at high speed not expecting anything when a massive longtail tuna came and smashed the lure right off the surface!! Seconds later my brother hooked up as well and all hell broke loose as the tuna screamed off in opposite directions. We started the motor and began to chase my fish as I had the light gear, within about 1 minute I was down to the backing on my spool and I thought it was going to be over really soon. I managed to pull the tuna up short…. just.. or maybe it was just playing with me and it turned around and charged towards the boat. My bro’s tuna was playing up as well and our lines had crossed. It was mayhem in the boat but I managed to untangle the lines and the tuna continued to scream off. 15 minutes of arm-stretching action and the fun ended for me. I wound in my line to find my slug had its hooks straitened. The battle continued for my bro….

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After about 20 minutes we had colour and suddenly the fish came right to the surface about 10 metres from the boat which we thought was weird until we looked behind it to see a 10ft hammerhead right on its tail. I told my bro to tighten his drag and get the fish in the boat. I got out the net to find the handle had fallen off so all I has was the circular part. We got the tuna boatside and the bloody hammerhead was still following it. I shat myself as I put my arms into the water to scoop up the fish and I just prayed that it would behave. Lucky for my arms it did and a 73cm mac tuna hit the deck. My brother was over the moon as it was the biggest fish he had ever caught… I was lying on the deck practically whimpering as I watched the hammerhead swim off – it was about a foot from the fish when I netted it. Anyway, this was the result.

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After that action we called it a day

Day 3 we headed out again, this time planning to provide a feed after yesterday’s

events. On this day it was completely flat and the visibility was amazing, we could see the bottom in at least 100 foot of water. We suspected the fish were a bit more wary because of this and things were a lot tougher than the previous day. We moved around a bit with only a couple of small cod. Then dad got a decent hit and after putting up a bit of a stink a 65cm spangly hit the deck.

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We also managed a couple of delicious table fish including tuskies, red-throat and stripies. At one point in the day a Spanish mac around the 20kg mark was circling the boat but it was just too bloody smart. We offered it leftover mac tuna fillets from the day before, slugs, plastics, big hardbodies but nothing would tempt it. We also went and chased some tuna schools but the tuna were not interested in our slugs today. While searching for them we did see a huge billfish tail-walking along the surface a couple of km’s away. We reckon it was either a sailfish or black marlin and it was pretty spectacular.

Day 5 was another millpond on the water. The fish were hungry today and it wasn’t long before we had a full esky to feed the tribe. In the mix was this beast – the biggest red-throat of the at 60cm.

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me, my fish, and some muppet in the background

My little cousin also got into the action bottom bashing with this beautiful little red-emperor.

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the line fishos and spearfisherman at work

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Hfisho77 Newbie

Hfisho77

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We were hassled by a few of these guys throughout the trip

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Day 7 we got off to a slow start. Although the occasional GT ripped into some baitfish around the boat they were hard to pinpoint and evaded our lines. As we got into the second half of the day we found a couple of bommies that produced fish, a couple of which were big suckers that could not be stopped. In the last half hour of the day we found a honey hole and we were being hit every cast before our plastics reached the bottom. Half of the fish hooked here reefed us, but I did manage to land 5 45cm+ red-throat in 5 casts before my run was ruined by a tuskie :ohmy: ……… It wasn’t long before the men in grey suits discovered our whereabouts and they were all over our fish.

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A couple of red-throat

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After the sharks arrived we headed back to the island and left the fish biting.

Day 9 there was a change in weather with 15-20 knot winds but we had to get out and find dinner for the tribe. We had no trouble locating fish and soon had an esky full of cod, red-throat, tuskies and stripies. We also hooked into some more brutes that dusted us. The weather had calmed a bit and we had sighted some tuna schools so off we went to find them. I was determined to land a tuna on the bream gear. We soon found some birds with some massive splashes of feeding fish below them. We followed this particular school for about 20 minutes and even when I landed my slug with upgraded trebles right in the thick of them I had no touches. I persisted for a few more casts, my arm was now getting sore from the high-speed retrieve when what I believe was a large mac tuna absolutely smashed the slug off the surface and took off on a screaming run. No time to sit back and enjoy the fight as I was running out of line so we started the boat as the tuna took me on a merry ride.

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I soon managed to turn its head and I had it comfortably coming up to the boat when the bloody bronzies turned up and that was the end of that. My uncle, who is a pom might I add and has very little fishing experience put on a whole fish frame with a silly grin from ear to ear and threw it over the side. Less than a minute later his reel screamed off before he was spooled about 30 seconds later. He lay back only the floor laughing his head off and we couldn’t get any sense out of him for a while until I slapped him with a fish over the face :lol: We headed back in closer to finish off the day chasing reefies and try a couple of different plastics. I tied on a 6 inch grub in nuc chicken and surprise surprise a red-throat climbed on followed by another the very next cast.

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We were then greeted by some whales that swam right past the boat.

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Day 10 we chilled out for most of the day then in the arvo when the tide was high we went and chased trevs of all kinds on the flats which was something that we had meant to do a lot more often in the trip. Anyway it was a short and sharp sesh because we were quickly running out of daylight. We fished around some rock walls in a metre of water casting small slugs at them. I threw in a long cast to the tip of one of the walls and as soon as I started winding I had a bump-bump which I suspected was just the rocks so I kept winding and bang! A trev smashed my slug in a spectacular surface strike. After a couple of screaming runs and tense moments at the side of the boat a nice 70cm big-eye trevally was landed.

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I was stoked and after a couple of pics back he went.

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Hfisho77 Newbie

Hfisho77

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Day 11 we headed out to a deeper reef about 2km off the island in search of some bigger fish. Second cast of the morning and I had hooking into a train. My drag was locked but the reel was still screaming!! What it was I will never find out because after about 30 seconds of violent headshakes and runs that seemed to be increasing in speed I tried to turn the fish around and put just a bit too much hurt on it and ‘pop’ goes the fishing rod. Soon after the fish wore through the leader and won its freedom. After a little while of raging at my own stupidity out comes the bream gear which is what I used for the rest of the trip. We headed back in to fish around the island because all we could manage after that was leatherjacket and other tiddlers. It was not long until I hooked on to something decent that dusted me on the reef shortly after. I thought to myself how hard it was going to be trying to stop any half decent fish from the reef and there was no way I was gonna lock my drag and try muscle them up and risk snapping the last decent rod that I had. I persisted and soon pulled up a nice little coral trout, the first of the trip but it was just undersized so back he went. A few minutes later dad also brought in a trout but it was the same size. I was surprised to see such a small amount of trout caught on the trip because previously, they were very common. Not long after I hooked into old mate the red-throat who put up an exciting fight on the light gear.

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Aside from the rod incident, this was one of our most productive days and we caught around 70 fish all up as well as at least a dozen unstoppable brutes. Dad pulled this nice 55cm spangly from the depths and my bro and cousin also got their fair share of fish. I also hooked a massive longtom which was good fun on the light gear.

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Aside from the rod incident, this was one of our most productive days and we caught around 70 fish all up. We kept these for a feed……

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dinner! (the trout was speared)

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Day 12 we decided to head for an adventure in the late afternoon, and what an adventure it was. We headed over to a small sandy island in the shallows that goes under at high tide. We got off the boat and cast metal slugs off the island. Straight away my bro found a school of dart that he was having some fun with but I decided to search for something a bit bigger. I cast to a nice looking area with a small ledge and as my slug come over the ledge I see a bow wave behind it. A huge GT smashes the lure in knee-deep water and sharks come out of nowhere in a matter of seconds. Luckily for the fish it spat the hook and I wound in my line but just as I was about to lift the lure from the water at my feet BANG!!!! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz etc etc.. my drag was literally smoking on the 5lb. The GT had come back and grabbed the slug again and my god was it huge!!! This fish was at least 40kg and I had no chance. It was the most exciting 10 seconds of my life and I will never forget it. As I examined the damage I realised that the line had not snapped but the animal had broken the slug clean in half. I look over to see my brother further down the beach also hooked into a train but his fight was only short lived as well. After that the island was going under so we headed back to camp.

Day 13 we headed back to the sand island for some fun. We cast around for a while but it was pretty quiet. Eventually we spotted some birds feeding on the flats and first cast into them and I got a lil mac tuna which was good fun.

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The school scattered after that but we continued fishing the shallows and I watched my cousin cast over the top of a group of massive bull rays and I thought what the heck is he doing?! Anyway a big GT slips out from between the rays and grabs his lure and takes off!!! It wasn’t long before the fish had torn the paintwork off the slug, somehow bent the slit ring inside out and bitten clean through two of the trebles. After that we decided to chase reefies but as we crossed the drop off dad spotted a tightly packed bunch of birds with baitfish spraying in all directions underneath them. There were also huge aggressive fish ripping through the bait at a million miles an hour. We threw dozens of casts at them with no interest. We were about to call it quits when the biggest longtail tuna I have ever seen jumps clean out of the water. At first I thought it was just hitting all the bait again until my drag started peeling off I realised this thing was on the end of my line!!! We started the motor and off we went. Once again I was on the 2-4 so this was going to be interesting. I fought the tuna for a good 20 minutes and was nearly spooled a number of times. Just as I thought it was beginning to tire the stupid bloody bronze whalers turned up again!!!! We tried to scare them off by revving the motor and even whacking them with paddles as they were practically bumping the boat but they were not shy and they eventually stole my tuna. We had a quick flick on the reef and I got a pretty little coronation trout and dad a tuskie but we ran out of time and headed in before the tide went out.

Day 14 was the final day and we decided to do something about the bronze whalers that were hanging around our snorkelling area. They had become domesticated as too many boats were feeding them fish scraps and now they had become very aggressive and not shy at all. There were 4 sharks ranging from about 2.5m to 3.5m in length and the plan was to hook them, chase them down and spear them at the boat. I know this sounds cruel and unnecessary but the fact was that they were now a huge threat to humans and could no longer feed on their own. We headed out with a stand up marlin rod loaded with 120kg line and 500kg stainless steel wire trace. We tore up strips of newspaper and chucked them on the surface (this helps in attracting sharks) and within a minute the bronzies had arrived. Over the side goes a bait and it wasn’t long before we were on!! The shark tore off at least 150m of line and put on a spectacular arial show, jumping fully out of the water and twisting and flipping before twisting the trace and pulling the hooks. We had about 6 rounds of this with other sharks completely snapping the rig and the fact was they were just too big!! Im sure if madmullet was there with some of his expertise things may have been different. Anyway it was worth a try and great to watch.

The trip was awesome fun to say the least. It was disappointing not to land any of the many monsters we hooked throughout the trip so next time I am definitely buying some heavier gear!! Sorry for the long report and thanks for reading if you persisted up to here. I had so much fun and can’t wait til 2 years’ time when we go again.

Cheers

Hugo

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