Jump to content

XOS Snapper and Sneaky Sail


ONTHECHEW

Recommended Posts

The plan of attack for today was head out to brisbane river and chase some fat bass and then head back up the hill. Mark gave me a call at 7pm last night and said that he and Callum had done a sneaky pre-fish and it was dead. This made our plans for an early morning bass fish seem a bit pointless, I checked the weather forecast and it actually had got better, good enough for a bay run. After a quick couple of phone calls Mark (plasticfantastic) and Manni where in for a 4.45am start for a morning bay run.

We got to the cleveland boat ramp and where met with a slightly stronger westerly then we had expected and it was bloody freezing, considering all of us only had light clothing on. We decided to hit up harries first, this is not really an area we had fished very often but thought we would give it a crack as we had heard a few decent fish had come off it recently. When we got there we where already about the 15 boat there. After quiet a few drifts, dodging now about 30 boats the decision was made to have a look at the Rous channel and the rainbow for some tuna as it was now light enough to see them.

Rous channel was a lot calmer then Harries being slightly more protected from the westerlies, we turned the corner to go down rainbow and noticed the south passage bar looked quiet inviting. After a quick vote the decision was made to make a quick run off shore to the shallow reefs which would be protected from the westerlies. This is when I also remembered I had not taken any sea sick tablets because I thought we where just going to be fishing in the bay. Even at Harries I had felt a bit second hand but thought I would suck it up.

Shag rock was our first destination and on the very first drift Mark and I have a double hook up on snapper which justified the decision to head off shore. After a brief fight a couple of pan size snapper where boated, Marks about 50cm and mine about 60cms. Even with the adrenalin of catching a fish by now the lack of sea sick tablets was really taking effect :sick: . By now I was just taking in the big ones and not trying to think about the inevitable.

post-7753-144598942817_thumb.jpg

Little to Mark and Manni's liking even though I was pretty average I was out fishing both of them, getting the most hits and landing a couple of decent mack tuna. Manni finally got on the board with some exotic red fish, by this time I hit the boys up for a move as I needed the boat to be moving to try and control the urge of spewing my guts up.

Middle reef was a longer then normal drive away as I wanted to prolong driving as long as possible. The only boat on the reef was a dive boat, as usual sitting right in the middle of the reef on the prime realestate, so I headed out to the edge to drift back over the reef. First cast and I was onto a solid fish which was giving a good account for itself. The early call was for a snapper, but little did we know it was a XOS SNAPPER. After some tense moments the beast was netted a new personal PB snapper of 98cms :woohoo: , this old girl was solid. As I was not very interested in taking time with photos etc as this all meant time potentially looking down, we took a couple of quick photos and let the old girl go back to where she came from. Thinking back on it now I wish we had got a weight and spent a bit more time on photos, but I was in no condition, plus I really wanted to make sure it was a successful release.

We did a couple more drifts for no success, plus the fact that the prime location was being taking up by three sepperate divers that where no where near their dive boat, meant it was time to go. This was another opportunity to try and calm the belly, we decided to head out to Jurassic Park, but the further we headed out the more the southerly swell picked up and I really dreaded the possible outcome :sick:

A couple of drifts there and I was really starting to feel close to releasing the flood gates, another distraction came along in a 60cm Maori cod. I think at this stage I actually heard Manni say that he would prefer to be sick if it meant catching some fish :whistle: We saw a school of small tuna over near boat rock so decided to give it one quick drift before we headed in.

Once again Mark did his usual and hooked something he had no chance of landing with his bream gear. Mark was using a 2-5 Omen rod from 13 with 8lb main line and 12lb leader. It was the weirdest of strikes, with following massive thumps on the end of the line. It then woke up and fairly quickly we got to see what Mark had just hooked. A sail fish of about 2 metres was almost boat side within a couple of minutes to tease us, then for the following 30 minutes it just seamed to play with Mark. This would be a fish of a life time on such lite gear, but finally after 30 minutes of Mark having very little show, the magnificent fish decided to show it's true power with a couple of spectacular jumps clearing the surface. This was the end of the battle but was still great to see a fish that is not real common in these parts.

By now I had had enough, Manni was starting to feel a bit worse for wear and Mark was content with his efforts so the decision was made to head in. In all it was worth all of the dodgie feeling guts, to be rewarded by the fishing gods for our persistence. Sometimes it pays just to battle on when the fishing is quiet or the odds are against you.

I don't have any pictures of the XOS snapper, Manni will put them up, hopefully they turn out it, was all very rushed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for call up mate to catch up and have a fish, it always good company and good fun on your boat ;)

Here are a couple pics of your snapper - I have played around messing with the pics lol don't stress i'll send you the original unedited versions for you to play with ;)

I still can't believe how quickly he came up.

post-8859-144598942851_thumb.jpg

post-8859-144598942861_thumb.jpg

Was a great day offshore with only one or two boats out i dropped more than I landed and would have been nice to convert a couple of those Mackerel instead of donating my lures to them.

Mark congrats on the battle with the sail fish, I did get some footage but it's very lochness monster type lol !!! let me play with it over the coming days and will try and post something up but here's a pic for now ;)

post-8859-144598942867_thumb.jpg

post-8859-144598942878_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man im so jealous. First from mathew getting big GT n now you guys.

I havnt being off straddie in weeks lol.

I cant wait to go out there again.

Harries is rubbish on the weekends. You only fish weekdays there. Less boats.

Those omen rods are good. I caught a spanish mackerel on mine. Handled it really well. Cant wait for new heavier one to come out. Should be interesting.

Shane

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome session guys and well done on the 98 snap.

That's 2 sails from that area now that I know of in the last 2 days so looks like there will be a few there as they generally travel in packs.

It would be interesting to spend a session there just dedicated to chasing sails and see what turns up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome session guys and well done on the 98 snap.

That's 2 sails from that area now that I know of in the last 2 days so looks like there will be a few there as they generally travel in packs.

It would be interesting to spend a session there just dedicated to chasing sails and see what turns up.

No doubt Lance there will be more reports of them being caught - there were plenty of schools of small mac tuna, bonito by the looks of them and another type of fish Mark mentioned so they is no shortage of food for them at the moment

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome session guys and well done on the 98 snap.

That's 2 sails from that area now that I know of in the last 2 days so looks like there will be a few there as they generally travel in packs.

It would be interesting to spend a session there just dedicated to chasing sails and see what turns up.

No doubt Lance there will be more reports of them being caught - there were plenty of schools of small mac tuna, bonito by the looks of them and another type of fish Mark mentioned so they is no shortage of food for them at the moment

Conditions are perfect there at the moment Manni.

There was lots of bait tuna there 2 days ago as well as flying fish,small yellowfin and the odd bonito.

The water is as blue as you can get that close inshore and 25 degrees and extremely clean.

For billfish it is by far the best water I have seen in there all season.

With the gear setup correctly I reckon it would be quite easy to pick up at least one sail,probably a number of fish in a days session there as I think there would be quite a few there atm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sure was a good call to head offshore instead of sticking to the bay, awesome Snapper and i still think you could've stretched it to the magic metre mark. As for me hooking a Sailfish i dont think it knew it was hooked until about half an hour into the fight and took off towards the open ocean. So for this week I've hooked twoLongies and lost both and also hooked a Sailfish and lost that so hopefully i can convert one soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mad report. Sounds like you fella's had a solid morning.

That Sail Fish would have been awesome fun. I was talking to the old man when we where out the other day and he was saying this is about the time they used to chase Sail Fish. He was saying Henderson's Rock is the go to place but find bait and you should be in for some luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys for the replies, looking back on it I really wish I wasn't so ill :sick: , as it would have been great to been a little more creative with measuring to get the magical metre mark. But in my condition a quick photo and releasing the old girls was high on the to do list.

It was great seeing Mark hook the sail, I wish it was on a bit heavier gear but still good to see.

Andrew

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...