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Only caught one fish :(

benno573

By benno573
in Saltwater

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benno573 Rising Star

benno573

Posted
Posted

Headed out from mooloolaba in a mates new boat with the intention of showing him a few spots and teaching him about fishing offshore, using plastics, different rigs, trolling etc.

Launched about 5am and headed out to the first spot, my favourite shoal. Will a fair swell running we had to keep a careful eye out as the waves were really standing up, thankfully we timed our arrival around the top of the tide so could still fish effectively.

I showed the guys how to rig up a jighead, threw a 5" damiki armor shad on each, one moebi and one skin blue and starting the lesson. One of the guys quickly picked up a couple of nice grassys and plenty of undersized red throat with skin blue being the pick. Once confident they had some idea on technique, I rigged up my 4-6kg live fibre rod with 20lb braid and a 30lb flurocarbon leader, 3/8oz jighead and a 5" moebi shad, hoping for a nice snapper before the sun got too high. Then on my third cast it happened...

On about the third hop the rod was just about ripped out of my hands and the reel started singing that oh so sweet tune. As we were in about 9m of water I was running a fairly heavy drag but that didn't seem to be having any effect on this fish. I was losing line fast under heavy load so got one of the guys to jump on the wheel and give chase. I regained some line and started to slowly move out into some slightly deeper water (only 14m but every bit counts!). While instructing the wheelman, I was running through my head the possibilities... Too big to be a snapper surely... Maybe a big spangled? GT? Cobe? Surely not a shark, it would have been all over before it began!

This went on for the next 15 minutes or so, the wheel man performing well above expectations for his first crack at this kind of thing. Then I got a very brief glimpse of my quarry, difficult to make out in the early morning light but wholly hell it was big. And then it peeled 30m of line like it didn't even matter and off we went again. 10 minutes later the fish was starting to tire (as was I for that matter) and I got my first real look... And then panicked about every knot, where is the hook, is it set well, is my drag getting too hot, have i made a mess in my pants etc etc etc!

Shortly after the fish was beat and the owner of the boat got his first crack at gaffing a fish, to say I was slightly nervous about this is an understatement. After receiving the instruction of aim for the head and go in hard he nailed the perfect gaff shot though the jaw and out the other side and people back in brissie probably heard the whooping, yelling and general carry on.

Here's the nett result of all the garb above...

post-2244-144599039794_thumb.jpg

At 120cm and 12.5kg, far and away a new PB and I am still amazed that I landed it on the gear I did in such shallow water.

After that effort I put my rod away and helped the other guys compile a good bag of mix reef, grassys, hussar, stripies, tuskies and a snapper.

All in all I only put one fish in the boat but it is still a day I will remember for a very long time.

Cheers for reading

Benno

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ellicat Grand Master

ellicat

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Posted
I turned my head to the west to see the pic..... I think I can see a little bit showing out the top of your shorts :lol:

B)B)

Not to the north north left? ;) feel free to get your mod on and fix it up... :kiss: can't do that from the phone

Done. I can still see your boner though. ..... and a well deserved one it is. Great fish !!

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