queensland No Sounder, No Fish = Seafood Delight

[kmcrosby78]

Went out yesterday morning in the bay - was hoping to fish the 5am high tide for snapper however after an attempt last Wednesday and Sunday to work out why my plug-in allround white light was only coming on dimly, I was resigned to departing the ramp around 6am. Launched, turned on the sounder and a little text box appeared advising 'low voltage output, sounder may turn off', which it then proceeded to do. Hmmmm .... perhaps this was what was causing my dim light problem all along - I used to charge it after every trip however as life's got busier with kids I generally charge it after every 2-3 trips which works fine. I did notice on Sunday that I'd left the switch on the panel on when I worked on it on Wednesday, but the light pole was pulled out so I assumed this wouldn't have drained the battery - was I wrong? 

Anyway, the show goes on. Check out the sunrise!

Got to the eastern side of Green Island, saw a patch of boats anchored in one main area, tossed up what to do and decided that today was the day to stop doing what I normally do (anchor up and drown bait) and try something different.  So .... off to the shallows I went with the theory being that this would negate the need for the sounder. Decided to target squid first up whilst waiting to see some surface activity that might indicate tailor were around. On one of my first casts I noticed a couple of good sized squid follow it at the last minute but they didn't close right in on it - I got very excited because I'd seen them but also was a little hesitant that perhaps either the quality of my jig (cheapies from ebay) or my working of the jig had stopped them from attacking the jig. 

My fears were allayed within a couple more casts and I scored my first one - again, VERY excited (first time targeting them from a boat - very addictive!). It took me my first 3 squid to realise how much jolly ink the could spray and how quickly they could re-load ......... from there it got easier.

I continued repeating the same drift and ended up with 7 including one about the size of my size 12 foot. I found them great fun to catch and was often surprised at how much they pull at the line - a couple of times as I went to rip the jig up off the bottom I thought I was snagged, only to realise it was a squid on. I lost a couple that were hooked soon after a long cast so they had to be pulled in over a further distance. I also lost a smaller one when I was pulling it out of the net - it started to latch onto my finger and I remembered they have a beak and can bite, so being a big wuss I tossed it back in to the net and it slipped through a hole - so I'll work on my technique .....

Saw a couple of small bust-ups, one quite close to the boat, so threw a half pillie unweighted and put the rod in the holder whilst I threw a small popper, hoping they'd be tailor. Pulled in a large pike on the pillie which spat out a small whiptail onto my floorboards (greedy bugger!). Pretty sure I'd seen this same pike with that fish in it's mouth a few minutes earlier and with no more surface activity I decided there were probably no tailor around.  Has anyone used these whiptails as bait - I'm assuming there would be no size limit (this one was released by the way)?

 

The squid action died off so I decided to head over around the Hope Banks to try trolling a paravane/spoon for school mackerel (a new thing I've started trying and would like to get the hang of) but without the sounder to tell me if I was passing I wasn't overly optimistic, which proved to be accurate. Was desperately hoping for some longtail action but to no avail so went to the southern end of Green to see if the squid were in the deeper water, then tried flicking a small blade (first or second time ever - bought a range of them off ebay so time to start using them ...) and was pleased to have had a hit, even if it didn't hook up.

And that's where the story ends - a session which started dismally with no sounder, proceeded to yield no desirable fish species but had a high note of 7 nice sized tiger squid that will be converted into something yummy tomorrow night (too busy yesterday or tonight after work). Can't wait to take my son Liam to do it on a calm day - he will love it. Oh and my 15 month old, George, was very impressed with Daddy's big fish ......

[kmcrosby78]

I've just been given some good advice from a guy named Spero who writes very good reports for http://reports.fishingmonthly.com.au/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&p=15824&sid=d6edb44886040dce7f1db8361722465b#p15824 (not sure if it's OK to put this link, if not it will give Brian something to do ....... hi Brian!!). His tip to negate the ink problem is to grab them and tip them upside down to get rid of all the water in their bodies so they can't mix the ink to squirt. Will be trying that next time for sure!!

[Angus]

Nice one!

Just love the squid as a back up plan

 

Angus

[samsteele115]

Great report Kelvin and well done on your success!! 

[kmcrosby78]

Hooked the recharged battery up this morning and yep, that was the problem ..... Not to worry, the original switch panel wasn't looking the best and for interests sake I reconnected the original white light and it didn't work (still stumped as to why) so at least things should work well for a fair while. The light had a price tag of $70 at BCF however when scanned at the register it came up at $45 so I was happy - not sure if it was due to my club card, on special and they just didn't ticket it as such, or a mistake, but I wasn't stopping to ask ......  So am all set for an early start one morning o otherwise a night session, which I haven't done in a fair while. 

[K-Lub]

hmm sucks about the battery issues, might pay to make sure all the ground connections are clean and have good contact could explain your power level issues

[kmcrosby78]

2 minutes ago, K-Lub said:

hmm sucks about the battery issues, might pay to make sure all the ground connections are clean and have good contact could explain your power level issues

Cheers mate - I think I just lost track of how many trips it had been since I'd recharged it, all working fine now.

[kmcrosby78]

Split the tubes into two 500g packs and had the first lot last night (busy week ...) as salt & pepper calamari - YUM!!!  Going to have to go and catch some more ....