Jump to content

Palm Beach Reef Magic

tugger

By tugger
in Saltwater

Recommended Posts

tugger Collaborator

tugger

Posted
Posted

Took my cousin out on the Palmy yesterday along with another mate we headed out early crossing the bar just after 4am. The weather was great no wind at all greeted us offshore as well as less than a meter swell so we anchored up and set out a spread of floating pilles.

 

The 1st strike was around 5am and my cousin landed his 1st spottie mack and a horse to just over a meter long. The spotties got thicker and it was hard to keep baits in the water between Jasen and Ian they fought most of the mackies while I fed baits out in to the big pond.

 

The fishing was awesome double and triple hook ups were happening and we easily lost as many spotties as we caught. Then something big had taken off and my cousin Ian battled with either a big spanish or cobia as the fight wore on i saw colour and called it a very big cobia.

 

Ian thought it was a shark as he has never seen a cobia before but i assured him it was a cobes. He was getting saw arms as it was over 15 minutes before it got close to the boat I put the gaff in and it went mental throwing itself around i nearly had the gaff pulled out of my hands 3 times before i could lift it in the boat.

 

The cobia was just  shy of 1.5m long and around 30kg and was difficult to fit in the esky. It was time to head in to get more ice on these fish so we start to clean up the boat another couple of spotties hit the baits before we could reel in the lines then we put all the rods away and headed  in.

 

The sea had got calmer through the morning and it was like glass for our short run back to currumbin bar, back on the ramp by 8am. Fantastic day out for my cousin getting his 1st cobia and spotties so we cracked a beer took our photos and found a shady spot to fillet the fish.

20171218_095643.thumb.jpg.d03d1d3649ebed21b36c29f9798b6353.jpg

 

20171218_095851.thumb.jpg.d8e2036ff608f3cbc96fcae084684310.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tugger Collaborator

tugger

Posted
  • Author
Posted
49 minutes ago, Old Scaley said:

Sensational cobia @tugger. You really have that reef nailed. If this keeps up for the rest of your holiday you will have arms like Arnie! Thanks for sharing.

Fished this reef for 40yrs this xmas i don't use the sounder or gps have all land marks to go off i can pin point my spot exactly. Going back to work now so that was the last hoorah

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tugger Collaborator

tugger

Posted
  • Author
Posted
26 minutes ago, Drop Bear said:

Awesome! That is a great read mate, thanks. What a cracking Cobia! you told me they were there :)

So many spotties too. I need to find a spot like that up this way :)

The spotties and cobia don't get as thick in to many places like here on the Palmy in se qld mermaid reef is only other 1 and it isn't as consistant

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tugger Collaborator

tugger

Posted
  • Author
Posted
11 minutes ago, aussie123 said:

Nice catch Mark.

It's good to see them finally arrive in numbers again.

They have been thick for a week or so now some days better than others either on palmy or gravel patch we were just going to the Palmy to get live bait and float some pillies out yesterday for a couple of hours before heading to the gravel patch but the spotties were to thick to leave on the Palmy 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Tybo Newbie

Tybo

Posted
Posted

I was once told never to try and gaff cobia, they are renown for rolling and thrashing, and many a gaff has been lost and wrists fractured due to them. You got in the boat is the main thing.

Thanks for the report, good to see the spotties have turned up on time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Luvit Newbie

Luvit

Posted
Posted

Another very successful holiday trip for the Sheehan's and friends.

Big catch for a short time on the water and how stoked your cuz Ian must be with the Cobia.

Would you mind giving a brief description of the floating pilly rig you use? ie wire or mono.

Just that I have always targeted them with lures and that is not always what they want. 

Always best to have a back up plan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tugger Collaborator

tugger

Posted
  • Author
Posted
5 hours ago, Tybo said:

I was once told never to try and gaff cobia, they are renown for rolling and thrashing, and many a gaff has been lost and wrists fractured due to them. You got in the boat is the main thing.

Thanks for the report, good to see the spotties have turned up on time.

Always gaffed them don't know how you would get a 30kg cobes in just without 1 just hold on tight 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tugger Collaborator

tugger

Posted
  • Author
Posted
3 hours ago, Luvit said:

Another very successful holiday trip for the Sheehan's and friends.

Big catch for a short time on the water and how stoked your cuz Ian must be with the Cobia.

Would you mind giving a brief description of the floating pilly rig you use? ie wire or mono.

Just that I have always targeted them with lures and that is not always what they want. 

Always best to have a back up plan.

I use a bait needle to pull the swivel through the pillie and set the single 4/0 hook in the tail. I use 27lb single strand wire with small black barrel swivels. I use 44lb single strand wire with an 8/0 for livies. I posted a compressive post on these rigs with photos attached years ago you might find it using the sites search function. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tugger Collaborator

tugger

Posted
  • Author
Posted
10 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

I'm picking there might be a few keen to see these rigs first hand at the Wanderer's trip (the one with the day camp at Wave Break ..) in January Mark :) 

It's a top rig and i have caught such a variety of fish on it from big jew to big snapper marlin sailfish dollies and of coarse all the macketel species. I have had a lot of people talk to me about it where they prefer heavy mono leaders as they think wire rigs will get less strikes than heavy mono but i reckon it's the other way around. As long as you use light gauge single strand wire with this method you improve your catches.

 

I will show all the crew down at the social on the gold Coast next month the rig and how to use it. This is a great opportunity to improve your knoledge  on how to target pelagics. Others will be there like Lance who is a wealth of knoledge on trolling for marlin. I will be posting again in the pelagic social to remind everyone it is coming up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tugger Collaborator

tugger

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 20/12/2017 at 12:59 PM, tugger said:

Lucky i got a few good days in the wind today would blow a dog off it's chain. Also this wind won't help with water temp and clarity 

My prediction was right the water temperature has plummeted the mackerel will be off the chew but I have heard the marlin are still thick with a few mates landing some today 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tugger Collaborator

tugger

Posted
  • Author
Posted
3 hours ago, toonie said:

Nice one Tugger!!  Awesome knowing the Macs are biting and that bloody cobia is a beast! Good session you had mate. Just wondering what days do you think is good for fishing the gc this week. Would like to try my luck aswell.

From tuesday through to thursday look good wind being low take a rain coat as there might be a few showers. All the inshore reefs are firing this week as well as the 24s good luck if your getting out

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

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

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...