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Report - Glorious Day Offshore Brisbane

Drop Bear

By Drop Bear
in Saltwater

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Drop Bear

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The weather was nearly ideal. Light variable winds the only problem was that they were mostly coming from NE. This with a 1.6m swell made me nervous about the South Passage Bar. I probably would have canceled the trip but the high tide was at about 5am so felt confident that we could navigate the infamous boat and seaman destroyer. 

My mate imported a stunning center console from USA. I borrowed it once to make it look like a Police boat for the TV series Harrow. She is very pretty. 

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He runs a retail bathroom shop at South Brisbane and it takes a huge amount of his time. This has meant that he has not taken it out in anger much over the past year and never offshore. He is having a party this week (this close to Xmas who isn't) and the text came through... "Mate I need to catch a big fish". He invited long time friend and self confessed "worst angler in the world" Harrow along. He has fished and fished and has never caught a fish in his life. He has stood next to Mark with the same gear and same bait and caught nothing while Mark has caught Dart after Dart... 

I only had one overhead rod with a TLD. I know its a meat axe but it has caught a stack of fish, the drag is smooth (even though I have tightened the drag up with pliers and now cant be undone... well I haven't tied that hard) and it has great quality 50lb rainbow braid. It is sitting on an old short stroker glass rod. Very unrefined I know. I have a 7 foot live fiber over head that I have not used much. It is a bit longer than I would ideally like but is a very nice rod but I had no reel to go with it. To the rescue was @Andrew_P. He was selling a Shimano Tyrnos 20 that he had to buy when he bought a second hand rod. He very kindly dropped the price down to $100 and I was set. Thanks mate. 

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There is one place where I have consistently caught good fish. It was introduced to me by Tony from the Stradbroke Pony Club and then again and more extensively from @tugger on AFO.

The Group and Boat rock off Point Lookout.

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I didn't want to cross the bar too early as I like to have enough light to see the sandbars. So we met at the Marina at 4am, packed up the boat with rods and ice and cruised off into the calm bay.

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A stunning trip across at 30 knots. This boat only has a 150 Yammy but it scoots along. It had over 300 ltrs of fuel on, 3 fat blokes and a bit of gear, 2 huge bait tanks full of water and 2 built in eskis full of ice. I think that it must have a high pitched prop as it is a bit sluggish out of the hole yet still scoots along. Its a lot of boat for a 150 but it doesn't use much fuel and has a huge range. 

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We reached the bar with the sun nearly up and donned the life jackets. My mate asked me to drive and we picked our way through the lumpy washing machine area near Amity then along the southern channel that runs along Flinder's Beach. The high tide was very kind to us. Nothing stood up and we rolled over the good sized swell.

Thanks to @aussie123 for posing the bait ground GPS and then @kmcrosby78 for finding them for me we headed to the bait grounds. I saw @straddiebrad's boat so we cruised over and waved but he didn't wave back... ok give Brad some room. Perhaps he was onto a big patch of bait and didn't want to stop but he did seem a bit rude! 

@kmcrosby78 turned up in a great looking boat with a tropical canopy. They were heading up to try for some AJs. Its really fun seeing people you know on the water. 

It was very quiet on the bait fishing front and after about an hour we only had 4 pike and one yakka. 

Time to troll. I had bought about 7 new Halco Lazer Pros. These have caught me plenty of Spanish, Tuna, Bonnies, Kingies etc in the past so felt confident that they would do the job. I have not bought some in a while and they no longer sell them at Kmart and had to go to BCF. They were very light in the hand but the trebles looked good so I grabbed them anyhow. 

We put a spread of 3 out the back. The cheap lures didn't track that well. We talked about how we were going to talk to @aussie123 to get out riggers for the boat. They might not do much for us but they sure do make the boat look cool 🙂

I have caught a stack of Spanish at Shag rock in the past but there was nothing there today. The group got us a rat king that went back and we headed across Shark ally to Boat Rock. Brad was out here and we waved to him but he just looked angry at us... What is with Brad! oh well perhaps he is just onto a nice patch and was busy but he was being a bit of a ****. 

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As we approached Boat Rock the new Tyrnos with the drag set to medium and the ratchet on screamed off. Hammo was on strike and struggled to get the rod out of the rod holder. When he did he had no idea what to do and slammed the drag up. I had set the drag pretty heavy and it pulled like a monster stripping line and Hammo was only stopped from falling in by the back seat. We cleared the other rod and drove around so that he could comfortably play it at the side of the boat. Medium sized Spanish have one really big run in them and one other good run. This one was no exception and quickly came to the gaff. (I belly hit the fish which was a bit of a shame as we lost a little bit of meat.)

So this was Hammo's first ever fish. Not a bad way to get off a duck! 

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A few photos and it went straight into a bitterly cold ice slurry.

We trolled around boat rock again before we had a double hookup. I grabbed the Tyrnos while Mark grabbed the TLD.

He pulled in a nice just legal King fish, pretty easy on this heavy gear, while line continued to scream off the Tyrnos. The fish sounded and was a deep heavy weight and I wasn't sure I hadn't been bricked but soon it took off again and I felt the tail flicking across the line. This fish was a monster. It screamed off to the horizon. Mark rounded on it and we idled in its direction. I got some line back but there was a lot out. Again it screamed off on a very impressive third run under heavy drag (@andrew_P the reel is a cracker thanks)  but I soon got some line back. Slow lift and winds with small shorter runs the fish was mostly beaten. I was expecting at least one more run when it came into view. A massive, absolutely huge Spanish showed itself under the boat in the jeweled blue water. Bigger than anything I had seen before. It shook its head and chomped on the lure and... the weight came off and it swam away... I thought I had been bitten off... in a way I had... this monster fish had bitten the lure in half. 

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In true "the one that got away" fashion, the Spanish was a world record fish, well over 2m long... "the white whale". Ok perhaps not but is was great to see this huge fish. We probably shouldn't eat xxos Spanish anyhow due to Cig.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciguatera_fish_poisoning

Now I am thinking that I should post the half lure to Halco and ask why it broke... They might give me some free ones! 🙂 I have written some ideas so far "It was a dream fish." "We spent so much money trying to get it." "We were so let down by the lure." "I wanted to hear your response before I took it to Social Media." (please feel free to add other cracking sob stories below 🙂)

We fished like this for a while and caught a nice Mac Toooona and I think a striped tuna??? These are the most underrated Sashimi fish in the water. Sure they need to be eaten that day but they are fantastic.

 

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We also caught this fish. I thought it was a bonny but when I filleted it it was bright red like a Tuna. Can anyone give me clarity on this? I'm pretty sure it is a Skipjack Tuna? No size or bag limit... delicious... :whistle:

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Neither Mark or Hammo had caught a Dolly so we decided to head out to try and find the Wave Rider Buoy. Thanks again to @kmcrosby78 we had a few marks to check out. It was not at either of these but we spotted it in the good sized swell further to the SE. 

As we came closer we saw some small Dollies jumping and knew they were there. Mark put the Yakka on a single hook on mono line and I positioned the boat so that we would drift past it so as not to spook them. I killed the engine and the drift was perfect. We passed about 15 from the yellow ball. Mark cast the Yakka out about 5m from it and..... nothing. We could see them come and have a look at the live bait but they were not interested. We did this a few times then burleyed up with pilly chunks and saw them swim straight past the burley. Put on half a pilly and floated this with the burley... nothing. I put on some micro jigs... nothing... soft plastics... nothing... after about 30 mins of them looking up at our silly attempts to catch them we knew we were beaten. We trolled some diving lures around in case something else wanted to have a go but nothing doing... so back to the group. 

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We lost about 4 Spanish for the day and took home 2 King Fish, One Mac Tuna and one Skipjack Tuna (I think). We threw back about 6 undersized King fish. 

I lost 2 lures so not bad for the day as we were fishing heavy Mono Leader. I think this will change and I will use single strand wire from now on. Well when I think about it I lost one and a half lures really. haha. 

The trip back was great. We followed the beach along just outside the breakers and watched all the holiday makers having a ball in the surf. 

The bar was choppy and the waves were standing up but coming in with them is easy enough and we made it through without any incident before gunning it across the bay. I would not want to be heading out at low tide with these conditions. There is a nice channel to the north and to the south of a large island across from Amity now so you don't need to follow the Rouse up to Kooringal which saved us a fair while. 

I texted Brad to see how he went and he texted back that it wasn't him. He had lent his boat to a mate... No wonder we got a strange response. Perhaps my eyes are not what they used to be. I wonder what Brads mate made of the goofy dude in the poser boat waving at him like a flapping gut rag hung out on the out riggers. 

Last night we had dinner with family. I made sashimi platter with lots of crunchy veggies and then pan fried Spanish with a blue cheese sauce just to mix it up a bit. Our friends brought an amazing salad with roast veggies and delicious olives. 

So a cracker of a day. Mark and Hammo were sea sick for a lot of the time. Well pretty much any time they tried to rig up a rod and looked down so I did a lot of work and was tired when I got home. but it is a very comfortable boat and kind on your body. 

Thanks for reading 🙂

 

 

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Drop Bear Community Regular

Drop Bear

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1 hour ago, Old Scaley said:

Brilliant post, @Drop Bear.  I almost felt like I was there.  Looked like a cracker day to be out, and some good fish to add icing to the cake.  Do you reckon your mates feigned sea sickness so you would do all the rigging? Cheers Robbie and thanks for the read.

Haha they sure were good actors if they did fake it. 

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Drop Bear Community Regular

Drop Bear

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4 hours ago, MarkA said:

Great report mate.

Been hoping to spend some time out through the south passage, just waiting on some favourable conditions lining up with some time off.

What time did you come back through the bar? Did you take the amity channel again?

Came back in at 12.30 so still pretty low. Yes took Amity channel. It was fine coming in but would have taken a few on the nose if going out at low tide. I would look further north if going out on a low.

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Drop Bear Community Regular

Drop Bear

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47 minutes ago, Andrew_P said:

Glad you like the reel Robbie and well done on a great day’s fishing! Looks perfect on that live fibre👌🏽  you got a great mackerel outfit there now. Let’s hope plenty more mega macks fall victim to it (but reach the gaff) in the future!

Thanks mate. Yes really nice to use. So smooth. Makes the TLD look very clunky. I see plenty of Macks with a gaff in them in the future. 

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aussie123 Newbie

aussie123

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Are you sure it was a big Spanish Robbie as it does sound more like a Wahoo with those big strong fast runs as they do look quite similar in the water down deep.

Shame about that lure breaking like that and that is the first one I have ever seen snap around the head shape.

There is a lot to be said by using lures with a one piece wire or internal frame.

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Drop Bear

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50 minutes ago, aussie123 said:

Are you sure it was a big Spanish Robbie as it does sound more like a Wahoo with those big strong fast runs as they do look quite similar in the water down deep.

Shame about that lure breaking like that and that is the first one I have ever seen snap around the head shape.

There is a lot to be said by using lures with a one piece wire or internal frame.

No I am not sure. It was a long way down and could have been a Wahoo. Either way it was a world record fish... :whistle: 🤣

Also there are some bite marks on the bit of lure left. Do Wahoo and Spanish have the same shaped teeth? 

Can you recommend a lure that dives similar to the Halco ultra deep, is white and red and has the internal frame? I am bang up for buying some. 

 

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Junky Experienced

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Good read man. Thanks. 

Next time with the dollies try a running 10 ball and cast out before you drift past to get the bait down deeper. Sometimes this fools them when they're in that timid mood. 

 

A 2m+ spaniard has the power to saw through a lazer pro easily. They're called scissors for a reason. 

And you're right, do not eat them, although I have heard of people taking the risk and not getting sick. Stuff that. I know someone who got poisoned from a large trev. Not good. Took a long time to recover. 

 

I am surprised it was still alive tbh. Must of had some fight left. You weren't gonna boat it just yet if the lure held on. Fish like that normally fight till the death, literally. 

If you do get a big one like that and it is dead at the boat then get in touch with the fisheries. They'll take them for research. 

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Drop Bear Community Regular

Drop Bear

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On 21/12/2018 at 11:53 AM, aussie123 said:

I use Rapala CD18's and the newer Magnums and never broken one in 40 years.

They do have different teeth and Wahoo are good at biting lures in half or just destroying them with their teeth.

 I don't think I have ever seen a Spanish bite through a hard body like those.

Thanks mate. Sounds like the culprit. The bit of the  lure that is left has lots (well maybe 6) of very small teeth marks on it. Small sharp stabs like a needle ir sharp nail.

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Drop Bear

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On 21/12/2018 at 6:55 PM, Junky said:

Good read man. Thanks. 

Next time with the dollies try a running 10 ball and cast out before you drift past to get the bait down deeper. Sometimes this fools them when they're in that timid mood. 

 

A 2m+ spaniard has the power to saw through a lazer pro easily. They're called scissors for a reason. 

And you're right, do not eat them, although I have heard of people taking the risk and not getting sick. Stuff that. I know someone who got poisoned from a large trev. Not good. Took a long time to recover. 

 

I am surprised it was still alive tbh. Must of had some fight left. You weren't gonna boat it just yet if the lure held on. Fish like that normally fight till the death, literally. 

If you do get a big one like that and it is dead at the boat then get in touch with the fisheries. They'll take them for research. 

Great post. Thanks for that. I will definitely try the sinker. Im going to upgrade lures as well. I would love to get a photo of a 2 metre'y

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