queensland The Sea Was Alive

[tugger]

Headed off early Thursday morning to chase the marlin out wide on the gold coast with 'motley crew' Colin. There was no wind but a bit of left over slop from the day before we got out to the grounds and started to troll skirts but couldn't find any bait schools.

Trolled all my marks then found a current line and trolled along it fro zip. Made the call to go in shallower and half way back the sea came alive there was bait busting up, tuna, dolphins, birds and even a free jumping marlin. 

I stopped and called my brother who was in close fishing for mackerel he said he had 4 spotties in the box and the Mackies were on the surface. I put the hammer down and as the sea had now glassed out we were soon pulling up next to my brothers boat.

We set pillies out and it wasn't long before all the rods went off we lost all 3 fish. The spotties surrounded us on the surface and as I threw the next bait out it drifted just below the surface before a spotty nudged it and swam past but 4 of his mates didn't like missing out and charged the bait with the 1st fish nailing it and taking off with hook set very cool to watch.

The line screemed off the reel and after 4 more runs a good spotty was gaffed and chilling in the icy brine. Colin got in on the action and was loving the speedsters we had to untagle lines on double hook ups and had plenty of laughs in doing so.

The fishing was awesome for the next 2 hours sharks made the spotties run even faster and we lost a few to the men in grey but those spotties can turn on the speed when they need to.

Fish were busting up everywhere  you looked it just went on all day it has been a long time since i have seen it go on like this. The space between my brothers boat and mine often had hundreds of mackerel just below the surface an incredible site.

The box was filling with good size spotties 1 hit the meter long mark. All had been in a good paddock as they were fat as mud.

My brother bagged out and left and we left them biting after putting 7 in the box it was a perfect day on the water with glassy conditions for our run home as well. I got home and cleaned the fish with many cold beers to cool the insides.

Here is the final result

[AFO]

[Luvit]

Awesome.

The thrill of hooking up multiples to see if you can get them in the boat before the sharks or being bitten off is so much fun when you know there are so many fish around.

If you drop a few you know it won't be long before the next one.

Fun times with friends.

[tugger]

10 minutes ago, Luvit said:

Awesome.

The thrill of hooking up multiples to see if you can get them in the boat before the sharks or being bitten off is so much fun when you know there are so many fish around.

If you drop a few you know it won't be long before the next one.

Fun times with friends.

They certainly were thick I haven't seen it like this for a couple of years on the mackerel love seeing them up on the surface like that

[benno573]

cracker day by the sounds of it, that weather looks MINT.  shame the beakys didn't play along but that is a good consolation.  good to see there are plenty of them about still. 

I encountered a similar situation off the sunny coast one day a few years back - bagged out in about 1.5 hours and got a bonus spanish and cobia in there too - best spotty "only" went 96cm though.  It was awesome watching a school charge up to smash a pillie just under the surface.  We even got to the point of only deploying one bait to cut down on the mayhem.

[tugger]

Good to have a plan b that worked

[kmcrosby78]

Sensational day there Mark, just awesome. Good to see Colin's face on here too, I haven't seen him for a fair while. The huts at Slipping Sands from memory.

[tugger]

10 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Sensational day there Mark, just awesome. Good to see Colin's face on here too, I haven't seen him for a fair while. The huts at Slipping Sands from memory.

Colin gets to most socials still , he loved the day on the mackies 

[Drop Bear]

Great Report Tugger. So cool to see fish like that. Well done. I bet they ate well. 

[tugger]

16 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

Great Report Tugger. So cool to see fish like that. Well done. I bet they ate well. 

I hope to have another crack at the spotties after this wind drops

[tugger]

This southerly blow coming through now will get them chewing and the water temp is still high inshore on the gold coast so the 1st few days after the wind drops will be the best opportunity to see it like this again.

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, tugger said:

This southerly blow coming through now will get them chewing and the water temp is still high inshore on the gold coast so the 1st few days after the wind drops will be the best opportunity to see it like this again.

Its looking nasty for the whole week on meteye. I will try really hard to get down there on the first quiet day. Hopefully late next week.