queensland 1st Offshore trip in C-Jay - Multiple Mackerel, Flatties and Snapper!

[Kat]

Last Tuesday the fishing weather gods aligned and the BF managed to get the day off work.  We headed to the GC Seaway departing from South Maclean about 2.30am.  Unfortunately had a couple of stops to make before launching at the Spit boat ramp so the sun was already coming up when we launched.  The bar crossing was a non-event as the weather, tide and swell was almost perfect.  I logged our trip by phone - my first time logging a trip.  The plan was to return about 3pm.

We headed to the 36 fathoms found a bait ball on the sounder and I dropped my Sabiki bringing up a minimum of four slimy mackerel each drop.  Once I had dropped the bait jig three times we decided we had enough live bait for the time being.  We dropped a live bait and another two rigs with squid at the same spot.  No joy.

We hit another mark or two close by and did a drift or two, again with no joy!

It was difficult to find bottom, the current was raging through despite the reports otherwise.

We decided to head back in a little and fished one of the FAD's.  My first drop I felt a couple of small taps, felt like I might have had a couple of bait fish on (Paternoster rig with two dropper hooks - No. 5/0 for snapper).  Pulled up a baby flatty and another barely legal (the latter released to the Esky to accompany the whiting fillets in the freezer).  

  The next few drops we both pulled up small flatties.  Other smaller reef fish were landed and then the BF got wrapped around the FAD by an unidentified fish.

We decided to move further in and head South East to a couple of marks.  The first mark produced some decent snapper after a few drifts, my PB, which measured 50cm on the boat and had shrunk a couple of cm by the time he hit the Bragmat!  I also got a 37cm one and a couple of unders.  The BF got a couple of unders, a 60cm (again it had shrunk by the time it hit the Bragmat).  On the last drift the BF hooked a monster that he swears was a Snapper, it peeled off the drag and unfortunately the hook pulled.  I have never heard so many choice words erupting from his mouth!  The F word continued every few minutes all the way home!  Lol.  All of you know this feeling I am sure.  

For the first time offshore on C-Jay with no marks of our own I thought the trip was very successful - I feel another addiction coming on!

 

 

 

[rayke1938]

great trip

[ellicat]

Ripper, Kat.

Great to see you guys did well. All the snapper on the slimies ?

[Angry51]

That's really great, Kat.

Enjoy your success, you deserve it.

Edited November 23, 2021 by Angry51
spell properly.

[Neil Stratford]

Well done - snapper for dinner!

[Old Scaley]

Congrats @Kat. Looks like a top day out. 

[Drop Bear]

Woweee! look at those. Well done! cracking trip. 

[jon]

Good trip well done!, probably one of my favourite things about this site is watching regular members progress through their fishing journey. You've come along way, awesome !

[Kat]

10 hours ago, ellicat said:

Ripper, Kat.

Great to see you guys did well. All the snapper on the slimies ?

The slimies got SFA.  Although the current was raging where we first dropped our baits and by the time we were at the second spot they were all dead except the one I had deployed.  No live bait tank.  Sadly my livie got nothing. Squid accounted for most of our catch, however the lost monster was hooked on half a dead slimy once the squid had run out.

[tugger]

Good to see a plan come together you'll be an old hand at this soon

[Junky]

So good to see you holding quality fish. 

Well done. 

 

[kmcrosby78]

Really glad to see/read this @Kat. Haven't met you yet, but like the others it is awesome to see how quickly you are tying out different fishing options and succeeding at them . That's a great result for your first offshore trip, and there's a couple of bigger ones still out there to lure you both back next time ..... 

An alternative to a live bait tank is to get a 20 litre bucket, drill some holes (about 8-10mm drill bit) into the lid plus the top third of the bucket and then tie some rope to the bucket handle and tie it off to the boat so that the bucket is free to float in the water beside the boat. It does mean you need to pull the bucket back in each time you need a new livie but it keeps them nice and alive as the current washes through the bucket.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi Kat

Great work! Those are some huge snapper.

Cheers Hamish

[Drop Bear]

On 25/11/2021 at 10:05 PM, kmcrosby78 said:

It does mean you need to pull the bucket back in each time you need a new livie

Or in my case, bring it in when you are confused as to why the boat hasn't gotten on the plain yet... 

 

[kmcrosby78]

10 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

Or in my case, bring it in when you are confused as to why the boat hasn't gotten on the plain yet... 

 

That’s funny .   I haven’t done it with the bucket (yet ...), but have with the berley bag about three times...