queensland The Quest 28 May 2022

[ellicat]

Saturday the stars aligned and @benno573 and I finalised a plan on Friday to fish the Bay together. An early start saw me rise at 2.30 for a 4am departure to Manly ramp.

We were at Harry Atkinson artifical reef just before first light, with half a dozen others, where we fished plastics (as taught to me by @Another Wazza). Conditions were pretty ordinary with waves up to approximately a metre and the wind kept us cool. Not much joy on the plastics except for me losing a tail, so at 8am we moved onto Mud Island figuring we had passed the peak period. A lot of boats had also shown up.

At the first Mud spot the weather improved and we managed to get a few legal squire, with me boating the best one at 48.5cm, somewhat shy of the 70cm I was after but I was still happy. Also managed a legal tusky.

Somewhere during the morning Benno pointed out a barge in close to the island. Sure enough it was @Drop Bear and @Old Scaley as well as a couple of other gents from the OzFish crew doing their bit for our environment by doing a cleanup on the island. Good on you fellas. They popped over later to say G'day.

Quite a few boats showed up around us and the bite slowed so we moved on to another spot where there was plenty of bait but no cigar, so we moved again where there was even more bait but no cigar there either. We spied the odd small bust up during the morning of both longtail and mack tuna, so Benno had a slug ready. Sure enough a couple bobbed up within casting distance and benno landed a slug almost in the mouth of one. haha

He was on immediately. Only trouble was it was only on 10lb string that had a join in the line about half a spool down. It didn't take long for the join to be exposed and there was some nervousness about its strength. We were hoping for a longtail, but after quite a struggle, in came a big Mack Tuna going 85cm and just under 8kg. Well played mate.

After that bit of excitement we moved again. The conditions were very calm now and so was the fishing with a steady stream of unders and pickers. Benno was also the grinner king for the day, but worse was still to come. A couple of snip offs occurred before the excitement of a bit of drag being pulled ended devastatingly - a giant sea toad ! Aaaarrgghh. Nooooo. Sure enough we had a couple of more snip offs before we moved on.

We headed back to the first Mud spot where we settled in for the dusk bite. Not a lot going on apart from unders (mainly on Bennos's side), then there was something that set off a fair bit drag singing. Excited at first, the call was made it was acting like a ray and sure enough it was.

Feeling defeated on the big snapper quest, we called it a bit early but well into the dark and headed for home. Back at the ramp at 7pm the fella pulling out next to us said he had caught a 90cm snap and also the boat that had just pulled out had caught a 90 as well. Ho hum.

It had been awhile between drinks for us, so it was good to catch up with a long session. Thanks for the day Benno.

 

[The Mad Hughesy]

cracking mack tuna

[Old Scaley]

Pre-dawn to 7pm! That is a huge day on the water. That is a great Mac @benno573.  And your snapper @ellicat is just a hint of what you are in for this season. Congrats on a good day.

Still can’t believe that Brian pulled up is anchor! Nice to see you boys out there on what turned into a beautiful day on the water.

[ellicat]

46 minutes ago, Old Scaley said:

Still can’t believe that Brian pulled up is anchor!

...and quickly too. Took 5 minutes to recover. haha

[kmcrosby78]

Nice (and big) day out there fellas. I've seen some photos on FB of some big snapper that looked like they were caught at Harries during the day - lots of boats in the background. Next time!!

[ellicat]

2 minutes ago, kmcrosby78 said:

photos on FB of some big snapper

Yeah, I saw them too. From Adam Foley ?

[kmcrosby78]

4 minutes ago, ellicat said:

Yeah, I saw them too. From Adam Foley ?

Pretty sure it was. Caught 8 or 10 of them from 77cm to about 90cm with most over 85cm from memory. Wonder if they used livies or plastics ....... I can only dream (like you ....) . One day - although I did fluke a 72cm in the middle of the day near Wello/Green about a year and a half ago  ....  

[ellicat]

I remember your report. Yeah, that's the same story I read. Likely livies.

[Allnighter]

Holy **** that definately is a long day!

Awesome Macky Benno! And on 10lb

 

[ellicat]

55 minutes ago, Allnighter said:

Holy **** that definately is a long day!

Gotta put in the time and effort, just need to work on the skill bit.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Good job Brian and Benno. That's a great mac tuna!

[Another Wazza]

Solid effort Brian, you will be rewarded eventually 

[ellicat]

Maybe Friday. Going to start at Harry's again. Had to make a trip to BCF today after losing my last pink grub.

[charlie.hans.fishing]

Nice mack tuna benno!

[Hweebe]

That's commitment to time on the water! If i had a day that long on the water there probably would have been a nanna nap involved.

[Drop Bear]

It was nice to see you out on the water mate. and I saw you again today... time to go buy a lotto ticket.  

Well done putting in a huge day! Sorry you didn't get a larger snapper but it will come. 

My mate is out at Green tonight and I bailed as I am a wus and have an early start tomorrow... I fully expect a photo of a 90+ snap waiting for me on the phone in the morning