Easy Day on the water

[Neil Stratford]

I took advantage of a break in the strong  westerly winds this morning and snuck out for a fishin’mission. Forgot it was school holidays and their was a fair few boats out. 
Had a very effective fisheries Qld  visit  at about 9 am , they just pulled up along side in their rubber ducky and I didn’t even have to pull in my troll baits ,just kept trolling and they did their checks on the move .Life jackets  , Rego ,  flares etc  etc all passed . Strangely they didn’t want to see my Epirib because I was less than 2 km offshore , which I thought was a bit strange because next stop to the east would have been Fiji . Anyway it was friendly , well conducted and didn’t waste any of my time .
 

Had three hits for the morning  and got all three fish - 2 Spanish which were pretty much a pigeon pair at about 12 to 15kg  and  a big stinky Barracuda that was release to annoy someone else.

[Kat]

I am not going to ask about the sharks .  Looks like a great morning on the water.  Thanks for the report 

[Neil Stratford]

Hi Kat , Touch wood , No shark issues this morning , only saw one , but I did go  back to using my home made magnet assist rigs. They seem to work as I’ve only lost 1 rig in about two years but  I’m still undecided as to whether they put the mackerel off though, as I only had 2 mackerel hits this morning . I found a huge school of  Spanish macs on the sounder  but found it difficult to get them to take the baits. Managed a good feed so wasn’t too worried.

[Kat]

What is magnet assist rig?

[Neil Stratford]

Hi Kat , With a bit of ingenuity,I simply attach one of those super strong earth magnets to the lead hook of my mackerel rigs. 

I bounced the idea off our resident shark expert , Daryl McPee a few years ago  when we fished in the same fishing club together -at the time  he told me the idea had “ Merit “

I think  I put up a post on this forum showing these rigs a couple of years back , with photos of the actual rigs .if you search back into history you may find it. 

I’ve been using the rigs on and off since then and surprisingly I have only had one of the four or five I made  lost to a shark. (they are not 100% effective) . I’ve seen sharks come in on hooked spanish and then veer off at the very last second so  I’m pretty sure they work to some degree on sharks , but I’m not confident that the magnetic  field also may have an effect on the mackerel taking the baits in the first instance  .  I can only say yes they do catch  their share of mackerel , but do they catch as many - who  knows  , but they seem to discourage most sharks to give me a few more seconds to get the fish into the boat. 
regards

Neil

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Great job Neil, awesome mackerel. 

[ellicat]

Nicely done, Neil. A couple of beauties. I've got a trip planned for up north later in the year that includes adding a couple of large specimens of these to my lifetime catch card.

[Junky]

Good fish. 

I like this magnet idea. 

There's a magnet supply a Rocklea I think. May go and  have a looksee. 

 

 

The top of the fillet on those macks makes the best sashimi. Even if you don't like raw fish. 

Wrap in a chux cloth, leave in the fridge for 24hrs to firm up, then slice finely and enjoy with soy and wasabi. 

Even the biggest nose turner upperer at sushi has been converted, but only with Spanish. 

 

 

 

[Bretto77]

1 minute ago, Junky said:

Good fish. 

I like this magnet idea. 

There's a magnet supply a Rocklea I think. May go and  have a looksee. 

 

 

The top of the fillet on those macks makes the best sashimi. Even if you don't like raw fish. 

Wrap in a chux cloth, leave in the fridge for 24hrs to firm up, then slice finely and enjoy with soy and wasabi. 

Even the biggest nose turner upperer at sushi has been converted, but only with Spanish. 

 

 

 

A mate of mine swears but exact same process

[Bretto77]

1 minute ago, Bretto77 said:

A mate of mine swears but exact same process

The sushi I mean 

[Leeroy]

2 hours ago, Junky said:

There's a magnet supply a Rocklea I think. May go and  have a looksee. 

AMF Magnets online. We buy the Neodymium Magnets from them and they have good service. Get 20 or so for about 15$

[Neil Stratford]

Got my sashimi morning tea sorted for today.

What I kept of yesterdays catch , all cryovaced up. You can clearly see the fat marbled through the steaks and cutlets.

And an added bonus my son dropped off 25 kg of snap frozen black tiger prawns  all packaged up in 2 kg bags.

[Neil Stratford]

Hi Kat , I took a photo of my magnet rigs for you .see below.

[Sylvathorn]

Looks like a great Idea .... must try it!

[kmcrosby78]

1 hour ago, Neil Stratford said:

Hi Kat , I took a photo of my magnet rigs for you .see below.

Is the magnet underneath the red thing (heat shrink?)? Nice work getting both to the boat - good result

[Rebel]

Great haul.

Well done.

[Andrew_P]

Good to see someone using their noggins against the sharks! A couple of factoids from me that might add to the info:

1. Sharks and rays have ability to detect magnetic fields, whereas fin fish do not. I’d suggest that the difference in catch rate of Spanish you observed would be only from the magnet altering how the baits swim, not from magnetic fields. But I could be wrong!

2. When shark researchers were looking at developing electromagnetic deterrents to prevent shark bites on surfers and divers they were effective if they were strong enough, close enough to the potential target. But, if the shark was in “feeding mode” even the strongest magnetic field would not deter them from biting the target. 
 

so magnets, if strong enough, may put off potential shark depredation but not if the shark has decided to eat the hooked mackerel before it feels any magnetic field. I would suggest the vibrations of a hooked mackerel would overwhelm whatever field a magnet is generating from the front of the hooks. 
 

perhaps someone could patent an affordable magnetic snapper sinker for paternoster use? Lead goes for ~$8kg so if the product was slightly more expensive (say $10-12 kg) I reckon most people would go for it. 
 

@Daryl McPhee may have more info on this topic

 

[Neil Stratford]

And the day gets better ; number 1 nephew just dropped me off 2 nice muddies for being a good uncle !

[Bob9863]

Sounds like a pretty good day. 

One thought I had was instead or putting the magnet on the rig itself, could you attach it to a snap swivel that you can clip on the line when you get a fish. 

That might be a way to put off the sharks and not put off the fish. 

[Neil Stratford]

Hi Bob , That would be an option for reef fish but for toothy Pelagics like mackerel you need to be mindful that they sometimes snap at  anything moving through the water  , I don’t use snaps for that reason  , I just join the wire trace to my main line with  a very small unassuming black 80 lb swivel. 
I’m nowhere near convinced that the large sharks that I’m dealing with give one iota about a magnetic field. I can usually get most mackerel to the boat in probably close to  under 2 minutes , bigger fish a little longer. They always go for a small 10 m odd  run when they see the boat , the next 30 odd seconds it takes to get them back to the boat is when a significant amount of  my spanish are taken . With the magnets being thrashed around with mackerels head shakes , Im hoping that maybe the sharks might sense somethings  just not right and they turn off once or twice  , and I can get 10 more seconds  .I have no doubt they will learn and totally ignore the magnetic field especially if everyone uses them , it will probably  even attract them  more eventually . Im also thinking maybe hanging a speaker over the side after a hook up playing a recording really loud might work . Does any one have a recording of the sound of an Orca eating a shark , or maybe Some old Abba classics might even scare them off for a while if I play it loud enough.

IMO There’s no way even a huge magnetic field is going to stop them  getting what they want ,  if they learn to associate magnetic fields with food I recon they start eating the magnets . If there’s two or more sharks competing for your fish you have little to no chance . But , I think if anglers can get an extra 20 seconds  using a variety of different scare off tactics ,a lot less fish would be taken. 

[Daryl McPhee]

Sharks can detect magnetic fields while bony fish cannot. In theory the magnet should have some deterrent effect on sharks but they will never be 100% effective. No deterrent for any purpose is. But if you are picking up 10% more fish then they are worth it. 

Neodymium magnets are the best and the come in a great variety of shapes and sizes. They are only a few bucks each so they are cost effective.

[Neil Stratford]

Thanks Daryl , if that’s the case , I’ll continue using them for a while.

Thanks

Neil