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Curtain Reef 21/03

CrayfishMates

By CrayfishMates
in Saltwater

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CrayfishMates Newbie

CrayfishMates

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Slipped across to Curtain on Thursday night. Left from Port of Brisbane around 1800. The bay was damn near glassed out, so you could say a nice trip over. (about 45mins).

There was about 10 other boats out there and lots of campers on the beach. Could smell the BBQs going. Anyways, dropped the pick in between a few boats, hoping to drift back onto a bit of lumpage. Pretty hard to do on such a small reef and lots of boats. The first spot did not produce much aside from small biters.

The tide turned and sitting on 20M of flat so hauled anchor and snuck around sounding for lump. Found a shallow 14M lump just a whisker north of the south reef marker. Tide was running pretty hard as usual and even with 20 ounces of lead it was hard to hit the bottom and if not the place was infested with juviniles.

Had a kip to wait out the tide turn. Up just before it when the current had slowed a little and flicked out my toy rod with 20lb braid to find myself a live one for the 'sneeky assasin' and her brother 'stiffy'. Yes I name my rods lol.

Ended up with a good session on bream of all things. Landed 5 nice 30's and a bunch of smaller ones. Picked a little rainbow stripy thing and whacked it on 'stiffy' with 60lb mono and a 100lb leader.

Now it gets a little interesting.

Bang 'stiffy' starts to scream, gimble on and ready to go. I let it run for a bit, but I was fast running out of line. Time to fight. So I put the brakes on and set the hooks. This thing was not too happy about that and tore off in a different direction (shark). Had to lock down the drag completely and it was still pulling line but coming in. Could feel a big head shake, thwap and gone. The line was very nicely frayed after that.

Thinking, these little fish are a good bait I catch another one and drop it on 'stiffy' with a 2M leader this time. Not ten minutes later, tug tug. I did not waste time and just set the hook, pulled the drag up hard and started skull dragging this thing in. Sure enough after a very lame fight in comes a 60cm cod. Happy days.

[img size=500]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/oddshots_042sm-28585f4bd71f2213e5c87679a8e75b34.jpg

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benno573 Rising Star

benno573

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and the naming of rods is something i can understand - i have several with names and reasons behind the names:

paris - goes anywhere, does everything and catches everything

walker - all the footy show fanatics will remember "walker's on"

origami - always bending in half

shapelle - bit of a long story

osama - a deadset WMD

and a few others that can remain unsaid in a pulic forum... :laugh:

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ellicat Grand Master

ellicat

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Ripper cod mate. Pity it was on the heavy stiffy (:laugh: )setup. Would have been a bit more fun on the light stuff.

I wondered for a bit what the real reason was that you headed out and had a kip soon after....I think I know, you sneaky bugger lol:P :laugh: Hope the wife doesn't wise up to that trick :whistle:

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CrayfishMates Newbie

CrayfishMates

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benno573 wrote:

good to see you finding a practical use for whiptails!!! great cod for curtain mate. bugger about the "shark", sounds like that was the beast involved but it could have even been a cobe or a kingy, i have seen some huge ones there when diving!!!
Yeah pretty sure it was a shark. The head shake was full on, and the line was frayed up at least 2M. Initially I could not set the hook, it seemed like it was dropping it and picking it up again on the fly. Who knows but I like getting the big runs it just makes me revisit how I rig each time and each time I get closer.
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CrayfishMates Newbie

CrayfishMates

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ellicat wrote:

Ripper cod mate. Pity it was on the heavy stiffy (:laugh: )setup. Would have been a bit more fun on the light stuff.

I wondered for a bit what the real reason was that you headed out and had a kip soon after....I think I know, you sneaky bugger lol:P :laugh: Hope the wife doesn't wise up to that trick :whistle:

Yeah 'stiffy' skulled it in without working up a sweat. But you just don't get the time to play that much on that reef as they head for what ever structure they can find and cut you off.

Gotta get sleep where I can. But a bugger of a way to do it. Coming back the BOM got it wrong and the bay chopped up bad which made for a very lumpy and slow trip back.

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ellicat Grand Master

ellicat

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CrayfishMates wrote:

benno573 wrote:
good to see you finding a practical use for whiptails!!! great cod for curtain mate. bugger about the "shark", sounds like that was the beast involved but it could have even been a cobe or a kingy, i have seen some huge ones there when diving!!!
Yeah pretty sure it was a shark. The head shake was full on, and the line was frayed up at least 2M. Initially I could not set the hook, it seemed like it was dropping it and picking it up again on the fly. Who knows but I like getting the big runs it just makes me revisit how I rig each time and each time I get closer.

The way you describe that makes me imagine more than one shark having a go at the bait.

Bugger about the FOTM entry:( So far you are leading in the "moral victory" stakes;) :)

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CrayfishMates Newbie

CrayfishMates

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Captain Stabin wrote:

Great Cod mate, its a shame we have had to wait for a public holiday to have such good weather..just too many people out there.

Imagine the concentration of people when the green zones come in:S

Yeah I was really surprised how the weather took a turn around to almost glass. I always manage to find some hold to fish in, even if I am parked 3M from the bloke next to me. The trouble with holidays is the inexperienced knobs that have no idea. Had one shoot across my bow from the left coming in the mouth. Had to pull the Bulldog up so I could rightly yell out some things about his mother and inquire about where he may have acquired a license lol.

As far as fishing goes, the bay is pretty ordinary and infested with juviniles. The more I fish it the less I want to. Green zones are all well and good but the pro crabbers and trawlers need to go outside and fish. But hey learned a long time ago, wasting time and energy trying to stop anything the Gov wants to do. (GST ring a bell)

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CrayfishMates Newbie

CrayfishMates

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ellicat wrote:

The way you describe that makes me imagine more than one shark having a go at the bait.

Bugger about the FOTM entry:( So far you are leading in the "moral victory" stakes;) :)

It managed to peel off 200M of line in less than a minute, then full drag would not stop it though when it had to work it started zig zagging. It was the head shake that ripped the line though. And dead set, 2M up the line was frayed badly.

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Cowfish13 Newbie

Cowfish13

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Sounds like a great day:cheer:

The Whiptails make great bait. We've never "really" tried them live, but we always do well with fillets of them. They're great for Snapper in places like Harry's.

They also are good eating when you get them around 25cm or bigger;)

Well done:)

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