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Rainbow Beach Offshore Mon 14/7 - Wed 16/7

dhess

By dhess
in Saltwater

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dhess Newbie

dhess

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Decided to join a friend for a spur of the moment fishing trip up to Rainbow Beach in his 6+ metre barcrusher as the weather was looking good and we were desperate to catch a big red.

Day 1

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Departed from brisbane at 2am and made our way up to Rainbow Beach. Launched just before 6am and crossed the bar at first light. Had a fairly nice ride out and fished a few spots about 25-30ks out from bar. After a slow start we found some new good new ground and started pulling some good pearlies, venus tuskfish and cod. One of the crew managed a very respectable snapper around 7kg and a nice longtail tuna.

The skipper had an interesting moment when he was hanging his arse off the back of the boat to snap a cable. A 1.5m long banded sea snake came up to check his crack out. We alerted him but he was saying "sure sure". We then said "No really theres a sea snake behind you." He turned pretty white.

Conditions were perfect all day with a glass out in the afternoon.

Day 2

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Crossed the bar alongside Smithy's blue Stabicraft and headed out to the spots that produced the goods on the previous day. Stopped about 8kms wide of the bar to jig some live bait and had a few drops. Ended up catching a few nice long finned snapper. A first for me.

Headed out wider and picked up a few average snapper on the drift. Things wen't a bit quiet so anchored up over our pearlie spot. We had a fairly steady flow of quality pearlies with a few around the 4kg mark. The pearlies din't seem to be interested in liveys with most of them going for halved dead yakkas. Managed at least 7 or 8 undersize red emperor but no legal ones.:angry:

I perservered with liveys and eventually hooked up on something big and fast. After a brief tussle I got reefed. Almost definitely an AJ. I rerigged and sent another livey down and bang on again. Once again even with a locked up drag on a tyrnos20 with 50lb braid couldn't stop it. I decided to have one last go. Rerigged and sent abnother livey down and hooked up again in no time. This one after a few hard runs I managed to turn around and after a relattively short but intense fight managed to boat my PB AJ. no t sure about weight but would say easily over 20kg. I would love to have seen the size of the first two.

Things went a bit quite so move to a nearby spot and put the liveys down again. This time we were onto the longtails. We kept 2 probably around 8-10kg and released another 6 or 7. It got to the point where we had to stop using livey's. I even managed to catch one on a dead yakka fished on the bottom.

Once again conditions were perfect most of the day.

Day 3

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Once again headed out early. Had a decent run out in pretty good conditions. Fishing was a bit slow with only a few tuskies landed. About 9am a front moved through and it absolutely poured down. The winds picked up to 20knots with plenty of white caps. On the brink of hypothermia we headed in a bit closer. The wind died down a bit, but the fish weren't really biting for us so we headed back in.

All in all had a very memorable trip. Plenty of whales and sea snakes sighted. The fishing was great but couldn't get our first legal red. It just gives us an excuse to do it again. [img size=500]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/Aj1.JPG

post-972-14459846619_thumb.jpg

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dhess Newbie

dhess

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Thanks for the replies.

The first few that busted me off I had on a for two minutes at most. I kind of stopped them for a while but couldn't turn them. Then they got their second wind and it was all over. The rig I was using was 2 6/0 gamakatsu octopus circles snelled on an 80lb leader. The one I landed ended up opening one of the hooks up a bit. Pretty damned impressed with the quality of the hooks to cop that much abuse and not break.

Still been doing a fair bit of fishing but been a bit too busy to post much.

Here a pic of the first days catch: [img size=500]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/P7140510.JPG

post-972-144598466194_thumb.jpg

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Smithy Newbie

Smithy

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Yep saw you guys those couple of times. Well done finding the liveys. I had that quick look over the 5mile reef obviously on the way out but none there. If they aren't there they probably were on the 42m reefs.

That night we hit the shelf chasing reds. The current was unfishable at night out there so I went to bed. Next morning it was fishable but all we got were sharks or sharked. That is the first time I have missed out on a legal red being out that far. They just weren't snapping before that front. Before it came through it was pretty glassy so we got to stop and drop on heaps of new marks I had to try. All we got was a Coronation trout. Some of those spots are worth a look again definately. Some are a lot closer in than I am used to for Red grounds and a lot further south. I would say you guys were in too close to seriously chase Reds. Sure you might pick a few legal ones up in close but to target them in good numbers we have only done well by being way out wide.

Glad I worked a bit south during the day. Would have been a massive punch straight back into it once that SWer came through. It was bad enough quartering them. We grabbed a few more Squire and Pearlies where you saw me and then headed in to get home before dark seeing as it wasn't happening at all that day.

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Smithy Newbie

Smithy

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I would fish 33-39Nm off the bar for them. You can go right up to the grounds we fish in the Fraser Comp which are about 45Nm up. Those sort of distances really require overnighters to give yourself the best chance or you need super flat weather to get out and back at 30knots if your boat can do that. The depths aren't too bad. You are not actually over the shelf but just inside it. Some of the high spots are 50m on top but lots around 55m, that sort of depth and only out of 60-65m

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