Another Wazza

Still a good effort @Andrew_P considering the conditions, and yes, it seems whoever did the bay forecast was smoking that exact same weed, it was pretty average out there early until around 8am, then it came good.

30 minutes ago, ellicat said:

Went out with @Another Wazza today and he was close to negative 10 with the grinners. Very quiet day that started with a 37 snap to Wazza on a plastic. After that the most exciting thing was loading up the Sabiki jig with some lollipop yakkas and a few pike.

A fall from grace indeed, Jew wrangler one day, grinner whisperer the next, I'm glad you left the sea toad out of it to Brian, hahaha

1 hour ago, crazywalrus said:

 

Great  report Wazza. Some quality jewfish. It is funny, when they increased the size limit to 75 everyone complained and said they would never catch a legal fish. Many years on and there are quality fish being caught.  

Thanks Ted, the funny thing about that is I actually haven't caught an undersized one yet, the smallest to date was 77cm caught with Brian. They are a great fish that tick all the boxes.

Towards the end of February I headed out in the bay in search of some Jew, I found them and had an absolute shocker!, I lost 4 fish (& plastics) to line break as I was going extremely hard on these fish to try and avoid being sharked, I also got snagged once, got snipped by a mackerel, and when I finally managed to get one close to the boat it got sharked about 3 metres away, I was devastated but not willing to give up, having lost 7 plastics & jigheads I headed off to BCF that afternoon to restock & get some new line.

The plan was to head out there the next day and see if they were still around, well, what a difference a day makes, I dropped the first fish, but managed 2 in 2 casts after that, the 1st went 95-96?, there was a little bit of chop out there and they weren't behaving themselves on the brag mat

I'll admit I took a pretty ordinary pic of him, but you get the idea. After I gave him the treatment and got organised again, this little guy paid me a visit

With 2 onboard in quick succession, the decision was made to leave them be, as its just too risky sport fishing for them with the sharks never too far away, so I decided to move on in search of some more fun.

That fun came via a little 30cm small mouth, which was a first for me in the bay, a Trevally not much bigger came after him, then I headed back in. It was a pleasant few hours all up.

Fast forward a month or so, with very little fishing taking place because of some average weather, when I saw the conditions for Tuesday just gone, it was an easy decision to head back out in the bay.

Jew were on the menu once again, so I deployed the same plastic from the previous outing and after working him for about 15 minutes I hooked a big grinner, now I "technically" didn't land him, no leader was touched, I swear!, I just let him chill next to the boat while I grabbed the pliers, when I came back to the rod he was gone, result!, the scoreboard remains unchanged.

Not long after that incident I hooked up to what I initially thought was a small shark, it hit the plastic just off the bottom and started to scream off, then it started coming up, rather erratic mind you, thinking it was a shark I wasn't interested in playing it out, with a heavy drag set to try and beat the sharks, I wound it in with little respect, that was until I saw it was a nice Spotted Mackerel, perfectly pinned in the centre of the top jaw there was no way he could've escaped, I swung him over the side and swifly gave him the treatment.

A surprise, and very welcomed addition to the esky, Jew were still on my mind so I kept plugging away, I missed a good hit, then the next flick resulted in a nice little Jew, success!.

Another dodgy pic, he got a little bent out shape in the esky. So far that 1 plastic has nailed 3 Jew & a spotty, he's almost earned his retirement I'd say??.

After that Jew I headed off in search of some Tuskies, having arrived at the spot and deploying the bait, I had a few enquiries early up which saw nervous anticipation almost reach fever pitch, you just never know how big it is until you set the hooks, this one sadly was no beast, and I made very short work of him. Still a very tasty fish though.

Thinking the bite might be on, I hung around for a few hours but couldn't manage anything else, which in all honesty wasn't such a bad thing as the esky already looked pretty good, and I'm well stocked for the next few weeks.

I pulled the jewels out of the Jew this afternoon, they are something I don't usually keep but I might start doing so in the future as they do look kinda cool.

Brian, I'm still in awe of your display of pure unluck, its something I haven't seen before, and hopefully never witness again, hahaha. It was still a great holiday in an awesome part of the world.

The channel is an amazing place to see and fish, and I can't wait to get back up there and get amongst it again.

Hey @Hweebe, this issue was raised by @Luc53 in June, I think most people have just made peace with it, but now that there’s no photos, I fear the natives are getting restless 

You can use them as a substitute for tying a dropper loop 

On 04/08/2023 at 11:22 PM, ellicat said:

I've got a few Squidtrex myself. Have even lost one to a fish.

 

I remember that morning Brian, you got smoked by something half decent only a few casts in, it was sad to have set that little squid free without having properly bonded with it, hahaha

Those small Squidtrex look pretty good, being half the size they should be about half the price shouldn't they? Hahaha

10 hours ago, mangajack said:

 

What is the code for your Stats of Trip: BS 

I thought I had that one figured out?, Ive been dealing with plenty of BS at work lately, hahaha.

11 hours ago, Junky said:

 

This is a new PB for me. 

Would be g good 18mths since I've had a proper run. 

Damo, 18 months is sacrilege!, at least have the decency to take a hand line into a pet shop and work their tanks over, hahaha, I'm with @Bretto77 on this one, an intervention is most likely required

A few nice fish there Hamish, enjoy your Jewie, well done

A few nice fish there Charlie, I would consider the one you landed a joint effort, and must commend the angler who shared the fun, great stuff