We got out for some bottom fishing yesterday. Due to the previous success with the jigging that was the flavour of the day and the plan was to scout some new ground off Morton island and find some kingfish and pearl perch.
I bought the little man his own slow/fast pitch setup with the same line of rod as I’m using (different PE rating) and his own shimano Ocea jigging reel (smaller size). However I expected to have it in hand the day after I ordered it and they didn’t ship the day I ordered, instead they shipped the next day. So the rod/reel showed up while we were gone fishing. Figures. So I set him up with a different rod/reel and away we went.
We had great sea conditions when we left which quickly deteriorated on the trip out. After a 25 mile run we stopped on the first bit of ground. His first drop he managed a double to kick the day off. These are called coral cod
We picked up a half doz of them and a few grinners but couldn’t find what we were after so we moved around. Truth is we hunted all day and couldn’t put a solid fish in the kill tank. We eventually found a wreck and started pulling tiny amberjack off it. It must of been a nursery because the larger models weren’t to be found.
Some of the grinners made me wonder how they thought they would eat a bait that big.
He picked up a little jewfish
And a few other species we didn’t get pics of. Taylor, pike, small snapper, parrot fish. Etc.
All up we couldn’t find what we wanted and it was tough trying to drift with as much current and wind as we had. We saw a ton of turtles and whales. At one point we had a whale go under the boat at about 30m and he looked a cm thick on the sounder.
Seems my lack of attention on the demersal species front is coming to haunt us and we will have yet another learning curve if we want to succeed here on the local. Up north it’s easier because there are so many fish.
When we get a nice day we will head wide for some deep drop species. I got an electric reel and bent butt rod to facilitate this endeavour. A mechanic at work was straight out front here a week ago and they caught most of the deep species I want.
Luckily we have all winter to sort this out.