Skip the ice, let’s go billfishing.

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by Zip-in-Z

Think I said this previously .... No Life Like It ....

Surprised the Mrs & kids haven't convinced you to take them out to the range or course, I'm sure that will change.

Kids here are out of school again, rinks & pools closed, more restrictions, Sylvan has 60 active/98 covid cases, R/D has 236 active/580 cases and it's going to get worst before it gets better.


D.

The missus golfs. It’s just been few and far between when there’s nobody around to watch the kids. It was easier before covid when our parents could come over and (visit?) play babysitter for us.


We’ve both still got all of our extended families in central Alberta and Saskatchewan and it sounds pretty bleak. I’m glad we left when we did but we’ve got our ears open to what’s going on there. It’s a stark contrast to the situation here that’s for sure.

[Coiloil37]

Well there’s no more fishing this break. The weather isn’t playing fair but I’m sure it’ll be nice an calm next week when I’m working.




Back to that story about swimming. Last January I took one of my rig managers and his father out fishing. We ripped out and trolled for a bit then marked some good fish in about 100m of water so I dropped the anchor and we tried targeting them. The current was wicked, with 12 ounces of lead out lines were at about a 40 degree angle and we probably had 200m of line out before we hit bottom. We tried for about 20 minutes and I decided we would go find some fish on top of the banks in 25-35m of water and try again.
I hooked the anchor retrieval ball onto the anchor rope and drove away from it. The anchor was snagged so I hit the end of the rope and it never came off bottom. I tried a few more runs on different angles and at one point I saw the anchor ball give a weird movement that made me think it had come off the rope. I didn’t think that was very likely and though it must of just been my eyes playing tricks on me. I hit the anchor on another run and watched the ball and it didn’t follow us so I mentioned it had come off the rope.
My guests weren’t following what I was saying and I mentioned we weren’t getting the anchor off the bottom without that buoy. I ran up front and threw all the extra rope into the water and drove at the buoy to get it. I hit the end of the rope when we were about 30m short of the buoy.
That was my opportunity to stop and think which I bypassed.
I looked at them and said, I’ll just go get it. So I took my shirt off and jumped in, swam to get it (made great time swimming with the current), grabbed it and started swimming about 40 m back to the boat. It was tough slogging on my stomach trying to push a 2.5’ diameter ball in front of me so I rolled over on my back and drug it behind me while I kicked with my legs. I swam until I was tired and though I must be nearly back to the boat so I rolled back over on my stomach.
The boat was further away then when I started. Like 60-70m away and neither guy on the boat was paying attention to me.

Panic half set in so I yelled for their attention. His nickname is BB and I yelled “BB, I’m not going to make it” he yells back WHAT????, I said “I’m not going to make it, currents to strong”. He says “what do you want me to do”? I said “tie the fenders to the rope and throw the rope off the boat and come get me”. He says “ok”.
So then I rolled over on my back and kept kicking as hard as I could because I didn’t want to get out of ear shot in case he had trouble.
A few minutes go by and I haven’t heard the boat start. I rolled over and they’re still messing around with the fenders. By now I’m probably 120m away from them. I rolled onto my back and I start thinking;

I don’t know if they know how to start the boat.
I didn’t show them how to use the radio
They don’t know how to use the EPIRB
I don’t have any sunscreen on
In another couple minutes you’ll be out of ear shot from them and won’t be able to help
What if they start the boat and wrap that anchor rope around the prop and spin it off???

Then the big one hit me. I’m doing a lot of splashing in one place and there are a lot of sharks out here.

I had a quick mental chat with myself to get that idea out of my head.

Another couple minutes to by and I rolled over again. I was prob 200m from the boat but they were back at the helm. Then I heard the motor start and half calmed down. They got headed towards me and eventually I got in the boat. We had a good laugh about how stupid that was and I had cold sweats that night about what would of happened if I had done something so stupid with just the boys on the boat. I can swim like a fish but that current was ripping that day and I underestimated it.

[Coiloil37]

Well the weather finally gave us a bit of a break so we decided to head out this morning. We hit the ramp at 3:40 and found a zoo but after waiting our turn we were on the water and heading out. After getting on the ocean we encountered a very short swell interval and approx 2m seas. This made for very slow going without pounding ourselves to pieces so we put out a few high speed trolling lures and ran out at about 15 knots.

Now approx a week and a half ago we got 350mm of rain in two days and had 9+ meter seas. This has turned the water an ugly green and there isn’t any “very” blue water until approx 30 miles out and the true blue water is pushing 50 miles out.

We got to the first fad without any bites on the high speed gear and found spear fishermen in the water so we diverted to the second fad. We made our first pass and hooked a little chicken about .75m long and put him in the kill tank. No photos but it was a little dolphin so... we all know what they look like.

We then started trolling for the third fad and about half way there saw a marlin with his dorsal and tail sticking out of the water. We made a pass on him and he checked a few of our lures out without a hit. A couple more figure 8’s didn’t invoke a strike so we kept going.
The third fad also had a ton of boat action and we only made two passes without a strike before pulling the pin and chasing some game boats out wide. As we went and put some more water under our keel the swell died down to a manageable meter but it was still short and tight with some odd rollers in the 2m range.

There were a lot of boats working the inside of the banks on the 21 mile so we deployed a spread and started trolling. About forty five minutes in as we started climbing the drop off from 60m to 30m the shotgun went off. I pulled it down and gave him strike drag and passed it off to Porter as he was still chasing his first marlin. He’s lost a few and been around for 20+ strikes but never landed one. Anyway, long story short




























The rest of the day was a bust. We saw one more marlin sunning itself that wouldn’t strike. We marked another half dozen or so marlin on the sounder that wouldn’t come up for a look




There was a lot of chatter between boats on the 2way and nobody else was hooking or raising any marlin but there were a few dorado landed. After a solid day of trying we rolled back into the yard around 17:00. Even though it was sloooooow, any day with a marlin landed counted as a success in my books.

[58thecat]

One word....EPIC...for me that would be a fish of a lifetime...well done!

[MoFugger21]

Very cool. I love seeing this thread bumped and the updates that come - can live vicariously through you! Thanks and keep them coming!

[Coiloil37]

Well the swell is finally dropping. Probably because I’m heading back to work soon.




Tomorrow they’re calling for 1.5m seas and 15 knot winds so we are going to take a kick at the proverbial cat before heading back to the grind for two weeks.

The fishing report looked excellent for the guys who braved the swell yesterday.



I’m going to go catch some fresh bait the load the boat up and we can all see what happens tomorrow.

[Coiloil37]

Well that was quite the day. Started out on schedule and we found the ocean ugly. I would say like a washing machine but more like a toilet. Between the swell and multiple directions of wind chop it was tough slugging on the way out. Regardless we hit the first fad and Nolan picked up a little mahi on the first or second pass. We trolled by the second fad a few times without any success so we pointed the bow north east and kept running to the area we picked up the marlin a week ago.
We put a spread out and started trolling. I was standing on the gunnel watching the spread and specifically looking at the long rigger when I saw a Spaniard leap out of the water a good 10’ with my lumo green sprocket in its gob. I yelled long rigger indicating they grab the rod and I watched the rod tip expecting it to buckle over and the reel to start screaming. Nothing but dumb looks at me. I told them what had just happened and expressed my disbelief he hadn’t hooked up when the shotgun went off. We pulled it down and passed off to Nolan expecting a Spaniard. He didn’t disappoint and brought him to the boat to join the mahi in the kill tank.







My sprocket needs new skirts and how that fish didn’t get hooked amazes me.




The spread went back out and we kept steaming north. A few minutes later the shotgun went off again and porter was up for some solid table fare.






We again got moving and although I didn’t want to leave fish to find fish the reports were that the marlin were still north of us a few miles. We trolled for about half an hour in the 120m mark and saw some trawlers so tucked in behind them to see if we could find fish. We found plenty of dolphins but of the flipper variety so started trolling in toward the 100m mark where the marlin were supposed to be. We could see one other game boat and as we got near the shotgun went off again. Rosi was up for this one and brought in a little black. I was the leader man so I didn’t get any pics at the boat on my phone.







We then had a few strikes and a couple thrown hooks. Probably missed or dropped 4 fish before we hooked another up and I brought him in.

[Coiloil37]

It didn’t take long and we hooked up again. This was Porters turn






When they got it along the boat I saw another fish approaching and thought it would be a shark but then saw it was a dolphin







After releasing the marlin we scratched the big fella and fed him some mullet and gar.






Then we got back into it. A few more missed strikes and then hooked up again. Nolan got his turn and though it took some time managed to bring another little black to the boat.

[Coiloil37]

More to come. I’ve got a meeting for the rest of the day.

[Sundancefisher]

Dreaming of doing that one day.

Wahoo is my favourite sashimi.

[Coiloil37]

After the little mans marlin we had been chatting with another boat working the area. He had caught two and was leadering the third when it got a bit rambunctious and he didn’t drop the line quick enough. The leader cut three of his fingers bad enough he had to tape them up and head in to the hospital.

We carried on and shortly later scored another decent dolphin which rosi brought aboard for the kill tank. You can see it lit up blue in the pic here.






Now I’m not sure how we screwed this one up but rosi also took the next strike which happened to be another little black



At that point Nolan told me he wanted some sashimi and we needed a wahoo or yellowfin. I agreed but told him that was mostly out of my control. Rosi said the Spaniards made decent sashimi so I mixed up some soy and wasabi and took about a lb out of the Spaniards shoulder and we all had a good feed. We then decided we better start trolling toward home. We didn’t want to leave but we were down to about 60 litres of fuel and had a 70+km run back to the boat ramp. So we set sail for port on the troll and decided to pull the gear once we got back to where we caught that marlin a week ago. On the way I put a nomad in the water to try and entice a yellowfin off the thermocline. We just about made it back to the banks when it fired and Porter took the rod. From the head shakes it was a tuna and we got excited for some good eating.




Unfortunately when it got to surface we realised it was only a skipjack and destined to be bait.







We rolled across the banks and 21 mile without a strike although we marked a lot of bait and saw some pilchards busting up on surface then pulled the spread and made the run in.
The marlin were small but plentiful and it was a fun day with all the bycatch and multiple strikes.




Back to work as of today for another fortnight but hopefully the swell cooperates next break and we can get back into them.

[Smoky buck]

Are skipjack poor eating?

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by Smoky buck

Are skipjack poor eating?

From what I’ve been told the skipjacks and mac tuna are garbage on the table. Never tried because there are plenty of good eating tuna to be caught. The yellowfin and longtails are the two to eat.
Had we caught that skipjack around the marlin I would of brindled him through the eye sockets, put a 7/0 circle hook off his face and trolled him around until he got eaten. Now I’ve got him frozen and I’ll probably use him for either a pitch bait or a belly flap and a few flesh baits and use the rest for burly.

[58thecat]

Originally Posted by Smoky buck

Are skipjack poor eating?

say it aint so cuz I got a pantry full of tins....tuna, relish sammiches…..if you smell like fish then you catch more!

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by Sundancefisher

Dreaming of doing that one day.







Wahoo is my favourite sashimi.

Wahoo is excellent sashimi. We usually eat more of it raw then we do cooked.







Spaniards are similar to a wahoo but they’re completely different fish. Both members of the razor gang, both very fast, even have similar fighting styles and both typically sever the bait (fish) in half eating the back first and then circle around for the front half but they’re not the same.











The Spaniard was pretty good sashimi but not as good as fresh “real” tuna and not as good as a wahoo. It was just as delicate as wahoo but a little tougher. IMO the skipjack and macs don’t hardly count as a tuna... more like cat food although they’re often turned into a real fish after they get put on a circle hook and deployed again.





Here’s a Spaniard

















And a wahoo













The wahoo also has that big dorsal fin









Pound for pound the wahoo makes a more powerful and longer first run. The big girls are absolutely awe inspiring with the speed and length of their first run. That bigger one pulled 700+ meters of line at 80-100km/h under 30lbs of drag.


Mmmmmm sashimi

[Zip-in-Z]

Looks like a fun successful day ....

Cheers

D.

[Coiloil37]

The chance of impalement adds to the experience. The video is better but you’ll have to settle for pics.

[58thecat]

I bet that happens all too quick too....awesome fish but ya gotta respect it too...not like the hospital is close by.

[globetrekker]

Originally Posted by Coiloil37

It’s that time of year again the juvenile black marlin get caught in the fish trap that we call Hervey Bay. Typically these are 1-2 year old fish that are migrating south for the first time. I commented on them and the trip I would take up there in the last thread I made about lady musgrave island.

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=386697

Being as it’s the right time of year, a full moon on the 2nd of Nov and two weeks off I had a look at the forecast and this past Wednesday/Thursday looked acceptable.








The 7 year old didn’t want to make the trip as he had an ear infection that hadn’t gone away yet but the 5 year old was chomping at the bit.

Thursday morning I loaded up and we were off.







We got to the boat ramp after an uneventful drive.










It’s about a 60km run out to the grounds, once we hit wathumba creek we stopped and to put out a six lure spread and started hunting. On the run up we found a bust up of longtail tuna but couldn’t get a hit on the slugs or soft plastics we threw at them.





Back to trolling, we struck out for the most part with five marlin strikes on skipping gar (ballyhoo for those of you who’ve fished the Caribbean) but I couldn’t stick a 7/0 circle hook into ones mouth.





In hindsight I didn’t wait long enough but I was giving them 6-8 seconds after they popped the clip off the outrigger which I thought was enough. We did manage one little spotted mackerel for dinner.





Then we popped in to check out one of the many sets of turtles we saw who seem to be displaying some mating behaviour.







The we stepped onto the island for a look around.








We trolled around as the sun went down without any success.





Due to some fires on the island and the smoke we had to anchor up in a less then ideal location but we stopped for the night, set out a few lines and cooked supper. At that point my phone died and I found out my charging cable was cactus. Luckily I had a gopro with me but it’s less handy to get pictures and videos with then my iPhone. As we went to sleep my little man told me not to worry, the second day is always more successful...

nice!!! i moved from brisbane to calgary in 2014, miss it!

[Coiloil37]

Well works all done for another fortnight. While I was away the wife called and said the garage smelled like a dead fish. Cold fear coursed through me and I asked her if my bait freezer was cold. Nope, it got unplugged and thawed out. I was upset because I lost a few hundred brined and packaged baitfish, tuna and mahi belly flaps. She was upset because the garage smelled bad. The smell went away but I’m short on bait now and have some work ahead of me to get caught up.

Then Tuesday before I came home the wife sent me a pic and told me I should of been fishing.




Of course I came home the next day to a 3 meter swell.

Tomorrow looks good however so I took the kids and we got some bait this morning which will rest in a snotty ice/salt/bicarb brine overnight. A nice mix of mullet, 2x3 gar and gar. They’re on the small side but they’ll work. The pic sucks but there are 50+ gar in there and about a dozen mullet.



I split tailed a few mullet to swim and also rigged a few up for skip baits under chuggers to run off the riggers. The back half of the fish is split with the tail split in half so each fillet has a “tail” on it. The backbone is removed and they swim like Michael Phelps.





I also turned my boat fenders into teasers. I did some reading and Fred Archer used to swear they raised fish like a tractor beam. I only rigged one but painted both incase one gets ventilated by a bill. It’ll swim and dive behind the boat opposite the daisy chained beer can chuggers and behind the dredge.




Now to go out and see if the fish are still around. There was a tourney about two hours south last weekend and they posted some great numbers.

[Coiloil37]

We were on the water by 04:00, ran the first 25-30km in the dark (slowly) and got out to the banks about half an hour to an hour after daylight. We set a spread of seven lines and trolled for about ten minutes when the port side rigger went off. He dropped that one pretty quick, jumped out of the water crossing the prop wash and smoked the long rigger. That one stuck and porter brought in a Spaniard for a horrible gaff shot. Same lure as last time, had just reskirted it and once again she’s fubar.






Somehow when he was cleaning the Spaniard he touched its tooth and sliced his thumb open. Next thing I see he’s rolling a cloth and electrical tape for a bandage. I asked if he needed gauze and he said it was fine. About an hour later this whole cloth was red. They have bloody sharp teeth.




We had only cleared two lines so we redeployed and had trolled another 4-5 minutes when the shotgun went off. Nolan brought in a spotted mackerel. I didn’t get a decent picture and the ones I have show the gills and bottom jaw ripped out. Not really a pic fit for the web.

Then it slowed right down. We marked bait and marlin but they wouldn’t come up to the party. The new teaser got attacked and has bill rash on it but we didn’t see that fish in the spread either.
A few hours later we had another strike and from the head shakes I thought tuna but surprisingly it was a little 25lb wahoo that didn’t have the signature first run. Luckily porter was running the phone and actually took a picture.



That was it for the day. Not a single billfish that we know of. There was one missed strike on the shotgun where it took some line and the gar but we never saw it. I guess after the last trip we have to pay our dues again.



The sashimi was fantastic. Like an idiot I forgot the soy and wasabi so we had to wait until we got home.

[Coiloil37]

I was talking to one of the charter boat captains this morning who was out there around us yesterday. He said they struck out too and from what he’s heard the Gold Coast is dead as well.
There’s also a tournament out of redcliff this weekend and the majority of the boats hit Caloundra wide or the canyons north of Morton (both are within 10-15 nautical miles of where we were fishing). The winning boat only caught three fish. His opinion was it was a moon or barometer problem that has them off the chew.
Another buddy was out yesterday on a game boat and they only caught one dolly so it appears it wasn’t a problem just we were having but instead they’ve got lockjaw for some reason.

I haven’t figured it out. Moons waxing and will be full in five days. Barometer has been steady for the past 6 days. We hit two tide changes and the entire run in between. Looks like I need to learn a few things about it because from what I know they should of been feeding.

[58thecat]

Hmmmm must be a world wide shutdown....the bite here on the ice is slowwwww. Go figure eh!....only difference is that your +30 and we are -30

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by 58thecat

Hmmmm must be a world wide shutdown....the bite here on the ice is slowwwww. Go figure eh!....only difference is that your +30 and we are -30

[Coiloil37]

I’ve got a new spot to go check. It’s about a 70km run south east instead of the usual north east we head out. If the charts correct it’ll be in 400m of water on the deep side and comes up to 8m at the top of this pinnacle. It’s only about 2 miles from the shelf where it drops off to 4000+m so prime blue marlin and yellowfin water. The bait should be stacked up out there.

[dryflyguy]

Great reports, keep 'em coming!

[Zip-in-Z]

Originally Posted by Coiloil37

I’ve got a new spot to go check. It’s about a 70km run south east instead of the usual north east we head out. If the charts correct it’ll be in 400m of water on the deep side and comes up to 8m at the top of this pinnacle. It’s only about 2 miles from the shelf where it drops off to 4000+m so prime blue marlin and yellowfin water. The bait should be stacked up out there.

Reminds me of a spot we fished that looked similar in NW Ontario, obviously not the same depths, but it was fun trolling downriggers with 12 lb cannon balls & zig-zag the structure and catch some monster Lake Trout.

Wish you all the success, enjoying the pic's & never ending love story.

Cheers

D

[Zip-in-Z]

Coil .... see what you & the family are missing, easy to do the metric conversion -40F = -40C .... this morning. How's the fishin been, we could use an update.

Cheers

D.

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by Zip-in-Z

Coil .... see what you & the family are missing, easy to do the metric conversion -40F = -40C .... this morning. How's the fishin been, we could use an update.



Cheers



D.

Yea that’s gross. I woke up this morning at 4:30 and saw the mother in law posted it was -38 in red deer. I walked out to the Ute to go to work and it was reading +25. When it’s +35 this arvo and I’m moving my rig I’ll just remember it could be much worse.


On the fishing front;

It’s been a brutal swell for the past two weeks. Averaging between 2.5 and 5 meters and hasn’t let off yet but it looks like it starts dropping next weekend so maybe when I go home it’ll be fishable.

Here’s the past two and a half days

[Zip-in-Z]

I'd be hugging my bucket with 4-5 meter waves ... look forward to an update when conditions improve.

D.