Skip the ice, let’s go billfishing.

[Howard Hutchinson]

Originally Posted by Coiloil37

We then poked our nose into the lagoon to chart a course around the coral bommies on the sounder then went wide to try for a red emperor until dark. We watched the sun go down out on the reef without a bite from a red.







I then ran back into the lagoon about 20 minutes after sunset and just before dark. I could see but not well. I got in the lagoon no problem and was still on plane at about 13-15 knots in 7m of water and there in front of me was coral. It looked very, very shallow. Because it was so dark I didn’t see it until it was RIGHT in front of the boat. I was already trimmed most of the way up but I hit the trim and puckered my um, yea and wouldn’t you know it we popped across without touching bottom or taking the leg off. I looked on the sounder afterward and it appears to be about 1m under the surface.








After a good meal and a beer or two… I tied some new rigs onto rods and noticed we had gone through about half of the hooks I had taken on the first day. I made a mental note to take more hooks next time then sat back and enjoyed the view and silence for a while before having a siesta.

Now, I use a bouy to retrieve my anchor. I left the buoy on the anchor line overnight because when I’m using the anchor it’s ALWAYS on the line. When I woke up in the morning it was gone. Idk how the pin rattled out of the shackle during the night but it must have. Because the wind had switched direction during the night I didn’t know where to look for the bouy in the pre dawn ink and with the lagoon being a few miles long and wide (full of coral bommies) I didn’t look for very long before heading out to fish. Knowing full well we were now drift fishermen and anchoring was out of the question.

Heading out




Looking back




So many boats it was a line up to exit




We went wide first and hit reefs from 10 miles east of the lagoon and heading south along the shelf for about 18 miles. No dice. Sure we caught stuff we didn’t want but couldn’t find a red.

This little fella was cool though





The oldest was still sick and I made the deal to go home that evening. I then ran back into our favourite reefs on the inside of Fitzroy to try again.

Nolan caught an undersized red as the ocean continued to glass out.



A range of non edible fish






As the conditions improved P started fishing a bit more




Sharks are always a problem but at one point we had one swim under the boat.




I then caught a red throat and was bringing it up. I looked down and all I saw was shark coming straight at the boat about 5-10 meters under the boat. He looked larger then life. I then saw the fish on my line about 2 meters ahead of the shark and started cranking in overdrive to avoid paying the tax man.






I got a video afterward but didn’t get a really clear shot of him

>>

Awesome !! Curious, is that the one lane bridge the Netfiix series is about or are there others I bet?

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by Howard Hutchinson

Crazy man?! How the devil do you keep track of what is where, especially once you have a fish on When the hooked fish is being reeled in, do all the other lines come it fast? The kids must me masters at this point.

As requested, keep sharing when you can. Enjoying the heck out of it.

Let’s just say it’s got a learning curve compared to what I used to do in Alberta.

Without trying to make it sound confusing but accepting that it IS confusing...

I build a spread based on the sea condition (swell/wave size), speed of the boat, if I’m trolling into, with or beam on to the wind or current, if the current is with or against the wind, size of fish I expect to target in relation to the size of lure I put out, what lures work together as a package, what colours have been working, etc.

Then each lure has a position it’s suited for, some are made to run short and some long, some with a low to point and some with a higher tow point. Some for calm seas some for heavy seas etc. The they have to be individually tuned in the water with the seas you’ve been given and the speed I’m trolling. So as they go out they have to be adjusted for distance behind the boat and height of the tow point (via the height of the rod tip or outrigger) and can be adjusted by moving the outrigger, the halyard or clipping the line down closer to the water.

Then you constantly watch the spread and make sure each lure is doing what it’s supposed to be doing and breathing at the correct interval. If sea conditions change, speed changes, direction of travel changes it’ll all have to be adjusted again. It sucks in the beginning but eventually becomes intuitive.

As for your actual question, I keep track of them because I put them in the water and I know which lure or bait is running in which position and if it’s a J hook or circle hook. After that, the clickers alert you to the strike and a tiagra clicker at 89 decibels certainly gets your attention. Then you have a brief moment to see the direction it’s exiting the spread, what the fish might be based on its behaviour and if the boat needs to be turned a certain way to have it exit the spread without tangling and if the trolling speed should be maintained to try and entice multiple hookups.
Then we decide if we can handle the fish without bringing in any other lines or if some of the spread has to come in or if all of it comes in. On meat fish the first attempt is to thread the needle and bring it up between the lines. If that won’t work the boat is turned and the fish is fought off one side, usually the lines on that side are cleared and the fish gaffed then the spread redeployed. During the fight we just make large turns to that side and keep the fish on the inside but away from the lures still in the water.

On billfish we clear everything and try to discourage additional strikes. Only a few times have we had multiple billfish strikes and luckily only stayed attached to one each time. The spread isn’t very quick to pull and it probably takes two or three minutes to clear. After a billfish has cleared the spread and is off to one side, I’ll turn and start chasing it on the troll but it’s common to have 600-900m of line out before the gear is all in the boat and we can properly chase the fish. That’s why the reels have 1500m of line on them. Only a few times have we been at risk of being spooled but with a good fish it’s always a real possibility. I’ve read of many large blues that will dump a spool of line in under 3 minutes and be gone. We just don’t stick into very many large fish cause we don’t spend enough time out on the shelf. From what we’ve seen the difference between a 150kg fish and a 3-400kg fish is the difference between a whitetail and a bison. Not even close to the same thing.

A few times we’ve had as many as seven lines go down, the best we’ve managed is to land five fish out of seven simultaneous strikes. Yea there is a lot going on and there’s pandemonium on deck when it happens. My sister told my wife I was “bossy” when we had four lines go down. I had to chuckle a little cause yea of course I had to direct traffic. It’s all part of the game and what makes it fun. Hearing line being pulled off a reel at 80-100km/h with that clicker howling is like an IV of adrenaline.

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by Howard Hutchinson

>>



Awesome !! Curious, is that the one lane bridge the Netfiix series is about or are there others I bet?

I’ve never seen the Netflix series so I don’t know. It’s hard to see in the fog but that’s the whole bridge. It’s not “just my lane” it’s the concrete on either side of the “road”. And there I was with a boat on behind me, no idea how long the bridge was or if anyone else was coming toward me or if either of us would have to reverse. I didn’t get my phone out until I could see the other side and was relieved to see a car was there waiting.

[Howard Hutchinson]

Wow, thanks for the detailed explanation. Sounds to me that you've got it covered with this knowledge you have shared. A person sure would have to practice lots to be able to get on targeted meat fish, hook up and get them in the boat.

The one lane bridge on the series is just as you explained, one lane. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10901134/

I should look back further to find out where you are located. Are you in Australia or Tasmania. The bridge in the show is on the island of Tas I believe.

Thank you again for sharing your adventures.

[Howard Hutchinson]

Looking back, you're fishing east of Brisbane. "Hervey Bay" ?

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by Howard Hutchinson

Looking back, you're fishing east of Brisbane. "Hervey Bay" ?

North of brisvegas and just south of Mooloolaba. Live in Parrearra and launch out on the south side of the Mooloolah river because that boat ramp is pretty sleepy. The boat ramp is the small red pin on the river in the pic.






Coincidentally that’s the same place we go tonight for the fireworks. They’ll do them off the spit at point Cartwright and we will be there in a couple hours to watch. Seems 2022 is a wrap.

[Howard Hutchinson]

Enjoy the celebrations and thank you again.

Happy New Year to you and your Family, down under!!

[Coiloil37]

I lined up a trip for today. The recent reports had some fish around and the season should be in full swing. My sister is still here so she said she was coming with us, along with Nolan and porter. Winds were for 10-15 knot and forecasted high around 28. I told porter to be here for 03:00.

I woke up at 02:00 to rain on the roof. So I did the logical thing and thought my ears must be playing up. Lol… I went downstairs and looked outside and it was hammering down. So I checked the forecast and to say it had changed would be an understatement. I texted porter and he said he was still keen so I started loading the boat. My sister came down and said she was going to pass. The rain was a deal breaker and to make matters worse they were forecasting 25 knot winds by the afternoon.


So porter and Nolan and I hit the water and it was pretty sporting. There was large ground swell and it was very hard to see with the rain pelting me in the eyes. We took it slow and by dawn we were only 10 miles offshore near the first fad. I suggested we just drop the spread and troll out the last 10 miles cause we could only punch into it at 15 knots beating ourselves to pieces or we could troll at 7-8 knots and might catch a fish.

So we deployed a spread and I told Nolan to have his nap. Within five minutes the shotgun went off and I brought in a micro mahi. I flipped it off the hook and started to drop the lure back into position. As I was dropping it back the line took off and I set the drag. It screamed off and I called it for a wahoo or Spanish. A few minutes later a nice hoo came over the side on the end of the gaff.




I noticed right away it was the stinger hook who caught that fish





We trolled again and a few minutes later another line took off. Porter jumped on it and a little black started jumping. I was clearing gear and when I grabbed the shotgun it too was tight. We had a double. I yelled at Nolan to wake up and handed it off to him. They manage to bring both babies in within a few minutes to be tagged. Nolan’s threw the hook shortly after while we were handling porters which suited us just fine as it’s the tag that counts. For some reason porter hauled his out of the water.





It wasn’t much longer and we had another marlin strike the shotgun. I handled that one and porter sunk the tag.






He had these nasty parasites growing all over his back. (The things that look like weeds)





We then trolled around getting strike after strike and fish after fish. It was red hot. For memorable fish I was on a mahi that was the biggest I’ve ever seen. That’s not saying much because we don’t get them much over 10kg but this one was at least 20kg. It was a hog for these waters. Then the 38lb single strand wire stinger broke and I lost him. Lesson learned, the stinger gets replaced after every fish, not when it looks bad.

We finally got to the banks and found a slick of spawn and a temp break with some cold (24.5) deg water. It was mayhem. First up was a bust up that materialised right behind the boat. Lines started to go down and five of the seven were hit. We landed all five and they were rainbow runners between 6-12kg. I had never seen one before and now we couldn’t get away from them. Seemed wherever we went they found us and between them and the mac tuna we had ~20-25 fish landed within the next hour or two. Eventually I was to tired to keep playing with them and told porter we had to look somewhere else. We didn’t make it far and porter picked up a good Spanish







Few minutes later I got one too





The rules changed this month so now it’s one Spanish over 75cm per person or two per boat. Last month it was 3 per person over 75cm. Anyway we kept trolling and had four lures cut off in a row while we were fighting a fish. What happens is the lure slides up the leader and if it gets behind a Spanish or wahoo another toothy meat missile will strike the lure and cut the leader. That was getting expensive so we trolled deeper to look for marlin. We trolled about 8 miles with only a couple of mahi to show and the wind picked up in a big way. I made the call to pull the gear and run in to the 18 mile.

We trolled the 18 mile and porter had a wahoo hit then lost it after a blistering run. A couple minutes later another one hit the short corner and cut the hook off.

We trolled back past the fad and didn’t see anything worth fishing. The seas were sloppy and confused so we pulled the gear and ran home.

Overall it was a great success. I more then lost count but it was an easy 40+ fish day. We killed two rainbow runners to see how they tasted. Along with a mahi, two Spanish and the hoo. Fridge looks good and if the weather settles down there’s plenty of time to go fishing again this break

The rainbow runner

[Landshark]

Wow! Another great account of a days fishing. What a fantastic read indeed. I love the water adventures you head out on. Thanks again for posting up on your thread.

[58thecat]

Bad weather paid off

[fish99]

a trip like that is what memeries are made of . congrats

[Coiloil37]

With hopes of a few more fish we set off again yesterday at 03:00. The seas were calm and we wanted to try the dawn bite at the first FAD’s again where we found some fish last time.
We were at the fad in the dark and I rigged baits under artificial light. Before I could see, we had lines in the water and we were off trolling. Besides tangled lines from trying to deploy in the dark… we had no success at the fad. Within an hour of daylight we had zero strikes, no bait and no birds.

The gear came in and we ran another 10 miles to the banks to try for a meat fish before the dawn window closed.


I almost never fish a diver but considering the objective at the time it made sense to position one a couple meters behind the boat in the prop wash. Wahoo love a lure playing peekaboo with them in the prop was 4 meters behind the boat. A 160mm Strada redhead went out off the port corner.

Within a couple minutes the shotgun went off, no hookup. We rebaited and then the mid rigger popped the rubber band but didn’t get hooked up, then the short port went off. The diver. Nolan was standing right there and cleared the rod holder then held on for dear life. Line was vacating the reel quickly and whatever he had hooked wasn’t happy. We all called it for a hoo and could tell it was a good one so started clearing the lines on that side of the boat. For some reason Nolan decided he wasn’t up to the challenge and told Porter to take the rod for him.








A few minutes later we saw what had caused the commotion.






Rosi sunk the gaff




Porter tried to get his ankles cut so he could miss work. The video at this point is both funny and a little scary. Idk how he didn’t get hooked or cut by its teeth. Rosi has a nasty habit of laying wahoo heads around feet.









46lbs of sashimi









At that point I made the executive decision the food situation was sorted and we should go chase billfish. I cut east and before we got off the banks we hooked a rainbow runner and mac tuna. We then cleared the reef and headed out toward a few subsurface fads that had been producing blues for the past week.


On our way there we saw a mark on the sounder 25m down that would be a marlin. About ten seconds later a black enter the spread, he rushed over to the long rigger and nailed the micro sprocket. Rosi took the rod and we cleared the gear.




After about 20 minutes I had the leader and porter planted the tag. The fish lunged and I didn’t let go, pop goes the leader and away he went without the usual boat side photos.







Luckily enough it broke on the hook crimp so I got my lure back without having to swim for it.



We worked that area for a bit without any indication he had friends. We then continued out to the fads. Once there we found birds, bait and dolphins. The scene was perfect, the table set. We just needed the marlin to know it was dinner time.
We trolled and trolled without a strike. Didn’t even mark a fish. Saw plenty of the other fish









Eventually time was against us and we had to bust a move for home. We were crossing through the area the first fish had hit and we had another strike on the shotgun. A black started tail walking behind the boat and we started to clear gear while porter took the fish. A few seconds later it threw the hook.

The spread went out again and we worked that area hard. Nothing.


We continued back to the banks and worked the south end for a couple passes. A strike on the short corner brought another rough tuna and then another billfish grabbed the shotgun and quickly threw the hook. We then heard on the radio from a few boats on the subsurface fads that the bites been late in the afternoon. Had we known that we wouldn’t of had a 02:00 start and would have stayed for the arvo. To late now.


A few more passes and the mid rigger hooked up. Nolan brought us a little bonito.




Nice teeth on these fish. First one we’ve caught.






With that we pulled the gear and came home.

[fishinisgood]

Just fantastic

[Landshark]

I love this thread. Great pictures of your adventures. I'll keep looking here if you keep posting here. Thanks eh!

[fish99]

sounds like a
fun outing

[Coiloil37]

Seems a couple of Marlin up in Hervey Bay put the little man ahead in his national “small fry”tournament.

The bag had a couple of gift cards, magazines, lures, stickers and key chains from various tackle sponsors. The reel was the big ticket for him as well as the recognition.





And that bonito. Jeezuz, I had sashimi from it tonight and it’s got to be THE BEST sashimi I’ve ever eaten. I’m going to need to figure out how to target those little fellas, they’re that good.

[MoFugger21]

Awesome!

[dryflyguy]

Congrats to the young fisherman!

Great Wahoo as well, those shots of those trebles and teeth near your pals feet made me want to jump, yikes

[BigPapaBear]

Thank you for the great read and bringing back lots of memories. Like you, I am now living in Alberta but use to be out of Perth. Your write up and pictures bring back so many memories. Fished Gamex a lot and won the marlin and sailfish a couple of times. My middle son still hold a junior record for a sailfish. Ton of lures and rod and reels burning a hole through the shop.

Keep up the thread and helping us get through winter! Stay safe on the water and keep the youngsters fishing!

Perfect!

[58thecat]

Congrats to the young fella, he has a great mentor and I am sure when your old he will be taking you out making more memories.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bigwoodsman]

Great achievement for you son. Congrats. Love this thread!

BW

[Coiloil37]

We got out for another trip. Nolan had to stay home for school and he tried several different arguments to talk me into taking him. The “crew” consisted of Rosi and a guy who works for me “Tim”. Tim has never caught anything bigger then a bream, so approx 1.5kg.

We hit the banks at dawn and put the spread out. We trolled over bait and fish without so much as a nibble. These are from a little later but the sounder looked like this all the time.





We then cut north toward the top of the banks. While trolling across no man’s land where we never catch anything and the long rigger had a little tuna trying to hook himself on it. Rosie took the rod and dropped it back, cranked it towards himself and attempted to coax a strike without any success. He then dropped it back to put it back in its position when something picked it up and took off with it. He set the drag and handed it to Tim. Soon a billfish was jumping behind the boat and we cleared the lines. A few seconds in we saw it was a sail.





Within a minute or two he was asking for the belt. Lol, Rosie and I had a good chuckle cause we rarely wear it on anything less then a hour long fight.






Ten minutes later Rosie put the worst tag shot into him and Tim had landed his first billfish.














We worked that area and couldn’t find another sail. We then continued up to the top of the banks and worked the area without a strike.

Back south to the middle of the banks where we saw a sizeable black jumping out of the water chasing bait. We trolled the area without a strike.

We worked the banks for another hour or so before the shotgun fired. Rosie had the rod and it seemed to be a wahoo. It peeled a couple hundred meters of line at warp speed then fought him staying off the side of the boat. The bend in the rod and amount of fight was similar to the one porter caught last week, maybe a bit harder. About ten meters off the boat it gave a series of head shakes and the hook pulled.

We trolled out to the fad where we hooked up a small mahi on the first pass. We then pulled the gear because Tim had brought his spear fishing gear.

He hopped in the water and swam around for about forty seconds before shooting a mahi.










I then hopped in to try myself. Wow, what a ton of fish there. The amount of stuff visible under the water was unreal. I swam around after the mahi for about twenty minutes. They seemed to stay just out of reach. I don’t know how far away cause it was very hard to judge distance but I would say 3m away from me. Eventually I took a punt and fired at one. The spear hit the end of the line about 2’ from the fish. I swam back to the boat and decided to go fishing instead of wasting more time swimming around but I suspect I’ll be buying spear fishing gear now.


We continued to troll out to the subsurface fads and back without a strike. We came back to the banks late in the arvo, worked them hard without a sniff and then trolled in toward land. I eventually relented and started pulling gear. I brought six of the lures in and tidied up the outriggers. I then reached up for the shotgun to bring in the last line and it went off. It was perfect timing and seemed like it was meant to be. I held it for a second and it didn’t feel like much of a fish but I told Tim to take it. He told me to catch it, I then told him I didn’t need to catch a fish, take the rod. That prob took 10 seconds and then the fish was gone. I cranked it in and the hook was bit off at the crimp.

That’s fishing right. Overall good day with some good guys and probably going to have to take up another hobby.

[58thecat]

Dam that looks like an around blast.
Great post and thread!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Coiloil37]

Well I went and got some spearfishing gear off a mate. The only thing I need is a new set of rubbers on the gun and a weight belt.





We had a cyclone move past which stirred the seas up for a couple weeks. That moved off and yesterday was looking ok for a fish. I took one of my drillers out and we started on the banks. It didn’t take long for the redhead diver to go off and Luke brought a nice Spanish to the boat.




A few minutes later we had a double go off. Nolan beat Quigley to the boat and I sunk the gaff on a 15kg wahoo




Luke was holding his wahoo just off the boat while I was gaffing Nolan’s and a third one rolled in and hit the lure between Lukes rod tip and fish cutting his loose.

We got back into it and shortly later he redeemed himself on another 15kg hoo





With the kill tank full I pointed the bow east and went chasing bills. We hadn’t trolled a mile when the long rigger fired and I saw a 60-70kg black dancing behind the boat. I passed it off to Luke and Nolan and I cleared gear. Within a minute or so the hook came out and we started trolling again.
Fast forward to a few hours of boredom we went through all our old haunts and back without a strike. Luke wanted to try the banks again so we popped in and just as we started climbing the first section of reef the shotgun went off. Nolan brought another wahoo to the boat the same size as the first ones. Being as the kill tank was in good shape we released it at the boat.
We made it onto the banks and had a double go down, one hooked up and Luke pulled a little 4-5kg yellowfin to us. There was no chance of me releasing that one so I made room for it amongst the fish and ice in the kill tank.

We then cut out to the fad where Nolan wanted to break in his new tld. So I put “pinky” on and set it back about 6m behind the boat in the prop wash. Pinky is a little jet head that’s caught more mahi for my boat then all the rest of my lures combined. Anyway we made a pass and saw a massive shark. It looked like a white to me but I wasn’t getting in the water to ID it. The thing was at least 4 meters long and just under the surface. Absolutely massive fish that made me rethink spear fishing and at the exact same place we hopped in last time. Anyway, we turned around and made another pass and Nolan hooked up, christening his new reel




When I gutted the mahi I saw a little sailfish in his belly. There was a little full length sail along its back but it would pull apart every time I tried to stand it up. You’ll just have to trust it’s a sail









With that we pulled the pin and started home. Along the way we ran into birds working some bait and I decided to try and catch some. Keep in mind that making bait is supposed to be where every blue water fisherman starts his morning. We suck at catching slimies so we don’t try. We suck because we seem to drop on the wrong bait schools and catch junk. This time we dropped and immediately started pulling strings of slimies into the boat. We took a few for future dead baits and will try to make bait on future trips in the morning so we can slow troll them both off the electric Scottie’s and on surface. We might even make a habit of flying them under the kite, time will tell.





Once the gear was packed up we tried a platter of sashimi and compared yellowfin, Spanish, wahoo and mahi to each other. We all had different opinions of how to rank them but it was nice to try them all at the same time.

[roper1]

Those are some awesome fishing adventures. Thanks so much for the pics & the write-ups!!

[Smoky buck]

That baby sailfish is cool. You never consider how small they start out

[58thecat]

You are living a lifestyle most of us could only imagine, thanks for this awesome thread.

[HL_transplant]

Originally Posted by Coiloil37

Well I went and got some spearfishing gear off a mate. The only thing I need is a new set of rubbers on the gun and a weight belt.





We had a cyclone move past which stirred the seas up for a couple weeks. That moved off and yesterday was looking ok for a fish. I took one of my drillers out and we started on the banks. It didn’t take long for the redhead diver to go off and Luke brought a nice Spanish to the boat.




A few minutes later we had a double go off. Nolan beat Quigley to the boat and I sunk the gaff on a 15kg wahoo




Luke was holding his wahoo just off the boat while I was gaffing Nolan’s and a third one rolled in and hit the lure between Lukes rod tip and fish cutting his loose.

We got back into it and shortly later he redeemed himself on another 15kg hoo





With the kill tank full I pointed the bow east and went chasing bills. We hadn’t trolled a mile when the long rigger fired and I saw a 60-70kg black dancing behind the boat. I passed it off to Luke and Nolan and I cleared gear. Within a minute or so the hook came out and we started trolling again.
Fast forward to a few hours of boredom we went through all our old haunts and back without a strike. Luke wanted to try the banks again so we popped in and just as we started climbing the first section of reef the shotgun went off. Nolan brought another wahoo to the boat the same size as the first ones. Being as the kill tank was in good shape we released it at the boat.
We made it onto the banks and had a double go down, one hooked up and Luke pulled a little 4-5kg yellowfin to us. There was no chance of me releasing that one so I made room for it amongst the fish and ice in the kill tank.

We then cut out to the fad where Nolan wanted to break in his new tld. So I put “pinky” on and set it back about 6m behind the boat in the prop wash. Pinky is a little jet head that’s caught more mahi for my boat then all the rest of my lures combined. Anyway we made a pass and saw a massive shark. It looked like a white to me but I wasn’t getting in the water to ID it. The thing was at least 4 meters long and just under the surface. Absolutely massive fish that made me rethink spear fishing and at the exact same place we hopped in last time. Anyway, we turned around and made another pass and Nolan hooked up, christening his new reel




When I gutted the mahi I saw a little sailfish in his belly. There was a little full length sail along its back but it would pull apart every time I tried to stand it up. You’ll just have to trust it’s a sail









With that we pulled the pin and started home. Along the way we ran into birds working some bait and I decided to try and catch some. Keep in mind that making bait is supposed to be where every blue water fisherman starts his morning. We suck at catching slimies so we don’t try. We suck because we seem to drop on the wrong bait schools and catch junk. This time we dropped and immediately started pulling strings of slimies into the boat. We took a few for future dead baits and will try to make bait on future trips in the morning so we can slow troll them both off the electric Scottie’s and on surface. We might even make a habit of flying them under the kite, time will tell.





Once the gear was packed up we tried a platter of sashimi and compared yellowfin, Spanish, wahoo and mahi to each other. We all had different opinions of how to rank them but it was nice to try them all at the same time.

Which Sashimi did u prefer?

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by HL_transplant

Which Sashimi did u prefer?

Of the fish we catch and eat as sashimi I would rank them in this order

Bonito
Wahoo
Longtail tuna
Spanish
Yellowfin tuna
Mahi


They’re all excellent, I wouldn’t turn my nose up at any of them. We need to explore sushi next. My wife makes excellent sushi but without the fish so it’s time to integrate fish into it and see what we can learn there.

[Coiloil37]

Yesterday was looking good for a trip and the oldest boy decided he had to get out there before the end of the season. Due to him getting sea sick he’s never been out there and never caught most of the fish we catch out there. He will go reef fishing when it’s calm but even then he usually suffers. I gave him a sea legs pill and assumed he would be ok.
I lined rosi up and we started at the 10 mile fad to look for bait. The little man wanted to troll pinky past the fad which he did and immediately hooked a little mahi. It was only about 70cm so I unhooked it and threw it back to grow a bit.
We couldn’t find bait so we punched another ten miles out and stopped approx 2 miles short of the banks to get everything set. Rosi was driving and I put a nine line spread out. We made it about a mile when the long rigger fired, I handed it to Pierce and started clearing the spread. It was a baby but a good place to cut his teeth and he handled it without to many problems. Not as polished as his little brother but he brought it to the boat and kicked the day off.













We did a lap or two in that area then continued up to the reef. There was one other boat on top of the banks bottom fishing. He was about 150 meters south of me as I cut east across the top. Rosi and I noticed he was looking to move and had our eye on him. He then takes off on plane heading north and cut about 40m behind my transom. As he was getting close I was out the back gesturing but as he cut across my lines I fully lost it. He heard me too and got more then an ear full but it was to late. I’m not sure how you can be so stupid to not notice a boat with outriggers and nine lines hanging out the back travelling at 6.5 knots. I was a bit concerned with a grand worth of lures at the mercy of his prop. He only managed to pick up two lines of which one wasn’t cut and then the shotgun which I could feel around his prop. He pulled it for a ways then it broke off on the mono with perhaps 30m of line and a lure that didn’t come back. The guy kept running, probably because he didn’t know enough to stop and get the line off his prop or maybe because he didn’t want any more abuse from me. ~maybe it took his lower unit seals out for him.

We fixed some carnage, put one rod out of service and remembered why I bring ten trolling rigs and got back to fishing. The banks were fairly devoid of hungry fish. I could see them on the sounder but they didn’t want to play the game. Naturally I blamed the new moon. We did a few laps and eventually the shotgun fired. Rosi brought us a Spanish for the kill tank but we didn’t stop and get any pictures. This is the closest I can find in a video that Nolan got




With the food situation settled we started out to the 100m line where we heard there was lots of bait. When we got there we found lots of bait. Naturally, being short of live baits I dropped a bait jig to get some of these slimies. Toad fish. I pulled up stringers of toad fish. We were in disbelief so we stopped over half a doz schools and all we caught were toad fish. We then understood why we were seeing lots of bait but marking zero marlin on them.

We trolled north and east doing a big lap, touching 200m of depth and dropping back to the banks in the early afternoon after a long day of not catching anything. On the way it was good to have both of my sidekicks with me. The other dads will know what I mean




Once back on the reef we saw a bust up of bait so trolled through it and hooked up on three rainbow runners of approx 8-10kg.
We got away from them and kept at it, we saw some wolf herring busting up and got into them with no strikes. Wolf herring aren’t supposed to be this far south but make an A grade Spanish/wahoo bait. They must have found a warm current to get this far down

Talking about these fellas



As we trolled through where the wolf herring were I could see wahoo just under the surface. Tons of them but they must have been fixated on the herring because they wouldn’t touch our lures.


The sounder was alive with fish and bait but despite our best efforts all we could find were a couple more rainbow runners.




At one point we saw some bait busting up and I ripped through it. The rigger fired and Rosi grabbed it. Then the shotgun fired and rosi grabbed that too, probably to hand to one of the boys. Regardless he reached up and cleared the rod holder with the rod then the drag carried the rod out of his hands and behind the boat into the water. I saw it in slow motion with the rod never actually in his hand, just lifted up and flying behind the boat only to disappear into the water. There was a moment of silence then he said a few choice words. Another line on the other side of the boat hooked up and pierce jumped on that one. I told Nolan to start pulling lines in because maybe one of them had hooked the missing rod. Three of us cleared lines but our missing rod wasn’t to be seen. Pierce was on his fish and it looked like a good mahi the one time I saw it behind the boat. Then he dropped it but was still fighting something. He brought up a piece of mono attached to his hook. We couldn’t believe it. Rosi started hand lining it in and retrieved the missing tiagra saving himself from having to buy me another one.


We trolled another three miles south to try one last spot. We got down there to find some cooler green water and cut our first lap picking up a striped tuna. That went back where it came from. Next up was a strike on the shotgun and a little black marlin dancing out the back. Rosi brought it in and I got a tag into it. When the tag hit him it jumped a few times and threw the hook. That wasn’t a problem so we redeployed and continued to cut laps.

Next was a vicious strike on the red headed diver on the short corner. Pierce grabbed it and a few seconds later the shotgun fired. I handed the shotgun to Nolan (without throwing the rod in the water) and called them for wahoo. Being as Pierce’s fish started 10m behind the boat and Nolan’s was 100m back there was almost a tie at the boat with pierce just winning the race. I put the gaff into it and got it into the boat. Nolan’s fish was the same size and I didn’t see the use in taking that much meat. We flicked the second one off the hook at the side of the boat and took two pictures with the first fish.








I didn’t bother to weigh it but I know it’s bigger then the 16kg fish we were catching last time.

With a pair of tags planted and the kill tank looking good we decided it best to pull the pin and head in. Coming into winter the days are getting shorter and I don’t like cleaning the boat in the dark. All up it was a great day for the eldest and he cut his teeth on a few of our palegics. As always, a few mishaps and hard to believe tragedies along the way.