Trevor (skipper), Sam and I headed out wide off the Gold Coast on Friday morning for a fish ahead of the forecast weekend bad weather. Initially, the trip was going to be our last blue marlin bash for the season, but a late change in plan saw us spending the first half of the day jigging in 220 m and bottom bashing in 350 m to 450 m.
Being some 25 nM off the coast, we were amazed that the first two fish jigged up were mac tuna. What followed was a great session on kingfish up to about 1 m long, providing some good arm-stretching fun in deep water. I was very disappointed that the handle of my Accurate B2-665 failed. After landing a few nice fish on my Blue Rose / Accurate outfit, I handed it over to Trevor to use. After promptly hooking up, the reel lost high gear and made some awful sounds. Fortunately, the line and fish were successfully retrieved because after that the handle would constantly slip rendering the reel inoperable. I am now counting on Neil Griffiths to work his magic and repair the reel.
Armed with some fresh tuna flesh baits, Trevor deployed the deep dropper set-up to produce a beautiful 35 kg bass groper almost immediately upon reaching the bottom. 15 minutes of winding later, the fish popped up on the surface. I had intended on jigging the depths for such fish, but with my Accurate out of action that will have to wait for another day.
We spent some time fishing in 60 m in the afternoon where Trevor landed a lovely kingie on light tackle. Also, we saw our first whale for winter (actually, we just about hit it) in about 40 m of water.
Matt
