Tim: Yet another fantastic day in the shallows casting light tackle lures. Maybe we should have had some bigger lures out on the bigger rods because Jim got demolished by a 50kg gt right in the shallow water. It chased his lure right to the boat then engulfed it and turned and headed for the drop off with me in hot pursuit but unfortunately I could not get there fast enough as the water was too shallow, so I could not get up any speed. All too soon the GT went over the edge and it was game over as the line got cut off on the reef edge. There was no time for tears though as the fish were going crazy, all the usual suspects plus a few Maori Sea Perch which you don’t come across every day.
The guys caught fish till they decided in the early afternoon that enough was enough and so we headed back Odyssey to get some snorkelling gear. A very enjoyable time was had snorkelling for the rest of the day.
Glanville:- We had an absolute blast today, we went out in the deeper water to begin the day jigging in hope of a Doggie, the jigging was a little slow but we still managed a few good sized Chinaman fish and a Giant coral trout before we decided to go and have a few casts on the shallows before we headed back for lunch on Odyssey. It started off with first cast a Gt of about 20kg on the light gear which provided some fluent entertainment as the chase was on preventing him from snagging. The shallows were on fire and the guys were bringing fish to the boat faster than I could handle at some stages, in the hour and a half we caught just about every species of fish you could wish to catch, Maori wrasse, GTs, coral trout, all sorts of sweetlips, bluefin trevally, jobfish and the red bass were nothing short of vermin, that’s just a few species off the top of my head. Just a short ride over to the mothership that was anchored in the confines of the sheltered lagoon on Jewell reef where we had a very relaxed lunch break and for some an afternoon siesta…We tackled up and headed out for more light tackle fun at about 3pm and second cast for the afternoon we had a double hook up with a solid Floury Cod and a Maori Wrasse. I had no sooner released these fish and Johnny was hooked up, with shouts that it was a big fish so once again the chase was on, it turned out to be another solid GT of about 35kg taken on a 50lb outfit and the aid of a 300HP Suzuki screaming after it between the bommies…awesome fish and in just 1m of water beneath the boat it’s just so much better. The rest of the afternoon continued to be what will stand as the best light tackle fishing session I have ever seen and for about 20mins we had carpets of redbass up to 10kg, along with some trout, bluefin trevally, Gts, cod and maori wrasse circling the boat, the guys were dangling their lures off the tips of their rods and hooking up time and again, I tell you what it made for some good humour watching 4 guys shouting like school children on a jungle gym with constantly bent over rods! In the 3 hours of light tackle fishing today we boated over 50 fish and in amongst the mix we had 13 species of fish, an unbelievable days fishing and for me, certainly one to remember…
Saltaire: Started of today jigging until the change of tide that was around 11. It was a lot quieter then yesterday but none the less we still caught some quality fish among them were a 20kg doggy and the biggest long nose emperor I have ever seen. We then trolled along some of the edges and pressure corners on the outside of the reef and had quite a session catching heaps of Spanish, one which would of gone 30kg. We managed to snag another small doggie, which was perfect size for skip bait for black marlin. It was 2 o’clock by then so we decided to go on the hunt for a marlin. The doggy skip bait got smashed by something with teeth and that was about it. That was enough to get everyone excited and off their seat but we ended up coming home with no sight of a billfish again unfortunately today.
