wirrah

About 10 boats fished Browns today 30 August. The current is set a bit to the north. Think most got their quota of gemmies, but little else.A pair of seals were nicking fish, and there are some big sharks on the bottom. Temp was 18. No sign of kings at the 12mile later, but there are barracouta taking jigs. Some birds about, including muttonies, so there may be some pelagic action again soon. Wirrah

Sorry - I was pretty tired when I logged last night - the eddy on this side is running NNW-SSE. Wirrah

We fished Browns today. It looked to be a great day, according to the BOM site, and Seabreeze. The wave dropped to 1.6 by about 7, we were on the water at 8.30, and the S/W was suppposed to die mid-morning. It didn't. And I'd hoped my own judgment, i.e., very cold overnight, warm body of water out there, expect a S-westerly to hang up, would be wrong. It wasn't. We trolled up a big stripey about 4 mile back from Browns, trolled 'til 1 hoping the wind would die, then had a few deep drops. Despite the sou-westerly, with each drop we covered a mile, heading south. I kid you not. With 4 lbs of lead, I don't think we got bottom once - though we must have been close, as we picked up one blue-eye about 20 lbs - lost no gear at all though. and we were backing up into swell that went 2.5 meters on occasion. Plans of cubing were dropped, and we trolled back to a couple of miles inside the shelf for no joy. Temps. By about the 12 mile we got 18.8; once over the shelf, 19.2; a few miles before Browns, and for the rest of the time out there, 19.8. Beautiful. Activity. Most birds were prions, with a few albatross - very few gannets. Saw no gathering activity at all. Current. That big eddy we've been watching for weeks is now well ensconced, and has dramatically lifted the temp, but where the fish are, dog knows. They aren't on this edge - not today anyway. The speed of the current is as big as the CSIRO site says it is; it's as strong as we've seen it in the last few years. It appears to be running from NNE to SSW on this edge anyway. By 4, we'd made it back to the shelf; the temp dropped .5 almost immediately, the seas dropped, and it was as though the earler stuff had been a bad dream. Won't go out again until we get some warmer overnight temps. There was 1 pro boat working the bottom there today - what a bugger of a way to have to make a quid, in those conditions. Saw only one other boat, and they left Browns very early. Wirrah

Hi Brett The water temp at the 12mile was 17.8; this other boat said they got 18.9 at browns. If you use the csiro site, the conditions off the shelf really do look good. So hopefully we will get a window of decent weather. Wirrah

We squibbed the early start for Browns on Thurs, as the sky looked pretty active - went to the 12-mile for a couple of hours in the afternoon. The 'jackets are atrocious. A couple of pros were packing up when we arrived, said they'd had a tough time with them. Lost 3 jigs in a half-hour, jagged a couple of 'jackets - they're not the size they were 12 months ago, and had nothing in their gut, so they've hopefully eaten themselves out of house and home. Spoke to a boat who had been to Browns - they had 1 blue-eye, no mention of 'fin, but they wouldn't have been calling at the 12-mile if they'd had any, I wouldn't think. They said that once you hit the shelf line, there are obviously fish about, because there are birds everywhere - they had hooked 1 stripey. There were a lot of albatross and fairy prions around the 12mile, so they must be expecting to feed on something. The weather looks pretty ordinary for the next week, but we'll be out soon Wirrah

Hi Oz Brett Care to keep in touch on any particular channel? Wirrah

We are going out to Browns tomorrow - anybody else going to be in the area? Intention is to troll from the shelf, drop a line deep, then cube for a couple of hours if the wind drops as per BOM prediction. Then troll back to the shelf. Wirrah