waterrat

R.I.P Byron I remember when Jewgaffer came out for a night fish with me on the Hacking. I had never caught a Jewfish before and Byron was confident he would get me one that night. Even though he hadn't fished the Hacking for many years he still knew exactly where to pick up some live bait. He then directed me to a spot in Burraneer Bay where we sat in the cold whilst Byron chatted for hours and I just listened. After 3 freezing hours my rod buckled over and sure enough up comes a 68cm soapy. "I told you I'd get you on to a Jewy" he said. He certainly did. Byron will be sadly missed.

LEGEND!!!

There's Bo-ab boat hire. Large orange aluminium boat usually parked on President Avenue Kirrawee just west of the Private hospital.

Wow! That is one colossal squid, nice catch & good eating.

Congratulations on your P.B. Sounds like they were going off, would have been some awesome fun. Shame about gettin spooled & loosing all that braid. At least you've got a good fish to show for it.

Nice work. Kickin myself as I was going to head out in the bay this morning also but the wet weather forecast turned me off. Love to see a pic of that beast sounds like a thumper. Anyhow I'm going to have a crack on Friday, hope I do half as good as you did. Well done. Cheers...Waterrat

Congrats on your PB Trevally. Looking forward to viewing the pics. Cheers....Waterrat

Nice feed there. Well done for persevering in the windy conditions. A mate of mine got a nice sized lizard recently drifting over the sandbar between Mansion Bay & North West Arm on S.P in only about a metre of water.

Hey Byron, Shark fishin reminds me a bit of Jewie fishing only in the way that you set your bait and then its a waiting game. Not quite sit back & relax like your motto coz you've gotta keep that burley going constantly. But all of a sudden without warning the reel goes off just like that night on Burraneer Bay. Looking forward to having another crack at the Jewfish in the near future. Cheers.

Mate, I reckon he was definately over 2 metres, maybe 2.3m? That's the first time I've had one on the end of a line. Yeah they go pretty hard, it gets pretty frustrating when you spend an hour getting back 300m of line and then 30 metres from the boat he takes it all back & then some all in about 20 seconds. I was pretty sore the next day, but found out that was my own fault for not letting the harness do the work. Cheers Hi Jason, No,it wasn't a charter, it was a private trip with two guys who really know what they are doing. They do a lot of homework and really know their stuff. I was just fortunate enought to get a guernsey. Cheers.

Mate not 100% certain I didn't see the bait getting rigged up but I thought it had a plastic coated wire trace attached but it does certainly look like a mono trace, I was too caught up in the fight to even notice. Cheers

Went out Sunday on “Reel Magic” for my first taste of game fishing. We left Yowie Bay ramp at gentlemen hours, around 0900hrs and arrived at the shelf about 1020hrs. Weather was overcast and about a 1-metre chop with no real swell. Reel Magic carved through the chop at 20 knots without a problem. On arrival found the water temp to be 21’C. Started a heavy burley trail with two baits out. Within the hour the 15kg Tiagra goes off. The boys set me up in the game chair with harness & all. Dale hands me the rod and its game on. The first couple of minutes I don’t think the fish knew he was hooked when all of a sudden the reel starts screaming and it takes 200 metres of line. After about an hour we got a brief glimpse of a dorsal fin and there was an early call of a blue shark, as the fish hadn’t jumped. Got him within 30 metres of the boat when he takes off again, back to square one. After another half an hour we got another bit of colour, but he’s still got a bit of fight left in him. After 2 hours he finally started to tire and we got him to the side of the boat. Turned out to be a Mako after all estimated to be around the 150kg mark. He was not happy about being hooked and was trying to bite everything in sight including the boat. Fish tagged & released after a few happy snaps. We tried to raise another but just ended up feeding the hungry Albatrosses. Made it back to the Hacking in an hour. A fantastic experience, thanks to Dale & Greg for taking us out on their simply awesome boat “Reel Magic and also thanks to Jason for his assistance & expertise.

Hey Pete, The boat pictured in the avatar belongs to my father-in-law. Its an original 52ft timber pearling lugger built in Cairns Shipyard in 1952. Was a working boat in Broome and later owned by the Mabo family.The boat has been restored and is now moored in Port Hinchinbrook North Queensland. She's a great old boat for cruising & fishing the Great Barrier Reef. ..Chris @waterat

The guy already there wasn't getting any fish either. So we did a few slow trolls past the FAD well clear of his boat while he drifted off the FAD. When we got no hits on the troll we also drifted & tried Pillies to no avail. We both ended up leaving empty handed at similar times. We made no fast passes at ridiculous speeds so theres really no need to guess why we caught no fish, they just weren't around at that time. I've been out there quite a few times and when they're on, they're on & when they're not, they're not.

Hey Boofhead, You're right there, fishing beats work any day of the week, even if you do come home empty handed. Mate went out in a 5m Seafarer Viva, the FAD off Botany Bay is about 9.5km's off the heads. You can get all the FAD locations from the NSW Department of Primary Indiustries site. Cheers..waterat