Fathoms Friday 13.03.2020 Brown's Mountain

[zmk1962]

Hey Raiders, 

You may have seen from my last few posts that I've got the bug for deep dropping. The weather and Wayno's availability lined up so the plan for a trip to Brown's was set - even though it was Friday 13th !.

Couldn't order a better forecast if we'd wanted.

 

Apart from dodging all the rowers up around Roseville the trip out was very quick and  we were on our first trial drift before 730am.

Bait: Squid and salted pillies rigged on lumo deep drop rigs.  Gear: Tanacom 1000 and Tanacom Bull 1000.

The current has reversed and was running S - N at less then 1km/h awesome - (two weeks ago 25.02.2020 it was still N - S 4-5km/h). Water deep blue, temp 23.8C.  With the slow current, the baits dropped nearly vertically 👌.

1st drop and I pulled up a decent gemmie ... and Wayno connected with the bottom bugger. 

Tried to free the snag, but eventually the braid gave way - unfortunately right at the reel - double bugger 360m of braid plus all the terminal gear GONE !

So we went back for a second drift using the Tanacom electric while I spent the time retying a new leader (FG knot) and re-rigging the Bull.  The gods were not smiling (maybe because it was Friday 13th) and the Tanacom snagged on this drift.  Tripple bugger - lost another 360m of braid and all the terminal gear. 

Spent additional time now re-rigging the Tanacom. We now had two rods with around 500m of braid which was just enough to keep fishing - but sadly the fish had moved on and we only ended up with one additional small red cod thingy. 

Pulled stumps at around noon and decided to set a minimum troll pattern (3 rods) towing skirts for the first few km heading away from Browns - zilch. Then did the same as we approached 12mile.  Water temp 22.8C.

Here's a short clip showing the conditions around 12mile:

Saw a brown shape rise and take a swipe at the shotgun pink skirt - stripped a meter or so off the spool and then nothing. Did a loop around 12mile - zilch. 

Ah well that's how it goes some days.  We had caught a feed and the offshore conditions were just fantastic (raced back to Sydney Harbour at 55km/h) which made for a top day. 

Cheers Zoran

Edited March 15, 2020 by zmk1962

[Scratchie]

Sounds like a nice day on the water. Just a shame about the loss of gear. 
 

cheers scratchie!!! 

[Bolts1]

Hey zoran, what rig are you running? If you are using a standard paternoster rig you can use a lighter line for the sinker as it is quite often that the sinker gets lodged in the reef. Using a sacrificial sinker would save you the terminal tackle braid and re-rigging time. bolts

Edited March 15, 2020 by Bolts1

[61 crusher]

Looked like a great day to be out bummer about the gear though & the missed strike on the shotgun at least you had something to take home.I was heading home for up the coast & around Thornleigh about 4pm I got a glimpse of a nice looking hard top attached to a red & white Haines, tried to have a  beau peep 👀 at it in the rear view mirror but didn’t want to have an accident. Was that you by any chance 

[zmk1962]

5 hours ago, Scratchie said:

Sounds like a nice day on the water. Just a shame about the loss of gear. 
 

cheers scratchie!!! 

Thanks Scratchie ... loss of gear is an acceptable fishing hazard !

4 hours ago, Bolts1 said:

Hey zoran, what rig are you running? If you are using a standard paternoster rig you can use a lighter line for the sinker as it is quite often that the sinker gets lodged in the reef. Using a sacrificial sinker would save you the terminal tackle braid and re-rigging time. bolts

Hey Bolts .... thanks so much. My rig is as follows: main line 80lb braid, FG knot to about 5m of 120lb leader uni - knot to 150lb snap swivel, 200lb swivel crimped to two dropper patenroster made from  200lb mono with crimped snap at bottom, then about 50cm of 40lb leader to sinker. 

I plan to go back to at least a 2m 40lb leader to the sinker so that there is a fair separation between the sinker and the first hook on the paternoster. In the last 2 outings I shortened that leader to 50cm so that it was more manageable for my crew who are new to deep dropping (last trip wife, this trip Wayno). But lesson learnt. 

I definitely welcome all suggestion about deep drop rigs and especially if others use a 2m or longer sinker leader.

27 minutes ago, 61 crusher said:

I was heading home for up the coast & around Thornleigh about 4pm I got a glimpse of a nice looking hard top attached to a red & white Haines, tried to have a  beau peep 👀 at it in the rear view mirror but didn’t want to have an accident. Was that you by any chance 

Hahaha.... yup the timing is about spot on to when we went through Thornleigh. White ally hardtop, full length glass screen, red and white hull.  Black uppercase BARRYCUDA on the side - thats me !

Small world !

Cheers Zoran

[Bolts1]

Sounds almost exactly what we use to use hitting the bottom at all mark up here a few years back. We ran about a meter of line to the sinker at the bottom but rarely snagged up anything but the sinker. Might just be different bottom structure up here. 
 

we gave up a few years back.. was fun foe awhile (and a lot less effort than jigging) but battling the current got to be a bit much I think. 
 

good luck with it mate.. can’t wait to see more of your reports

Bolts

[Keflapod]

Hey Zoran,

Deep droppin eh?

I used to Loooooove doing it but it became a bit expensive and good weather windows during the right moonphase was hard to co-ordinate.

Essentially we used 200lb braid but the challenge is to get the breaking strains right of the essential components of the rig. The main line must never break. If you're coming down to 80lb, then instead of using 50lb sinker breakaway you might try 30lb. When the gemmies were bad and biting sinkers off, I used 50lb wire. The sinker trace needs to be about 3m or so because the bottom is littered with fishing gear debris and all sorts of man-made stuff. I believe it was a dumping ground for things a long time ago but I don;t know. The sinker was about 6-8lb of weight - window sash cord weights. You might go 4lb but it depends on the drift speed. Use 1 metre of abrasion-resisting cord on the weight and tie the breakaway line to the cord. Next you have maybe 5m of 400lb jinkai with the droppers. I used to use 3. You can buy crimp-style swivels where there is a crimpable shaft and a rolling swivel in between them. Very fast to rig. Leave spave between the hooks to take fish length into account when pulling up multiple fish. Then I use (used to use - lol) a crimped 400lb jinkai leader (very short so it doesn't tangle on the way down. And of course the humungous circle hook.

Next point up the line I used 50m of 100lb shock-absorber mono. In your case you might go 50lb. You need this bit of stretch when you load up else you could break off. Then a big ball bearing swivel to connect to the main braid.

Well that's the rig. Now the bait.

I have never bothered with squid and pillies. Half-cut slimies will outfish everything else but there is a real trick to rigging it hydrodynamically so it gets to the bottom intact.

Apologies I'm a bit tired and not feeling 100% else I would have drawn something for you

Edited March 16, 2020 by Keflapod

[whiskey299]

We also fished Browns Mountain on Friday the 13th although we had a late start as one of the crew slept in so we didnt hit the grounds till about 9:30am. For us the bites were hot up until the top of the tide and then the fish disappeared by midday. We managed to get several gemfish and 4 massive mirror dorys, no blueyes but yes lots of snags. Conditions were excellent in the morning, no swell, no wind and little to no current.

By the arvo the wind picked up as expected, we dropped into 12 mile and managed to get only one legal kingfish on slow jig.

 

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by whiskey299

[JonD]

Bad luck on loosing gear, personally I have a lighter wind on leader bottom end tackle so I don't loose braid. I'm also lucky that I've yet to lose gear either deep dropping or broadbill fishing ( which is deeper dropping to the bottom). 

Fantastic weather.

[zmk1962]

Thanks @Keflapod ... great write up and advice.  I ran 200lb braid on my big Alvey ReefKing but since going electric I've dropped to 80lb to get more line capacity on the Tanacom's.  I will definitely go back to a longer trace (2-3m) to the sinker and probably drop down to 30lb as well.  

There were two boats there when we arrived (a full cab unpainted ally which looked and acted like a pro boat) and a large half cab cruise craft - with a friendly guy fishing solo telling us to stick around the ally as they were there every day and knew where the schools were (hmmmm). Then by 10am there would have been about 6 boats all in all - most hovering around the ally.  Which one were you in @whiskey299 ?? It would be great to have a Fishraider pennant so we could fly them off our aerials.

Thanks @JonD,  Part of my problem is training new crew to read when the rig has hit bottom -   waiting too long to crank up a few meters for clearance is a sure fire way to snag. Live and learn I guess. 

Just got to get out more often.

Cheers Zoran

[Captain Spanner]

I run about 1m of 200lb above the sinker for rubbing on the bottom and then join that to 2m of 40-60lb between that and the bottom hook. This is my weak point for snag insurance. I use the crimp sleeve swivels to attach the droppers for the hooks.

[whiskey299]

6 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

Thanks @Keflapod ... great write up and advice.  I ran 200lb braid on my big Alvey ReefKing but since going electric I've dropped to 80lb to get more line capacity on the Tanacom's.  I will definitely go back to a longer trace (2-3m) to the sinker and probably drop down to 30lb as well.  

There were two boats there when we arrived (a full cab unpainted ally which looked and acted like a pro boat) and a large half cab cruise craft - with a friendly guy fishing solo telling us to stick around the ally as they were there every day and knew where the schools were (hmmmm). Then by 10am there would have been about 6 boats all in all - most hovering around the ally.  Which one were you in @whiskey299 ?? It would be great to have a Fishraider pennant so we could fly them off our aerials.

Thanks @JonD,  Part of my problem is training new crew to read when the rig has hit bottom -   waiting too long to crank up a few meters for clearance is a sure fire way to snag. Live and learn I guess. 

Just got to get out more often.

Cheers Zoran

That full cab unpainted ally boat was very inconsiderate, it would buzz past us really close, creating an enormous wake. It did this not once but 3 times. 

We were in my friends back crusher, sorry I meant bar crusher. 

We like to slow jig rather than use baits and hence our setup is much lighter, PE2.5 mainline, 30-40lb leader, 30-40lb multistrand wire, 450-900g jig depending on the current. The lighter setup gives our rig a much better chance of having our lines vertically down when there is current.

Edited March 19, 2020 by whiskey299

[kingie chaser]

38 minutes ago, whiskey299 said:

That full cab unpainted ally boat was very inconsiderate, it would buzz past us really close, creating an enormous wake. It did this not once but 3 times. 

They are most likely the same people who drive down the emergency lane on the freeway when the traffic builds up or in Sydney traffic they will be the ones who gets into the short lane even though they aren't going that way & then cut in way in front of you when you have lined up like the rest.

Unfortunately you cant educate the mind of an ignorant SOB who thinks the world belongs to him!

 

I like your idea with the lighter set up.

 

I would definitely be using a lighter line to the sinker over losing several hundred mtrs of braid though!

[zmk1962]

5 hours ago, whiskey299 said:

That full cab unpainted ally boat was very inconsiderate, it would buzz past us really close, creating an enormous wake. It did this not once but 3 times. 

We were in my friends back crusher, sorry I meant bar crusher. 

We like to slow jig rather than use baits and hence our setup is much lighter, PE2.5 mainline, 30-40lb leader, 30-40lb multistrand wire, 450-900g jig depending on the current. The lighter setup gives our rig a much better chance of having our lines vertically down when there is current.

Yup, as I said earlier.... "ally which looked and acted like a pro boat" as if they owned the joint... raced past us a few times as well..  I saw two on board, and two gemmies boated by them, but they were working Browns and I HOPE they stayed within the bag limits.

I recall seeing the bar crusher ... good on ya guys. We were in the red and white haines. As I said, wish we could hoist up a Fishraider flag or pennant !  Anyway, if you are out an about next time and see a red and white haines, call out on VHF16 for Sierra Yankee 404 (SY404) or BARRYCUDA.  

Out of curiosity, do you slow jig with electric reels or game gear? 

BTW, I dropped a 900g jig to 200m as our gear consistently seem to get a hit at that depth on the descent, but no joy. 

Cheers Z

[zmk1962]

4 hours ago, kingie chaser said:

They are most likely the same people who drive down the emergency lane on the freeway when the traffic builds up or in Sydney traffic they will be the ones who gets into the short lane even though they aren't going that way & then cut in way in front of you when you have lined up like the rest.

Hahaha.... hey KC... they are EVERYWHERE .... even 40km offshore. I like to believe in karma.

Cheers Z

[zmk1962]

11 hours ago, Captain Spanner said:

I run about 1m of 200lb above the sinker for rubbing on the bottom and then join that to 2m of 40-60lb between that and the bottom hook. This is my weak point for snag insurance. I use the crimp sleeve swivels to attach the droppers for the hooks.

Thanks @Captain Spanner !  I am definitely moving back to 2-3M sinker leader.  I'll also have a look at the crimp sleeve swivels... at present I just tie a paternoster drop loop and shroud it in lumo tube to keep the two strands together.

Cheers Z

[whiskey299]

14 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

Yup, as I said earlier.... "ally which looked and acted like a pro boat" as if they owned the joint... raced past us a few times as well..  I saw two on board, and two gemmies boated by them, but they were working Browns and I HOPE they stayed within the bag limits.

I recall seeing the bar crusher ... good on ya guys. We were in the red and white haines. As I said, wish we could hoist up a Fishraider flag or pennant !  Anyway, if you are out an about next time and see a red and white haines, call out on VHF16 for Sierra Yankee 404 (SY404) or BARRYCUDA.  

Out of curiosity, do you slow jig with electric reels or game gear? 

BTW, I dropped a 900g jig to 200m as our gear consistently seem to get a hit at that depth on the descent, but no joy. 

Cheers Z

Yea we slow jig with small electric reels, if we're in the mood to be punished then we would use the small manual overhead reel (backup setup).

But that rarely happens not unless we loose too much line on the electric. Cross fingers!