Two Raiders Meet - A day offshore on BARRYCUDA

[GoingFishing]

Gday Raiders

Another long time coming report. Zoran (@zmk1962) and i have been chatting and attempting to plan a meet for quite some time now, and we finally managed to get the plan together.

We had been touching base throughout the holidays and agreed Sunday the 10th would be best given the weather forecast and availability. Zoran generously offered to take me out on the Barrycuda and the plan was to do some offshore trolling for dollies/marlin and stop at Browns for a deep drop.

We met at 5am and started our journey up the Parramatta River, and what a fine ship is the Barrycuda. Every detail and corner of this rig has been meticulously thought out and planned by Zoran. A smooth and comfortable ride powered by the Merc Pro XS. Some of you may recall there was some discussion on this forum when Zoran repowered the Barrycuda from a 200HP 2 stroke to the 4 stroke 150HP Merc XS with a lot of the discussion centered around "will there be sufficient power." Not that i ever questioned Zoran's meticulous analysis regarding his upgrade i can report first hand that this motor is a perfect fit for the Barrycuda. Amazing holeshot, great fuel economy and responsive punchy torque at all stages of RPM. Great job Z on the repower.

Now to the fishing, conditions were very good in the morning, and got even better by the time we were out wide. A quick attempt to stop at the artificial for livies there were possibly 15 boats floating around and not much happening so we powered on so as not to waste time. Approaching the shelf we swung past the 12 mile to do some jigging for Kings. A few drops with not much action happening despite an enormous bait ball on the sounder, no other boats were getting any action so again made the decision to power on. As we approached the shelf line just west of browns we dropped the lures in and started trolling for marlin.

About 1 mile east of Browns we had a marlin rise up behind the short rigger, took a few swipes and then fell back. About 1 minute later he rose up against behind the long corner to have a go at the JB Dingo, a short run then he dropped the hook. We stayed in the area for another hour or so but couldnt raise any more fish so we packed it up and headed over to Browns to do some deep dropping, my first time.

Zoran set up the tanacoms and i observed in awe in what is best described as, a paternoster rig with 2kg of lead weight or as i described it, "bottom bashing on steroids" ! Zoran explained how to use the tanacom and we proceeded to drift a few marks. I struggled initially with the dropping ( not an experience i usually encounter) but with 2kg lead plus bait and gear pulling down it is very easy to get a birds nest and i didnt want to ruin Zorans nice gear !

The first few drops produced a gemfish, we then moved over to another mark in deeper water with Z explaining that thats where the big fish are. He didnt have to wait long before there was a nice bend in his rod, what was definately a nice fish was on its way up and it didnt dissappoint! Up comes a 20kg + blue eye trevalla. A quality table fish and Z smashing his previous PB of (now sounding measly) 4kg. As you can tell by the smile on his face, he was very happy with that ! Meanwhile i was so gobsmacked by the girth of this fish (and recording it on my phone) that i absolutely cocked up the gaffing of Zorans price blue eye ! Z ended up gaffing this fish nicely and into the boat she came. A nice high 5 and Z cracks open a beer to celebrate. Nice fish Z.

That concluded the bottom bashing on steriods and we trolled along the shelf and then west hoping to raise another Marlin but they werent about.

All in all a very successful trip, perfect conditions, raised a marlin and a fat chunky blue eye. We had plenty of time to chat and Zoran i enjoyed your company mate, an absolute gentleman. The next trip will be aboard the Black Yellowfin with me hopefully to get you onto some Bellambi Reds !

Thanks for reading

[GoingFishing]

[zmk1962]

Hey Sam thanks so much for putting up the report mate.  As I said in our text ... you're absolutely welcome anytime. You’re a great bloke and good company. It was a blast. Glad the Browns session turned out constructive otherwise it would have been a day of 1-0-0  and thats too many zeros.   

And that's without counting the "no-idea zero's" at the Ermo boat ramp.  Honestly folks it was mayhem .. but we survived !

Cheers Zoran

[Welster]

Those conditions look spot on.  I saw lots of posts on social media about the  crowded ramps yesterday. Congrats on your Blue Eye Zoran thats a big leap up in pb.    How do you prepare them for the table?

[Pickles]

Great report and pic - that is one nice Blue Eye - only need one for several families.

great when Raiders meet. Well done fellas.

[Itchin'faFishin']

That's a great result Zoran. The investment in time and effort really is paying off!

[Rebel]

Great report and Story. Well done. Super photos.

[kingie chaser]

Nice day out & the fish are a bonus, and what great fish they are, well done guys.

 

I can attest to the set up of Zorans boat & gear, very well thought out set up & the prep is maticulious.

 

I just hope you didnt lose as many of those 2kg weights as I did when I went out 

I dropped on over the side & before I even released the reel it was gone, no idea what happened there 🤔

Im stil trying to find something to replace them with.

 

Thanks for posting 

[Scratchie]

 Wow, now that’s a report Sam. Well done to the both of you. Unlucky on the marlin but what a cracking blue eye and congrats on a PB @zmk1962

Sam, you seem to have an uncanny ability to meet up with raiders and for them to pull a “rabbit out of a hat” haha 😂 

cheers scratchie!!! 

[Yowie]

What a nice chunky fish, big steaks from the fillets.

[dunc333]

nice job guys and nice spread you had going there. i saw you again but this time i was sitting outside at sydney rowers  with my wife and friends, wow boat traffic best ive seen for a while ,drummoyne ramp was full by 630am , today (monday) we went out on the harbour with my wife (she comes on the boat 4 times a year i reckon (hates fishing) for a lovely sight seeing tour and good browny points for me ,i was itching to drop a line ,i hope next week weather gods a good cheers dunc333

Edited January 11, 2021 by dunc333

[kingie chaser]

5 minutes ago, motiondave said:

bloke I know uses house bricks....

 

Does that make him a brick short of a load 🤔.................😂

 

Sorry just had to add that for a bit of humor 😁

 

Whatever works for him Dave, thats all that counts 

Edited January 11, 2021 by kingie chaser

[Miketheadventurer]

Excellent work mate! I loved reading the report

[zmk1962]

18 hours ago, Welster said:

Those conditions look spot on.  I saw lots of posts on social media about the  crowded ramps yesterday. Congrats on your Blue Eye Zoran thats a big leap up in pb.    How do you prepare them for the table?

Hey Jason, Yes conditions were great to start and then just got better.... although the warmest water we found out wide was 23.8 .... we were searching for the temp breaks that some had reported at 25 plus.

As to how to prepare blue eye for the table?  Not sure if you are asking for a recipe or how I handle the fish from time of capture ... Cooking the blue eye is a treat because it has a delicate flavour with firm flaky flesh. So it's highly regarded on the chew and suitable for many cooking styles making it a premium table fish - Costis has it at $69.99/kg usually.  Just google and you'll see heaps of recipes. For our first meal we made the Baja fish tacos - recipe in the kitchen section - I removed nearly 400g from the two wings and head, which I cubed up, dusted with salt pepper and flour and shallow fried in  olive oil with a garlic clove. Sam ( @GoingFishing ) sent me some pictures of the feast he prepared, I'll leave it for him to post.

Regarding how I prepare the fish. Well think more of butchering instead of fish cleaning. It's basic anatomy is still a fish (guts, gills, head and frame, scales) but everything is just bigger - which makes some parts of the process easier and others harder - eg cutting through thick bones is much harder. I start the preparation process at the time of capture. A quick death (ikijime) stops lactic acid build up. I don't bother scaling the fish as its much easier to skin a big fish with scales on - the skin is really thick and comes off easily.

There's a lot of flesh which needs to be kept icy cold for the long trip back and also for the longer time it takes to process the fish, so I like to promptly gut the fish and fill the gut cavity with blocks of ice to drop the core temperature asap. The picture of me holding the fish is after we gutted it.

Here's one of Sam holding it just after it came out of the water - noticeably more plump - guts and air bladders intact.

So first thing,  get rid of the few kilos of warm guts in there, and that's about all you are allowed to do offshore according to fisheries rules. Once back on land, the second decision is on what cuts you want from the fish (the butchering part) - with a big fish like that you can go cutlets or fillets.

Since we were going to share the fish , it was much easier to take a fillet off each side. Filleting is easier then a small fish as the frame bones are large and guide the knife more easily. Sam did a top job in taking his fillet on his first attempt.  We started the fillet cut from just behind the wing and ran it up and into the back of the skull as deep and as close to the bones as you can get, then along the spine to the tail.  We did this at the ramp, on top of the esky. We'd also brought back a 20L bucket of salt water to use as rinse as needed - I don't like to let fresh water onto salt water fish unless I am cooking it immediately - and I definitely don't like the Ermo boat ramp fish cleaning botulism facility.

Although this was my PB 20kg blue eye, I had previously caught an 18kg bar cod which I prepped as cutlets. For cutlets, it's pretty much the same process except I'd scale the fish. Then  decide on the thickness of the cutlets - it's simplest to follow the rib bones as a guide.  Starting at the shoulder cut down to the spine and follow the ribs. Do one side, roll the fish over and do the other. I use a small butcher saw to get through the thick back bone if the cut didn't end up on the vertebra joint to separate the individual cutlets.

Anyway, back to the fillets.  Once I'd separated my fillet, I skinned it, split the fillet down the middle lengthways, and trimmed the red meat - leaving two firm white fillets. I chunked these into 400g portions (more than enough for a 2 person meal), bagged and labeled ready for freezing and gifting (yes the family is aware we caught a blue eye and the congratulations are coming in).

I then separated the wings from the head, removed the fins and skinned the remain part. This allowed me to remove around 300g of flesh with minimal waste from what is normally a very bony part of a fish usually cooked whole. 

So that left about a 3-4kg of head and frame. Decision time. I value everything that the ocean gives us, so I do not like to waste any usable part of the fish. Maria would usually take the frame for stock and a fish head curry was on the cards, but since it was now around 8.30pm and frankly I was TIRED .... I removed another 100g of fish from the back of the head and cheeks.  So with the wings and this we had 400g of cubed fish pieces which was going to be our first meal. 

Anyway, that's how I prepare it for the table. Hope that was what you were after...otherwise I have just gone way off track.

Cheers Zoran

Edited January 11, 2021 by zmk1962

[zmk1962]

17 hours ago, Pickles said:

Great report and pic - that is one nice Blue Eye - only need one for several families.

great when Raiders meet. Well done fellas.

Thanks Pickles, couldn't agree more. As fisherman we are blessed on many fronts.

16 hours ago, Itchin'faFishin' said:

That's a great result Zoran. The investment in time and effort really is paying off!

Thanks Peter !  Yup comes down to a plan -  Plan A marlin and we did some 155km on the water, but since we had invested time to be out there Plan B was a deep drop.  

15 hours ago, kingie chaser said:

Nice day out & the fish are a bonus, and what great fish they are, well done guys.

I can attest to the set up of Zorans boat & gear, very well thought out set up & the prep is maticulious.

I just hope you didnt lose as many of those 2kg weights as I did when I went out 

I dropped on over the side & before I even released the reel it was gone, no idea what happened there 🤔

Im stil trying to find something to replace them with.

Thanks for posting 

Thanks for the kind words Adrian ... hahaha but we still had a great day out that day ... happy to report zero gear loss on this trip ! 

15 hours ago, Scratchie said:

Well done to the both of you. Unlucky on the marlin but what a cracking blue eye and congrats on a PB @zmk1962

Sam, you seem to have an uncanny ability to meet up with raiders and for them to pull a “rabbit out of a hat” haha 😂 

Thanks Jeff .... yes ... now that you mention it Sam has a knack ... or is Sam the lucky rabbit's foot that got us our fish 🤔  ????  Sam who are you going out with next we have a theory to debunk ?

15 hours ago, Yowie said:

What a nice chunky fish, big steaks from the fillets.

Thanks Yowie ....  it's freaking amazing what happens when you add some SPs to your hooks !!!!  🤣

14 hours ago, dunc333 said:

nice job guys and nice spread you had going there. i saw you again but this time i was sitting outside at sydney rowers  with my wife and friends, wow boat traffic best ive seen for a while ,drummoyne ramp was full by 630am , today (monday) we went out on the harbour with my wife (she comes on the boat 4 times a year i reckon (hates fishing) for a lovely sight seeing tour and good browny points for me ,i was itching to drop a line ,i hope next week weather gods a good cheers dunc333

Hey Dunc ... really ! .... did you wave ??  I think we must have been doing about 50-60 past there racing to the ramp. 

13 hours ago, motiondave said:

bloke I know uses house bricks....

Thanks Dave, I know a few blokes do use them, and there is camera footage on Youtube of the Brown's mountain and you can clearly see house bricks on the bottom!.  But I would think bricks are just not dense enough to drop vertically and increase water drag, you'd have a lot of line out at an angle - increasing the chance of snagging and decreasing bite sensitivity ....

Thanks for your comments @Rebel  and @Miketheadventurer   ... it really was a great day. 

[Welster]

Thanks for the very detailed reply Zoran.  I agree its certainly testing cleaning fish and up generally after a long day on the water. 
 

I haven't spent much tome on the water at all lately. 

[GoingFishing]

Thanks for all the replies fellas - it certainly was a very enjoyable day on the water and yes, boat traffic was pretty intense. It was quite funny because on the shelf we were doing 55km on the way in on almost glass out conditions, only to be met with really bad chop inside the harbour. lots of boat traffic and wakes etc.

18 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

Hey Sam thanks so much for putting up the report mate.  As I said in our text ... you're absolutely welcome anytime. You’re a great bloke and good company. It was a blast. Glad the Browns session turned out constructive otherwise it would have been a day of 1-0-0  and thats too many zeros.   

And that's without counting the "no-idea zero's" at the Ermo boat ramp.  Honestly folks it was mayhem .. but we survived !

Cheers Zoran

Yes indeed Browns saved the day for us ! I think between the two of us we managed well at Ermo ramp, we did a quick drop off and retrieve considering the surrounding chaos.

Thanks again mate your a champ!

16 hours ago, kingie chaser said:

I can attest to the set up of Zorans boat & gear, very well thought out set up & the prep is maticulious.

I just hope you didnt lose as many of those 2kg weights as I did when I went out 

I dropped on over the side & before I even released the reel it was gone, no idea what happened there 🤔

 

Thanks KC - I am happy to report that no rigs or weights were lost on my first attempt ! That would have been hilarious, not easy to come by a 2kg weight too 😆

16 hours ago, Scratchie said:

 Wow, now that’s a report Sam. Well done to the both of you. Unlucky on the marlin but what a cracking blue eye and congrats on a PB @zmk1962

Sam, you seem to have an uncanny ability to meet up with raiders and for them to pull a “rabbit out of a hat” haha 😂 

cheers scratchie!!! 

Thanks Jeff. It seems that would be the case, who wants to have me onboard next !! i am available saturdays and sundays

on the same note - is there anyone out there with an uncanny ability to boat marlin who would be more than welcome to hop onboard with me please 😂

[lakelad]

Great report Gents, some good time on the water, a quality Blue eye and raising a marlin 👍

I haven't done any deep drop fishing as yet, interesting to see another boat in the background that far out I guess it's a known spot!

3 hours ago, GoingFishing said:

I am happy to report that no rigs or weights were lost on my first attempt ! That would have been hilarious, not easy to come by a 2kg weight too

Prices aren't too bad online for sinkers, Viro 3kg are $15 delivered online, depends how often you lose them I guess.. and how many spare house bricks you have lying around 😆

[GoingFishing]

19 minutes ago, lakelad said:

Great report Gents, some good time on the water, a quality Blue eye and raising a marlin 👍

I haven't done any deep drop fishing as yet, interesting to see another boat in the background that far out I guess it's a known spot!

Prices aren't too bad online for sinkers, Viro 3kg are $15 delivered online, depends how often you lose them I guess.. and how many spare house bricks you have lying around 😆

Thanks Lakelad  - its pretty awesome - Browns is circa 40km from the coast and you could see kilometres of empty ocean only to arrive at Browns and see 30 boats floating on the one spot.

For those who are interested in cooking, here are some snaps of the dish i prepared last night. Very simple marinade, garlic, butter, lemon juice, cracked pepper and salt put into a blender. 

 

[GoingFishing]

[Yowie]

5 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

 

Thanks Yowie ....  it's freaking amazing what happens when you add some SPs to your hooks !!!!  🤣

 

I do have some soft plastics. Some have been there for years and just dried out from lack of use.  

[kingie chaser]

1 hour ago, Yowie said:

I do have some soft plastics. Some have been there for years and just dried out from lack of use.  

I think then they would just call that plastic then yowie 🤔.............

[dunc333]

nice job guys and i saw you again but this time i was sitting outside at sydney rowers  with my wife and friends, wow boat traffic best ive seen for a while ,drummoyne ramp was full by 630am , today (monday) we went out on the harbour with my wife (she comes on the boat 4 times a year i reckon (hates fishing) for a lovely sight seeing tour and good browny points for me ,i was itching to drop a line ,i hope next week weather gods a good cheers dunc333                                                                                            yes z we were calling it the super highway to the west lol

Edited January 12, 2021 by dunc333

[Keflapod]

Hey Zoran,

Wow, what a trip. Now I'm gonna say something that might polarize some members, but it's just for a light dig.

Yep, bait fishing saved the day!....Again...!

Ok, ok, ONE fish did it but what a fish. You can almost hide behind it. Love the story, the pics, the result and of course the cooking and presentation.

I was really into deep dropping some years ago but it was too far, too hard, too expensive and now I'm too chickenshyte to go that far out to sea.

By the way, yes, bricks are not dense enough and will slow down on the descent as the pressure rises, causing some overruns. Window sash cord weights are ideal and the only way to get them at a reasonable price is to go to period house demolition sales and ask. Typically 7lb - 8lb weights are the go. The price of lead is prohibitive these days.

Jeez the fillet looks good on the plate. Now I'm gonna go and cook my whiting fillets....Also caught on bait...ahem...😆

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, Keflapod said:

Hey Zoran,

 

Yep, bait fishing saved the day!....Again...!

 

Now I'm gonna go and cook my whiting fillets....Also caught on bait...ahem...😆

Nothing wrong with real bait.  🤣😂