Happy Xmas from Queensland - Fish 4 T

[Platitudinus]

Fish for tea last Tuesday

24 miles out off the Gold Coast. 15 knot winds and our 11m cat was airborne between the troughs on the way out at least 30 times – and we were only doing 15knots whereas we usually do 25 knots!

Full day charter with Fish The Deep and only six clients on board. Livies were hard to get but we got enough after an hour of messing around and in sloppy seas headed out to the 50's+ at around 15knots due to the huge swells.

Fishing 3 a side our first drop got 5 hookups but only one Kingie boated. After that we continued to get hit every drift until we stopped at our bag limit. All kingies were a good size - no rats and all taken on livies, some floatlines on 2oz ball sinkers but most on dropper rigs with 16oz of lead. The current was 3.5 knots so Matt the skipper had to back up most of the time. Each fish fought like hell! and I think the smallest would have been 6kg and the biggest around 15kg.

Those Yellowtail Kingfish certainly pull hard. When I played golf the next day I kept hitting the ground behind the ball as my arms had been lengthened!

For those technically minded we fished in 90 metres of water with 50lb braid and 100lb leaders. Size 9/0 single hooks with 9-12 inch livebaits! 3.5 knots of current so the boat had to keep backing up to stay over the marks. My reel loads up to just under 40lbs of drag and the fish still took line when they wanted to. Kingfish are nicknamed in three sizes: Rats – up to 60cms (2.5kg), Hoodlums from 60cms to 1.3mtrs (2.5kg to 12kg) and Kungies over 1.3 metres (over 12kg). We caught hoodlums and a couple of Kungies!

It reminded me of conger fishing around the wrecks off Plymouth but these Kingies pull a lot harder and take 15 -30 minutes to get up!!!

The fish limit to take home is two each but we caught (or lost) quite a few more over the three hours on the spot! Ended up taking 14 home between 6 clients and the crew). The smallest Kingy was around 6kg and the biggest around 15kg. I had two around 9kg but couldn’t lift them for the last group photo shots and borrowed a couple of small ones to hold up.

We also bottom fished for half an hour and caught a bag limit (5 each) of Teraglin (similar to whiting but average length about 50cms)

We called it a day at 2.20pm and headed in at a better speed.
Wind and rain squalls hit us all day. No Swearing (except when we heard the cricket score - Ashes England 1 up) and as usual a great day out with Fish The Deep.

Sorry - not allowed to post attachments so no pictures.

Anyone in England for Pout or Whiting???

Cheers and Xmas wishes to you all
Plato
25 degrees celcius today and cloudy!

[pingu]

sounds busy
photos can go stright into posts( try photobucket) dont need to be attatchments

dave

[tjnorton]

Sounds a busy session. Some huge swell as well.

Well done tj

[Platitudinus]

I managed to upload a 3 picture album quickly into my profile but the image/URL references didn't load to the post in advanced mode. Also see the avatar or just check out the album. Not bad for an oldie.
Many thanks
Plato

[Platitudinus]

Ok - hopefully here are some pictures
Plato



Cant get it to work despite tutorials.
Sorry
Plato