Made a special effort to get out there and have a go for the GT's and we did OK, managed 3 Gt's between 62 & 68cm. We didnt get on the water until about 10am thanks to some traffic jams and had to get off the water at 12 so it was a very quick fish. Good fun with only a few other boats around thanks to the weather (rainy). There's some other fishing feeding on those white pilchards as well, some kingfish and some long skinny chrome sided fish that wouldnt hit a lure, probably tarpon. Absolutely tons of bait in there at the moment. Successful lures were 20 gram twisties and 15 gram gillies.
Into the Seaway early at around 2am as I wanted to spend some time looking for Tarpon, only caught the one so far this year and I'm still looking for that 70cm Tarpon. The swell was way up around 3 metres making it very challenging to fish east of the pipeline during the run out. Definitely not for the faint of heart. Spent hours casting at every nook and cranny with different configurations and managed 3 hookups which instantly jumped off as soon as they were hooked. All 3 hookups came within minutes of each other and then just like that they switched off. Frustrating to say the least. Found some bigeyes feeding on the surface on the north wall flats and landed 2 on poppers around 50cm. At dawn fished around the walls with a variety of lures for zip. Moved down to wavebreak and found some GTs feeding for about 5 seconds at a time but it only lasted about 5 minutes before they disappeared, no hookups. Trolled around for a bit with no result then found some kingies feeding which only lasted 10 minutes and chucked lures at them for no result. Gave it away at around 8am.
Not a real good morning that one, I suppose I could have gone and got some livies but I really couldnt be bothered with that. Tarpon remain a frustratingly difficult fish to catch this year, not that I'm doing any better with the GT's or kingies either. Thats fishing for you though. Tons of bait holding between wavebreak and crab island, water temps down to 23.5-24 degrees.
Quick report from Monday, I decided to go for a fish on monday despite the fact that it was a public holiday and it would be crazy out there but the forecast looked too good not to go. Into the seaway at around 4am, tried a bunch of stuff but nothing worked. Plenty of fish holding in the channel between wavebreak and crab but they werent eating. Pulled a bigeye and tailor from the north wall at dawn then headed offshore to look for tuna. Found heaps of small mack tuna ranging from 20cm to 45cm and a few bigger specimens between 60 & 65cm. Most of the smaller tuna were around mermaid and in front of surfers with the bigger ones just north of the dirty water line off south straddie. All Mack tuna, looks like the stripeys and yellowfin have gone. Probably landed about 30 tuna for the morning. Came back in the seaway at 9.30am and it was rougher in there than offshore.. crazy stuff. I did manage to pull the boat straight out at the ramp with no waiting amazingly.
Went fishing Tuesday morning, the wind dropped off nicely at midnight and stayed down all morning. The swell was quite big though around 2-2.5m. We fished for tarpon at first and had lots of hits and nudges but only one hookup which instantly jumped off... Frustrating but thats Tarpon fishing for you. I did get a 60cm jewie on a grass minnow but that was all.
Come dawn we had a look around wavebreak saw a big school of (i think)GT's come up for about 20 seconds, managed a couple of hits on poppers, but they didnt return. Fished herring around the north wall for 1 bigeye, 1 jewie, 1 moses perch and about 10 bream. Cast a grass minnow around the wash and managed a GT around 40cm. Headed offshore and found schools of small mack tuna and frigates all around 40-50cm. Caught about a dozen of those before they disappeared. Coming back in during the runout tide was fun...
Nothing too exciting in that trip but at least we managed a few fish.