Seaway Weekly Wrap Up Friday 31st May 2013

So another week flies by with larger swells, some rain, some sunshine and some good fishing to be had.  Early on in the week with the run-in tide starting just on dawn the GT's were feeding near the mouth of the seaway, some excellent but shortlived surface fishing was had just on dawn on Monday with the GT's taking Poppers first then as the sun got up switching to Gillies Baitfish 25gram proved to be a winner.  Double hookups were common. A few Tailor, Tarpon and Dart were feeding on this mass of baitfish as well near the north wall and plastics and minnows cast into the wash hooked a few of these. As far as I know the GT's around the canyon did not feed at all.




On Tuesday, an early morning start yielded some quality Tarpon around the north wall with every fish landed being over 60cm, plenty were lost and the bite was very timid, lots of taps before they would commit to taking it down deep, in fact you almost had to deadstick it to get them to eat it.  Best plastics were CCM Grass Minnows of course and 1/2oz jigheads worked best.  The GT's were still at the mouth of the seaway just after dawn but refused to come up off the bottom, you had to find the school on the sounder around the dropoff into the deep hole and drop 30gram twisties down into the school, then crank them back up.   This worked well for an hour accounting for some nice fish up to 77cm but not everyone got the hang of this technique.  The edges of the wall were fished but yielded little, the absence of baitfish around the area is probably the reason why the fish were not feeding as aggressively as the previous day.   The fish around the canyon took thier time to feed and didn't start until around 9am then proceeded to act normally with plenty of bustups to keep fisherman entertained.  Kingfish also came up a few times on the northern channel flats  and I managed to hook one on a Rapala Skitter Pop 9 in Chrome Pink, that encounter lasted a bit longer than most due to the lack of structure in the area, but in the end with 150m of line out he still managed to find something to rub me off on.   The weather at times was very bad with squally winds and rain and this just seemed to make the GT's feed even harder right through until about 11am at the top of the tide.  Poppers and 25gram Gillies Baitfish worked fine.  In the afternoon Tarpon were feeding on the second half of the run out tide in the dirty water in the northern arm from the triangle up to the canyon(Northern Y) but due to the conditions only fed on the bottom, plastics like CCM Grass Minnows, Pearl Sliders and 80mm Squidgy Slick rigs yielded a few fish.  Edge fishing around the walls at night with the larger swells and strong winds proved dicey and yielded nothing.

On Wednesday morning with the early morning runout and much larger swells the outer walls were far too dangerous so Tarpon were again the target in the 'Northern Y', same tactics as the previous night yielded a few from the mid 50's up to the low 60's.  Decent size Lesser Queenfish(40-45cm) were also feeding in this area and some were taken on plastics as well as small slugs like the 7gram white sea rock.  Chopper Tailor were also feeding further up the northern channel and 25gram gillies baitfish thrown into the bustups yielded fish up to 45cm.  Once the tide started to push back in the GT's turned up right on time at around 9am and fed around half a dozen times on surface to the north of the canyon near the northern channel flats, Poppers thrown into the school shortly after they came up yielded some good fish, a few schools fed along the current line off the wavebreak rock wall but none were hooked there.  As the tide progressed the GT's started feeding in singles around the Canyon and poppers blindcast got a few more fish.

Looking towards the weekend looks like we will have low winds, a decent easterly swell with a chance of rain increasing on sunday.  Afternoon run in tides should see the GT's feeding reasonably well with a chance for a couple just on dusk on poppers as the water will still be quite clean.  There should still be Chopper Tailor around the northern channel, Tarpon in the North Y, and maybe Queenfish on the Wavebreak Flats in the mornings.  Take care around the walls during the run out tides, the swell is coming straight from the East, that can make things a bit dangerous out in exposed sections.

Due to some tackle issues I've got some new gear under test.  The Daiwa SOL 3000 I had has been sidelined with a bad roller bearing due to salt intrusion, at only 6 weeks old I'm not happy about that.  While salt intrusion to roller bearings is quite common it should not happen so quickly, talking with others it seems most Daiwa reels have this problem though the Ballistics are still doing ok. While I wait for a new bearing I have replaced that reel with a Shimano Sustain 3000, Price is about the same but it lacks the raw speed of the SOL, its still fast enough for most things though.  There will be a head to head comparison of these two reels in about a months time.  Also my beloved Samaki Allure Rod got smashed in two by a wayward hatch cover so it had been replaced with a Daiwa Black Label 762mhfs.  The extra length gives me a bit more casting distance and it's now better able to handle the larger line strengths and larger lures I am throwing.

I am also in the process of testing some new PE braid that I have sourced.  I don't know about you guys but I am sick of the outrageous prices we pay for braid here in Australia($40-70 for 150m is bullshit).  If it passes my quality assurance test(and so far it has.. its landed numerous Tarpon, Bigeyes and GT's up to 77cm) then I will be selling it for $25 for 300m.  I just have to test a few more line strengths before I give it the yay or nay.  Initial sizes will be 10, 20 and 30lb but I can do other sizes on request.

I will also be selling a number of specially selected lures on SeawayFishing.  Rapala Chrome(various colours) Skitter Pop 9 with upgraded Hardware, CCM Grass Minnows as well as a few others and the SeawayFishing Lure range I have mentioned before if I ever finish testing them.  I realise that its has been a while but it's going to take a bit longer as I won't release a substandard product.

Date	Time Fished	Tides
Monday 27th May	4.00am - 11.00am	0354 0.11 0943 1.25 1523 0.09 2218 1.86
Tuesday 28th May	4.00am - 8.30pm	0449 0.13 1039 1.21 1616 0.17 2312 1.79
Wednesday 29th May	4.00am - 1.30pm	0547 0.17 1140 1.17 1713 0.26