Seaway Overnighter 25-26th June 2013

Back on the water at 3pm, ready for an overnighter.  Forecast was 20kts SW but it was quite mild with less than 10kts W when I arrived.  Had a look around up as far as Sovereign but no fish feeding on surface, couldn't find any on the sounder either so I decided to head out to the bait grounds and pick up some livies for the evening tides.  That took a while and by the time I finished it was nearly dark.  Did a few drifts with live yellowtail around the north wall but the tidal flow was too strong so gave it away.  Tried some edge fishing hoping for a tarpon or bigeye but nothing there or around the pipe.  Took a break until the top of the tide at around 10pm.




Around 10pm just as the tide began to slow I deployed a yellowtail again and it was soon eaten by a jewie exactly 73cm long, pulled 2 more the same size in consecutive drifts. That was it for there, tried a few other spots but nothing.  Once the tide began to run out I switched to edge fishing again with a CCM grass minnow on a 3/8oz head and found some Tarpon on the south wall, landed 2 (64 & 62) and lost a few others before they went off the bite.  Spent some time casting around the north wall, plenty of hits but no hookups.  Decided to take another break until dawn, but as conditions were so good anchored off the end of the north wall and put down a live yellowtail.  Around 2am I was awoken by the sound of a screaming ratchet(they should make an alarm clock for fisho's with that sound, gets you awake fast!) Set the hook and it didn't stop, pulled off 100m+ of line before the hooks pulled.  Put down another yellowtail and went back to bed.

Woke at 4.30am and checked the bait but it was gone.  Had one yellowtail left but wanted to save him for the run in tide later on in the morning.  Worked the walls a bit until sunup, a few hits but nothing wanted to commit.  At dawn had a look around but nothing going, a few dart hitting small bait along the current lines on the run in tide, some tailor on the wavebreak flats and along the north wavebreak wall but only coming up for one hit at a time.  Once the tide began to run in, I deployed my last yellowtail, it got eaten but no hookup, brought him  back to the boat with some serious teethmarks in him.  Went back to looking around but nothing going so I worked the north wall with one of my new lures and scored a tailor at 38cm.  Ideal size for a livie, good for a big mulloway or a shark.  I put him down and did a few drifts, changed position a bit put him down and something grabbed him and began to swim off, I let him swim for about 20 metres before setting the hook but it dropped it.    From the teethmarks obviously a shark, adjusted the hooks and sent him down again and he got eaten on the next drift, unfortunately this time he was swallowed and the shark bit me off above the wire.  Still nice to know there is something to target when all the other fish go off the bite.  I'll be making up some longer shark traces and targeting them a bit more over winter.  They might not be a glamour species but they fight hard.

Called it a day after that.  Some decent quality fish if not alot of them, thats typical winter fishing though.   Livebaiting has its moments and I'll be doing alot more of it over the next few months.  I'll also be targeting big fish with large livebaits(30-40cm), just for the fun of it.. you never know what you'll get.

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