Planned on fishing last Friday - but not sure what to chase. None of the reports posted to our Facebook page were very inspiring! But then on Thursday the always helpful Bruce from St Matthews sent two helpful reports:
Good intel! But even if we couldn’t find any this big, Bruce still managed a nice catch closer in. And the crew who would be joining me love to take home some fish for the table:
So a trip to the FAD it would be. Early on Friday morning I picked up Fitz and Oscar. We headed to our preferred live bait spot for this kind of mission, being Balmoral Island:
Heavy fishing pressure at the FADs can really shut down the bite. And given the good weather forecast, we knew there would be plenty of other boats out there. Success would go to those who had the best bait. Small yellowtail are hard to beat. Out through the heads and off to FAD 21, with the first stop being the buoys off North Bondi:
This spot holds tiny dollies, usually undersize. But they are there the whole season and very reliable. If you’re fishing out of Sydney it’s a convenient spot to put friends onto their first mahi, or catch one on fly. In my case I was busting to see if we could catch one on some new tiny 3.5 and 5.0 gram metal jigs I wanted to try out:
all good:
The little jigs were a good match for the tiny triggerfish the mahi feed on. Here’s a pic of the jig next to a bait fish one coughed up. Note that you need three kilo line, on a light outfit, to cast them any distance:
A 14 mile run to FAD 21 and, when we got there, about five or six boats working the mark. Spotted a few hooking up although, not big fish. We got to work:
The chiller bag started to fill. Note the sinker? So many hungry mutton birds around that we had to get the live baits down fast:
Nothing big, mostly legal:
Our $120 802 Blue light spin combo was dynamite on these dollies. Casting distance and smooth carbontex drag washers essential for getting a hook up and, fighting the fish. The long slow action rod just perfect, for soaking up jumps and head shakes. Here’s Fitz, hooked up:
Check out the 802 combo here:
Meantime Oscar was finding a slightly better class of mahi. Here’s his 702 combo in action:
And here’s the result, a nice 80 centimetre fish:
As you can see from the background in the image above, the wind was picking up fast. The run home, into 20 knots on the bow, was no picnic. We dropped Oscar off at Balmoral wharf – near where he lives – and he told us the short walk made a fish bag unnecessary. Pic from his Instagram page:
Back to the mid-North Coast next weekend, with sights set on a longtail tuna. They’re on the rampage at the moment. Here’s the pic from Mitch Watts that got me motivated to head north again. TWENTY FIVE KILOS:
If anything interesting happens up there, I’ll put it in next week’s report. Thanks for reading
Andrew Hestelow