Fangs for the Memories

I always look forward to hairtail season because A. the best spot is Cowan Creek, just down the road from our place;

And B, we’ve developed some special techniques which make them even more exciting to catch:

So this week, when I heard they were back in town, I cleared the deck for a couple of evening sessions. Have found that with heavy burleying, in the best spot, you can sometimes bag out before dark. That wasn’t the case on Wednesday 27th May where none were found – and we didn’t see anybody else catch hairtail, either. Fitz scored a consolation prize and we pulled the pin early:

The second night – Thursday 28th May - was way more successful. We got to our mark on Cowan Creek about 3:00PM, with me rugged up against the night chill to come:

Hairtail have super bony mouths with long protruding fangs. Sometimes half of the fish you hook, get off before they reach the surface. I like to mechanically jig them with a special rig. The hookup comes on the upswing – which drives the hook deep into the fishes’ rock hard mouth. Here’s the set up:

Anchored up in 18 metres of water and got the burley going. First job was to catch a couple of yellowtail and fillet them. I find long thin yellowtail fillets to be a deadly bait that produces clean hookups because the hairies find it easier to get the fillet down. That went on a triple gang hook connected to a short wire trace of 27-pound mono with a flashing multi-colour light a foot above the hooks. I actually prefer a red chemical light but couldn’t get any quality ones at short notice. There was a lot of mark on the sounder and the vibe felt good. Note that we were in 13 metres but the reflection off the fish was so strong the sounder read 2.9 metres:

First strike came to Fitz. I hooked up at the same time but my fish went round another line and got off. Good size! We were on the board:

Note how Fitz is holding this fish. Hairtail have fangs very similar to gemfish. And, just like gemfish, they have an anti-coagulant mucus on their fangs. If you get bitten the mark keeps bleeding and eventually you wrap the tiny bite mark in a Band-Aid. After 30 minutes or so you remove the Band-aid off, and as soon as you do, it starts bleeding again. We have a fantastic tool which:

1. keeps your fingers well away from nasty fangs like those on hairtail, Spanish mackerel, tailor etc;
2. works flawlessly every time and is very well constructed;
3. looks really good in the pics and doesn’t overpower the fish you’re photographing.

It’s our lip gripper tool:

Check it out here:

This lip gripper is no longer stocked.

Those big ugly plastic jobs look so bad in photographs, lads:

The lip gripper came in very handy when Fitz hooked a huge hairtail on his tiny one metre rod:

159 centimetres! Soon after, we gave ourselves an early mark and were back at the ramp by nightfall. Fantastic start to the season and hopefully the first two of many successful trips this winter. Thanks for reading
Andrew Hestelow

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