One Flash and Your Bait's Slashed

Up to Coffs Harbour on Wednesday night with big hopes that I wasn’t too early for the 2019 mackerel season! Because, thanks to bad weather and heavy rain, it’s running late this year. Reassured when keen fisho and friend Don Cummings sent this report through, on the day we left:

Down to the boat ramp at dawn on Thursday to meet up with Rob Stokes. We headed straight for McCauley’s Reef. This is a bait spot just north of the harbour. They were swarming:

In amongst the bait clouds we could see a few arches. The other boats decided to load up on bait, then blast off into the wild blue yonder. After discussing options, we decided to kick off proceedings - on the bait grounds - with a big slimy mackerel downrigged at 10 metres:

WHAM

Not our preferred target but I didn’t mind in the slightest. The next hit showed there were macks around:

Out went another bait, rigged on a short light 27 pound mono wire trace holding two 3/0 hooks. Hook up:

Our first spotted mackerel of the 2019 season. It was a good feeling:

Down rigging had found the fish but because I only had one aboard - for two anglers - we decided to change tactics. We moored up on the best mark we had passed over. Just 12 metres deep, but stacked with bait. Got the burley going, and floated live baits out under balloons. That’s when the fishing went ballistic:

It really got crazy and we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. Not only were the mackerel so thick that hooked fish were followed to the boat by their mates, but the snapper turned up. We were catching them on the wire rig and twin hook combo we used for the mackerel:

Tackle! I had completely forgotten that Rob had – ages ago – bought one of our $255 Bay Jig combos. He caught at least five mackerel on that outfit through the morning:

I just wish I had brought mine. The Ryobi 4000 reel, spooled with 15 kilo colour change braid and 3 metres of 10 kilo FC, was ideal for the Bay Jig. That’s two Ryobis in the background:

Like to know more? Click the link below. And if you decide to order I’ll include two of the wire rigs we used and, some balloons. All you’ll need is the bait:

Bay Jig Mackerel Combo

The other big news for the morning was how well our new lip gripper tool worked on the razor gang. Not only does it keep fingers clear of sharp fangs, but it looks so much better than the white plastic one lots of fishos use:

The plastic one is so big it makes the fish look small, too:

Here’s specs:
Material: 6061 Aviation Aluminum & Carbon Fiber
Color: Blue/Red/Gold/Silver
Max Loading: 20kg
Length: 24cm/9.45in
Weight: 158g/5.58oz

What a day! We filled the chiller bag (yes there’s ice in there too) but too many macks to close the zipper:

And just before we headed back to Sydney, Rob Stokes kindly gave me some prepacked spottie steaks:

Would you believe that, the next day, he went back out and caught a cracker cobia?

Huge thanks to Rob and to Don Cummings – who provided us with a place to stay when the spot I’d booked and prepaid (Big 4, at Sawtell) told me the car and trailer was too long to be parked. Don couldn’t fish with us due to his work responsibilities but he got out there on Saturday with the fly rod:

Hoping to visit again soon. Thanks for reading and if you need any more info drop me a line, or call? Cheers
Andrew Hestelow

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