Rainy Day Offshore

June has arrived! That’s when – usually – the weather here in Sydney settles down. Low swells and light winds mean we can get 20 miles offshore, to fish Browns Mountain. We’ve had some magical days out there:

So when client and friend Greg Stevenson bought one of our bent butt deep drop rods last week, I asked him if he was prepping for Browns. Yes! And of course, so was I. With the forecast for Thursday looking pretty good, we arranged to each take our boat and meet out at the Mountain. A couple of calls and emails and I had a mad keen crew of Mike, David and Rowan all teed up for a run in my tired old tinnie:

The usual course includes a stopover for some kingfish jigging at the halfway point – Twelve Mile Reef. But on final approach to the Twelve, the wind and waves built up fast, thanks to local storm cells. These are particularly annoying because you can have a twelve to fifteen knot wind, a steep chop, and heavy rain – due to a localized cloud band. When you finally get back in, the BOM say it never got over five knots all day – because their measurements are taken on land, not twenty miles offshore. In this case – with the approval of the crew – we decided to go the fallback option. So it was back into the Harbour, loading up with live bait at Obelisk – which was swarming with them:

Then a fast run up to Long Reef. We anchored up in 18 metres and got the burley going. With a light current spreading our food message way down stream, kingfish arrived off the stern almost immediately. Only problem was, they were undersize. This little fellow went 63cm:

Conditions were great – excepting the rain. A steady procession of pan sized snapper came aboard as the burley worked deeper down. This one went 40cm, we’re having it for dinner tonight:

Rowan operated a charter boat in NZ for eight years. The skills he learned there showed:

Meantime Greg was finding a few out at Browns. Here’s a pink ling. I’ve never caught one but I’m told they’re delicious:

He reports:

Weather conditions way bumpier out there than they were, for us:

But he brought some good table fish home:

Early afternoon at Long Reef. The fishing was slowing, and we were getting colder and wetter. Just about to pull the pin when Rowan hooked up to an absolute monster – which made a run of 100 metres plus, in the first minute. Here’s how it all turned out. Anyone know what species this is?

A great day had by all. Planning on a run to Browns next week and will report in as to results
Andrew Hestelow

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