Big Fish Deep Dropping

Brown’s Mountain is an underwater seamount 21.5 nautical miles from the south head of Sydney Harbour. From July to September countless thousands of gemfish aggregate at the Mountain, to spawn. These are a very sought after species, due to their good size and eating qualities.

Bag limit is two per angler. During daytime they hold just off the bottom, around 400 metres down. Electric reels are pretty much essential, because the huge numbers of gemfish attract mako and bronze whaler sharks. Manually winding up a good size gemfish from the depths is a tough call - made tougher, when it’s chomped by a mako just under the boat.

On Monday we headed out to Brown’s Mountain for a gemfish session. Because of strong currents, warm sea temperatures and rough weather, the good ones (over 10 kilos) have been hard to find this year. But because of those same three factors the fishery has received very little pressure. I was quietly confident we’d find a few.
 
Arrived at the Mountain around 10 AM after a jigging stopover at 12 Mile Reef. One of our Tanacom 750 combos in the starboard rod holder, and the big Tanacom 1000 on the port side. Down go the baits, to 410 metres. Bites came fast. Here's Dave's first gemfish:

As we drifted the mountain from north to south I tweaked the depth sounder, trying various combinations. Slowed down ping rate, cranked up scroll speed, switched transducers, changed colour palettes:

With a big storm forecast for the afternoon we headed back in at 1:00PM:

On return, I checked the Facebook page:

Click here for the Downrigger Shop Facebook page

We had only seen five or six boats out there, but several were crewed by friends or clients. Here’s James Bagnato with a nice one:

"Made the trip out to browns today was a bit hit and miss, about 6 boats out there no one seemed to really be bringing in any fish we got a couple"

Kyle Waihi caught this beauty on a Tanacom:

"We got there late today and got this horse."

A bit later Dave sent through some pics of his gemfish dinner, cooked in panko crumbs:

Delicious. Here’s Facebook readers’ thoughts:

So I can hear you thinking – how do I get into some of this action? Easy. Our Tanacom 1000 combo includes:
 
Daiwa Tanacom 1000 reel and cables:

1000 metres of 80-pound colour change braid. We prespool your reel at the correct tension on our line spooler;
 
Clone of Daiwa five feet six inch two piece bent butt rod, with restricted arc swivel tip to prevent tip wrapping:

Note that bent butt rods are essential to hold everything well clear of your gunwale. Also included are free rigs and matching 4-pound lead weight:

How much? $1200 for everything - rod, reel, line, rigs, weight. $50 delivery including insurance. Fantastic deal:

Note that it’s not about gemfish only. Here’s Josh Young with a nice red:

And Mike Fitzgerald, with a solid blue eye trevalla:

But at this time of year, its all about the gemfish:

Click here for more information, or to order:

Click here to see the Tanacom 1000 Combo

And please get back to me with any questions whatsoever or, for a free DVD on deep dropping. Thanks for reading,

Andrew Hestelow
Managing Director

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