Go Tell It on The Mountain

Getting nervous as the week drew closer to Friday! Why? The forecast was fantastic, but my tow car was in the shop. All good! The plan had been to go out in tandem with client and new friend John C. When I called to tell him the trip was off he said he would tow my boat, and his crew member Phil would tow their boat to the ramp. That worked. When we got to Roseville, Phil was already there with John’s 580 Formosa:

First stop Twelve Mile Reef, where I had heard the kingfish had been thick. Nope! Dead on the sounder, and no action on the ten or twelve other boats chasing them. So we headed straight for Brown’s Mountain. Windy and very choppy, when we got there. New crew member David had asked me to bring along a Tanacom 750 combo. We got that quickly set up, and dropped a California squid bait to the bottom in 450 metres. The joy with this combo is that the lighter rod tip is super sensitive in detecting bites. Which in this case, came thick and fast. This first drop blue eye went 21 pounds on the Boga Grip scales:

The Tanacom 750 combo can manage 99% of the fish you’ll encounter out there. And it will save you a stack of time because you’ll know when a fish bites. You won’t have to wait until you wind up to find out your bait is gone. Check it out here:

The Tanacom 750 combo is no longer stocked.

On the other side of the boat Fitz was finding some nice gemfish with his Tanacom 1000 combo. So far this year all we’ve caught is the small silver models that are on the Mountain all year round. The fish he was bringing up were the bigger versions, in copper coloured spawning mode. They’re the best tasting of all:

With the fish box filling quickly it was time to try something different. Have thought mako sharks are a great game fish ever since my first one – a 200 kilo model, caught back in the 70s. Five of us in a five meter Quintrex CC. After five hours on the rod and being dragged almost to the Shelf you’ll forgive us for shooting it. That’s how things were, back then:

So on Friday I put some blue eye guts on a 14/0 circle hook and set it 20 metres down and 50 metres back, under a balloon. A blue shark picked up the bait and then swam up to the burley pot with the hook in the corner of its mouth:

Blue sharks not the toughest fish on fins so we brought it to the boat and cut it free. Our light game combo uses the same bent butt rod as our 750 combo:

Check it out here:

See our current rods and combos

With time ticking away fast – as it always seems to do, at Brown’s – we focused on deep dropping. The gem fish kept getting bigger:

And more numerous:

One had even been attacked by a big squid:

What a day! Short video of the highlights here:

Great fishing and great friends. Fingers crossed I can get the car fixed earlier this week and get out there again as soon as the weather calms down. Will keep you posted on any and all developments lads
Andrew Hestelow

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