Mahi Week
Ten days of high winds and heavy rains made a heck of a mess, in Sydney last week:
At least it got things moving in our sanded up and stagnant coastal lakes. Here’s Narrabeen, after the downpour:
Needless to say Roseville boat ramp in Middle Harbour was a shocker, after the big wet:
Three or four times per day I was checking the forecast. Finally the wind and swell started to back off. Monday was the day:
The focus was on mahi, or dolphin fish. Before the storms hit their numbers had been building up nicely. We haven’t caught any big ones this season! My best just 82 CM. The hope was that, after the big shakeup, and the resulting light fishing pressure, we might be able to find some bigger versions. Rocket Miller and I launched at Pittwater. Stern hose pickup and red nozzle is part of our spraypopping setup. More about that next week:
First stop the Valiant Wreck, off Barrenjoey. Usually a reliable bait producer but in this case dead as a doornail. Probably because of all the murky brown water:
A nice easy run up to FAD 17 and the lobster trap field. What we like to do around the trap floats is, first locate a patch. Once you find one mahi, you will find a dozen. So we run a spreader bar off the downrigger, set about 25 metres behind the boat. With fourteen squids on the bar, trolling at 5 knots, it looks just like a small school of bait fish racing to get away from the dolly danger zone. About five to ten metres behind the bar we set the lure of choice. That makes the lure look like tail end Charlie, the weak bait fish struggling to keep up with the fleeing school. You can check them out here:
On Monday this technique delivered. Check this out. We only had old imperial scales, to use for measuring. The mahi went 28 pounds:
Pleased to say it was taken on one of our 702 2-piece rods:
Rocket sends a review. Too generous! But I’m grateful:
Always keen on these because they cast so well and so often with mahi, long casts get the fish. Rod on its own is just $70, you can check it out here:
They are out there lads and this weekend, the forecast couldn’t be better. Not only are they on the FADs and trap buoys but I’m hearing that, since the floods, there’s a lot of floating structure offshore. Mahi hanging around those too. Good luck and please let me know how you go on our Facebook page
Andrew Hestelow
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