New Year Offshore

Regular readers know that mahi AKA dolphin fish are a favourite species of mine, in summer. There’s heaps around if you know where to look. They strike top water lures which adds to the fun, and they fight like demons. Last, but certainly not least, they are fantastic on the plate – if bled and put on ice, soon after capture. We caught some nice ones last year:

Usually they arrive in big numbers around February! But the crazy weather we’ve been having has thrown a lot of schedules out of whack. So I wasn’t totally surprised when I saw this report on the Fishraider website, last Sunday. They’ve turned up off Sydney way earlier than usual:

So two days later, when James T invited me for a run on his beautiful Black Watch, I couldn’t say yes fast enough:

5.30AM Thursday and we’re heading down the Hawkesbury to Broken Bay and beyond. First stop the Valiant wreck, for live bait. Stacks of jellybean slimy mackerel there:

Out to the Terrigal FAD. As soon as we got there we could see it was dead. Five boats cubing and livebaiting – but no bent rods seen. Two boats with spearos. But worst of all, the FAD showed no signs of current:

But Terrigal Wide has multiple options available in terms of reefs, trap fields, and FADs. Off we went to Texas Reef. Definitely some fish around, but no distinctive kingie marks:

In these circumstances – where you have to jig a lot, to get a strike – the weight of your rod and reel becomes crucial. Unless you’re Mike Tyson there’s no way you’re going to jig for hours with a heavy combo weighing 1-1.5 kilos. So many keen lads have come aboard my boat, planning to jig with their heavy Penn Spinfishers or Okumas. Or, the same gear you would jig with at the Ranfurly Banks. It’s too heavy! Jigging won’t be fun. With a light combo you keep going until you get a hook up. That’s what happened on Thursday:

Note that you won’t be able to go beast mode on your fish. Because the harder you crank, the harder they pull – especially at the start of the fight. This little 75 wasn’t a beast by any means, but I let him tire himself out down deep before slow and steady pumping him to the top. This might not work everywhere! But at hundred metre reefs off Sydney like the Twelve and the Peak the bottom is covered in soft corals. That lessens the chance of being busted off. Don’t even think about using light gear when downrigging or jigging closer in, over rough ground:

An exciting few minutes for young crew member Angus, when a mako shark picked up his butterflied slimy off the bottom. Line climbing fast towards the surface then the big shark jumped and rolled, breaking the trace:

Mahi? We caught a few, but no keepers. Would only take cut cubes and small live bait, not fired up enough for lures. We did find a fresh floating lobster while passing through the trap field:

Back to Brooklyn and a bit of a downer when we saw the old tug boat we’ve passed a hundred times had sunk at its moorings. An elderly gentleman lived aboard and must have lost his home – hopefully, temporarily:

Lots of fishing coming up – starting with some bass chasing, on Sunday. Will keep our readers in the loop if anything interesting happens! Thanks for reading and Happy New Year to all our readers
Andrew Hestelow

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