Two Days on the Black Rat

Out last Saturday on James Taylor’s big beautiful Black Watch 32. Once again the forecast was bad but with a great crew aboard I knew that, even if we didn’t find anything, we were sure to have a top time:

When we cleared Broken Bay I wasn’t so confident. Nasty swell, and the wind steadily picking up. Instead of going wide we headed for an inshore reef - where we’ve scored quality kingfish, in the past. The marks looked good:

But the drift was too fast. The big boat is great but the high superstructure picks up the wind and, even though were in shallow water, the jigs were going down at a 45° angle. Switched on Fitz saw an opportunity! These wrecks - in thousands of acres of bare sand – hold a lot of bait. And the predators, who hunt them. Fitz rigged a double paternoster snapper snatcher. And started bringing up doubles of quality flathead:

Chris got into the action too. With the sand around the wreck swarming with 50 – 60cm blue spot flathead, you’d be mad not to:

I had a light Shimano Trevalla overhead matched with a ABU Garcia Revo Winch, given to me by too-generous friend Ken Musgrove. The whole combo only weighs 150 grams and is supposedly rated to 55 gram jigs. Tried a 60 gram but that wasn’t heavy enough to load the blank on the upswing. Switched to our 100 gram jigs which were the right weight and matched the outfit. This just legal 65 went into the icebox for sashimi:

Great morning! The crew are always keen to bring home a feed and that was certainly the case on Saturday. Here’s just part of the catch:

Back out again on Thursday, in the knowledge it would be the last good weather day for at least a week. This time, the plan was to run wide, chasing mahi and kings. First stop Terrigal FAD, where the five fishing boats there had to stay clear of the action - because three spearos had the FAD surrounded:

Off we went to the lobster trap field, where we’ve had so much success in the past:

We started with mini skirted lures. Here’s Fitz hooked up:

I used our 702 combo. Of course I’m biased but it’s the best rig I’ve ever used for mahi fishing around the floats. Long casting and a good bend to soak up the jumps are the key:

Here’s pics and specs:

702 MAHI COMBO

Small but legal dollies came over the side in a steady procession:

Striped tuna in the mix:

I rigged a garfish on a Head Start:

And ran it off the downrigger at 4 knots, around the FAD and the floats:

Got the biggest hit of the day – but the fish jumped off the hook at the end of the first run. Mahi and marlin love this set up so make sure you’ve got a couple when you’re fishing offshore:

HEAD STARTS

What a top day! Fishing on a great boat with good friends is a joy. Looking forward to the next run already
Andrew Hestelow

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