Tweed Action II

Another trip with Steve Wilson this weekend, saw us hit the Tweed again. the plan was to sneak out to the close reefs early to see if we could find some quality snapper or kingies, and then come back into the river to have a play with some bream.

Conditions were pretty good with light north westerlies early. Steve was the first to register a bite and quickly had a decent fish under control, but the hooks pulled half way through the fight. Fortunately next cast he was on again and this time a good snapper made it to the net

The current and wind were running in the same direction, speeding up our drift and making it slightly more difficult to get the 5" Jerkshads down on 1/4 Oz heads. I was just about to change up to a heavier head when my Sardine Jerkshad got hit! The fish immediatedly peeled line and instead of heading straight for the bottom, it turned eastward and headed out to sea at increasing speed. I had no control at all as 30lb Sten Superbraid melted from the spool of the ABU Cardinal 806 at an alarming rate. Within about 20 seconds I guess, I was into backing and calling on Steve that we needed to chase this fish - NOW! Fortunately, Steve got the electric up quickly and we took chase with the bottom of the spool starting to show.

The fish didn't ease up as we gave chase and although I got a lot of line back it was still taking serious runs. After about 5 minutes, the afterburners had run out of fuel and the fight turned into a slug fest, and the still unidentified fish, pulsed away in the depths. At this stage we ruled out snapper, kingie, jewie, and were thinking GT or Tuna. As the fight pushed past the twenty minute mark, we were pretty sure we had a tuna on.

We saw him shortly after, and I thought that I had him under control and we would have him in soon. How wrong was I! It continued to slug it out for another 10 minutes or more circling just under the boat. My right arm was aching severely as I worked him painfully closer to the boat. Finally Steve had the chance of a good gaff shot and made no mistake.

On the brag mat the Longtail tuna went right on one metre to the fork of the tail and we guessed his weight around 15kg. Thats my first Longtail and it was very satisfying to catch it on one of my own jigheads. A great fish, I just couldn't believe how tough it was, and how long it slugged it out for!

After a few pics it was back to the fishing. We'd just lost half an hour or more of prime bite time, and it seemed that our window of oportunity had closed, as we couldn't raise another decent bite, despite trying several areas and seeing plenty of good shows on the sounder.

After a couple of fruitless hours the wind started to pick up from the North East and we decided it was time to hit plan B.

Back in the river, the big rods were packed away and the bream rods rigged, with Gulps, Blades and other lures to test. We found bream on the sounder fairly quickly, but it was hard to get them to bite. However, as the incoming tide increased, they slowly came on the bite and we ended up getting a few decent bream, with plenty of small bream and flathead getting in on the act.

Although the action was generally pretty slow, I had some encouraging results on some new lures that I'm developing. The most interesting encounter involved a big flathead that I hooked in pretty deep water. I was fishing 4lb vanish straight through. Right from the start there was heaps of weight with big head shakes, but no big runs. At one stage it headed into the rockwall and came nearly to the surface and we both saw that it was a BIG fish. After about ten minutes the fight was progressing very slowly, but suddenly the fish seemed to change direction and I quickly gained line, and then wound in a 30cm flathead !??!! On close inspection the flathead had been roughed up severely and was missing a lot of scales.

My lure was firmly in the top jaw of the small flathead. So obviously the big girl ate the small fish at virtually the same time I hooked it, as I never felt a small fish early. Pity it didn't hang onto it a bit longer so we could get a closer look, because that in that first glimse from a distance it looked HUGE. That's the second encounter I've had with a big flathead eating a small one and then spitting it - quite amazing!

Anyway we pulled stumps shortly afterwards, happy with the days' results. We covered a few options in one session, landed some decent fish and successfully tested some new designs.

Sharp hooks, smooth drags, tight lines,

Matt

Offshore Tweed Action with 'The Wizard'

Its been a long time since I've ventured offshore, but Steve 'The Wizard' Wilson invited me out with him, to hit the reefs off the Tweed with soft plastics. He's been having regular success on the snapper, kingies and even landed a massive Red Bass on his last trip.

The Tweed bar was standing up a bit on a big outgoing tide, but Steve casually worked his 5.9m Attack through the bar with no dramas. Once out, we turned south and made a short run to the first of the reefs we were to fish. There are numerous reefs out from the Tweed all very close.

We were fishing with medium spin outfits, mine was a Berkley Dropshot tournament Pro rod 7ft, 6-8kg matched with an ABU Cardinal 804, loaded with 20lb Fireline and 20lb Vanish leader. I've done a bit of snapper fishing in Moreton Bay and usually fish 10lb braid/12-16lb leader. So I thought I'd be right with 20/20, but a few casts later I was destroyed into the reef in short order! Time to move up to 30lb leader and crank the drag up a bit more!

The fishing was fairly full on for the first hour or two and I cant quite remember the order of what we caught but Steve got a nice 3kg Tea Lea Trevally, and I got a 45cm snapper, followed by another smoking into the bottom. I think Steve also got done over before landing a 3-4kg GT.

Shortly after, I hooked a strong fish that I managed to stop before it found the bottom. I had the rod absolutely loaded and the tackle pushed to the limit, the battle raged for a few minutes before I finally subdued a nice little Kingie. The bait I was using was a 5" Gulp Jerkshad in Sardine rigged on a 1/4 Oz #2/0 Nitro Saltwater Pro Jighead.

Steve was chasing bigger fish and opted for the 7" Jerkshad rigged on a 1/4oz Pogy head with the 6/0 heavy wire hook. The areas we were fishing varied from 8 to 15 metres, so with the lighter heads it took a while for the baits to waft down. But I believe this enhanced our hookup rate as quite a few hits came on the drop.

I had one good hit on the drop, and I quickly cranked in the slack to come up tight on a good fish, it then woke up and hit the afterburners! Line cracked off the spool and then went off with a crack as the 20lb fireline exploded just out of the reel. I'd just finished hacking on Steve for fishing his drag too loose, but obviously I was fishing mine too tight! So I changed to the Cardinal 806 Outfit with 30lb Sten after that -too late though!

Things started to go a bit quiet after a while and we headed the next reef for a change of spots. It was also quiet there. The only action we had was helping out in the rescue of an overturned boat that got rolled when a big wave came over the back of the boat. Luckily the skipper (fishing solo) was OK.

The fishing definitely slowed as the day progressed, and apart from another small squire, some solid bream and a few small mixed reefies, we had no more luck on the reefs.

After working over all the reefs to the 9 Mile and back, we headed back into the Tweed River to chase some bream for a change of pace. There was a heap of bait in the water, and Steve rigged up a 1/8Oz #1 Bream Pro Jighead with green Galaxia 3" Powerbait minnow which imitated the bait perfectly. I was testing some new blades I've designed, to see how they'd go.

First cast Steve hooked up to a very decent fish that took a lot of line, and slugged it out for a good five minutes before he bought in a 2-3kg Golden Trevally. He went on to catch two bream and two flathead, and I managed a couple of bream on the blades before we called it a day.

It was a great day on the water and 'The Wizard' lived up to his name catching some top Fish and putting me onto some as well!

Looking forward to the next trip!