NT Billfish Log

Coutta · Post by **Coutta** » Mon Apr 19, 2010 1:51 pm

Gday all

Trolled from sail city (after some awesome drift bottom bouncing in the area wore us out) back to wide of north peron (following contours) both Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th. We wanted to head noreast from SC to Long Lost / Bowra wide etc but decided to head away from the storms not into them

nothing raised nor sighted either day. 12th was rough as after a storm had come through SC about 1pm. 13th much better conditions although storms about again but only small to medium macs messing with the skip baits and skirts (I thought the macs were not supposed to be that far out

) also one big mack tuna on the shotgun - both days were overcast which makes your cloud cover comment very interesting DH.

Tuesday 13th we saw Northern Exile work their way out from Long Lost to Sail - didnt see them hook anything.

Young fellow at work got a good sail bowra wide way on a bibbed lure on sunday 11th so maybe they're keener on them than we think.

Seems the SC / Bowra Wide / Long Lost area is where its happening. We were operating out of Channel Point so will be down there soon outta dundee this time to work the ground we couldnt last week.

UNCLDUG · Post by **UNCLDUG** » Mon Apr 19, 2010 7:54 pm

HEY COUTTA

,good read mate ,im headin 2 bowra wide in about 3 weeks so hoppfully lady luck will shine down on us.Spose u cant tell me a bit more bout the bottom bouncin session baits or jigs?Anything stand out that was doin the job better 4 ya,(can never have 2 much no how

)

mate look 4ward to your reply

upnorth73 · Post by **upnorth73** » Fri May 14, 2010 10:59 pm

Have been wanting to do this for a long while.

Bowra Wide 13-05-2010

5 strikes, 3 hooked, 2 in the boat.

All sails and all within a few hundred metres of S12 45.633 - E130 06.547.
Fish seemed to be on the bite between an hour before and after low tide.
Pakula hothead Fluzi and Uzi seemed to work well.

Saeas were cr@p, I need a bigger boat...

double haul · Post by **double haul** » Sun May 16, 2010 4:29 pm

15/5 8 raised 6 strikes 4 hooked 3 taged bowara wide 2 nms west of last 2 lumps. 1 other boat with us had 3 3 3 3. First bite at 10 last at 12. Cloudy skys rough seas dirty water.

luvindafish · Post by **luvindafish** » Sun May 16, 2010 6:33 pm

Nice work. It was about 10am last sunday when ben and i had our first sail too

Coutta · Post by **Coutta** » Mon May 17, 2010 3:33 pm

Thanks for the info you blokes.

Just firmed up a trip outta dundee this weekend - will be camping overnight near blaze somewhere - not doubt will cross paths with you DH at least - purple 580 seajay with 150 honda - will monitor ch72 - looking forward to it - been hanging out for 6 weeks!

Oh by the way uncldug - not really the right thread I know but re the jiggin - hope this is not too late. We've been concentrating on drifting out wide for a while now - although sometimes the conditions are not perfect for it - I like a breeze not going with the tide but doesnt have to be against it as such - usually a drift sog on the GPS of up to about 1.5 km/hour is good 1 is near perfect. So bait or jigs - best answer I can give is both! Sometimes one will work better than the other so I try to cover both bases. I like the octajigs while a mate of mine swears by snap backs (although he cheats by putting some bait on the hook too) while others I know rate the gulps highly. Like I said I like the octajigs - reasonably priced / decent hooks / replacement skirts available - I ususallym use the 120 to 200 grams models. Havent given the reidys jigs a go yet by will do so. And as many have siad before you dont necessarily need to be drifting major structure (you wont find it anyway!) concentrate on slight changes in depth and / or low 'noise' on the bottom.

Coutta · Post by **Coutta** » Mon May 17, 2010 3:51 pm

hey adam forgot to ask - are you giving the fish any freespool when they grab the lure? Or is it just tighten up straight away and leave the freespooling to the baits?

Have some purdy pakulas to swim this weekend

deepblack · Post by **deepblack** » Mon May 17, 2010 7:56 pm

G'day All,
Well Double haul was onto me to post my marks so here they are with an abbreviated condition report for both trips.

Monday 26th April,
Light seas in the morning followed by close to glass out conditions in the afternoon, fine and sunny conditions to sight bills in.

Tide was 3 days after the dead neap and 2 days before the full moon so water clarity was excellent. Action started at around 1000 and was spread through the day petering out around 1400. All fish were hooked in close proximity to schools of small Mack Tuna.

Final tally for the day was 10 raised, 4 hooked, 4 released.
GPS as follows:
S12*45.625' E130*05.216'
S12*45.412' E130*04.168'
S12*45.882' E130*04.395'
S12*45.629' E130*04.465'

Tuesday 11th May,
Light seas decreasing in the afternoon, once again fine and sunny conditions. Tide was again three days after the dead neap but this time 3 days before the new moon. Water clarity was nearing excellent. Action started at 0830 just after lines in and went from strength to strength from there with us calling stumps at 4 in the afternoon totally knackered.

Fish were actively feeding on anchovies approximately 2 inches long.

The final tally? Well we released 10, and that's all I can say with certainty. I think we scored around thirty hookups and we went through over 40 baits for the day. As for fish sighted well I'd be guessing, 130-150? Maybe more, I honestly don't know. On a few occasions we were sighting free swimmers whilst hooked up to fish!

GPS as follows:
S12*45.941' E130*06.836'
S12*47.351' E130*06.823'
S12*46.118' E130*06.894'
S12*46.408' E130*06.870'
S12*46.258' E130*06.842'
S12*46.167' E130*07.019'
S12*46.161' E130*06.775'

All these marks are extremely close together my GPS bread crumb trail looks like a 3 year old went crazy on the etch-a-sketch.

Hope this helps.
Cheers,

John.

double haul · Post by **double haul** » Mon May 24, 2010 3:42 pm

23/5 7am to 1 pm fenton up to the bottom end of north gutter. Ducks all round. Complete lack of ANYTHING only 1 bait ball at north gutter 90ft down deep. just remembered why i drive to dundee to chase sails. Cant complain about the weather though.

Coutta · Post by **Coutta** » Tue May 25, 2010 10:10 am

22/5/10 - long lost - raised three two strikes no hookups - i free swimmer sighted. Another boat near us boated a beauty. No need to post waypoints as the action occured right in the middle of deepblacks eastern bunch of waypoints posted the other day (thanks John

) Fish were a tad shy 1 had a look at a pusher but only nudged it - strikes were on skipping gars - we counted out 10 secs but maybe we should have counted 15?!

Action occured around the high tide change roughly 10.30am to 11.30am. Earlier we trolled all around the witches nose and beyond for nought. Conditions were sunny approx 5 knot easterly calm seas. Probably another 3 or 4 boats in same area. Once they went quiet about middayish went bottom bouncing....

23/5/10 - camped off blaze for the night - after sitting out a sunrise shower - dry season? - headed back to long lost after putting some nice goldies in the box

Got there about 11am - couldnt miss the spot as there were proabaly 12 boats in general area - conditions were a bit rougher than day before - no billies raised - sighted what I think was a small marlin ?? free swimming - tuna very active so settled for catching a few longtails around the western end of the witches nose.

Dont know details but I'm told a crew got 3 hookups and 1 boated wide of sail city in the morning the same day so we were in the wrong spot it seems - oh well next time.

deepblack · Post by **deepblack** » Fri May 28, 2010 5:15 pm

Hi Coutta,
We had the same problem with the count for the hookup this weekend just gone, the fish were a bit shy and messed with the baits alot on Sunday. I think the only solution is smaller baits to better match the size of the fish.
Cheers,

John.

P.s. Did you see that free jumping Marlin on Sunday arvo? WOW!!!

Easy 100kg Plus fish...

Swoffa · Post by **Swoffa** » Sat May 29, 2010 7:56 pm

26 May 10
13 01.326 129 55 525
Raised 12
Hooked and tagged one black Marlin 6Kg

27 May 10
within 800m of the coordinates above
Raised 32
Hooked 7
Landed and tagged 2 sails

28 May 10
same coordinate area
Raised 25
Hooked 6
Landed and tagged 3 Sails and 1 Black Marlin

All fish were taken FLY FISHING
Full report to follow

scottmac · Post by **scottmac** » Sun May 30, 2010 6:21 am

Thats awesome swoffa!

I take it you were off Dundee some where?

double haul · Post by **double haul** » Sun Jun 06, 2010 6:57 pm

5/5 6 raised 3 strikes 2 hookups 2 tagged, bowa wide action form 1 to 3pm. 6/6 30+ raised 12 strikes 3 hooked 2 tagged. Most fo the action from 9 to 10 then shut down. 1 last fish at 1 pm.

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Mon Jun 14, 2010 8:55 am

Hooked 2 Billfish, pretty sure sales at fenton. Hooked up at 5.15pm June 13 Double hookup on a 1/2 trevally bait on the bottom while trying for big trevors/sharks.

Lost one early on as put the drag to sunset to get in as wanted a mate from down south to land it as was fishing a comp between 10 mates, chased the other for near 1 hour to lose at side of boat just out of reach when hook pulled

Both big fish

1hour from change of tide 2.6m rising to 6.38m

I have tried for billys with all the right gear , teasers , rigged gar etc not got a hit now this is the third I have hooked on a big slab bait off the bottom now. Any one want some billfish gear , Im sticking to 1/2 trevally

Was directly above the marchant at hookup. Ended up tying the anchor to a lifejacket and throwing overboard to give chase as anchow as never gonna come up