North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Went out off east arm boatramp yeaterday, apart from a few little rock cod diddent get anything, however twice i had my freshbait grabbed and had a big run, first time snapped my 40lb mono, second time totally spooled me and snapped it, big long run with only one pause with near max drag, the question i have is what kind of fish does this up here ? Ive seen snapper do similar down south but not to that extent, and what kind of gear (rods, reel, line/leader) should i be using to try and land something like that ?
Have no experience with GTs, tuna, jewies ect, mostly smaller fish and smaller mackrel, dident see what it was, no breaking of the surface
I know alot will be guesses or speculation but its a start.

Cheers Dropbear

Probably a Black Jewfish. A shark would snip you off before that. Average Jew is 10 /12 kg.

One of the great mysteries of fishing, wondering what it was ...

Question is which tackle shop to visit

Try 70lb Schnider (mono) and 50lb Braid around the rocks for Live baits .
Stay away from fluorocarbon,, too soft .

Depending on how it ran can give you an idea of what it might have been. shark could snip depending where you hooked it corner of the mouth have had sharks boated no dramas using mono.

And definately agree with Jeff is regarding live bait setup

A few possibilities ...

shark
groper
shovelnose
sawfish
stingray
jewie
big Powertail
Collins Class sub

Matt Flynn wrote:A few possibilities ...

shark
groper
shovelnose
sawfish
stingray
jewie
big Powertail
Collins Class sub

I agree Matt , But a Collins Class ??? Should be able to stop it ,even with medium Drag & 30lb braid

Plenty of unstoppable stuff up here mate even landbased. Multiple times I've been left exhasted wondering what the heck was that....

How did it run fast /slow/ powerful any headshakes or direction changes ?

This little 500kg plus model took 24 min to get a look at then another 15 to unhook it . All this took place after we pulled anchor and chased it over half a km with the current. I was running full locked 25kg of drag on 80lb braid off a Daiwa sealine over a short stroker. They get way, way bigger than this too. I've also stopped 5m plus lemons, massive rays over 2m across and some big tigers and hammerheads on the same gear when hooked in the nose and unable to bite the hook off my 70lb mono paternoster. Good way to wreck a cheap one or test a good reel to its limit and get a good workout at the same time just for a picture. I was fishing in just over 4m when I was peeled by this on a livie also in east arm. Would've been 150+m out once we got the anchor up and started chasing it easily spooling any of the other rods in the boat.

I've seen 300lb wire get blown away off cord lines too. Even telstra rope gets cut off on the pylons at stokes hill so it's up to u if you want to target this sort of stuff..... But most of us dont bother, as there's better things to do than battle with a monstrous animal for an hour plus to only have it blow you away without even getting a look at it. But each to their own, I would run a bit more than 40lb mono, that'd be okay for getting bait for them though....

Just remember :

COD AND GROPER OVER 1.2 m ARE PROTECTED AND MUST BE RETURNED TO THE WATER UNHARMED. up here and may be suceptable to barotrauma in water over 10m hence cutting it off is often a better move and then you can keep on fishing for trout and goldies.

Gotta love it.
Been busted off just the same around there and even up the Elizabeth on a fast troll ?! Same as Goldfish, gave chase for what seemed like a Kay or so and and still lost what ever it was.
Fished off the Elizabeth platform a year ago while boat was out of action on run out tide with no bites for about 6 beers then nearly lost the rod. Took me past the rock bar before busting me off.
Doesn't seem to matter how big the lure or how big the bait sometimes.