Dude, Where's My Teaser?!?
Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 8:40 pm
Hi All,
Took a trip to Dundee recently with Swoffa from the forum to see if we could get a Billie on Fly. This was a first for me and it was a great chance to talk teasers and tactics with someone who has racked up some nice captures in recent times. The trip down to Dundee was uneventful and I must say the road is a vast improvement! We got to Dundee for the launch by tractor around 7 and headed out to the long lost grounds. The sea conditions were a little lumpy but we made good time and were soon sorted out and working the area. A couple of false casts by me to understand what I needed to do if we raised a fish soon made me realise that some practice is in order! This particular style of flyfishing requires heavy rods and big flies and my skills were not really up to it but Swoffa was nice enough to overlook that fact. We spent a good hour of so around the Long Lost grounds with not much going on, the water was a bit green and there were no birds or bait schools in the area. At this point the sea conditions were getting pretty calm so the decision was made to head south to the Sail City wide grounds. At Sail things were looking up, Birds were working the area along with small pods of Tuna and we were marking some nice bait schools on the surface. As the day progressed the conditions got better and bettter but the fishing didn't and we didn't sight a fish despite the presence of good sized bait schools in the area. With nothing doing we headed back to Long Lost with the conditions in the area looking totally different to the morning with nice clean water, scattered bait and Frigate birds on patrol. With not much time to go until stumps we trolled in a due east direction to shorten our run home at this point Swoffa was looking at his sounder marking some bait and I was looking forward at a couple of boats working the area. Rookie mistake...... The first time that day there wasn't a set of eyes on the teaser and I bet you can tell what happened next right? Swoffa turned around and said to me "Ummm... Where's the Teaser?!?" I looked around and my first thought was "Oh great bl..dy Macs' have taken it off above the Bird" but I couldn't see the tow line. At this stage me and Swoffa have taken a long WTF moment and some seconds pass before i go to pull in the teaser line. Well, the line wasn't cut a Billie still has hold of it and has sounded with it. So here I am trying to get the teaser back from an unknown fish when out of the corner of my eye I see a huge boil where the Soft Grassy on the end of the other teaser used to be and Swoffa is yelling that there is a good Black on the end of it. It was all over in the blink of an eye but I put a hail Mary cast in just in case with no real expectations and didn't get a look. Funnily enough neither me or Swoffa was that fussed about it, I think we were both just blown away by it all. On the way home the words "Dude, where's my Teaser?" brought on several fits of laughter from both of us. I guess that's the thing about Billfishing even if you don't catch them the fish still have the ability to blow you away. Many thanks go to Swoffa for the trip and for putting up with me chewing his ear about Billies all day. So the final stats for the day read a bit weird at 1-2-0-0. Ok, so the first fish wasn't sighted but I think i can safely call it for a Billfish considering the company it was keeping. No fish for the day but it kept the fever alive.
Cheers,
John.
Cheers,
Took a trip to Dundee recently with Swoffa from the forum to see if we could get a Billie on Fly. This was a first for me and it was a great chance to talk teasers and tactics with someone who has racked up some nice captures in recent times. The trip down to Dundee was uneventful and I must say the road is a vast improvement! We got to Dundee for the launch by tractor around 7 and headed out to the long lost grounds. The sea conditions were a little lumpy but we made good time and were soon sorted out and working the area. A couple of false casts by me to understand what I needed to do if we raised a fish soon made me realise that some practice is in order! This particular style of flyfishing requires heavy rods and big flies and my skills were not really up to it but Swoffa was nice enough to overlook that fact. We spent a good hour of so around the Long Lost grounds with not much going on, the water was a bit green and there were no birds or bait schools in the area. At this point the sea conditions were getting pretty calm so the decision was made to head south to the Sail City wide grounds. At Sail things were looking up, Birds were working the area along with small pods of Tuna and we were marking some nice bait schools on the surface. As the day progressed the conditions got better and bettter but the fishing didn't and we didn't sight a fish despite the presence of good sized bait schools in the area. With nothing doing we headed back to Long Lost with the conditions in the area looking totally different to the morning with nice clean water, scattered bait and Frigate birds on patrol. With not much time to go until stumps we trolled in a due east direction to shorten our run home at this point Swoffa was looking at his sounder marking some bait and I was looking forward at a couple of boats working the area. Rookie mistake...... The first time that day there wasn't a set of eyes on the teaser and I bet you can tell what happened next right? Swoffa turned around and said to me "Ummm... Where's the Teaser?!?" I looked around and my first thought was "Oh great bl..dy Macs' have taken it off above the Bird" but I couldn't see the tow line. At this stage me and Swoffa have taken a long WTF moment and some seconds pass before i go to pull in the teaser line. Well, the line wasn't cut a Billie still has hold of it and has sounded with it. So here I am trying to get the teaser back from an unknown fish when out of the corner of my eye I see a huge boil where the Soft Grassy on the end of the other teaser used to be and Swoffa is yelling that there is a good Black on the end of it. It was all over in the blink of an eye but I put a hail Mary cast in just in case with no real expectations and didn't get a look. Funnily enough neither me or Swoffa was that fussed about it, I think we were both just blown away by it all. On the way home the words "Dude, where's my Teaser?" brought on several fits of laughter from both of us. I guess that's the thing about Billfishing even if you don't catch them the fish still have the ability to blow you away. Many thanks go to Swoffa for the trip and for putting up with me chewing his ear about Billies all day. So the final stats for the day read a bit weird at 1-2-0-0. Ok, so the first fish wasn't sighted but I think i can safely call it for a Billfish considering the company it was keeping. No fish for the day but it kept the fever alive.
Cheers,
John.
Cheers,