Rock wall morning

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AdzaNT
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Rock wall morning

Post by AdzaNT »

A group of FFF landbased fishos met up on Saturday morning on the rock wall at Cullen Bay to share some laughs, tips and a friendly bit of competition. One of the rock regulars (name withheld) was evidently coerced to head out and join the boating fraternity for the day.

Kernal and I arrived just before sunrise to the last couple hours of the rising tide. All was pretty quiet, but there were promising signs with some good follows. It certainly wasn’t the firing start I had dreamed of and anticipated, and it was shaping up to be as quiet as the week before, but Sheeby tells me that was the quietest he’d seen and this Saturday would be much better. I didn’t like to mention it was a normal days fishing for me.

Shortly after we were joined by Sarge. Not not long after that some fish started busting up well beyond casting range, but the school of bait fish moved towards the rocks. Sarge was soon rewarded with a queenfish on a chrome and I landed a queenfish on a marabou jig.

Then all went quiet. We were rewarded with a few dolphin, dugong and ray appearances as another fisho arrived with a setup of rods and reels any one would dream of and some great tips on land based fishing around town (the gear did not go unnoticed by me being a regular of this towns tackle establishments). Then we were joined by Sheeby.

With no sign of any pelagics and glimpses of the tell tale milkfish fins, the bread came out. With what looked like corporate bakery sponsorship I realised my previous bread berleying attempts were in the little league and I was probably lucky to even get a milkfish hookup off East Point. With a “bit” of berley in the water the mullet started to get excited and soon Sarge was onto a big specimen. After hauling it in I heard mutterings questioning what all the fuss was about a few weeks ago when another landbased fisho caught a mullet. But this was a large fish.

After this, things became a bit of a blur with 8 or so average milkfish hooked and a few landed and countless close calls as we watched the fish come in for a bait, sniff and turn their heads. Kernal was first to hook up using his pink Abu setup (“The Pink Lady”). Having heard of Milkfish runs, he was determined that if this rod and reel was to meet its end it should be with one of the now famous Milkfish big runs. Alas, he seems to have caught one of the only milkfish that was quite happy to just cruise around the rocks before calmly breaking his line after a small fight. “The Pink Lady” lives on, maybe for a m+ barra. Sheeby lived up to his Milkfish prowess hooking fish after fish and landing a couple after some great runs and jumps from the water. Sarge was also onto a couple. With all the action I couldn’t work out why all these fish would not take my bait. I had already mimicked the tactics of all those successful, and when my line finally went tight it was to the detriment of my Albright knot. Dropping to a lighter leader didn’t seem to help either and I remain in the position never to have landed a milkfish.

Tiring (or become bored) of the milkfish, Sheeby decided to up the tactics and wet a slab of the mullet fillet on a steel trace and continue fishing with other gear. It wasn’t long before the drag was going, but after a good fight we failed to see what was on the end. So the bait was tossed again. Sarge and our other mate decided things were getting quiet and enough milkfish excitement had been had for one day, and they headed home.

The next run of the set line was better and after scrambling across the rocks to the detriment of one small toe the fight was on for Sheeby. It was quite a while before we got any glimpse of colour. And in the end Sheeby had hooked a hammerhead shark. Probably the very shark we saw earlier attracted to the frenzied school of mullet, milkfish and garfish. A nice 2m shark was brought to the rocks and safely released. Well it was released.

In all, a great morning with all the guys and enough action to keep everyone happy. I’m sure we’ll all meet up on the rocks or cliffs in the near future and hopefully the wet will bring on lots of really good fish.

Clearly, Sheeby won on the day as seen by his domination of the photos.
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kernal
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Re: Rock wall morning

Post by kernal »

Was a great morning! and as for milkfish Pffft! they're pansies! :)
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sarrge
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Re: Rock wall morning

Post by sarrge »

Great write-up - and you're not the only one to never have landed a milky. But those couple of runs have made me more determined. Still can't believe the power of those fish. 1 x broken leader, 1 braid on the rocks and a pulled hook (at least the hook didn't straighten this time)

I still can't believe that we only managed 1 queeny each out of that school.

It was good to catch up with a couple more FFF's as well. Sheeby is certainly the milkfish queen and apparently now hammerhead wizard as well. Better than the turtle the first time hey......

Still can't believe the "Pink Lady" is still holding up.......
I used to have a handle on life.......then it broke.
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Sheeby
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Re: Rock wall morning

Post by Sheeby »

Great write up Adam.

Haha Kernal, those pansies had you running around on the rocks all morning :P

It was a fun day apart from smashing my toe in the excitement. It's beginning to look like I broke it. I might bring shoes next time...might.

Just in case Sarrge has been talking...he's yet to land a milky and is determined to blame every lost milkfish on me. Whether its a straightened hook (well that'd be my fault), a pulled knot, pulled hooks or leader cut on the rocks then Sheeby is too blame! I bet if he got sharked he'd find a way to make me look guilty. Who knows , maybe I am :fu:

It wasn't a turtle :banghead: I reckon the shark spooked the turtle which made it surface...yep that's my story.
The "Milkfish Queen" is a title that you can shove up your :moon:

As for the safe release of that shark, it was a lot more hands on then I would've liked! It got stuck in the rocks once it was cut free and took a bit man-handling to turn it around only for it to turn around and do it again. Shoes would've been be good at that moment.

I'm looking forward to fishing with you guys again. Maybe even target something that doesn't feed on bread and algae. That was milkfish #20. I'll bring a bucket of livies next time. There are some good goldens around.

Cheers,

Sheeby.
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sarrge
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Re: Rock wall morning

Post by sarrge »

Ohh look - i caught a Sheeby hehehe

Nah mate - they were all my losses on Saturday. And you were right about the mullet - makes much better shark bait than dinner.

bl..dy entertaining morning though - looking forward to the next one!!
I used to have a handle on life.......then it broke.
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UNCLDUG
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Re: Rock wall morning

Post by UNCLDUG »

:applause: Great write up and pics AdzaNT , looks and sounds like it was a fun outing , you boys are consistently producing the goods . Have any of you had a crack at the milkies on fly ? My good mate tells me it is out of control :bonk: :cheers: for the post
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Re: Rock wall morning

Post by Mud »

Well done lads...top results from the rocks!
Its not a crisis unless there is blood around.
If there is blood around......well its a police matter...
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Sheeby
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Re: Rock wall morning

Post by Sheeby »

UNCLDUG wrote::applause: Great write up and pics AdzaNT , looks and sounds like it was a fun outing , you boys are consistently producing the goods . Have any of you had a crack at the milkies on fly ? My good mate tells me it is out of control :bonk: :cheers: for the post
Hey mate,
I'm seriously considering giving fly a go. Can anyone recommend a good saltwater setup? I'm pretty inexperienced on fly.

I'm glad you can finally admit it Sarrge, that's the first step :bonk:
AdzaNT
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Re: Rock wall morning

Post by AdzaNT »

I've done ok on fly in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. But while 13 CutThroat trout in a session was fun, they are but bait in our waters. Not sure I can justify spending more money on gear and still not catch fish.. I suggest fly might make it even harder for me.
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Re: Rock wall morning

Post by Pecheur »

Hi there,

Firstly great post, really cool!
:mrgreen:
AdzaNT wrote: One of the rock regulars (name withheld) was evidently coerced to head out and join the boating fraternity for the day.
Well if you are talking about me, I was not in the witness protection program, I was effectively on a boat...
And I have no shame about it...
:D
AdzaNT wrote:Sarge was onto a big specimen. After hauling it in I heard mutterings questioning what all the fuss was about a few weeks ago when another landbased fisho caught a mullet.
I know he is like that... Lots of mutterings...
:lol:
sarrge wrote: But those couple of runs have made me more determined.
So what do you think would have happened if you had caught one with my baitcaster last time?
:shock:
Sheeby wrote: I'm looking forward to fishing with you guys again. Maybe even target something that doesn't feed on bread and algae. That was milkfish #20. I'll bring a bucket of livies next time. There are some good goldens around.
.


That could be good morning...

Have a good day,
Pecheur
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Re: Rock wall morning

Post by ajbear »

Great write up guy's good to hear that you were onto a few fish.
The other fisho that turned up with all the gear wouldn't have been named Dave by any chance? Usualy found at stokes warf with about 100 rods in the water!! Lol
Just remember if all else fails "try like F##K" !!!!!!!
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Re: Rock wall morning

Post by Faulksy »

Nice work, sounds like a good morning
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Dreamrider-
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Re: Rock wall morning

Post by Dreamrider- »

sounds fun guys , gotta try out this place one day !
On my way to catch a 1 metre barra... some day
:D
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sarrge
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Re: Rock wall morning

Post by sarrge »

Pecheur wrote:Well if you are talking about me, I was not in the witness protection program, I was effectively on a boat...
And I have no shame about it...
Your lack of shame was the subject of some discussion on the morning..... :rofl:

Pecheur wrote: I know he is like that... Lots of mutterings... :lol:
mumble mumble - but seriously Pech, i think you made a bit of a meal of getting that mullet in your bag :catch:
Pecheur wrote:
So what do you think would have happened if you had caught one with my baitcaster last time?
:shock:
I would have been spooling it up with new line for you....
I used to have a handle on life.......then it broke.
Pecheur
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Re: Rock wall morning

Post by Pecheur »

sarrge wrote:]
mumble mumble - but seriously Pech, i think you made a bit of a meal of getting that mullet in your bag
I don't know Sarrge...
Maybe your Mullet was anemic...
:wink: :lol:

Have a good day,
Pecheur
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