Deep Drop - The good, The Bad and The Ugly
Another crack at the deep drop, another fail, but I feel like we are creeping up on them, albeit very slowly. Man, this deep drop is hard, and huge kudos to the blokes who have nailed it, I now understand the effort that goes into this extreme form of fishing.
THE GOOD
My sounder is now working more than adequatley, plenty good enough to find fish. Thanks to all the blokes on this forum for their advice, the TVG settings made a huge difference and I am now runnng betweeen 2.5 and 4 gain in depths of 250 to 400. This is a quick shot of a bit shallower show where we got a good fish show. See the ugly as to why we were at these depths......
TimVB drops down, bang bang.....hookup, the big electric groans, a few short and determined runs......then heaps of weight and a few head shakes.......this has gotta be the holy grail.......WRONG!
Very dissapointed when this amberjack surfaced.......still, better than greeneye!
THE UGLY
1. Current - wow!!!! It was pulling us against a plus 12 knot wind at over 2.5 knots!!! Almost impossible to hold bottom even with a 350 chev engine block as a sinker.
2. Weather forecast - bloody Nora! It was shite out wide. A few little squalls meant local winds above 15 knots, whipping up little white horses and this pushed up against the very fast current to make very uncomfortable conditions that meant out sister boat out there had a very green skipper and deckie.......our boats crew utilised quells to subdue to carrot chunks.
3. The fuel bill - 177 km, 181 litres of fuel. Not bad given we were pushing into rough conditions on the way out and then pushed hard at plus 26 knots most of the way home. Not bad fuel consumption for a reasonably heavy boat but a big bill when the fish boxes are empty!!!!
Moral of the story : Dont think your ganna head out to do dep drop and it is easy.....it aint! Should make success that much sweeter........
Boston Whaler 235 Conquest......getting the flogging it was built for.
Vinesh87
Posts: 2751
Date Joined: 02/04/11
Better than no fish !! Better
Better than no fish !! Better than being at work and the fuel bill not that bad !!
Looks like the sounders working sweet !
Brock O
Posts: 3233
Date Joined: 11/01/08
Great report John
Im sure you will nail this as you have with other forms of fishing, good to see the sounder shot and hear of the expense to get there.
look forward to seeing that first big fish.
trymyluck
Posts: 908
Date Joined: 06/05/12
Good report, nice to get an
Good report, nice to get an insight into deep dropping including the fuel bill and kms ... those numbers willl scare a few away I think.
wangler
Posts: 607
Date Joined: 26/04/08
I'm glad I wasn't the only one out there.....
I know excactly what you are saying John.
We left Hillary's to go deepdropping, it was gnarly and so decided to stay in the 40's till it calmed down.......Jig and baits we landed 10 dhuies in an hour, kept two..the wind dropped a little, so decided to push out to the 250m mark...and yes the wind had picked up and that service current was the worst I've seen it out there. Blowing 10 to 15 knot SW....and still drifting 6kmh South...seas 2m plus I guess. Still found a small patch of fish, managed to drift over them on the 3rd attempt, but was drifting so fast and no hookups...
Pulled the pin, came into the 90's, wind had dropped right off and hardly no drift, got a red and a BB..came back to the 40's for some baldies, only to land another 4 dhuies....grr
Want to make someone mad... tell a lie! Want to get the world upset... tell the TRUTH !
Dougie
scottland
Posts: 3039
Date Joined: 10/05/10
yehh grrrr
them dam stinking dhuies
i support two teams eagles and whoever is playing the dockers
cahal.dahm
Posts: 254
Date Joined: 19/09/11
its frustrating at times,
its frustrating at times, hopefully we can crack it soon, least your getting fish john,
good to see you got your sounder running to
chrisp
Posts: 1217
Date Joined: 24/05/08
Keep working boys. Once you
Keep working boys. Once you find the grouper hole give me a buzz.
Markie
Posts: 2153
Date Joined: 06/08/10
we tried johnny other than
we tried johnny other than no luck with the fish.. the boat is A plusss cheers for the day out johnny.
new age
Posts: 330
Date Joined: 15/03/13
at that price i would have
at that price i would have eaten the AJ haha
dkonig82
Posts: 2091
Date Joined: 06/07/10
Hey JohnSounder is looking
Hey John
Sounder is looking nice. Shame about the fish! As Dougie mentioned our experience out wide was similar. 400m of string out with a 650gr jig in 250m. Just couldn't hold it down there. Lots of winding!
Cracker session on the dhuies though.
Next time!
Dan
When asked by a non-fisherman 'how many fishing rods do you really need?' the correct answer is either:
n+1 (where n is the number of fishing rods you currently own); or
n-1 (where n is the number of fishing rods which would cause your significant other to dump you.
Olliej
Posts: 155
Date Joined: 27/08/12
Great forecast effort on
Great forecast effort on sunday - left expecting no seas and a medium rolling swell...
Way back in was nice though.
harro
Posts: 1959
Date Joined: 07/02/08
getting there mate
is that a 585?
:::: Bass Hunter ::::
JohnF
Posts: 2837
Date Joined: 07/07/10
Yeah Harro, 587 actually but
Yeah Harro, 587 actually but same same as I dont and wont use any of the new features. Running a SS264 50 kHz 1 kW thru hull tranny.
Boston Whaler 235 Conquest......getting the flogging it was built for.
Rob H
Posts: 5806
Date Joined: 18/01/12
Hey John, there was a bloke
Hey John, there was a bloke from down your way (Marmion maybe?) with a BW excatly the same as yours with Verado 250 heading to the islands same time as us on friday, just wondered if you knew who he was?
He was loaded to the hilt but we didnt see him or the other boat he was with out there and was wondering how he got on?
Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...
The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.
Everyone's just winging it.
JohnF
Posts: 2837
Date Joined: 07/07/10
Nope, dont know him. Gotta
Nope, dont know him. Gotta get my tug over there Rob!!!!!!
Boston Whaler 235 Conquest......getting the flogging it was built for.
Rob H
Posts: 5806
Date Joined: 18/01/12
you sure do mate! Let me know
you sure do mate! Let me know when. We went over friday back sunday but the weather was pretty average.
Took a couple of mates and it was a cruisy run, leisurely bacon and eggs breaky, back to anchorage early to chill and enjoy the moment. Works better for me nowadays
Heres a tip though-dont load the bimini up with lots a stuff like generators etc! It was a bit sloppy and he stopped not far from the marina, Im guessing to unpack the top.
I should have taken a pic for you, he had a large aluminium "station" of some sort built right in front of the outboard in the middle, like maybe a bbq, bench, cooking station etc which looked pretty handy. Was expecting to catch up with them over there but while we saw a few boats head into the anchorage late, we didnt see him or his mate with a (maybe) Bertram 23 flybridge.
Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...
The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.
Everyone's just winging it.