Inshore Pinkie Bag Out by 6.30am

With all the reports of inshore pinkies being caught lately, it was time to start the 2016 “campaign”.  Past experience is that the fish start to come in close by March/April. 

The weather was really good on Saturday so why not give it a try?  Michael (zOOm) was keen to take his boat so a 5am departure from Hillarys was arranged.  The wind was light but the swell was at 2.5m, which means it is not wise to take on the crossing of the near shore reefs in the dark.  The “plan” was to stay in close, burley up and fish sunrise for the pinkies with good quality rigs and baits.  There was no spot, we just looked at likely reef structure, anchored and set up a burley trail.  Let’s just say we didn’t go more than a few kilometres.

A customer ordered 20kg of burley last week so I made a “special” batch.  Lots of fish, lots of oil and a high proportion of pilchard.  I must admit I had my first “2016 pinkie trip” in mind and It was a high strength fine grained burley that dispersed at about 1 to 1.5kg per hour, enhanced with pilchard shred every now and again.   

Within 20 minutes, Michael’s bottom rig went off.  This fish was a pinkie of about 450mm so back it went, but the signs were good.  About 10 minutes later my bait runner made that sound that you love to hear.  Wait, wait, wait and when the fish clearly had the bait set the hooks.  This was a nice solid fish that was peeling lots of line with the characteristic head shakes.  Very pleased to see the big pink flash as it came into sight.

I have imported the Big Angry Fish Release Clips and will have them available in a few weeks.  We got a small shipment to start with (which I have sent all round Australia) but kept one for me to test.  I also had some small vacuum sealed sand whiting so rig one up and out it goes on my spin outfit.  It didn’t take long for the line to pull from the clip with plenty more line being pulled from the open spool.  When I set the hooks, this was another nice fish but after its first run it turned and swam back towards the boat?  It did “wake up” and after a good fight was in the net too.

The fish were about 5.5kg and 75-80cm.  Not huge but still very solid.  Can’t complain about that bag within the first hour though.

After first light, and after the pinkies, we headed deeper.  Anchor and burley again and the results kept coming.  I got another good pinkie (released) and Michael got a nice baldie.

My bait runner went off again on another solid fish.  This was a good fight and then up popped a very solid baldie.  I had my bag so this was a lucky fish as we treated it with a lot of care, got a photo and released it with a weight.  It came up slow due to its fight and we are fairly positive that it released well.  We estimated it at about 5-6kg (very fat fish) so it was a lot of “quality” going back in the ocean.

We then decided that we didn’t want to risk harming any more fish so packed up and came in.  It was a lovely morning on the water with some quality fish, including a bag out on the target species just as the sun came up. 

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Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it - LH.

 


Stevo81's picture

Posts: 1278

Date Joined: 16/04/12

 Well done guys! Gotta be

Mon, 2016-04-04 17:14

 Well done guys! Gotta be happy with that morning. Your burley mix sounds like it's on the money Mick! 

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                                   ••••••••  Electrical Contractor NOR  ••••••••

uncle's picture

Posts: 9323

Date Joined: 10/02/07

Well done Mick

Mon, 2016-04-04 17:39

 

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all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs

Scotte's picture

Posts: 1142

Date Joined: 07/12/06

 Nice one mick.i will be

Mon, 2016-04-04 18:30

 Nice one mick.i will be enquiring  about some  berly that  u make . Can u.pm your number pls

z00m's picture

Posts: 1086

Date Joined: 10/05/14

Great day

Mon, 2016-04-04 18:57

I tried to console myself with the fact I had 'boated' the pinks but using the net doesn't count apparently! ha ha. I reckon Mick would have been happy to go in by 6:30 but I made him stay until I caught something edible. I was extremely relieved to have my baldie come over the side to escape the sledging from Mick and his phone mates!

Thanks again Mick, always great company.

Krusty's picture

Posts: 714

Date Joined: 27/11/15

 Awesome work ... well done 

Mon, 2016-04-04 19:27

 Awesome work ... well done 

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My fishing spots are so secret........... even the fish don't know where they are !!

Posts: 80

Date Joined: 30/03/16

Gotta be happy with that.

Mon, 2016-04-04 19:38

 Sounds like the perfect day on the water

 

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 Brando

sandbar's picture

Posts: 704

Date Joined: 25/10/09

Good write up mate

Mon, 2016-04-04 19:41

 Damn good days fishing too.

Ben Derecki's picture

Posts: 1926

Date Joined: 10/10/07

Damn, nice one boys!

Mon, 2016-04-04 22:19

Damn, nice one boys!

axey45's picture

Posts: 1758

Date Joined: 26/11/13

 

Tue, 2016-04-05 01:41

 

unhurry's picture

Posts: 236

Date Joined: 23/10/12

great report,

Tue, 2016-04-05 12:48

great fish, great burley - just Gr8t mate! 

crasny1's picture

Posts: 6985

Date Joined: 16/10/08

Well done MickC

Tue, 2016-04-05 12:59

Solid fish probably due to your berley (not related to how well you fish -LOL)
can you elaborate on the Fish release clips - always interested in something new.

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"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk

Mick C's picture

Posts: 605

Date Joined: 26/12/13

Release Clips

Tue, 2016-04-05 14:19

An image of the release clip is below.

It is a good well made item that worked well when I used it.  The tension on the line is adjustable.  Turns your spinning rod into a baitrunner.

Another interesting item we have sourced is the sinker lock.  This one attaches to the rod and holds the sinker, lure or jig for secure storage while under way.

  

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Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it - LH.