Hey guys,

 

Had a sesh out wide today to target some Dhuies and other stuff. Water was as clear as rock, could barely make out the bottom in the marina!!

 

Revved the Boat up and we slapped across the surface sending brown slop everywhere. I wasn't expecting much with these conditions... Swell was up and near zero winds so we got to our destination pretty quick!! 

 

We hit the 30m line and lines down. I was using an Octopus sort of jig my mate got me from Taiwan and i promised him i would try and get something on it so down it went. I havent done much jigging so i was looking forward to touching up my jigging techniques. Just slowly letting it hover up and down off the bottom got a couple of bites but it was dad who got the first fish on board with a little Swallowtail Nannyghai. Straight after that i hooked up on the light gear and had another one in the boat. My first on jig!!

Straight in the esky with him and dropped it straight back down. There wasn't much drift today so we were moving extremely slowly!!! Some more taps and then i set the hooks into another one. We ended up with about 6 of these guys in the end until we lost the school.

 

For the next hour and a half there wasn't any action at all until Dad got one of the smallest Dhuies in history!! I decided to pull out my T-Curve and do some bait fishing. I left the Jig rod in the holder with the lure still down on the bottom. I dropped my bait down next to it and instantly started getting some solid thumps. I was concentrated on my bait rod when my jig got absolutely obliterated only for the hooks to miss his mouth :( I swapped rods and then my bait rod got belted!! I was so confused on which rod to hold onto but then the fish made it up for me as it belted my Jig and took-off!!! After a short tussle and some nail biting runs towards its home i could see some silver flashes down deep. I thought it was a Pinky straight from the get go as it was quite zippy with short powerful runs and lots of headshakes. But as i brought him up i could see those characteristic bands of a Dhufish. Up he popped and i was ecstatic as i have been trying for ages to get one of these on artificials!!! Into the net and a few choice words that should not be repeated :D. Onto the lie detector and he went 49cm, 1cm under legal length. It didn't bother me though as i was just happy to finally get my prize!!! We took some pics and sent him back down on a release weight.

The lure that did the damage today...

We kept fishing for a little while longer but to no avail. I was so excited on the way back, Demersal Jigging is now another addiction of mine :D I was thinking of new setups to get and was picturing thumping Pinky's, Baldie's, Sambo's and Dhuie's with Jigs hanging out their mouths!! 

 

As we got back to the ramp a pod of Dolphins came flogging past us at about 20knots chasing Herring and Mullet down. It was surreal to see and already added to my excitement!!! I cant wait to get back out there and jigging up some awesome fish!!

 

Cheers for reading, Callum.