onslow seaweed
Hi guys, currently enjoying the beautiful weather at Onslow and started with a few nice fish but we have bern plagued with loads of floating banks of seaweed that completely stuff up any trolling.
Just wondering if anyone else has struck this and knows if it has any effect on the fishing apart from the obvious i.e stopping you from trolling as we have found the fishing bite to have gone right off. We do have a full moon today to contend with also so would be interested in experienced campaigners input in regards to weed and moon effects.
Havent gone completely without though as bagged personal best coral trout day 2 of 65cm in 15 mtrs of water no less and bagged a metre spaniard within an hour of arriving.
The real concern was how quiet Rosily was, we made the early trip to be there at sunup on a rising tide and picked up a lovely little tuna about 90cms but then it just died.
Anyway, not complaining but just keen to hear anyone's similar experiences or advice for getting our fillet quota up a bit.
cheers and enjoy the rain
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straith
Posts: 421
Date Joined: 25/11/13
lol crickets... ok obviously
lol crickets... ok obviously not lol
davewillo
Posts: 2390
Date Joined: 08/09/16
I haven't encountered that
I haven't encountered that problem up there Straith. The only advice I can give is that we run skirts or lures with singles when weed is a problem. Hopefully you manage to find some clean water soon.
PGFC member and lure tragic
straith
Posts: 421
Date Joined: 25/11/13
thanks mate,yeah its so bad
thanks mate,
yeah its so bad its impossible to get a troll for more than a few minutes before your rods bending with the weight oryour lures bouncing on top like a rooster popper...
extends 20 miles out even past Rosily.
Doubt I'll come back this time of year again, certainly willbe doing some homework re the moon cycles in future too.
sea-kem
Posts: 14959
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Many years since I've been
Many years since I've been up that way,enjoy the weather while you can. I reckon Onslow is the Trout capital.
Love the West!
straith
Posts: 421
Date Joined: 25/11/13
yeah had a few very nice
yeah had a few very nice days but as is so often the case the best weather isnt always best fishing,
ah well 1st world problems i guess.... bad day fishing is still better than a good day working as they say, still feeling pretty lucky to be able to do this.
Feel for my buddy though, this was his first big nw trip and he's a bit disappointed, cant blame him after all the anticipation and planning.
Winds finally arrived so hoping to get 1 more deep trip in to try and boost the fun n fillets, never know we might still hit the jackpot.
cheers
davewillo
Posts: 2390
Date Joined: 08/09/16
I feel your pain Straith. We
I feel your pain Straith. We went in October and the least windy day was at least 15 knots. We called a bit of layday close the to island but it turned out to be the best of the week. When you wake to 20 knots plus and building your options are limited! So much that we never got to try because of the wind. We did eat well though!
PGFC member and lure tragic
carnarvonite
Posts: 8665
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Pray for crap weather down south
You should pray for a big front or really big low down south while you are up there. It provides the best conditions up north where as a big high gives you screaming easterlies all the way from north of Broome and everywhere right through the north.
straith
Posts: 421
Date Joined: 25/11/13
...ok so wind lasted 3 more
...ok so wind lasted 3 more days, we braved 1 day and it was troughing big time so we headed for the lee side of Direction Island and trolled the edges until thankfully my buddy hooked a decent size coral trout which put a bit of a smile on his face.
We found a few school mackies too but again was hard to keep a lure in the water longer than a few minutes due to the accursed weed which seemed to be endless and growing.
On the final day of our trip we sat inside waiting for any sign the wind would drop and set ourselves a deadline of 2pm or we'd call it and start packing but as so often happens we got a reprieve and the whitecaps started to disappear.
That was our sign so we flew down to the ramp and headed out.
We still struggled with the weed but managed 1 decent spaniard and some more school mackies. The weather glassed off as the sun set, perfect mackie conditions but not a single strike again, admittedly we were virtually cast retrieving while trolling at the end simply due to the omnipresent weed but the holiday had come to a close.
In the end over 10 days (with 3 blown out) we had landed about 17 different species overall, ( including 1catfish from the Ashburton lol) a cpl of size Spaniards, multiple school mackies, a yellowfin tuna, red emperor, dinner sized rankin cod, a few coral trout including one stonka and some miscellaneous reef fish, 1x 6ft bronzey that surprisingly took a trolled lure and about 6 big-ass golden trevally in what was probably the highlight of the trip when we found them busting up some baitfish and was able to drop our lures on their noses for a hilarious fun-filled hour of madness & mayhem.
It definitely could have been a much better result as we both dropped some good fish or were sharked but whilst still definitely happy we felt the combination of the heavy weed presence and whatever was effecting the bite left us a little disappointed.
**Hey we arent ungrateful, these are classic 1st world problems and we felt blessed on those classic northwest glass offs and sunsets and sunrises and just the privelige of being able to be a part of the wildlife and beauty while sharing a beer and a home caught/cooked dinner with a mate is not lost on us.
Afterall... someone's got to do it ... right? ;-)
Cheers and tight lines people!