I'm pretty new to the fishing
obsession (probably 12 months off the wagon) and being a boatless man,
inevitably I was going to be attracted to ultra light spin outfits in
land based situations, which kept me very happy with the odd trip up to
Samson and Port breaking the routine in Perth, but just before winter
a fellow junkie and good friend of mine, Croc, happened to pick up a
4.8m Quinnie Bayhunter and we paired up for a winter of escape from our dreaded kitchen trolls (I hope they dont read this...) and most
weekends would end up somewhere on the back of the fives accumulating
ground on the GPS and picking up the odd fish mostly small dhuies,
kg's, black arse, baldies, the odd pink etc. but nothing we could
really sink our teeth into.
Then approaching the ban (one week to
go) we'd pulled up on the fives planning to burley up and see what was
around when the wind suddenly pulled up and dropped to bout 4-8knots
smooth SE...the anchor had barely touched the floor and it was on its
way up again... then we punched it out for bout an hour west to a spot
that had yeilded a dhuie a pink and a queenie previously... first drift
Croc with his Torium and myself using his spare TLD25 I was greeted by
the tell tale knocks of a WA dhuie... I was out of my chair, dished out
some line, set the drag and slowly felt for weight Bang! it was there!
It was there but it was a fish that I hadnt come across in this
situation before a BFDhuie! So big that it was taking line like it was
spooling its own overhead all the while displaying those telltale
downward headshakes! And I, shaking in a different way, was way out of my
league! My knowledge of overhead reels was admittedly pretty basic and was paying
by getting shafted by my first photo Dhuie! Croc by this point had seen
what was going on and seeing my situation started reminding me to "get
him off the ground, get him off the ground or he'll bust you off on his
lump".
With lever drag pushed to the max all I could think was to jam my thumb in the spool, and I did. I was rewarded with a sore thumb and a slack line. The hooks came up lonesome.
Devastation.
Croc said something like the TLD might not be suited for this kinda fishing and not to worry he was grabbing a Saltist for himself that week, so next trip I'd be on the Torium.
Poor comfort for a hunter deprived of his quarry.
Anyway...
While I was destroying my self-esteem Croc had a few knocks and missed whatever it was... so we went for another drift of the spot and we were both getting harrassed when...bang! I was onto something infinitely lighter that what I'd had before when Thud! I looked over my shoulder to see croc screaming as he was almost yanked of the side of the Quinnie by what looked to be a monster Dhu. I slowly pulled up my fish (which turned out to be a nice little Sweep who was released happily) and grabbed the gaff to help Croc out 2-3 minutes later about 20ft under the boat came the fattest UFO ( Un-identified Finned Object) I had ever seen, 30 seconds later we had a 13kg Dhuie in the boat and were ecstatic.
I took Crocs photo... (see later content) and was genuinely stoked to be with my mate when he pulled in such a beautiful memorable fish... still that "could have" was stalking me and with the wind picking up slightly and with such a good fish in the boat we decided to head in.
10 minutes into the slow trip home...( the wind had picked up considerably by now) the boat stopped and tim spun her around on what looked like a good lump "drop" he said. He knew he didnt have to tell me twice... I hit the bottom and gave one good lift as we approached the lump to flutter the fresh squid on the down... almost immediately a fish came knockin' and after repeating my previously successful 'give and get' hook up was on to a good heavy fish this time with my thumb jammed firmly in the spool giving him as little line as possible so as to avoid a repeat of the previous wounding and after a very dificult "win some, lose some" lift and retrieve... I had the beauty off the floor and well into the water column... at this point I needed a rest...but didnt get one... 2 minutes more of cat and mouse later I had my own silver UFO coming up under the boat, I happily landed the bugger, who went 10.5kg then looking at the brute in awe dished out some very enthusiastic high fives the deserving skippers way.
All in all, a great way to end a stellar winter, wouldnt you say?.
BTW We both had no idea how to set the drag tighter on the TLD and turns out it had been putting out the same drag pressure ever since purchase... this has since been rectified and the TLD turned out to be well suited drifting lumps.
callum
Posts: 417
Date Joined: 29/10/08
whats the story?
come on gilroy! share thsi story!!
happy fishing
Gilroy Withers
Posts: 10
Date Joined: 03/11/09
OK Callum here goes...
Ok Callum here it is...
I'm pretty new to the fishing obsession (probably 12 months off the wagon) and being a boatless man, inevitably I was going to be attracted to ultra light spin outfits in land based situations, which kept me very happy with the odd trip up to Samson and Port breaking the routine in Perth, but just before winter a fellow junkie and good friend of mine, Croc, happened to pick up a 4.8m Quinnie Bayhunter and we paired up for a winter of escape from our dreaded kitchen trolls (I hope they dont read this...) and most weekends would end up somewhere on the back of the fives accumulating ground on the GPS and picking up the odd fish mostly small dhuies, kg's, black arse, baldies, the odd pink etc. but nothing we could really sink our teeth into.
Then approaching the ban (one week to go) we'd pulled up on the fives planning to burley up and see what was around when the wind suddenly pulled up and dropped to bout 4-8knots smooth SE...the anchor had barely touched the floor and it was on its way up again... then we punched it out for bout an hour west to a spot that had yeilded a dhuie a pink and a queenie previously... first drift Croc with his Torium and myself using his spare TLD25 I was greeted by the tell tale knocks of a WA dhuie... I was out of my chair, dished out some line, set the drag and slowly felt for weight Bang! it was there! It was there but it was a fish that I hadnt come across in this situation before a BFDhuie! So big that it was taking line like it was spooling its own overhead all the while displaying those telltale downward headshakes! And I, shaking in a different way, was way out of my league! My knowledge of overhead reels was admittedly pretty basic and was paying by getting shafted by my first photo Dhuie! Croc by this point had seen what was going on and seeing my situation started reminding me to "get him off the ground, get him off the ground or he'll bust you off on his lump".
With lever drag pushed to the max all I could think was to jam my thumb in the spool, and I did. I was rewarded with a sore thumb and a slack line. The hooks came up lonesome.
Devastation.
Croc said something like the TLD might not be suited for this kinda fishing and not to worry he was grabbing a Saltist for himself that week, so next trip I'd be on the Torium.
Poor comfort for a hunter deprived of his quarry.
Anyway...
While I was destroying my self-esteem Croc had a few knocks and missed whatever it was... so we went for another drift of the spot and we were both getting harrassed when...bang! I was onto something infinitely lighter that what I'd had before when Thud! I looked over my shoulder to see croc screaming as he was almost yanked of the side of the Quinnie by what looked to be a monster Dhu. I slowly pulled up my fish (which turned out to be a nice little Sweep who was released happily) and grabbed the gaff to help Croc out 2-3 minutes later about 20ft under the boat came the fattest UFO ( Un-identified Finned Object) I had ever seen, 30 seconds later we had a 13kg Dhuie in the boat and were ecstatic.
I took Crocs photo... (see later content) and was genuinely stoked to be with my mate when he pulled in such a beautiful memorable fish... still that "could have" was stalking me and with the wind picking up slightly and with such a good fish in the boat we decided to head in.
10 minutes into the slow trip home...( the wind had picked up considerably by now) the boat stopped and tim spun her around on what looked like a good lump "drop" he said. He knew he didnt have to tell me twice... I hit the bottom and gave one good lift as we approached the lump to flutter the fresh squid on the down... almost immediately a fish came knockin' and after repeating my previously successful 'give and get' hook up was on to a good heavy fish this time with my thumb jammed firmly in the spool giving him as little line as possible so as to avoid a repeat of the previous wounding and after a very dificult "win some, lose some" lift and retrieve... I had the beauty off the floor and well into the water column... at this point I needed a rest...but didnt get one... 2 minutes more of cat and mouse later I had my own silver UFO coming up under the boat, I happily landed the bugger, who went 10.5kg then looking at the brute in awe dished out some very enthusiastic high fives the deserving skippers way.
All in all, a great way to end a stellar winter, wouldnt you say?.
Gilroy Withers
Posts: 10
Date Joined: 03/11/09
BTW
BTW We both had no idea how to set the drag tighter on the TLD and turns out it had been putting out the same drag pressure ever since purchase... this has since been rectified and the TLD turned out to be well suited drifting lumps.
croc157
Posts: 1
Date Joined: 07/11/09
mate what a great story!
mate what a great story! haha sounds likje you got a good friend in that croc bloke
cant wait for this ban to be over! then lets get back to those duhys