Pilbara Popping
Well actually got out on the water today which was awesome. Jay and i set off at about 4 am so we could beat the tide to our spot, we wanted to fish the flood popping some of the islands off dampier. Was like a mill pond first thing this morning, simply awesome
Jay working a popper early this morning
The fist spot was pretty quiet compared to normal standards. Jay actually said something pretty relevant on the way home this morning, today is one of those days that on paper should have been awesome for popping, but it wasn't.
BrassieVille, not today!
I think i was the only person to catch a fish at brassieville, a smal bigeye trev, jay only managed to loose his $90 craftbait popper to a shark, hehe!
A wicked morning!
Anyway we moved, the water was slack at the time, little or no movement but i still managed a small spanyid on popper first or second cast. Still good fun, and a good sign
Small mackie on popper
Small spanyid, released
Jay switched to a stick bait and threw a few casts at some skittish bait fish, he hooked up to and landed a small gold spot
Jays small goldspot
Released
Was pretty quiet just the odd long tom and a few lost (suspect babay GT's) But no hooters unfortunately
Popper caught long tom, released
Anyway we worked some of our previously successfull spots, we managed a few follows and a few really good hits but again no GT's. I decided to jump in with my mask and snorkel to have a look around for a stray trout. I dived in under a ledge and found a pretty good sized tunnel in the reef, i couldn't believe my eyes initially when i found a Queensland groper that would easily go over 250kg's. Next time i am going to take my water camera and try get a photo of the big girl. I told jay to get in the water and have a look at the size of it, he was absolutely amazed, bloody HUGE!!!!
Anyway, there were a few mantas around (with cobies) so i opted for some light tackle cobie chasing. With my 10-20lb diawa combo and an RMG scorpion, first cast and i hooked up to a nice small cobie, i landed it and it was good fun on the light gear, the water in that area is pretty unforgiving so i was stoked. One for the freezer.
Light tackle cobie, sorry kept this one
Sight casted cobie
I hooked up to another one on my next cast of similar size, i felt sorry for Jay so i let him reel it in. Never again that prick has been out fishing me of late, i will never hand him a fish again, especially after his effort this arvo
Jay with his donated cobie
After the cobie chasing we went back to popping. Jay ripped a cast in along the edge of a nice drop off, he got a good hit and we were both pretty stoked when he got it to the boat, a nice flowery cod on popper and a Pb popper caught cod for Jay, well done mate, even though you lost my lip gaff i will still pay this one
Cod love poppers, PB for jay
You could almost fit jays head in there, well maybe not!
released, along with my lip gaff
Well after that we popped and popped we wanted a GT, I had another good hookup resulting in another dropped fish, also had a massive GT take a swipe at my popper but it didn't get any purchase, dam it!
work it!
Well we move to a spot that has got us a few GT's the last few times and straight away Jay hooked p, not a huge fish but a solid fish,estimated approx 10kg, finally we boated one. Something bloody amazing happened during the fight, i don't think i will ever see it happen again. When Jay got the GT close to the boat, we could see a BIGGGGG black shadow chasing the fish down, first thought was a shark, then we witnessed a MASSIVVEEE! 100 PLUS KG cod try and eat his GT whole while it was still attached to his popper. Bloody an amazing thing to have seen, we were both speechless.
GT Ville
Jays GT, released, it was the only fish of the day
GT, released
Well the day wasn't over, i wanted a fish. I worked the area for a few more casts then it happened. A BIG fish 20plus kg's maybe more hit my cubera125 hard. I stuffed up at first, drag too loose allowed the fish to get some line on my. We moved the boat into deeper water and it looked like we were going to get it then, PING! followed by me and some very loud swear words sharing an intimate moment. Another $50 popper down the drain, oh well there is always next time i suppose.
Kasey L.
Posts: 1104
Date Joined: 02/03/06
green with envy
Those are some spectecular location shots Brad. It really is a wish of mine to someday come up and join you boys.
Kelvin8r
Posts: 73
Date Joined: 12/08/08
Good Work
Great shots as story as usual, good stuff guys!!
Faulkner Family
Posts: 1787
Date Joined: 11/03/08
great story
and pics .pitty about the poppers ,but thats fishing.
RUSS & SANDY
"A family that fishes together stays together"
SamC
Posts: 1043
Date Joined: 30/08/06
Good stuff boys... Jealous
Good stuff boys...
Jealous again!
cheers
sam
Ron Ashcroft
Posts: 29
Date Joined: 22/11/07
Pilbara popping
Thats great stuff you fellas another good post keep up the good work
Prior planning and preperation prevents piss poor performance
jay_burgess
Posts: 3086
Date Joined: 18/08/05
Oh you would have been
Oh you would have been envious if Brad landed the good one KC... I reckon it would have given my big GT a good nudge.
Kasey L.
Posts: 1104
Date Joined: 02/03/06
Jay
When did you get a big GT Jay?
Goatch
Posts: 453
Date Joined: 03/07/07
Great report
and some nice shots , I'm off to Exmouth on Monday for 6 days so hoping to get some good photos
roberta
Posts: 731
Date Joined: 08/07/08
Ohhhhhhhh
what a feeling, golly what a day, fish fantastic, senery unbelievable
SPEWIE LEWIE
Ollie
Posts: 223
Date Joined: 24/08/07
awsome work guys what are
awsome work guys what are the cobia like to eat?
some good pic's & how big was jay's cod?.
chears ollie
Goatch
Posts: 453
Date Joined: 03/07/07
Cobia Yuummo
PilbaraBrad
Posts: 1557
Date Joined: 16/05/07
yeah got to agree with
yeah got to agree with Goatch, i think they are the best fish to beer batter and have with fresh home made chips. For some reason the big thick slabs you get off cobia deep fry really well with my secret beer batter recipe
alfred
Posts: 992
Date Joined: 12/01/07
Top report, love the
Top report, love the pics!
1985 Boston Whaler Outrage 18 Johnson 140hp 4stroke
kaneo
Posts: 231
Date Joined: 09/01/08
awsome
awsome
Fozz
Posts: 59
Date Joined: 01/08/08
Good Stuff
Nice report Brad, how do you do it? Your baby is merely hours old and the missus lets you go fishing. Knowing my luck I'd have to moth ball the fishing gear for the next 2yrs.
Whatever your doing to keep her happy, keep it up. Nice pics.
I seen a QLD grouper down McLennan Bank once, tried taking a bluebone off my spear, I let him have it. Wasn't going to mess with the monster.
Fozz
Dreamweaver
Posts: 4561
Date Joined: 01/12/07
Awesome Brad and Jay
Great write up as always, accompanied, as expected by some awesome fish!
Man, you guys see some fantastic action!
Green as I am, but thanks for taking the time to share that with us.
Colin Molloy
(Colin 2 - Co-founding member of the prestigious Colin Club)
mitch
Posts: 936
Date Joined: 14/08/05
good write up and even
good write up and even better camera action brad.no way would jays boof head fit in that cods mouth maybee the bigger one you seen diving hheeehheee
always in it just the depth that varies
wizza
Posts: 9
Date Joined: 17/04/07
Top Photos. would have been
Top Photos. would have been good to see that QLD Groper.
you guys should start using the Haymakers, 5 for $100.
All good fun
Wizza
Italiano
Posts: 210
Date Joined: 29/07/07
top photos jay on your stick
top photos jay on your stick baits it looks like you only use single hooks do you think this is better than using trebles
PilbaraBrad
Posts: 1557
Date Joined: 16/05/07
pretty common mate, some
pretty common mate, some think you can put a better swim action on the stickbait this way, A lot of people actually use jig assist hooks
Adam Gallash
Posts: 7924
Date Joined: 29/11/05
hrmm
Sounds like your day sums up ours on Wednesday. Trolled for spaniards first up - none, bottom fished in pure glass conditions - no movement = no fish with the sounder lit up. Went billfishing - billie strike within 3 minutes and nothing for next 2 hours, back to bottom fishing - 1 buried trout and bugger all else with floaters out the back and sounder lit up. Trolled billies again with no luck and moved to mack lures and picked up 3 (2 under size) spaniards on the way in. Very frustrating when everything looked the goods! The other boys went out to the goldie spots with fish all over the sounder and couldn't get anything to bite either with the sounder lit up. Perfect lead up tides all day too with change of new moon days before, strange place sometimes.
Least you guys got a few to pull string. Nice work.
PilbaraBrad
Posts: 1557
Date Joined: 16/05/07
yeah know what you mean
yeah know what you mean mate. had a lot of follows with fish that just wouldn't take a popper. Conditions were good, fish on the sounder heaps of bait fish around.
There were bloody thousands of whales around, and a heap of them were in really close, i wonder if all of the singing is shitting all of the GT's / other pelagics. Pretty suss theory but i am using it as an excuse.
It was hard work yesterday Ada that's for sure
jay_burgess
Posts: 3086
Date Joined: 18/08/05
Yeah it was pretty
Yeah it was pretty frustrating, heaps of fish that were just nudging the poppers and not being real agressive.
WHY-NOT
Posts: 49
Date Joined: 06/09/08
oh bugger sorry about your craftbait .
hey jay photo number 7 the stickbait .
i am wondering where did you get that from .
sent me pm on the info and where from .
SPESS
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 29/12/06
Great report brad nad jay
Great report brad nad jay once again. awsome!
Keep it tight, reeeeeeel tight!
*PROUD FISHWRECKED MEMBER*