A Quiet Nights "Work"

[DaFrogman]

Tried to post this yesterday, but there was a problem with my ISP i think, so I am kinda reposting the stuff I wanted to post yesterday;

"Headed out Yesterday after work, for a little quiet RnR (Rod & Reel) with 2 other kakis.... was supposed to be four of us, but one guy couldn't make it.

After hurriedly buying 7kg of mega sized squid and chucking my stuff on the boat (I was late for the launch) we got underway around 5.30pm, headed for commercial FADs about 20km offshore and picked up a bunch of livebait and kept a bunch for fresh dead bait as well.

Then it was north about another 40km to the first area that we we would check out a few coordinates and do a general search for new spots. The area is a large plateau like area that has a number of steps and valleys in the seafloor and is dotted with deep reefs from 200-150ft underwater.

We found a whole bunch of likely spots and the dozen or so that we fished were very productive. As usual the prime target was Mr MJ, Mr Emperor and Mr Coral Trout.


Well, lets just say that you generally know its a good night of "work" when you can't remember the details for all the fruits of your labour...

Anyway, all I recall reasonably well (possibly due to my current state of fatigue and sleep deprivation) is that at the first spot, we parked the boat at a really awesome looking spot that was on the high side of a step on the seabed, that had red and green arches marking all along the bottom quarter of the Furuno sounder and most importantly, coral on the bottom.

So the captain parked the boat right on top, since current was zero, then sent one of my newly made ranggongs down to the bottom with a 6m long 60lb leader and a 5/0 VMC Octopus Hook and fresh fillet of bait..... Rig hits bottom, 4 cranks up, sit down with rod cradled in crook of arm, bang, crash and grab strike, lower rod, reel in slack, lift rod tip to strike, head shaking, a bit of drag taken, thumb spool to brake a bit (I do that for fish that don't take much drag), pump and crank fish up......3kg ACK.

Rebait, drop, this time after sitting down reach for a cigarette, bang, strike again......same routine but this time more drag taken.....4kg ACK

Third time same thing....4kg ACK

Rest of the boat complaining now that they are not being treated the same then bang one by one..... ACK and Grouper all inthe 4--5kg range....This went on for a while, about 10 fish of various species including a 2kg MJ boated quite quickly...

Then the barracuda moved in and it was time to move to another spot. We repeated that pattern quite a bit thru the night with Mr Long&Toothy forcing us to move at about 3 spots......I just can't recall details of what I caught at the other spots...ok, I remember a large 7kg fish that the crew called "kerisi bali hitam" (Black Kerisi Bali) that was mean as hell (he pwered off 20lbs drag no problem) and which I mistook for an MJ during the fight... but I only remember that 'cos it was my first of that species... There were a bunch of grouper, spangled emperor, sweetlip, big MJs (not caught by me)......

Then our final spot for the night saw us anchoring close to another boat that belonged to some friends..... At this point I was the only of the crew that had not pulled an MJ, so this time I concentrated on the bait presentation since I had just had 3 miscues which I strongly suspected were MJs. After rigging for a "splitailed bait" and removing the backbone off the biggest selar bait I could find, I sent the hook and leader twice thru the eye sockets and then embedded the 6/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hook in one of the tails I had created.

After 10 minutes of waiting for the bait, I had one enormous tug on the rod tip, then......nothing . So I dropped the rod tip anyway and freed the reel to drop about 2 feet, just in case the bait was still on the hook. Felt the smallest of nibbles, reeled in 3 cranks super fast and struck hard.
Rod bent over very nicely and I had the classic MJ down and dirty fight eventually boating an MJ in the 5kg region.... phew finally.

That was the last MJ for the night, but there were other fish to keep us busy including something like 3 or 4 cobias that were over 10kg easy, which we just cut off at boatside and released since we were running out of space and ice.....

Woah, man am I bushed will finish off the report later, just look at the pics, they say it better than I ever could.... ".

Regards,

DFM

[physlo]

Hello Saimee,

You never failed to impressed us with your catch reports & pictures...which makes me drool. Very evil indeed . Look at what you have done to Anakin..

Nice catch.

cheers!
physlo..

[dorado_02]

Wah Saimee,
Awsome man A very good catch for 3 person and a good quality fish too. Is that your regular spot or a racce trip ?

Cheers.

[AmbeRjacKHunter]

You never failed to impressed us with your catch reports & pictures...which makes me drool. Very evil indeed

Ya lah..Edros, see what your evil twin had done gerammmm man

Saimee, next time get the $138.00 per kg fish dun let go....froze & ship to my hse

Rgds
Bro RK

[DaFrogman]

Brada Evil Twin,

No lah, ini kira nasib only..... I guess the guy driving the boat (Ishak) is luckier than most.

Brada Karim,

It was part recce and part research of some spots we had marked but not fished in the past. 3 of the spots we fished Thursday night were brand new to us....

Brada RK,

My captain dropped in to see me just now and have a chat about the catch. Apparently some other crew had even better catches with something like twenty MJs, but their spots are not being revealed.

We only got 8 MJs, but they were nice sizes. In fact I want to catch some more good sized coral trout next time. After I mentioned that article on Cobia, my captain started laughing and suggested we set up an export business.....

Regards,

Saimee

[stickbom!]

DFM you call that a "quiet night out" Guys like us would kill to have an occasional catch like that. Fantastic trip and nice report. Keep it coming bro

[DaFrogman]

On retrospective, after discussion with my captain, the list of fish comes to something like this;

8xMJs - 2-7kg
1x Spangled Emperor - 5kg
3x Kerisi Bali Hitam - 6-7kgs
2x Kerisi Bali 2-3kgs
10x Sweetlip 1-3kgs
8x Grouper 1-7kgs
4x Big Baracudda 6-10kgs
20+ Variety of Wrasses, Coral fish, smaller Baracudda

In the pics, I didn't take any pics of what was left in the big orange coldbox, all smaller fish between 0.5-1.5kgs, and there were over 20 left, were still in there.

Mike,

Well it was a quiet night out ........ No real heavyweights turned up for the party although I did gun for them with mega sized baits , which probably limited the number of MJs I caught. The MJs wanted small live coral wrasses or big sized selar or kembong, but like I said you had to rig the bait just right if not they would avoid that hook somehow.

My captain and I reckon that if the great weather and sea conditions hold out for another 2 weeks, we may try targetting some deeper water spots that are much further offshore (at least 90+km), where he told me that the MJs are in the 12+kg range as a norm...

Once again, burning gas looking for spots pays off and getting an idea of the bottom topography helps too, so you know which way the contours generally run and where the fish will probably hold out. One other thing worth noting is that even though a nice looking spot looks like it is not holding fish on the sounder, it is still worth marking, some of the spots we didn't fish when we first found them, seemed devoid of life , but Thursday night, it was like a nightclub on Saturday night down there.....

Y'all have a good time, One more pic for the road...

Regards,

Saimee

[stickbom!]

Yo da man Saimee Think that's a black job fish getting it's eyes poked :P We hit Rosy Jobfish (it's pinkish cousin) in deepwater when jigging offshore sometimes. Tastes excellent I must say