We are back to replicate our fun fishing session with Barraddict at Eco Beach. We started our session at the same spot, hoping that Bruce would finally hook up his Golden Trevally. Armed with newly bought jigs from the tackle shop, we started jigging.
Straight away I was on. Felt light on the end of the line and it turn out to be a Brassy Trevally (Caranx papuensis). The long strokes weren't getting any hits so I changed to short flicks of the rod. We then brought up 5 Brassy Trevally in a short space of time. Then we were hit by the razor gang! I caught 2 school Mackerel on jig before they sliced off my line. After re-tying the leader and new jig, I dropped the jig over. Before the jig reached the bottom, I felt slack line again. Damn! They sliced it clean off again. So skipper Kurt suggested upping the leader to 100lb and working the jigs on the bottom third of the water column. In a short span of 20mins, we lost about 10 jigs between us!
Bite marks and only left 1 hook, courtesy of the razor gang!
Bruce also got sliced by the razor gang. One hit was so ferocious it actually bent his jig slightly into a V! With this bent jig, Bruce finally hooked up our target fish. His rod had a nice bend on it and the reel screaming. He finally managed to control it and was brought up for pictures.
I hooked up a small Spanish Mackerel on jig again before hitting another Goldie. As we were bringing up the fishes, we could see in the clear water that there were some huge fishes following them up. Kurt called them as a large Spanish Mackerel and a big Barracuda. Thank goodness they didn't take our fish!
I returned to doing the long strokes when on the 3rd up stroke, the fish hit and almost pulled me over the side! My Stradic was screaming as line was peeling out at an alarming rate. All I could do was hang on! Finally, the fish stopped running and slowly pumped the fish back. These guys are real brutes! Another fine specimen. Speared the fish back into the water after the pictures and continued jigging.
Bruce was having very good results with his bent jig as he hooked up 2 more Goldies. We figured that the bent profile of the jig was actually making the jig more enticing! Bruce then got hit again! This time the fish was fighting deep, bringing Bruce round the boat. After 5mins of deep runs, the fish suddenly shot away towards the horizon. Line was peeling out fast and Bruce said he is getting spooled! As he began to see the end of his braided line on the reel, he gently put some pressure on the reel hoping to stop the fish but alas, the line went slack..... Dejected, he reeled the line back to see the line had been cut. We figured he hooked up a Trevally only to have a Spanish Mackerel or Barracuda take the fish for an easy meal!
I was down to my last jig when Kurt said he saw a bait ball action about 500m away. He said it could be some tuna or pelagic fish feeding so we should change our jigs to some lures. While steaming to the bait ball, I quickly changed to the Jackson Pintail lure that I got from Singapore. Bruce had a silver lure that he uses for Aussie salmon fishing down south.
When we reached the area, the bait ball disappeared so Kurt drifted over a bommie and told us to cast around the area. So I casted my Pintail out and reeled it back fast. 2 casts, nothing. So on 3rd cast, I counted till 8 before retrieving. Just as my lure passed the edge of the bommie, a shadow shot out and nailed the lure! Fish ON! Straight away I saw that it was a Spaniard and quickly reeled it in as I didn't want to lose my lure. Hauled it into the boat for some quick pics before sending it back to the water.
Phew, Pintail survived! Bruce hooked up some table-sized Spanish Flag fish on his lure which was also released.
Just then, the bait ball appeared about 30m away and Kurt motored the boat towards it. As we reach the bait ball, we could see the fish really in a feeding frenzy! Kurt said cast straight over the bait ball and reel FAST! I did exactly that and man it was a sight to behold! When the fish saw the lure, they were speeding towards it, clamouring for the lure. One finally jumped out of the water and hammered my Pintail. Fish ON! Bruce's lure was also hit! Double Hookup! The fish went berserk and had us criss-crossing each other but we managed to avoid getting our lines tangled. Finally I got my fish boatside and Kurt netted the fish. It was a Mackerel Tuna weighing about 4kg. I could see the lure halfway inside the fishes mouth! He must've really wanted the lure! As I tried to remove the hook, Bruce brought his fish boatside as well. So we unhooked the fish and took pictures of this awesome fish.
We then torpedoed these bullet-shaped monsters back into the water and went searching for the bait ball again. Man, that was an huge adrenaline rush!
We spotted the bait ball again and motored towards it. When we reached the spot, the action stopped. Kurt said to cast anyway and as I reeled the Pintail back, the fish surfaced! I could see the Tuna speeding towards the boat but my cranking wasn't fast enough! They swam faster than my lure! The fish went under the boat and disappeared! We then casted around the area but there was no action.
A short while later, we found out why! A huge 10-footer Tiger Shark was slowly swimming around the area! With that awesome sight, we made our way back to shore as the wind was blowing pretty strong as well. The plan was now to do some Barramundi fishing in the creeks.
We put the boat back on the trailer and jumped onto the 4WD to get to Jack's Creek. It was about a 15min drive on the sand dunes to get to Jack's Creek. This time the creek was cut off from the sea as it was low tide. All that was left was a deep pool with some structure at the side.
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| Our own Barramundi hole! |
We got off and started chucking our lures. We walked round the pool, casting in very direction and
spot we could but nothing was biting. Kurt then cast-netted some mullet and we switched to live bait. Bruce had a take and it turned out to be a small Grouper. He then had another take. This time the fish took the bait and ran a bit but somehow the circle hook failed to hook up and the fish flashed its side at Bruce and swam away. Bruce saw it was a Barramundi, about 50cm or so. So at 1430, we called it a day as the arms were already aching from all the casting. It ended in sort of an anti-climax but we shall always remember the gut-busting action out on the reefs in the morning!!
I noticed some tracks on the beach and Kurt said that they were Flatback Turtle coming onto the beach to lay their eggs. There was one track that actually made a U-turn! I guess it figured it wasn't the right spot to lay her eggs!
U-turn tracks!
Buddy tracks
This poor fella didn't make it............
For dinner, we decided to go to a local brewery. We ordered their beer tasting platter which came with 5 small glasses of beer.
1. Hit the Toad
2. Mango Beer
3. Pale Ale
4. Smokey Bishop
5. Ginger Beer
We also tried Chilli Beer and Lychee Beer. In the end, we settled for a pint of Mango Beer. It tastes unusual but nice!
Downed the beers with a nice, succulent Rib Eye Steak!
Gear used:
Rod - Shimano TCurve Travel Tropical PE1-2
Reel - Shimano Stradic Ci4 3000FA
Line - Sufix 832 30lb with 40lb Black Magic Fluorocarbon leader
Bait - Shimano Butterfly Flat-Fall jig (Anchovy),
- Jackson Pintail
Rig - direct leader to jig
Fish ID - Golden Trevally (Gnathanodon speciosus)
- Brassy Trevally (Caranx papuensis)
- Spanish Mackerel (Scomberomorus commerson)
- Mackeral Tuna (Euthynnus affinis)
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