Blue Eye Bonanza Tuesday 26th

[Downrigger]

The story of this winter off Sydney has been one of relentless strong winds, cold temperatures, rain, and rough seas. Meaning that when a window of calm presents itself you gotta go - if you can:



The plus side is that, because so few blokes can get out, the reefs are being lightly fished.
Yesterday a typical example, a window of calm in the afternoon and then several days of dirty weather. Most of the regular crew tied up with other commitments so just Fitz and I launched at Roseville yesterday morning. Coming down Middle Harbour on a glassed out sea but as we cleared the Heads the chop and wind picked up from the north. With my boat being very open this meant we would be copping spray the full 22 miles, to Browns. Change of plan. We turned SE for the Peak, in the hope that the wind would fall away as predicted while we tried a little jigging there. That plan worked well as regards weather with the downside being we couldn’t find any kingfish to drop jigs on. Plenty of mark but not what we wanted. Too evenly spread - mostly juvenile morwong, snapper, LJs, pigfish and the like:



So after thirty minutes jigging we headed east. Some good mark showing on the western edge of the Mountain:



I say to Fitz ‘we’ve gotta watch the rod tip carefully for light bites and, if we see one, release some line so the fish can get the bait down.’ First drop to the bottom in 425 metres and, as soon as the line stops going out, he operates the power lever to bring it up 5 metres, away from snags. The rod tip slams down, loads up, and we’re onto a good one. So much for finesse:



Fitz super pleased with the first blue eye of the day:



From then on it was a steady procession of quality. Gemfish:



And more trevalla. They’re swarming out there at the moment but we didn’t abuse the resource:



I was monitoring VHF for tuna chatter in the hope that we could troll eastward if they were around. But nothing heard. Matter of fact there were no rec boats fishing at the Peak and only 3-4 at Browns. Back to the ramp early with a few keepers and Fitz (who loves his seafood) very pleased with our catch:



Meeting up with snapperholic and old mate, Fuzzy – a nice way to finish the day:



I can’t fish this weekend because work is too busy but if you can go, get out there? The forecast is excellent:



Cheers,
Andy

[Lightningx]

Great read mate. Top report with some awesome fish! Well done :a_goodjob:

[4liters]

Nice!
I'd love to go deep dropping for ling and blue eye one day. Bit hard in a kayak though

[Downrigger]

Great read mate. Top report with some awesome fish! Well done :a_goodjob:

Appreciate it Lightning! Planning something big for early next week and if anything interesting happens I'l;l put a post up. Cheers, Andy

[Downrigger]

Nice!
I'd love to go deep dropping for ling and blue eye one day. Bit hard in a kayak though

If you're ever coming to Sydney send me a PM maybe two weeks before.

[barra mick]

Great fish caught

Cheers bm

[4liters]

Nice!
I'd love to go deep dropping for ling and blue eye one day. Bit hard in a kayak though

If you're ever coming to Sydney send me a PM maybe two weeks before.

Thanks, will do. I don't think I'll be in that neck of the woods any time soon though.

[Crusher777]

Very nice fish!!! :a_goodjob: good size!

[Sinsemilla]

Cracking report Andy, well done! Some nice fillets would have come off those bad boys!

Cheers, Anth

[Downrigger]

Cracking report Andy, well done! Some nice fillets would have come off those bad boys!

Cheers, Anth

Thanks Anth! Here's a couple of videos of the action:

https://youtu.be/uP0_rWtBiB4

https://youtu.be/mp8qPIvXhaY