Brooms Head Big Red

Author: josh

Category: Brooms Head

Published on Saturday, 27 March 2010 13:33

Written by Josh

With every intention of trolling lures at the higher spectrum of speeds, at first I was a little disappointed with the lack of breeze at Brooms Head this morning. Nth westerlies cooperated for a while, allowing me to sail north towards Yamba, a reach that eventually pattered out when I was about 9km away from the launch spot. Had I been patient enough, winds would have turned around (to the east) and picked up, making for a steady cruise all the way back. But instead I started pedalling back, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise later on.

I managed two hook ups as I head north - one being a red rock cod that managed to spike me proper (underneath a fingernail - ouch) and the other being a small mack tuna I encountered harassing bait fish. But the best hook up came when I was only about 1km out from the beach on my way back in and had I not been moving relatively slowly, it probably wouldn't have happened. When the fish struck - taking a Rapala Magnum hardbody lure - I thought I might be onto a longtail, but I soon changed my mind to mackerel. And when I first saw colour I felt positive it was indeed a mackerel. But when the sliver of flash showed up with shades of red I knew it was a snapper. Possibly the biggest I've hooked (certainly with the largest lump on its head). Its probably also safe to say it gave me the best fight a snapper has ever provided as well. It's been a while since I've eaten snapper, so there's a good chance it'll be one of the tastiest as well.

All told today's trip lasted around 4 hours, covering just over 20km in distance. And although only 3 fish were boated (2 returned) the snapper surely made up for numbers. I'll be heading out again tomorrow, this time at Woody Head, and probably a bit later in the day so I can catch some stronger winds in order to get some higher speeds going.

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