Bending rods at Brooms Head

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Bending rods at Brooms Head

Author: josh

Published on Sunday, 26 June 2011 18:52

Written by Josh

alby_double_snapper_hookup

Usually I'm not one to show a whole lot of frustration when I so happen to lose a fish but I've been losing my fair share recently. Though it'd be fair to call this weekend's excursion into Brooms Head a success, it wouldn't be right to call it a complete success... for me, anyway. Not to say I didn't catch some good fish - I did - but that is to say I lost some even better fish. And by some, I mean quite a few - bust offs, almost every single one of them, some of them spectacular. Perhaps it's no great coincidence that this has started occurring around about the same time that I switched over to a lighter line class on each of my reels while simultaneously upgrading my rod holder to a custom bullhorn style that is more rigid and (although more user friendly) less forgiving at higher speeds. I recently theorized that I was leaving my drag too tight (given how much more rigid the rod holders are) but I came away from this weekend laying more blame of the line weight.

snapper_brooms_head_70cm

I managed to land an impressive assortment of species with an impressive assortment of lures over the weekend, including Storm Thunderblades, Willamson Banjo Eye Jigheads, Silstar stickbaits, Rapala Magnum CD's and X-Raps. Bust offs occurred on every single one of those lure types as well, so I inadvertantly donated an unnessacary cache of fish-mouth bling to Davey Jones and the experience will see me upgrading line weights pronto. Speaking of mouth bling, my very first fish (shown below) caught while trolling over an area now known as mark 27 - came up with a rusty old hook hanging out it's mouth. Mark 28 is where Steve, Alby and I all hooked up simultaneously soon after.

snapper_hook

The following day began in similar fashion but it was the area now known to me as mark 29 where Alby pulled up two perfect snapper one after the other, me following up with a smaller one soon after. More fish were caught (and lost) here, among them Sgt baker, Red Rock cod, pinkies and pike. Somewhere along the way I also managed to hook a feisty stripey tuna, whos strong run proved too much for my 15lb line rig.

Although he also got smoked at least a couple of times, Alby faired much better, managing 4 keeper snapper on the Saturday, another 2 on Sunday. I came in with a nice plump fish each day, Steve with a couple of smaller ones. Aaron hit the open water for the first time in his new Hobie Oasis, rigged up with sailkit and sidekick amas and I'm pretty sure he managed to catch a few to. Lots of dolphin activity both days, a few whales about and a promising amount of surface activity. Snapper season is well and truly upon the Clarence coast!