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Clarence Coast Pearler
- Category: Brooms Head
- Published on Sunday, 18 July 2010 18:28
- Written by Josh
It was a full weekend befit of both sailing and fishing conditions, making the Adventure Island (AI) pretty much perfect for combining the tasks. To Alby's good fortune the weather really turned it on Saturday morning, making his maiden voyage on his brand-spanking new AI a fabulous introduction. Having previously owned an Adventure kayak he found himself at home pretty quickly and it wasn't long before he was into the fish. He pulled in the first of what turned out to be three keeper tailor during Saturday's session at Woody Head. Steve caught himself a worthy specimen as well. Three were added to my capture tally, though mine were all returned. All fish were caught while trolling and done so on a variety of lures, Alby and I both using variants from Predatek and Halco among others.
Although we all caught a few good fish these weren't really the fish we were looking for and Saturday's experience convinced me that it would be worth heading elsewhere on Sunday. Brooms Head sounded good to Doug and Nick to, who teamed up on the new Tandem Adventure Island from which they set out to catch a respectable number of fish. Like Saturday's excursion, we launched the following morning at gentlemen's hours into calm conditions with reasonably flat seas and light breeze - just enough to sail under. For the second day in a row I was without a sounder (short, boring story) so was flying blind most of the time. Doug did lead us to a line-of-sight mark that put us amongst the fish though, which is where we spent the bulk of the next few hours.
By the time I'd pulled in the first good... no, great fish, we'd already collectively caught & released a regrettable number of cod and Sgt Bakers so it was a relief when the rod bent over for real. Chowing down on a Daiwa Bay Rubber ligging lure, this fish gave me a great fight on light tackle and was a challenge to fit into the net. Only moments after I'd managed to do so, my other rod buckled over on que. Another specimen - this one smaller but still worthy - was brought aboard with a gaff, the previous fish still engaged in the net. The fishing went from bordering on frustrating to fantastic in 5 minutes flat.
Around this time Nick managed to bring in a great looking squid that somehow hooked itself on a Bay rubber and a nice snapper soon after that. A short while later I hooked up on another pearly, this one smashing a squidgy pilchard flickbait while drifting along steadily. This was soon followed by a squire of my own, which was to be my last fish of the day. With 4 fitting keepers tucked away safely, a stiffening nth easterly kicked in that guided us straight back to our landing destination on the beach.
It was great to observe the Tandem Island in action today, both as an open water sailing craft as well as a 2-person fishing platform. It performed great under sail and I found that to keep pace with it I had to pedal lightly at times when they weren't. The sheer volume of fish they both caught speaks enough for its capability as a fishing craft. Nick pulled in most of his while perched out on the tramp. In fact, he spent most of the day lazing around on them, with Doug doing almost all of the pedal and sailing work. Look for footage of that, and the captures of above mentioned fish in the next (and last for season 1) episode of War on Fish, coming soon.
5 hours ago
