Wind: calm/gentle
Swell: < 1 metre
Current: none at LH
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Launch time: 6am
Overall Conditions: calm
Participants: Baptism, Manscaped
The day got off to a sleepy start as I hadn't had any sleep the night before ( drove up from Brisbane at around 11pm) and I wasn't sure if anyone was heading out. I checked the forecast repeatedly and at 2am it was upgraded from 7-9 knot winds to 13-18, Bugger I thought as I didn't come all the way up to fish the river.
Thankfully, at 4am the forecast was back in the range of 6-8 knots. I took a quick nap for 2 hours and launched at 6am. After a successful launch, I decided to head to LH. I tossed out my trusty lure and sleepily trolled it along guided by my dodgy in-phone GPS to the LH mark.
Halfway to LH something decent took my trolled lure and was off like a bullet. It took 20m of line in the first run. I put away my soft plastics rod and grabbed at my trolling setup to set the hook, Missed!
I wrapped my fingers around the line instead of the rod and immediately got friction cuts on 4 of my fingers.
Anyway, what's done is done, picked up the rod and set the hook immediately; settling in for the fight.
The fight lasted about 10 minutes back and forth as I would wind 5m in and he would take 10 back. Whenever I got him close enough to see colour he would speed off again, this fish was well schooled in the art of escape. He tried every trick in the book, long runs out to sea (dragging me behind him), leaping out of the air and diving deep.
Finally, I got him next to the yak and he did manage to get rid of the hooks in his mouth, unfortunately for him the lure had swung around and pinned him in the gills. It kept struggling as I attempted to gaff him and finally managed to subdue the beast. It wouldn't fit in my rear well as I had a yakpak in there.
Photo of the fish landed by 6.20am, a Spanish mackerel.
I had my bag but it seemed a shame to head home this early so I headed on to LH. There was plenty of bait around at LH and predators chasing them as showing on the sounder, but I only managed 16 squire (1 legal) and none of the big monsters on my sounder. At 8am I decided it was time to head back and get my fish photographed at Davo's. Along the way I caught and released 2 more smaller spaniards. No measurement but the retained Spaniard weighed in at 14 kgs.
Photo below of the successful lure
Adrian
Well done on the first Spanish for the season. May there be many more, especially after the lean times in the last two years.
ReplyDeleteAdrian, Is there any truth to the rumour that you got 3 Spaniards?
ReplyDeleteNice fish by the way mate.
There has been quite a few reports of spaniards off the beach at Fraser already so hopefully it is an early start to the season this year.
ReplyDeleteNice early Spaniard Adrian. As your pic shows, the early season Spaniards are quite narrow in the body. Did you get an approximate length measurement? I'm guessing your Spaniard must have gone at least 140 cm to weigh in at 14 kg. Jimbo
ReplyDeleteThanks Kev
ReplyDeleteHey Richmond, Yes mate I got 3 spaniards; 1 on the way to LH and 2 on the way back.
only kept the first one. so they're out there, bait was covering almost the whole of LH with plenty of big fish under them showing up on the sounder.
Didnt manage to get a length measurement but it was a good fit for the smaller fountain ridge cooler bag (pictured), Purchased at Davo's. so 140 wouldnt be a bad estimate; it was too long to fit in the front hatch on my revo 13!
Keen to hit the water again this weekend and get more tooth marks on my trusty lure