Redwood, Tunny, et al, 23Jan13

  

TR by: Redwood

Conditions: sunny
Swell: small
Wind: +-10 knot from the east
Current: fast to the east
Participants: Tunny, Redwood, Pedro, Emil, Soren

Everyone turned up at MG at around 4.30am. Pedro was there and out first and planed to go to JS then to Sunshine Reef. Emil and Soren were headed to Halls and who can blame them after the fantastic day they had there previously. Tunny and myself were going to JS.

Tunny and I were next out with an uneventful and easy exit as the surf was very small. We did not see Emil and Soren's exit. Beyond the surf zone Tunny and I both put out hard bodies lures as we paddled out to JS. Just before we got to JS I heard my reel ratchet very briefly, I grabbed the rod and I was onto something. which turned out to be a small shark (50-60cm). After a lot of trouble getting the treble out I released it. We both then travelled out to one of the JS marks I had on my GPS where we set up bait drifts, Tunny using strips of Bonito and I using prawns. After a few minutes I was on again—a trigger fish, which I again had a lot of trouble dislodging the hook (even with an excellent pair of pliers). I must have taken too long as the trigger fish looked to be a goner when I finally released it.

By this time we'd drifted 500m off the mark, so we paddled back and started again. I again hooked up with something putting up a decent fight, which again turned out to be another shark—this one a bit bigger (+- 1m). It was also released. I re-prawned (both sharks taken on pawns) and hooked up with something big, I suspect another shark. At first I thought I was snagged as extreme pulls on the rod seemed to do little, but hang on reefs don't take line! The 'thing' dragged me around for a bit but I was making some headway getting it in. I fought for 5 min or so before the line slackened slightly and it was gone. I didn't get a look at it.

It was 8.30am and I need to get back so we setup a final drift. I had a number of bites but didn't hook up with anything. Tunny had no luck with his bonito strips. After the final drift we headed back to MG where I managed to land without trouble (even surfing the evo in somehow), but Tunny, who obviously had had enough of the tourists this season, tried to take as many out as he could with his return.

You can see the results here:



Emil and Soren had also arrived back at MG and came in like experts, leaning, bracing and basically showing us how it's done.



They reported that they had no action at all on their Hall's outing. Pedro was still out, so will be interested to know how he went.



Redwood's EVO 495 on the right of the photo.



Eric's Canoe 'Tunny'. Tunny in picture.

Cheers, Redwood.