Hillary's surprise

Headed out with my mate yesterday off Hillarys.

After a few fairly uneventful hours on the water we moved to a spot of my choice which my mate thought was complete crap. He took a bit of convincing but we dropped anchor and immediately got amongst lots of good herring and a few yellowtail. Soon my circle hook got bitten off on 6lb leader so we reckoned there may be a few snook about. I upgraded to 40lb and instantly got bitten off very cleanly again, so I tied on another hook and chucked out again. A repeat with a few scuff-marks so I put on some wire calling NW blowies as we didnt think anything else in the area was capable of doing this damage but didnt get any more touches.

The 10-minutes left call was made and straight away my mate's 3000 reel started screaming, his 1-3kg rod bending double and 8lb line disappearing quickly. I immediately called it for a ray and he started screaming "Get the anchor up it's gonna spool me!" so I lifted the anchor and in the few seconds it took to do so the fish had swum around to the complete opposite side of the boat. Bit quick for a ray I thought. We chased it for about 30m and at first glimpse sambo was called but after a short (2-3 min) fight a 5-6kg spanish mackerel was netted. Went just legal with the size 8 Kmart longshank hook pinning it perfectly in the top of the jaw. It took an unweighted mulie cube in 3m of water inside Little Island and we just sat there in awe for a good few minutes after measuring it and celebrating. Still amazed how it was landed.

Cheers for reading and apologies if its a bit long-winded

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Swompa's picture

Posts: 3938

Date Joined: 14/10/12

 Nice spot when playing with

Mon, 2014-03-17 18:14

 Nice spot when playing with herring!

 

Posts: 363

Date Joined: 27/12/09

 well done lads, and on a

Mon, 2014-03-17 18:15

 well done lads, and on a size 8 longshank ha! good 'ol jellybean theory 

beau's picture

Posts: 4114

Date Joined: 24/01/10

Awesome! Theyre definitely

Mon, 2014-03-17 18:25

Awesome! Theyre definitely coming in shallow this season, throws a real spanner in the works when you decide to want to have a troll.
Nice.

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MattMiller's picture

Posts: 4171

Date Joined: 15/06/09

Looks

Mon, 2014-03-17 18:25

more like a Broadbar or Grey Mackeral to me.

tim-o's picture

Posts: 4657

Date Joined: 24/05/11

Was thinking the same,

Mon, 2014-03-17 19:16

Was thinking the same, nevertheless, great catch in that area, Iv only gotten squid, hezzas etc in that area at that depth. Anchor and burley inclose and send a livie under a balloon (or a mulie cube on a kmart hook) is a good go for small boaties, never know

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I am, as I've said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary.

Posts: 521

Date Joined: 03/04/10

 Better eating too :D

Fri, 2014-03-21 20:51

 Better eating too :D

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 Subway cookie is the best burley

Posts: 2946

Date Joined: 03/03/10

this what global warming is all about

Mon, 2014-03-17 19:24

the bloke that said global warming is "bad" got it wrong more and more nor west specie's are being caught down here in the metro I am calling it a grey mackie , and that's the perfect size for the smoker

uncle's picture

Posts: 9541

Date Joined: 10/02/07

theres a lot of bait

Mon, 2014-03-17 19:21

along the northern wall of hillarys

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all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs

Posts: 360

Date Joined: 06/02/14

 great fish on light gear

Mon, 2014-03-17 20:16

 great fish on light gear mate. always good to see mackie pics posted up.

thanks for sharin

Uluabuster's picture

Posts: 725

Date Joined: 12/12/10

 Don't apologize, good write

Tue, 2014-03-18 08:56

 Don't apologize, good write up n thanks for sharing.

Hutch's picture

Posts: 2221

Date Joined: 21/04/13

 Cheers for the replies and

Tue, 2014-03-18 10:45

 Cheers for the replies and the ID guys

Faulkner Family's picture

Posts: 18114

Date Joined: 11/03/08

doesnt matter what sort of

Tue, 2014-03-18 11:40

doesnt matter what sort of mack it is , its a great catch on the gear of choice. well done and i bet your mate had a few words to eat after getting that one

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RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together

straith's picture

Posts: 426

Date Joined: 25/11/13

 Went out friday avo to enjoy

Sun, 2014-03-23 02:35

 Went out friday avo to enjoy the sunset with the missus with easterlies prevailing and saw what I think were same size fish cutting up schools of baitfish. Only had a bream lure setup onboard and no bait and tried trolling through them but they spooked easily.

Well done on that gear. Nice to see the ocean alive so close to the ramp. 

Posts: 125

Date Joined: 12/01/13

Bahhaahahhaa couldnt stop

Sun, 2014-03-23 18:39

Bahhaahahhaa couldnt stop laughing at the outboard an the tape on it, i have the exact same outboard with tape on that same place