1. Rocky Creek
2. Claustral
3. To Be Decided

Resolution No. 2

I will catch the following game fish in 2006

1. Bonito
2. Mulloway
3. Yellowtail Kingfish
4. Tuna
5. Brown Trout

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Sunday 19th November 2006 - A Major Milestone Achieved

But NOT for Me . . .

Well, it's the fourth week of November and the above info should give you an idea of just how serious I have been in my efforts to catch a mulloway.  I made a conscious effort to keep an accurate diary and to be frank, it's extremely repetitive, boring reading, full of minutiae.  I have decided not to bore you with months of fruitless trips. 

I have used cuttlefish, squid, yellowtail, pike, whiting and swallow-tailed dart as bait, and am currently using live beach worms as my main bait.  I have had a string of incredible runs that resulted in bite-offs.  I have caught salmon by the hundred, several XOS skiting-size tailor, and an amazing assortment of doormats, rays and sharks.  My partner has given me the title of the World Champion of catching "the Mongrels of the Sea".  Thanks Darling.  I am officially banned from bringing another salmon home to eat, she's had enough of them.  I love them, so always make sure to bring home a couple of "tailor fillets".  It's funny how the little lady always enjoys them. . .

Sunday 19 November 2006 - I'm on the right track at last. . .
This morning started like most Sundays - up at 4 am and off on another Big Fish Adventure.  My other main fishing mate took me offshore in his tinny.  We caught some live pike from a wash and found a likely-looking ledge with some big arches showing on the sounder.  Hoping the arches were jewfish, I free-spooled my pike straight to the bottom, in 50 feet of water, and pulled it back up about 6 feet.  John put his on the surface under a bobby cork, as though we were live baiting off an LBG ledge. 

After 3 or 4 minutes, I felt the bait get bumped, bumped and then hammered!  Line began to move quickly, so I moved the drag lever about half way to the strike position, and the rod loaded up.  ON!  The fight was the best I have ever experienced out of a boat.  I was sitting down, with the rod butt thrust into my groin, no gimbal belt but I didn't care!  The rod loaded up in the way that every fisherman loves - the tip bent all the way until it was in the water.  I could barely hold on as the rod bucked wildly in my hands.  I honestly thought I'd have to back the drag off several times to be sure the fish didn't pull the rod straight from my grip.  Five minutes of brutal combat seems like a cliché, but it was and it took that long. 

John said he could hear the varnish crackling on the guides - I had my hands full and didn't notice.  He was worried that I would pull the hooks I was going so hard.  I am NOT a believer in the "softly, softly" approach for kings, unless the fish makes it to the reef.  I subscribe to the stop 'em or pop 'em school of thought.  Secretly, I get a huge thrill from a slugfest like this on 24 Kg gear.  I don't use anything less if there's kings around.

When we first got colour on the fish, deep below us, I went weak at the knees, and I was sitting down!  A lovely big king was gracefully arcing below, taking the escalator ride up to us.  YOU BEAUTY!  At last the fish was buggered, and lay along side the boat.  6+ Kg - you bloody ripper.

My mate, whose initials are Johnno Gaffman, had never gaffed a fished before.  I didn't know this at the time.  There's only one way to learn, and that's to do it.  Unfortunately, he somehow sliced the 70 lb fluorocarbon leader with the gaff, freeing the fish.  It wasted no time in screaming to safety.  FUCK.  John's face was absolutely ashen.  Then he went bright red.  The poor sod.  I was disappointed but it wasn't serious.  I have hooked heaps of kings now.  In fact, I have only managed to land one out of about thirty I've hooked, and I've gaffed 4 or 5 for other people.  I am quite used to losing them !  I forgave him in a heartbeat.  I could see from the look on his face that he would beat himself up about it for hours.   I was fighting off seasickness and must have had a serious look on my face.  I didn't want to make him feel bad.  If it had been a jewie, there might have been some really harsh words spoken. 

We drop John's pike to the bottom in the hope that another king would like to play, but nothing happens.  I wind in after 20 minutes to find a bit of resistance - I have hooked a clump of weed.  The weed transformed into a massive green eyed calamari squid.  With a bit of teamwork & luck, we manage to net it without problems.


Decisions Decisions - Calamari or Bait? ? ?
Jewies are about, Hmmmm, let me think!

Shortly after this, we head back back inside.  We see some baitfish being attacked on the surface and John throws a soft plastic into the disturbance - YEP!  After a very interesting fight, we have a solid fish just out of reach.  It looks like a rat king, but the colours wrong. . .  I call it for a tailor, but nah, it's too big - must be a salmon.  Hang on - that's a whopping tailor mate.  Geeze, I'll gaff it for ya Johnno!  "DON'T YOU DARE" John yells.  I almost roll on the floor of the tinny laughing.  I eventually net just over 4 lbs of tailor for him.  It's an interesting fish - the head is very different to the usual shape of a chopper.  It looks like the head from one of those 20 lb tailor from WA.  Top fish mate !  Arsey sod even managed to keep his soft plastic intact!  There was not a mark on it, despite all of those sharp teeth.  About fifteen minutes later a chopper cuts his new favourite lure in half. . . 

Off the water by 10.30am, I head home for some sleep, and to remind myself I have a beautiful lady waiting for me at home.  She's as tired as I am - we are both self-employed and work 6 days per week.  We both go to sleep on the lounge after lunch.

Late in the afternoon, I wake to a call from Leigh.  Tide's at 20:00 mate, see you at the beach at 17:00.  No worries, and I go back to sleep.  6pm, and there's a knock on the door.  Damn I've slept in.  I rub the sleep from my eyes, and open the door to a very unhappy looking Leigh.  I have house trained him not to expect me to be on time, ever.  He's looking pissed off with the world.  Unfortunately the weather's a bit windy and on-shore, there's heaps of weed in the water and there's nothing biting.  I have a look outside - nor'east.  My favourite whiting spot will be firing, and I have a feeling in my bones that the wind will ease with dark.  The advantage of being a sailor I guess.  We head down to catch Leigh a tasty feed of whiting, so his trip is not wasted after all.  Just on dark, the wind has died, and I reckon it's a great night.  I'm excited and bubbling with energy - I have a feeling something is going to happen tonight.

We arrive at my beach at 20:30, and use the mega squid as bait.  I whack out a whopping bait, smeared with ink and gore.  I'm gunna get one, I can feeeeel it. 

Leigh is the first with some action - at about 21:30 he gets a simple touch, that results in the loss of his hook, 45cm x 80lb trace, swivel and sinker.  Shark, and a big one.  Probably a whaler from the instant bite-off, but who knows.  I won't be going swimming at this beach ever again.  My big juicy bait get attacked by pickers.  Bloody bream from the feel, and they tear my big bait to pieces over a period of ten minutes.

22:20pm, and Leigh wanders over.  We've had yet another boring night, and we'll give it ten more minutes.  We haven't even had a ray or shovelnose shark.  At 22:30 almost to the second, Leigh gets a screamer of a run.  Shark for sure.  Any moment he's gunna get bitten off.  Any moment now.  Definitely in a second. . . Hmmmm.  Any headshakes mate?  Yeah.  I think this could be a jew.  Leigh has spent years chasing jewies without success.  At least I have caught soapies & Black jew.  The opening run is still going, and I'm starting to laugh.  You're gunna get spooled here mate ! 

Must be a foul hooked whaler.  Nah, an eagle ray !  "Dunno Gavin, it's still shaking it's head," he says.

Eventually the run stops, and he gains some line.  Another run, but not quite as long this time.  Again he gains some line, but another run.  The runs are getting shorter.  He's winning. 

After 4 or 5 minutes, the fish is close to shore, and Leigh's getting very nervous.  He's worried that the hook is going to pull, or the line will be worn through.  I am holding the gaff, and looking at the line angling in to the water - geeze, it's close now.  The fish has one last run, into the shallow water and we have it - it's a jewie alright, and it's given up the ghost and is floating passively in the shore dump.  I pin the fish first try.  Wooooooo hooooooooooooo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am stoked for Leigh, but once again, the sod has done it to me.  He was not even going to fish tonight, he was going to go home because of the weather.  He is fishing my spot, for the second time - I have fished it literally dozens of times.  I provided the bait, that massive squid from this morning.  He was fishing twenty feet away from me.  I gaffed his fish for him.  Geeze, I should be charging him guiding fees!  This is getting way too similar to the Bonito and Kingfish stories.  All I can say is YOU ARSEY BASTARD!  And who ever the person or fishing God I have offended, I am really sorry and won't do it again!  Please please please let me catch a jewie and soon !  I've only got about 6 weeks to catch the last of my target species for the year !

I go back to fishing, right where Leigh was.  He starts fishing again 15 minutes later.  Oooooh - Another run - DAMN ! Missed it.  Oh that was a jewie FOR SURE he says.  Woah, I'm ON!  My drag starts to scream, and I get a few head shakes, but it's not quite right.  Sure enough, a 10 lb Bronze Whaler appears in the torch beam.  Leigh gets a run, and oops, no I can't get caught by him.  I want to be caught by Gav instead. 

I am starting to get a complex that I am truly the champion of catching the Mongrels of the Sea.  As a thank you, Leigh gives me a massive slab of jewie.  I give him a small cutlet of flake in return.  Thanks very much mate, the jew was really tasty.  The next day we retrieve the "jewels" together.  What a great reminder of a magic fish.   

          
Leigh's Jewie went 21.5lbs on the lie detector.    

Lessons So Far
 

1. Trace - I have used 30 lb fluorocarbon trace hoping that it will lead to more bites.  Now I have seen the teeth of a jewie, I will only use 50 lb.  The teeth are almost the same as a cats'.  They are needle-like and sharp.  OK, they are not like a shark's teeth or a mackerel's, but the 80 lb nylon leader Leigh used suffered significant abrasion.  If the jewie of a lifetime does come along, I want a safety margin.  My 70lb fluorocarbon trace knots easily, but results in large, bulky knots.  I now believe that 50 lb is a better compromise.  I use a running sinker, so a jewie can run without resistance.  Make the tail of your knots as short as you can.   I have had the trace tangle on a tag end of a uni knot that was connecting the trace to the ball-bearing swivel.
    
2. Gear - Leigh is using a Shimano Baitrunner 4500.  I am using a Shimano TSS4 threadline.  We are both now spooled up with braid because of the extra sensitivity and added line capacity.  We both feel it is the only way to go.  When my TSS4 wears out, I will probably replace it with a baitrunner, as the free spool ability is just what the doctor ordered.  I fish my TSS4 with the bail arm open to provide the same effect, but it is not the same and actually tiring to do it for hours.  Side cast fisherman are laughing out loud about now.       
    
3. Tides - So far I have concentrated my efforts around the high tide, fishing an hour before, and several hours after.  This is because my local beach is quite shallow at low tide.  It may be worth starting at low water, and fishing the early run in tide.
    
4. Moon - So far we have only caught one so I can't draw any conclusions yet.  Our fish was caught on a very dark night.  The moon was waning, and at the last phase before no moon.  It wouldn't have mattered much as the moon rise was very early morning.
    
5. Time - Due to work commitments, and the fact I love waking up with my beautiful lady, all of my efforts have been exclusively nocturnal.  I typically start fishing in the last half hour before dark, and usually finish around mid-night.  I have to work the next day remember!
    
6. Bait - Again, only having caught one fish, I can't comment yet.  The successful bait was green eyed calamari squid, caught that morning and so fresh that it was still translucent.
    
7. Bait Presentation - Listen up, this one may be important.  I cut the massive head of the squid in half, and used a two hook rig.  I ensured I busted the ink sac all over my bait, and carefully placed the hooks to ensure the bait would not bunch up, and the hook points were clear.  It got picked to death by bream.  Leigh used a wing, cut to the size of his palm, and threaded onto a single hook.  This was almost the only thing we did differently.  The most knowledgeable fisherman I know, Neil Randall, says he uses smaller baits as there's a lot more smaller jewies out there than big ones.  Leigh's fish is massive - by our standards - so maybe my bait appealed more to a 20 KILO fish than a 21.5 pounder.  We'll have to wait & see about that one.
    
8. Presence of other apex predators - I feel that smaller sharks and other top-order predators are a key indicator.  The jewie is also an apex predator, and likely to frequent the same spots as whaler & hammerhead sharks for the same reason - food.  OK, if there is a three metre whaler or a great white cruising the same gutter, well, the jewies are likely to be long gone.  But we have caught several small whalers in the same gutter now.  
    
9. The "X-Factor" - Leigh has it by the ton.  Not enough to share with his mates though it seems.  He is the most "arsey" fisherman I know by a mile.  Look how he caught a bonito and then two kings before I ever could.  OK, I did all the ground work, and put him in front of the fish, but he seems to be the one to connect first.  I suspect that it's more than luck.  Some people seem to have this particular ability, and I think that they are subconsciously responding to things that they are not even aware of. 
   
   I just knew something was going to happen that night.  I have a background in amphibian research with the Uni of Newcastle, and have learned to listen to that little voice when I am doing fieldwork.  I feel that your mind is constantly processing the most subtle stimuli. 
   
   For example, when I have been looking for a particular species of frog, they are often incredibly cryptic.  Litoria verreauxii springs to mind - Verreaux's tree frog.  They are a beautiful species, about half the size of a box of matches.  They have a piercing, throbbing whistle, incredible loud for the diminutive size of the frog.  But they call from the ground, concealed among dense vegetation, about 5 metres from a body of still water.  They are hard to find, despite their call.  But once you have found one, suddenly you'll start to find another one and another and suddenly they are a lot easier to find. 
   
   I call it getting a "search image" for a particular species.  It's sticky.  Once you've keyed into the search image for that species, it will work in other places where the same species is present.  I think that a similar thing happens with fishing and a lot of other aspects of our lives.  We usually simply ignore it or label it "intuition".  
    

That's enough speculation for now.  I'd better go and catch a jewie after all of that !
 

Sunday 3rd December 2006
Back at the beach, fishing truly putrid conditions late in the afternoon.  We're fishing the run-in tide, which is due to peak very late in the afternoon, and we are hoping for a jewie.   It's a bumpy, horrible, cold southerly, with about two metres swell.  Just to rub insult into injury, it starts absolutely pouring rain just as dark falls.  Leigh and I are throwing fresh squid and pillies around.  Leigh's chasing jewies, while I'm hoping to hook a tailor or salmon to turn into a live-bait or still-twitching slab.  The weed drives us mad - our baits are continuously getting fouled by massive clumps of the damn stuff.  Grrrrrrr !  Not a touch, despite the howling, bumpy conditions.   

Monday 4th December 2006
Back at the beach again, this time I'm using live whiting and two just legal bream which I've caught in the lake a few minutes before.  My mate Leigh is using fresh squid.  It's high tide at 8.49 pm, 1.34 metres. 

I cast the whiting out, and it lasts all of three minutes before it goes off.  Unfortunately I'm asleep at the switch and I missed the strike.  The whiting's gone, and not a mark on the leader. It could have been anything. . .  I reload with a nice tasty bream, all thrash & spikes, and smile quietly to myself as it flies out into the surf wearing a pair of 10/0's.  The BLOODY WEED !!!!!  About twenty minutes later the bream is dead and I'm really getting frustrated.  Leigh's having the same problem.  There are two other groups fishing the high tide tonight - one group 500 metres to the South and another pair 800 metres to the North.  We can see the guys to the South are having the same problem with the weed.  I reload with the brother of the first bream and cast it out.  Thirty minutes later and it's dead too, suffocated by the bloody weed.  I had never caught a single thing on a live bream.  Sooner or later it's got to go off, surely!  Something out there must eat bream, as they are so common.   

High tide is just after dark tonight, and the moon is almost full.  There's hardly a cloud in the sky, and it's so bright that we hardly need our head torches.  The wind is still up a bit - it's around 10 knots from the east north east.  The swell is bumpy, onshore and closing out.  It's about 1 m to 1.5 m in the sets.  The weed drives us mad all night. 

At 9.10pm the blokes to the north of us have clearly hooked up - both of them have their head torches on and they are at the water's edge for ~ 5 minutes.  I decide to wander over - sure enough, one of them is releasing a banjo shark as I arrive.  It's one of the guys I have bumped into heaps of times on the beach, but I don't know his name yet.  He is still laughing when I get there.  They have just had a double hook-up - he caught the banjo but his mate just caught a nice school jew!  Yes - another jewie!  This one's only about 8lb tops, but if I had caught it, I would have completed my fishing goals for the year.   We chat for a bit before I wander off.  They are using fresh squid for bait, and have caught a string of rubbish fish before catching the little jewie.  Bronze whaler, sting ray, banjo and then a school jewie.  Best of all, no weed in this gutter. . .

We persist until 10.30 pm but apart from a few mangled baits courtesy of some tiny pickers, we don't catch a single damn thing.  Leigh had fished the gutter since 5pm, and not had a fish in all that time.

Tonight's Lessons
1. The moon is practically full, and it's so bright that you could almost read by it.  A school jew was landed (by another group) approx 8 lb's in size.  Leigh's 21.5 lb jewie was caught two nights BEFORE the dark of the moon - is this significant?  I have read that you get more bites on full moons and the big fish are caught on the dark nights.  There's one way to tell - we fish both moons, and given enough time we'll find out.

2. The jewie gutter had other predators present - a 10 lb bronze whaler had been caught not long before the jewie.  They also caught "rubbish fish" - stingrays, banjo sharks etc. 

3. There was no weed in the gutter.  Is this because the other guys could fish more effectively or was it that our baits were buried in the weed?  Perhaps the fish don't like the loose weed either?   

On to 2007