Skip the ice, let’s go billfishing.

[Zip-in-Z]

C-Oil ... we still got lots of ice on Sylvan, some guys just can't stay off it. That's the entrance to Marina Bay.

Enjoying your pic's, when you making a trip back to see the folks ?

Cheers

David

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by Zip-in-Z

C-Oil ... we still got lots of ice on Sylvan, some guys just can't stay off it. That's the entrance to Marina Bay.

Enjoying your pic's, when you making a trip back to see the folks ?

Cheers

David

Lol, the only ice on sylvan this time of year is in a cooler.

Not sure when we will make it back. Whenever airfare is affordable again and they’ve removed the need to quarantine. Hopefully soon, I have to get back so we can lay my father to rest.

[Zip-in-Z]

Originally Posted by Coiloil37

Lol, the only ice on sylvan this time of year is in a cooler.

Not sure when we will make it back. Whenever airfare is affordable again and they’ve removed the need to quarantine. Hopefully soon, I have to get back so we can lay my father to rest.

Travel rules are changing and prices s/b going down soon.

Condolences .... had to do the same with my Dad not long ago he was 93 and now my uncle just passed, he had a good life, made it to 98.

Sylvan was a total zoo today, there must of been 60,000 people here, law enforcement was going crazy, it was a stay on your back deck day and enjoy a few brews as long as you could stand the forest fire smoke drifting in from BC.

D.

[Coiloil37]

Thanks David.

It’s a rough part of life and harder being half a world away but better then not outliving your parents.

Enjoy the tail end of summer. To bad it’s so short in the old country.

[Coiloil37]

Just an update to keep this thread from fading into a distant memory.

I haven’t been out for the past two months. I decided I would rather wait until the fish come back then go burn fuel and drink beer for little in return.

While I’ve been waiting…

I stripped all the wiring out of the boat, replaced the batteries and rewired everything with blueseas fuse blocks, marine tinned wire, new battery isolator and neg buss bars. It’s now done properly as opposed to 20 years of previous owners running wires back to the battery whenever they added an accessory.
I serviced the engine oil and leg oil, replaced all of the internal and external anodes, new fuel filters, spark plugs, did a valve set, cleaned the thermostat, greased the driveshaft and changed the water pressure poppet valve in the leg.
I pulled every bulkhead and through hull fitting out of the boat and resealed with sikaflex. I installed a timer on the bait pump so I don’t have to remember to cycle the pump and a waterwitch float switch on the bilge so I don’t have to pay attention to it.
I pulled my eight trolling reels down, cleaned everything. Replaced all the bearings with ceramic hybrids, lubed everything up and decided the factory felt drag washers looked pretty average.




I built new carbontex washers





And installed them greased.






The drags run so much smoother now (with a kid running away from me) but the true test will be when a marlins swimming away from me. They also provide more max drag which doesn’t really help but I used to set 14lbs at strike and maxed out at 32lbs at sunset. No I see 14 at strike and 40lbs at sunset.
The reels got respooled, some got new braid, all got new top shots in 8, 15 or 24kg mono. The 8kg has me worried. Fishing with 5lbs max drag seems impossible but we will give it a rip.




All the lures were checked and rerigged/repaired as required. Another doz or so lures were added to the tackle selection. These two are the prettiest of the bunch.







I brined up some slimy mackerel for skip baits although ideally we catch some fresh ones out there.





I head back to work today but in two weeks when I get home the juvenile blacks should be back in Hervey bay which will kick off this marlin season. I was up there with the family over the weekend and it had me very itchy to be fishing. Coincidentally that’s where this thread started. Fingers crossed the weather cooperates at the beginning of oct and the currents have brought the fish down. The plan is a minimum of two three day trips to the bay in oct/nov and I’m looking for 30 marlin tagged out of those trips.

My goal is 100 billfish tagged this summer.

We will see how that fleshes out over the coming months won’t we.

[Smoky buck]

Was thinking you were locked away in Covid jail not allowed to go fishing lol

Keep posting I may not respond to the thread much because I am clueless about this style of fishing but enjoying the read/pics

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by Smoky buck

Was thinking you were locked away in Covid jail not allowed to go fishing lol

Keep posting I may not respond to the thread much because I am clueless about this style of fishing but enjoying the read/pics

I’ll keep posting. This thread is just as much for my benefit because it keeps a written record of the trips.

No Covid jail here either. There are a couple suburbs in the state we have to wear masks indoors until the 24th of this month but otherwise no restrictions and nothing really going on with Covid. Here’s our updated running total in Queensland as of today. Population 5.1 million.




Funny all the stupid questions friends and family have asked me lately about “what’s going on over there”? Honestly, nothing. Apparently the media over there has been spinning it another way though.


Rest assured, even in other states when they do have a “lockdown” of one description or another your still allowed to fish. It’s “essential”.

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by Coiloil37

I’ll keep posting. This thread is just as much for my benefit because it keeps a written record of the trips.

No Covid jail here either. There are a couple suburbs in the state we have to wear masks indoors until the 24th of this month but otherwise no restrictions and nothing really going on with Covid. Here’s our updated running total in Queensland as of today. Population 5.1 million.




Funny all the stupid questions friends and family have asked me lately about “what’s going on over there”? Honestly, nothing. Apparently the media over there has been spinning it another way though.


Rest assured, even in other states when they do have a “lockdown” of one description or another your still allowed to fish. It’s “essential”.

The media is definitely spinning things trying to make other countries look far more strict then they are. I have found every time I talk to those in other countries what they have to say doesn’t line up with the media

I like that fishing is deemed essential

[58thecat]

Fishing is essential just as this thread is.....keep it up....

[Coiloil37]

Well this round of days off was meant to include a Hervey Bay trip. The day before I came home the cooks in camp changed out and the day cook is from Hervey Bay. He said the Merlin were not there yet.
Last Tuesday I went to the monthly Sunshine Coast game fishing club (SCGFC) meeting. There had been several boats fishing up in the bay and nobody had seen a marlin. To add insult to injury NOBODY in the club caught a marlin in September anywhere. Only one was caught in august and nothing caught in July either.

They did show the leader board and the champion boat under 7.5m had one billfish to his name back in August. So they announce he’s still the leader for September and here’s your check. I didn’t know they handed out checks but they do… and it’s $1000 a month to the lead boat which makes it worth winning cause that’s a months worth of fuel.
They also clued me into a junior tournament that I can put Nolan in for free and the juniors play all year with prizes and trophies up for grabs. So I enrolled Nolan into that one and he can play it simultaneously on a national level as we play within the SCGFC as both anglers and for the boat.

Then Rosi went for an overnight trip to Hervey Bay and came back yesterday. He didn’t see a billfish either so I’m going to wait until my next days off to go up there.

Porter and I do want to fish so we are going to head wide from here tomorrow to see what we find. Rumour has it the current is pushing 25+ deg water past us approx 40 miles out. (Another thing I want to point out once is I’m talking nautical miles. Not “miles”. So when I say 40 miles out I mean 74 km cause the conversion is 1.85km/nm). So we will head for the shelf and give it a try. Expectations are very low and the wind isn’t very good but it’s been to long without a good boat ride.

The good news is the gar are back in the canal and the kids and I have been putting them in the freezer as fast as we can. Based on last year I need about a thousand of them before they leave again. Last year they were here from October-December so I’ve got three months to make a years worth of bait.




I’ll throw an update tomorrow. Right now my beer is empty and I need to swim before I crack another one.

[Coiloil37]

Well, it was a nice boat ride. Nothing interesting to report but we gave it a good try. Picked up a few reef species on the banks but didn’t see any pelagic’s. I guess there’s nothing to do but wait until they’re back.

I don’t think your supposed to park your boat like this. It looked to me like it fell off the trailer on its way to the water. There was a lot of gelcoat on the pavement after he left.

[Zip-in-Z]

Happy Turkey Day weekend did you get back to the prairies yet?

Dump the boat on the launch, that's one way to ruin your day. Did you give buddy a pull or push into the water or just seen the results.

D.

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by Zip-in-Z

Happy Turkey Day weekend did you get back to the prairies yet?

Dump the boat on the launch, that's one way to ruin your day. Did you give buddy a pull or push into the water or just seen the results.

D.

Happy thanksgiving to you too David.

I haven’t made it back yet. It’ll be next summer at the earliest, no way I want to deal with winter temps in Alberta.

I didn’t ask if he wanted a tug down into the water. The tide was out and the 4m scull drag to the water would of been bad. He was on the phone the whole time so I figured he had it sorted. Lucky it’s a three lane ramp. He either waited for the tide to come in or winched it onto the truck when it got back. From the mess on the cement he winched it back onto a trailer.

That was a couple days ago when I took the three kids to catch bait and I didn’t really plan on taking a picture of their misfortune. I pulled up and told the boys to stay in the truck. Walked back to trim the motor up and remove the straps, got back into the truck and both boys are gone. The little girl was still strapped into her car seat. Then I look and the oldest is standing on the hand rail to the dock and from experience I know he’s planning on jumping in for a swim. Then I notice the obvious stuff… glasses still on his face and his hat is still on his head, I figured for sure his glasses would fall off and be at the bottom. So I took a pic which got him and the boat. Can’t wait until they’re teenagers.










Rosi sent me a pic of his way back in from Rooney’s point up in Hervey Bay. The water looked premium. I hope it’s that nice in two weeks when I get home from work and those baby blacks better be there waiting for me. If we don’t get some good easterly winds the current won’t push in there and they won’t go into the bay so fingers crossed.






The club awards ceremony was last night. I’m expecting to have some of these in my house next year.

[farmer23]

I just found this thread, absolutely great stories!! I'll be looking forward to new updates.

[Coiloil37]

Seems they’ve arrived.




Tomorrow is the last day of work and I’ll have two weeks to try and stick into them. Seems the 2022 season is about to get started.


On another note. I think I’ve got to take the boat a little further north for some big girls one year. I’ve never been a chubby chaser but these ones get me excited enough to drive up there.





If anyone’s bored this is worth watching

https://youtu.be/S4iqaXUXafE


It’s a documentary on the heavy tackle fishing in cairns.

[Coiloil37]

Well the last few months have been a bust. After that last post I got roped into an extra week of work which only left one week at home. I don’t fish when I’m working 3/1 so no fishing that break. This days off the first week was wet and windy. We’ve finally got a break in the wind tomorrow although they’re calling for 30mm of rain. Rosi, Nolan and I are heading out anyway. We can burn gas and drink beer in the rain if needed. Hopefully it’s not raining 30 miles offshore. I doubt Fraser/Hervey bay will happen this year. Rosi went twice and only managed one little black. From all reports it’s been slow up there. It’s possible the easterly winds never blew the warm water and fish in there. Idk cause I haven’t been.

Due to the wind and rain we’ve hardly caught any gar and the bait freezer is looking pretty bare. I did pick up a couple new lures that we can swim tomorrow.




Idk what we will find but by this time last year the mahi were around. Last I spoke to any of the club members was a week ago and no billfish reported but I’ll do an update tomorrow after we give it a good try. One way or another this seasons getting started.

[58thecat]

Good luck!

Thx for those links too....gonna watch while working out to keep the mind off the pain

[Coiloil37]

Wind forecast said <5 knots and the swell forecast was under a meter. They lied. Wind was nasty, The swell was more then a meter and the chop was all over the show. A guy doesn’t wake up at 0300 to go fishing just to turn around so off we went. It was a slow run out but we it the banks and dropped a spread. Nolan got sick pretty quick and was over the edge of the boat getting rid of his breakfast when the first line went down. Being as he was there he grabbed it and brought us a nice mahi.








We trolled north and shortly after marked some bait. First line went down, second line etc. next thing we’ve got five of the eight hooked up and two of the others were hit but didn’t hook up. We thought we had tuna. I was already thinking about the sashimi and planning on eating some on the boat. Nope, amberjacks. I’ve never even caught an amberjack and we nailed five on the troll. I took one pic of one. He wasn’t the biggest but we had a bit going on so I got a pic and then put the phone down and grabbed another rod.




That was the first time I thought eight lines and two teasers might be to much. Between the chaos and trying to drive the boat it was like a Chinese fire drill.

Anyway we tried to cut across the banks in another spot to avoid them because rigging the gear took time. We missed. They pounced on us again. This time five hit and three hooked up. We landed the three and then got the heck away from them before they ate all our bait.

We then cut north and deeper where Rosi picked up the first marlin of the season. A black around 150kg. We got a tag in it but he then took another run, sounded and we lost it before getting our hands on it for a picture. Luck for us the tag is what we need so that’s number one of the season.




We then trolled for about four hours without a strike. We trolled back across the banks on the way home in a different place and had five lines go down again. Two of them broke off. We got the gear cleared and Nolan got his to the boat first. He had another amberjack. The other two were bigger and giving us trouble so we had to give chase. I passed my rod off to Nolan and drove the boat. The sky’s opened up and we got some crazy rain. To compound the problem we had two directions of swell, a north east and a southerly plus a wind chop from another direction. It was like a washing machine.
After a bit of a chase Nolan passed the rod off to me and I managed to land my first GT.




Rosie’s fish wasn’t giving up so easy and he had to work it for about an hour. Shortly into the fight he called it for a shark but I doubted him because it hit a skirted lure on the troll.








I started watching the fish on the side scan and told Rosie how far off the boat it was. Eventually he brought it up and it was pretty disappointing.







A bronze whaler. Man I hate sharks.


With the gear in the boat and the weather looking pretty bad we pulled the pin and slogged our way back the last 27 miles. The seas were interesting but we made it back safe and sound. Overall a good day, it was a long winter and terrible drought between the last marlin in April and today. Things are looking up.

[Smoky buck]

I would have been happy bringing in a shark but I also don’t have the option to catch them if I want to or not

Good luck out there

[fishinisgood]

Man I enjoy your adventures. I was wondering how your summer was starting. Thanks for the updates. Keep them coming!!

[Coiloil37]

Well this set of days off was a bust. I came home the 21st. The wind was up between 15-20 knots, swell 2+ meters. Christmas came and went as did New Years and the wind hasn’t eased yet. There’s a cyclone about 600k north east pushing down heavy swell, plenty of wind and rain. Back to work this Thursday, I bet the weather will be good shortly after I leave. Currently the fad 10 miles out is reporting nearly 6m swell.

This is the actual wave monitoring buoy.




And the next couple of days





Maybe next days off.

[Sundancefisher]

Two things.

1. Love the thread

2. I’m adoptable.

[Coiloil37]

Originally Posted by Sundancefisher

Two things.

1. Love the thread

2. I’m adoptable.

If you ever find your way over I’ll get you out. Dec-April is the best time for the palegics.


We had a break in the rain today so went for a walk. Pretty snotty out there















Pictures always flatten it out. Idk why but they never show how rough it really is. When I’m looking at a pic taken on the boat I can tell how rough it is based on how far away the water is meeting the horizon but regardless it’s not fishing weather. Really need things to turn around, it’s been prime time for over a month and we’ve got one one trip behind us.

[Coiloil37]

I tend to spend a bit of time thinking about fishing and decided I need to know how many fish we raise that don’t strike. I used to run a GoPro off the dredge but then had to sit and review it after I got home and couldn’t correlate where we were or what we were doing when I saw a fish on the GoPro.

So I’ve bought a fully submersible, waterproof reverse camera system with a 30m cable and 9” colour screen. The tv screen can be configured for 1 to 4 cameras. Initially I’m going to try running one camera off the dredge which tends to run about 6-8m behind the boat and maybe 2m down. If it works and I can see fish back in the spread I’ll run a second one off the other side of the boat on the other side of the prop wash. The plan here is to see when we have fish in the spread. How many window shoppers we get compared to strikes and use that information to tweak the presentation or to know when we aren’t fishing in the right area. I’ll likely keep a pitch bait handy as well to feed back to any fish that don’t eat something we are pulling when they show up.

I expect to be able to see about 20-30m under water (horizontally) so if this works I should get some useful data. If it doesn’t work it will become my underwater camera for the reef. I may build a waterproof box for the camera if I’m dropping it 20-30m because it probably wasn’t really designed for those pressures but seeing the reef in real time would be helpful too.

[Coiloil37]

Well I got out with porter the other day. The cyclone had just finished going past and there was a small window of possibly fishable weather before it blew up again.

We had a tough slog out. Swell was between 2-3 meters and there was a fair bit of chop on top. We finally got out to the banks after about an hour and a half as I could only handle about 18 knots running into it. Time for a bigger boat…

It was tough trolling north up the banks because nothing wanted to swim well and we were running into a head sea. A lot of the swell was well over my head when I was standing up. When we tried to zig zag in the trough the spread would get blown all to one side. Bites were slow and hard to come by. We picked up a Spaniard around 8 am and had two missed strikes on the shotgun of which one was a marlin and one was a mystery. We trolled north up to the hards, turned east out to around 300m of water, back south (trolling with the seas was more comfortable but the speed is sporadic because you slow down climbing waves and speed up surfing down them) and then turned in toward the banks. Just wide of the banks we trolled over some bait and a mark 30m down that looked like a billfish. It took him about 25 seconds to hit something but the shotgun fired and porter managed a little black around 50kg. We then continued in toward shore without another strike. Just inside the banks we pulled the gear and headed home.

We marked bait everywhere but saw a lot wide of the hards. Nothing was balled up though, it all looked pretty happy. We did mark a lot more down 100+m and saw some billfish amongst them but nothing was swimming up to eat from our buffet. Couldn’t find anything within 30-50m of surface that we could pull a fish off.



I got my tow camera the next day so hopefully that idea works and we can see what’s in the spread moving forward.






And the little Spaniard.





Wind needs to settle down. The season is over a third done and we’ve managed two trips out and two fish. It was rough but a bit of a bonus trip, I’m supposed to be at work but got sick shortly before I went back so took a week of sickies off.

[58thecat]

Gotta luv sick days!!!

But man ruff seas suck!


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[Coiloil37]

Well I got roped into another five days of work so I only got home two days ago. Yesterday looked pretty good so we headed out at 04:00 to give it a try




The chop was minimal and the swell was manageable on a 10 second interval so we made good time. Put the spread in the water and trolled north, 6 miles up the banks without a sniff.

We marked a ton of bait and Spaniard sized fish but couldn’t entice a bite so we kept steaming north toward the hards. Out in about 100m of water we had a strike on the shotgun. I gave him strike drag and he dropped it. I played cat and mouse with him and he picked it up two more times but somehow the hook never set.

A few miles further we had another strike on the shotgun and a ~8-10kg mahi started jumping. I passed it off to Nolan and it got off a few minutes later.

Another pass of the area and another mahi of a similar size hooked up. Again Nolan jumped on the rod and it threw the hook within seconds even though he was peeling drag at the same time.

We kept steaming and eventually found a current line. We tucked into it and within a few minutes a little black started jumping on the shotgun. I set the hook while yelling at Nolan to wake up. Eventually he woke up, took the rod and we cleared the deck then started the chase. We got back within 300m of it and it ran at the boat, line went slack and he was gone.

We redeployed and a few minutes later the shotgun went off again. I manned the rod, we cleared the gear and I got him into the boat. Rosie planted the tag and grabbed him. Being as Rosie had the gloves on I took the pics instead of grabbing it. Bill rash sucks and I’ve got enough pictures of myself holding little fish.








Then Rosie tells me he’s been having good luck with two specific lures so he pulls them out. I noticed the actual hooks weren’t keel weighted and last year we had horrible conversions on lures with hooks that weren’t keel weighted but I figured it was worth a try. We got the spread back out and had another 8-10 marlin strikes. A couple were between the shotgun and skipping gar and at least four were on the pair of lures he suggested. It was now pushing noon and we had to leave the current line and head south again. A couple hours trolling south yielded nothing until we were getting close to cutting back in toward the banks when we had another strike on the brad J mini sprocket Rosie had brought. It didn’t hook up but usually they also smack the shotgun when it rolls past. The shotgun fired but again it pinched the bait but somehow managed to miss the hook set. We circled back through and had the skipping gar smashed without a hookup.

Seems we had days like this last year. Enough action the day would be a roaring success if we could convert the strikes to fish but???? Almost like we forgot to put hooks in the baits.

We trolled until 15:00 then pulled the gear and ran back in.

The wind isn’t looking good for the rest of my break but it might change. I’ve also got at least two months of working 3/1 thanks to a few staffing issues so my bill fishing season isn’t looking very good for the rest of the year. By April they’ll all be gone again so time will tell how this plays out.

Regardless it was a joy to have a nice day on the water without brutal seas. The action was steady enough to keep us busy and there are a few fish out there.

[Coiloil37]

I’ve wanted a swordfish since long before I moved here. They’re a bucket list fish for me along with a dogtooth tuna. I had read about daytime deep dropping, bought the gear (less an electric reel) and porter and I had given it a few tries out in ~330m of water last winter.

Couple months ago I went to one of the club monthly meetings. The guest speaker was a long liner named tony. He “accused” the group of only fixating on marlin and informed the club there was a vibrant sword fishery off our coast that NOBODY has exploited. Of the entire group I was the only person in the room who had even tried daytime deep dropping for them.
He discussed techniques and areas and was very specific to start in at least 500m of water. After the presentation I spoke with him and told him what I’ve tried and it sounded like I was on the right track but needed to go deeper.

I planned and still plan to try in the winter as the current slows down and there are more relatively calm days out there.


Regardless, there was at least one person in that room who decided to give it a try and he’s done alright for himself. There certainly are a few swords swimming around out there and I’m looking forward to being able to tangle with the gladiator of the sea this winter.

[Coiloil37]

Well porter and I went out for a kick at the cat yesterday. It was supposed to be <5 knot winds in the morning and blow up to 15-20 knots around 13:00.
We were heading out of the river at 04:00 and the rollers coming past the river mouth were, um, large. And breaking. The boat in front of us turned around.
I tried timing my exit between a set, cut left and got away from where they were breaking before turning east to run out. The swell was large but there wasn’t any wind chop. The waves were square with a back on em and once out past the breakers it was pretty good. I looked at the live wave monitoring site when I got home and it said the swell was between 5-6 meters that morning. It was like running up and down hills though without any chop, we didn’t fly off the top of them and punched out at about 25 knots.

We dropped a spread on the banks and I was just putting the last line out when we had a rod go down. I grabbed it and a second line came tight. I brought my fish to the boat and found a 3-4 kg yellowfin. Porters fish felt bigger but he lost it before we saw it. I got the lines out again and we made another pass. Two more lines hooked up. I landed mine, got a quick pic of porter on the rod and he managed to get his in the boat as well.





We circled the area a couple more times trying to find the school and picked up three mahi all between 80-90cm. No pics of them in the boat (or the tuna) but I got one pic of a mahi on the line behind the boat. Either way the kill tank was looking good.





A couple more laps and all we managed was a mutton bird who swooped in to take a gar, got wrapped up in the line and we had to drag him in to release it. They bite when you grab em, ungrateful birds.





We then started trolling north toward the hards. By 8:00 the wind started to pick up and the ocean got choppy. To make matters worse the swell was from the east and the wind from the west so the chop and swell were opposite each other and the sea state was confused. It was hard to get anything to swim right and we did a lot of banging. There was also a lot of spray coming into the boat but we soldiered on. Around 9 we passed Rosie in his boat up by the hards. He had one good wahoo and a missed strike but hadn’t seen a billfish.
We trolled all day, the only thing we caught was a skipjack which got filleted for bait. About 14:30 we had a strike on the long corner that didn’t hook up but we had bill chafe on the leader so it would of been a marlin. The wind was howling, somewhere around 20-30 knots and the seas were gross so we pulled the gear and made our way home running with a beam sea taking the spray over my side of the boat which kept my sunglasses wet most of the ride in.

Overall, the morning was great. The sashimi and yellowfin was much appreciated but the billfish continue to frustrate us. Maybe next time.

The tuna






And Rosie’s neighbour holding the wahoo they caught.

[58thecat]

What an adventure!

-37 here today.

No ice fishing too cold!

I would take rough seas over this I think


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