# Long Reef 6/5



## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Kraley was there when I arrived. On The Edge, paulb, and sbd arrived in good time, with JT bringing up the rear. Ken got on the water first to get some squid before sun up. sbd was next and I was third.

I paddled past sbd, who was sorting out a bait jig. Had a chat to Kraley, who had a nice squid on board and was rigging the head for business. So I took off for Good Property, confident that the five pedallers would soon catch up to me in the excellent conditions (1/2m chop, negligible swell, 10-15kt NW). Arrived and looked around - noone following. Got onto the UHF - out of range. Wusses! (sp?)

Had trolled a large popper and CD9 in mullet out for nothing. Swapped over to a nitro jig head and 5" gulp jerk shad in nuclear chicken and a "Gillies 60" metal, enhanced with an assist hook. The sp was meant to go to the bottom but proved too light so I swapped over to a 3/8oz TT revhead.

I jigged the gillies - just drop straight to the bottom, varying between 45 and 55m on the drift. Second drop it got hit hard just off the bottom. A spirited fish but the 20lb gear overpowered it easily and I quickly had a green bonito in the yak. At one point in trying to manage it the fish was between my legs and bit the crutch of my trousers! It missed my vital parts.

I kept at the same for a couple of hours - was drifting around 1kph then paddling back to the mark. Hooked a small sgt baker and flathead on the metal, both falling off the hook when alongside the yak. Swapped over to a 30yr old large orange bucktail jig but nothing on that.

The GPS function on my FF/GPS packed it in. Would work when switched on then fail after a few minutes. With being alone and not knowing how I was drifting, I headed in to see if the others were at the Wall. No sign of them, and unable to raise anyone on the UHF, I headed in. The paddle back into the NW seemed a lot longer than the paddle out!

Got within sight of the launch spot and Pauly called me on the radio. Thanks for looking out for me!

A few pics.


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

Long way out there Dave,

Next time you guys head out there try trawling along the beach, there are some nice big jews around there.

Cheers Dave


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

Beautiful conditions to be out there this morning - no sign of the sand monster.

I went to try and obtain some occupants for the bait tube - half an hour of fiddling with bait jigs for zip. Pauly had bought squid to share, so I headed out to try that. I managed to tear a fin (mirage drive) in shallow, reefy water - the drive still worked, but I was no longer keen to go too far out.

Go out to the wall where plenty of boats were trying their luck. I caught a few rock cods etc on SPs, then hooked up to something large on the squid. Five mins later the hooks pulled, back to square one. I threw out the old faithful pilchard, and came up tight on a nice trevally (41cm). Into the bag goes my first comp entry. Out with another pilchard, then Ken yells "you're on". After a brief tussle, a rat king was in the yak. I've got 60 cm marked on my paddle, but I couldn't stretch him to fit - my guess is about 58cm. Put him back to turn into a big one.

We continued to drift for another hour or so, then went closer in, where paulb, OTE & JT were harassing the local wrasse population. We all decided to head back in, and I deployed the (empty) bait tube to try towing it. I'll have to fiddle with the towing point to see if i can get it to tow more upright, but the resistance wasn't too bad (especially considering the split fin).

Back off the water by 1030 am. Scanned the horizon for Peril, but no sign. We saw a couple of XOS kingfish on the cleaning table so there were some decent fish out there, but not for us today.


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## paulb (Nov 12, 2006)

Hi Peril, by the time we got around to the front of the reef, we'd lost site of you and Ken amongst all the other boats out there.

I was testing out my FishFinder/GPS (thanks for setting up the co-ordinates!) which worked perfectly first time. Just as I got in to the middle of the boats, the GPS beeped to tell me I'd arrived at the pre-programmed destination (first way point). Each time I drifted more than 100 meters past the last of the boats, the GPS would tell me I've strayed from the target. In hindsight I could have just used the boats as a guide - but that wouldn't have been as much fun. :lol:

There seemed to be a little surface action and lots of schools of bait - but I didn't hook into anything (other than a few wrasse and a rock cod). I did get one very hard sharp hit as I was closer to the shore, but whatever it was just bit through the line - it was over so quick, I hadn't even started to raise the rod to strike - even though I was holding it. The fish finder showed my first and only fish arch a second later .....

I was using fresh squid and had expected to at least hook up with a few small snapper, or something other than wrasse - but it was not to be. I'm not sure if the drift was just a little too fast today.

It was good to be out and catch up with everyone - see you all again soon!


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## hoit (Aug 29, 2005)

kraley said:


> Beautiful day out there, if you could lose the motorboats, spearos, and assorted other idjits....


I know how you feel Kraley. I reckon I'm turning into a cranky old bastard these days. 

In any case its good to see a bunch of Sydney based guys get out together. Its been hard to arrange a group trip for the Mangoes lately.

Regards
Grant


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

Dave , if your going to keep going out that far , i think you had better take your passport with you :shock: :shock: , i really didnt think you would have any luck with that old feather jig , i dont think they were really that successful in their day


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Good to read the various reports, and realise if there is one advantage to being long in the tooth, it's the chance to fish while the main crowd are at work mid week :wink:

How wide is Good Property Dave, those headlands seem guite a distance in your pics


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## Dan A (Aug 29, 2005)

Looks like a good day on the water there Dave, shame about the GPS but at least you got onto a fish.

How far out did you paddle to reach that depth?

Dan


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Dodge said:


> How wide is Good Property Dave, those headlands seem guite a distance in your pics





Dan A said:


> Looks like a good day on the water there Dave, shame about the GPS but at least you got onto a fish.
> 
> How far out did you paddle to reach that depth?
> 
> Dan


Good Property is about 6km out, the Wall is 2km out.

I guess that means that I was halfway to the FAD! A couple more trips like that one and similarly good conditions and a paddle out to the FAD is not out of the question next summer


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

kraley said:


> Oh - and I caught a new species. Large octupus (sorry, no piccies). It fought like a large wet bag of garbage but looked pretty cool when I finally got it to the surface


Ken, I will pay premium beer for a good large octopus. I have a couple of kick-arse recipes that never fail to impress. Getting good ones from the fish markets these days is no simple task.

What did the guy say when he hit you? Should have reported him to Maritime for negligent navigation


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## Dan A (Aug 29, 2005)

Peril said:


> Dodge said:
> 
> 
> > How wide is Good Property Dave, those headlands seem guite a distance in your pics
> ...


Wow long way, I was only 500metres or so out and thought I was long way, next time I might go a little further and get deeper.

Dan


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## Jeffo (Sep 10, 2006)

I really thought you guys might have nailed it this weekend, conditions seemed great & reports seemed to point to fish being around

Nice work on what you did get, congrats on the big paddle effort Dave.

Cheers

Jeffo


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

A few pics...


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

well done on the bonnie dave, but a pity about the lack of fish in general. I really thought you guys would have nailed it yesterday morning... Any bird activity???


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## aleg75 (Dec 20, 2005)

Peril said:


> At one point in trying to manage it the fish was between my legs and bit the crutch of my trousers! It missed my vital parts.


 :shock:

Hurts when the equipment we rely on so heavily fails! hope you get the problem sorted out!

Ash


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

aleg75 said:


> Peril said:
> 
> 
> > At one point in trying to manage it the fish was between my legs and bit the crutch of my trousers! It missed my vital parts.
> ...


We're talking GPS here, right?

Just had a thought about that. While out on the water, I turned the output of my UHF up from Low to High. It was after that that the GPS started failing. A quick search of the net revealed circumstances in which UHF antennas have caused GPS interference to the extent of the GPS failing.

Given that this is the first time I've used the two together, interference is a distinct possibility. Will have to do some testing to verify this but it looks like I may have a simple fix - turn down the power on the radio.


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## paulb (Nov 12, 2006)

Talking of interference, both SBD & I had similar same brand sonar & when we came within 5 metres or so of each other our sounders started playing up - I guess we were picking up each others reflections.


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## DGax65 (Jun 7, 2006)

Peril
I would think that the interference would only be temporary. You really aren't putting out any power unless you're transmitting. The max power output from your radio is probably only 5 or 6 watts in the high power setting. I doubt that is enough to cause any lasting effects with the GPS.


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

DGax65 said:


> Peril
> I would think that the interference would only be temporary. You really aren't putting out any power unless you're transmitting. The max power output from your radio is probably only 5 or 6 watts in the high power setting. I doubt that is enough to cause any lasting effects with the GPS.


Doug, apparently the power to the antenna, necessary to receive, can be enough to cause the interference. Max power output is only 1W. Agree there won't be any damage, if that is the problem


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## JT (May 25, 2006)

kraley said:


> Peril said:
> 
> 
> > kraley said:
> ...


Bollocks!!!

I have seen it before. The 1000 yard stear once they realise that they have been negligent. Oh....was that you down there??!! That is why I carry an air horn and other stuff. I was remarking to OTE that you Ken were seriously lost in the sun as a stink boat raced out to sea. Ken, I could barely see you as you were lost against the sun and the Quintrex was pounding towards you. I was actually quite worried about you.

It was actually getting a little scary as OTE and I at one point counted 20 to 30 boats going full tilt on a diving/fishing contest. They were so dense that OTE thought that they were white caps!

It is all about being visible and frankly sticking together.

Perhaps a big old flag out of a scupper hold on a fibreglass pole is the go???

JT


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## Pauly (Jun 28, 2006)

As the rest of the guys have said, Great morning on the water however a little tough on the fish front... managed a small rock cod on sp and a nice looking wrasse (awsome colours) on squid strips, came back in and packed up to see Peril coming back towards the ramp... Got home after 3 phone calls asking me to pick up various items en route to spend the next 2 days moving (it's currently 10:14pm Monday) and I finally have finished! 
SOO happy I made it out for a fish before the move....
Pauly


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Update on my GPS. Tested it this evening without the UHF on. It failed after a few minutes. Its going in for repair


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## Cuda (Sep 18, 2006)

Hey Kraley, the best way I have seen an "occy" despatched is to grab the beast by the top of its noggin and very quickly cut the head off with a sharp knife :twisted: Of course it would be a bit tricky in a yak and if Occy is reading this post, no offence mate 8) 
Yer damn right about them being scary critters Kraley :shock:


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## JT (May 25, 2006)

It sure was nice to be out on the water. Pretty lean on the fish front which everyone has pretty much articulated. I was tossing plastics and a cool new metal slug I bought (Gorilla) around, chased some birds that were working the water in a pretty half ar5#d way and fished with some squid. My squid kept getting bitten to oblivion by pickers as I was using a coupe of decent sized hooks hoping for a Kingy.

It eventually got to the point where I didn't want to return to shore mumbling stuff about only wanting to catch decent sized fish which is why I was fishing big gear which is why I didn't actually catch anything. I put on a much smaller rig and started messing with the rock cod and wrasse. Fun but no keepers.

Peril shot off into the distance and none of us could raise him on the UHF. Pleased to see him back in one piece after his solo attempt to make NZ. The reality was that there were so many boats on the water that he could have walked across them to make it back.

A few pics. A nice little morning and I look forward to the next.

JT


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