First Fads run
Well this is a very rare occurance for me - went out and caught what we were targeting!
The weather on Wednesday looked too good to pass up with less than 4 knots most of the day and a very tolerable swell.
Up at home at 0420, on the road by 0504 and met one of my mates from work at the ramp at 0535. We were in the water on the way shortly after to the markers at the southern end of the cockburn channel to catch some bait (never done that before and jeez there were so many fish there!) which was midly successful. With a few fish in the tank, we headed out to the northern of the two Rockingham Fads (because the Woodies ones are missing).
1.5 hours after leaving Herring Bay, we arrived on site and could see the fish just under the surface and threw in a pair of lures and trolled past where we could see them for an immedate hook up.
Our first glimpse got the blood pumping and even though it was smaller (600mm), it was still damn exciting and it was shortly at the boat where i netted it.......resulting in the lure getting stuck in the net and the fish flicking its way out and after one slap against the hull, swimming away happily......shit!
After apologising, we went for another loop and fairly quickly hooked up again to a very similar sized fish and after seeing it was hooked well, avoided the net and lifted it into the boat....where in mid air it shook, the hooks pulled....but thankfully this time the boat landed on the dry side of the boat and we offically had our first dolly!
Cheers and hugs and a quick photo and it was dispatched and put into the fish bag, which was christened after getting it for my birthday in late August.....yah ha!
So it was now 0830 and did a heap more loops around the northern fad, saw heaps of fish and with two boats of divers around, played nicely with the 5 divers in the water, watching them catch fish. We had a decent unspoken routene in where they their divers went in and we gave them 100m before starting our run. It worked out which was a concern of mine i.e. what we would do if there were already boats there (there was one boat there).
After not getting any hits on a variety of lures, we cast in a livey which immediately managed to unhook itself......
Then cast in our other one which was immediately belted by a decent fish and after a tussle let go, only to be picked up by another dolly who i had another tussle with before it also let go. Turns out i need to let them not just take the fish but eat it rather than just hold on. Unfortunately mr Slimy Mac was mangled.
Over the next two hours, we tried everything. Managed to catch 4 stupid birds but packed up and headed across to the southern of the two fads where there was one boat drifting around. There were immediately fish there and we just couldnt temp them with poppers, divers, pink squid looking things, stick baits or bits of mulie which the damn birds kept diving for.
In the end, on the last drop, I managed to get a chunk of slimy mack deep enough past where the birds could go and in the clarity under the boat, watched a decent fish swim up to it, have a look, swim past and have a look the other way, then the other way and finially take it. I have it 20m and yanked to set the hooks and we were on!
There was no stuffing around with nets after an entertaining fight with some jumping my mate gaffed the fish and we had our second at 830mm
That got us another 10 minutes of catching birds before we pulled the pin. Headed north to the first fad, saw some fish, caught some birds but then we were done, heading ENE to the rotto fish tower and without troubling the score card, headed back in to the ramp, with the session done at ~1430.
Overall, 91 nautical miles, 115l of fuel consumed and the motor running for 7.5 hours.
What amazed me was:
1: How sloppy it was out at the fad with some quite uncomfortable chop running against the current, even in the near glass out conditions,
2: A seemingly 50m deep canyon in 200m of water (200m deep just dropped near vertically over ~20m to 250m, then gradually coming back up to 180m).
3: How much the swell condition improved once we were in less than 50m of water
4: How much current is running with only a 1 degree change in water temperature
5: I actually caught a fish!
Faulkner Family
Posts: 17870
Date Joined: 11/03/08
Sounds like you had a great
Sounds like you had a great day even tho only a couple of fish were boated. Would have been a smooth ride out with those terrible conditions
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
sea-kem
Posts: 14859
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Bloody beautiful Paul, they
Bloody beautiful Paul, they are excellent on the chew!
Love the West!
beeroclock
Posts: 733
Date Joined: 22/08/12
Good to see you got a couple of dollies out from under
those bloody birds out there they are definitely a giant pain in the arse. Ive seen guys out there with super soaker guns trying to blast the birds away from back of the boat before dropping a bait! still didnt work they not scared and you probs saw how bloody deep the little bastards can dive for your bait. What we do is we dice up a packet of mulies (even show the birds the mulies before dicing up) then dice into real small pieces. Once you got your drift ready one person throws hand fulls of diced mulies as far back and to the right as you can to heard the birds over there. At same time drop mulies (i prefer scalies) straight down on a heavy sinker on left side of boat dont let birds see you do it if you can. Almost always hook up doing that. Cheers
Swompa
Posts: 3786
Date Joined: 14/10/12
We found at one point, I cast
We found at one point, I cast a popper that attracted the birds while my mate dropped his bait.
I also tried a bait on a soft plastic hook (weighted) but nothing looked at it.
It was a successful trip out. Good test for the boat and confidence builder for me.
Dhunitright
Posts: 8
Date Joined: 24/12/23
Good Going mate. Done a few
Good Going mate. Done a few FADS trips now, havnt been able to get into a dolly myself. Agree they are top chewing!
Woodsy65
Posts: 162
Date Joined: 21/05/15
Excellent write up Swompa
I did a run out to the Mandurah FADs on Tuesday for the first time. Caught a 1060 and two 700's - was blooody awesome.
Casting lures didnt work, Floating a bait didnt work - yep, those pesky birds, A trolled pink skirt did the damage.
A long way to go but was worth it.
Swompa
Posts: 3786
Date Joined: 14/10/12
Awesome! Decent fish!I did
Awesome! Decent fish!
I did try a pink skirt for a few moments but was in the midst of organising an unspoken routine with another boat and pulled mine out to simplify the task.
This run was partially a Abrolhos test to see consumption and i was pleased to essentially go Geraldton to Abros to Gero to Abros and use just over 1/3 of a tank of fuel (based on consumption but 1/2 a tank according to the gauge)
Woodsy65
Posts: 162
Date Joined: 21/05/15
I would post a pic but cant
I would post a pic but cant work out how to atm.
Yeah the pink skirt did all the damage but we were very fortunate that we were the only boat there. I was dreading to do the big run out and find other boats already there.
1st Excitement was no other boats
2nd Excitment was to actually see the Mahi Mahi cruising around
3rd was obviously to catch some.
Good luck with the Abrolhos run, its been on my list also and would hit you up to tag along for the trip over/back if I thought I had half a chance of being available and organised.
Look forward to your write up after Abrolhos.
Swompa
Posts: 3786
Date Joined: 14/10/12
Cheers Mate. This FAD run was
Cheers Mate.
This FAD run was partially to remind myself on the real life fuel consumption because I had seen some odd display on the fuel gauge (like it showing 2/3 full when the fuel is coming out the breather), so i was able to reset everything at absoloutely full and go from there.
She is certainly a different boat with 300l of fuel in the back than the normal 100 or so that I keep in it, letalone for the Abros trip where we will have 2 adults, 2 kids and all our water + food + bedding etc.
I will certainly put it up on here when we plan to go but the conditions will have to be absoloute glamour as the deckie (wife) is perticularly anxious about this one and will never agree to it again if the weather gods dont turn it on. I have made it perfectly clear that if we get to Geraldton and the forecast has changed, we will do a day trip and then evaluate, or just turn around and camp on the way home if it just wont work out.
Da pirate
Posts: 1523
Date Joined: 03/05/15
Good report..
Good report mate ! Sounds like a good
trip aswell .. cheers pirate
Brock O
Posts: 3166
Date Joined: 11/01/08
Yeah good write up Swampa..fk
Yeah good write up Swampa..fk you make me laugh. Need to buy a lotto ticket mate.
But in saying that there some good info there for those not aware of the bird issue, we not only have a shark issue but birds also..lol
Glad ya landed a couple and enjoyed the day on the boat!
straith
Posts: 401
Date Joined: 25/11/13
great report mate!
was hoping to get out to fads on 1st autumn windless days but work work frickin work...only days i had off deckies all working too , glad to see someone took advantage of it
uncle
Posts: 9355
Date Joined: 10/02/07
Good fun aren't they
always good to be out there, when there on there on
all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs
davewillo
Posts: 2258
Date Joined: 08/09/16
Good write-up Paul! Takes a
Good write-up Paul! Takes a bit to work out the best way to fish the FADs. Divers make it bloody hard and the fish go quiet for obvious reasons!
Livebaits are usually the best because of mutton birds. I've heard a supersoaker with that Halco flourescent catch scent sorts them out but I've never tried. One day we trolled between the FAD's for marlin and of course dollies when we got close. Got 14 hits for 8 hookups and a few landed. 12 of those hits were on pink skirts and the other 2 had some pink in them. I actually watched fish swim right through the spead of lures to get to the pink on the other side!
Good for the confidence and should help with teh Abrolhos trip. A mate went to the islands yesterday in a 8.5m Naiad which is a big run in open boat, albeit a very capable one.
PGFC member and lure tragic
Swompa
Posts: 3786
Date Joined: 14/10/12
The young bloke has added a
The young bloke has added a FAD trip onto his bucket list so we will venture to the Club Marine one tomorrow. It is the closest so i expect a fair bit of company. I will tow around a pink skirt and see what happens. Cheers Dave.
davewillo
Posts: 2258
Date Joined: 08/09/16
Good stuff! A mate went to
Good stuff! A mate went to that FAD recently and there were no fish there so hopefully you find some Paul.
PGFC member and lure tragic
Swompa
Posts: 3786
Date Joined: 14/10/12
No fish out there on friday
No fish out there on friday because there was no FAD.
Long putt in shitty conditions....but I will throw that in a seperate post.
davewillo
Posts: 2258
Date Joined: 08/09/16
I had heard one was missing.
I had heard one was missing. Shame it had to be the one you went to!
PGFC member and lure tragic