Quality Not Quantity

[slinkymalinky]

Autocad (aka Scott) got in touch with me to tee up some time on the water while he was on the Gold Coast with his family for a holiday. The weather forecast for today was for heavy rain and 10-15kt winds... as you can see, the bureau got it nearly spot on.

autocad battling the wild weather...

We met up at the Southport ramp a little before 5am (got to love the great boat ramps and facilities in this part of the world)... said g'day, then zipped out to the Seaway to flick plastics along the wall.

The tide was heading out and a 3m swell was heading in. Not a problem tucked in against the South wall but we saw a couple of cowboys try to get out in small boats. A couple of big charter vessels went out through the breaking water in the washing machine entrance (seasick tourists for sure) but the little guys were crazy.

I opened up with a just-under flattie on a 4" peal watermelon Powerbait.

Then a little further into the drift, Scott's light outfit let out a squeal and one look at the bend in his Loomis had me pushing us away from the wall with the leccy.

Plenty of down low grunt and short runs had me calling it for a Jack or a Trevally... but after some good rod work, up popped a beautifully marked Spangled Emperor that went 41cm. A first for Scott and a Raider record on lures

Scott was pretty happy but despite there being a ravenous horde of small fish decimating my plastics, it went quiet after his fish came aboard.

We made a move as the inevitable weekend boat traffic began to switch the Seaway to its spin cycle. there was plenty of bait (small whitebait) and bream feeding on the surface over some of the flats... but the conditions were glassed out and all we could manage were a couple of half hearted taps and follows on pencil poppers and Chubbies.

The ripples in the pic are schools of whitebait...

I managed to pick up a micro flattie and then, Scott hooked up solidly and had me scrambling for the net. With all my experience and local knowledge, I was calling the big dead-weight fight for a big Flattie or maybe even a Ray. Instead, a bit of slick net work brought in a trophy lump of oyster covered rock (in my defence, Scott managed to hook it on a sand bank where I've never ever seen any hard structure before!! )

At the mouth of the Pimpama River on the last gasp of the run-out tide, a small bream... but sadly that was it.

Scott had family commitments so we had to get back in early and while we didn't get many fish, the Emperor was a great bonus. Nice meeting you and fishing with you, Scott.

Cheers, Slinky

[johnno]

Awesome report boys

[Jewhunter]

Great stuff Boys!!

It's always hard fishing the Goldy on a w/end but that Spangled is a nice reward.

So Slinky, tell me, how many decent fish did you actually catch? How many times did you get dusted? Are we fishing for jew in the Seaway next w/end at night?!

Well done Scott. Glad you got out with Slinky & did o.k in tough conditions. I don't know how you put up with him wearing that shirt though!

Cheers,

Grant.

[arpie]

Great read, Slinky! Congrats to Scott on his terrific Spangled Emporer ..... shame the oyster fish didn't put up a better fight!

Nice flattie & widdle bweam, Tony! The biggies will be there the next time. Well done on braving some tough conditions! We almost had gale force winds on the lake yesterday - I felt a bit vulnerable!

Cheerio

Roberta

[Day's Fishin]

Nice shirt Slinky, did you wear it to add a bit of glow to an advertised dreary day? Nice spangled emporer, I've never caught one, Do they look like a snapper when coming up? how do they fight?

Regards Jeff

[autocad]

I've just gotten back from the airport after a few delays and driving home in peakhour in sydney. Sure is different to the gold coast.

The fishing on the gold coast was an added bonus to what was an excellent holiday with the family.

Thanks to Tony for putting up the report and taking me out on his boat. It was an amazing experience fishing with someone who knows what he is doing and I learnt so much in such a short amount of time.

The day on the water started at 3am!!! as i had forgotten to change the time on my phone after arriving in QLD. So I tried to put myself back to sleep, but that didn't work, as I was all hyped up about fishing with the great man. So I went down into the garage, and played with the limited tackled, I was allowed to bring on the plane.

So an hour early I drove, down to Southport and met Tony who was already at the ramp.

A quick hello, and off we were away to the seaway. Anticipation for me was beyond description, as I was ready to catch my first fish from the Gold Coast.

Once, we were on the Seaway, Tony demonstrated what to do, and I was away trying to imitate somthing similar. A few changes of jig heads, was in order for me, as the current was alot stronger than I had anticipated.

Tony managed to get quite alot of hits as well as a small flatty. But I was not even getting a touch. I realised that I was not hitting bottom, so I cast further upcurrent and let the SP sink and gave it a few hard rips. Then wham, I had a fish on!!!. It felt like a train on the 2kg loomis and Tony skillfully, moved the boat into open water. The fish gave the little tierra a few strong runs. Tony was calling for a trevally or a snapper but up came a spangled emperor. To say I was over the moon, would be an understatement.

After a few snaps and it was put in the livewell to show the wife that I was actually going fishing and not to the night club

We moved several times, as Tony tried to get me onto my first fish on pencils but the amount of fresh water in the system as well as the very low tide, made fishing the flats quite hard.

After a few phone calls from the saying that the kids are ready to head to Movie World, I had to get back to the ramp by 9:30am...

I would like to say a huge tanks to Tony for taking time out to fish with a fellow raider and I will not forget my first spangled emperor in a hurry. I hope to catch up with you again soon Tony...

cheers Scott

Edited February 9, 2010 by autocad

[tide'n'knots]

good on ya slinky for getting another raider out for a fish! nice spangly too.

pete