Bucket list fishing 2020- January Update
After a good year of fishing in 2019, chasing bucket list species I have decided to attempt a bigger and more challenging bucket list in 2020.
After falling short last year with some of the more challenging species I have decided this year to make two key changes to my approach.
Fishing with purpose-
Like any pursuit fishing success can be put down to two key factors To improve catch rates, fishing with purpose will be a tactic applied heavily this year. This will mean applying a more scientific approach, considering all facets of the target species and selected location.
2. Do the miles-
After fishing distant locations late in 2019 it is clear that in order to have great success you must be prepared to put the effort in and travel to remote localities, this will be the year of distant locations as the old adage says “ do the miles to get the smiles”.
January Update:
Blue Fin Tuna – after three unsuccessful attempts the 4th time was the charm, fishing out from victor we headed out with many birds around, it was not long until we found a school with two boats on it. On our first run past I hooked up on a 160mm Halco landing a 10kg fish quickly.
By this stage another 4 boats had arrived and it was chaos- time to find another school.
I spotted another school after two laps Dad had hooked up on the skirt- unfortunately loosing the fish after 5 minutes on the line.
We then moved to the next school we spotted of which dad hooked up on a Halco 160mm and landed a good fish of around 15kgs.
We then spent the next hour trolling schools unsuccessfully, on one pass a casted a 95mm double clutch into the school which hooked up and unfortunately my knot was not up to the task, snapping on the first run.
I then spotted a bust up a long way off and we headed the 5kms west to where the birds were. On arrival it was quite with only a few birds overhead, we put the lures out and started a blind troll. Within 30 seconds I was on to a much better fish and after an 8 minute fight I had landed a 16kg fish. We then did another circle of the area and dad hooked up at the exact same spot, landing a similar sized fish. With our 4 fish landed it was time to head back to the ramp.
A great day out on the Tuna.
Yellow-tailed Kingfish
After hearing many reports about kingies harassing many Jetty anglers on the Yorke Peninsula it was time to go test the waters. Arriving mid-afternoon I went for a dive and got some scallops to have for dinner to accompany our crabs and yellowfin whiting caught on our way to our destination.
At 5 30am it was go time down to the jetty with cubed pilchards, I saw 2 kingies cruising around and cubed pilchards trying to raise excitement. This worked soon my 4000 Aird was screaming with a solid rat on the end. However after 90 seconds of the tussle I could not raise the head and the kingfish went head down into the pylons, ping – damn it there goes my opportunity – I packed up moping.
Attempt 2 – again At 5 30am it was go time. This morning we were in luck, within 15 minutes of being at the jetty a school of nearly 20 rat kings shot past. I quickly grabbed the first rod I had and cast out at the school.
This was a mistake , with my snook outfit ( 2500 Diawa Aird – 10lb braid and a white Rapala xr8 minnow) I was always under gunned. wind, wind, wind bang, hooked up to a solid rat, this fight was going well until he saw the pylons and ping.
However from then on it was Mayhem I hooked 10 fish during the next 45 minutes landing 2 kingies at 55, 57cms. Courtney too got to hook up and feel the power of a rat. This was an awesome session
Yellowfin whiting-
I had great fun chasing this species during January. I caught all my yellowfin on live clickers, finding a running sinker and single hook to be most successful. Most fish were caught within a water depth of 45cms or less.
They certainly fight hard and it is imperative to have your drag as light as you can in-order to not pull the hook during violent headshakes.
Trevally and King George whiting:
While fishing a productive inshore reef system I managed to land many trevally with only one going above 30cms. While targeting trevally I hooked a much larger fish on a cube of pilchard, I thought certain it would be a rugger snapper, but to my surprise it was a horse of an inshore KGW measuring 41cms.
What a bonus that was
