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Rented boat from Bullock Harbour 6th/09/2005

PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 10:59 am
by danceswithwolves
People: Me, Jim and Richie

Duration: 4 hours 11.30 - 3.30

Tide: full tide at about 12:30

Weather: A beautiful sunny day, no wind

Bait: fresh mackerel


Rigs: shrimp mackerel traces.

Results:
Plenty of mackerel, 1 coalfish, 2 doggies


Report:
After a few pints on Saturday night we decided to all take the day off work and go fishing on Tuesday. Most of our previous fishing experience has been from the shore and most of our gear is shore based apart from some cheapy boat rods.

We rented one of the open boats from Bullock harbour on a fabulous Tuesday mornining and headed off. We drifted just north of Maidens Rock to try for mackerel. Within 5 minutes we had 2 full houses of mackerel.

These were quickly converted to bait and we tried some bottom fishing. I caught a dogfish straight off then strange things happened... Jim hooked into something that nearly took the rod out of his arms, he hadnt set the clutch on his reel. The line went slack and when he reeled in he discovered that the hook had been stripped from the trace. At this point my rod got a few big knocks then the line went slack, but when I reeled in my line I discovered that the trace had been cut clean through. I took out a tope trace that I bought on a whim once, threaded on a half mackerel and dropped it over (setting my reel in free gear but with the ratchet on). Soon my reel started to scream as a substantial amount of line was taken. I waited till the line went slack and struck without any luck.
At this stage we headed over to the Muglins and tried spinning with jelly eels. We caught one coalfish on mackerel and headed back. On the way back we used the last of the mackerel bait and caught another dogfish.

Now here's a couple of questions.
1) What did we hook up with that would pull the hooks off a trace and bite through a 20lb trace? As a complete novice to boat angling I would guess it was a Tope. Is that likely?
2) Now here's where I show my ignorance. If we did catch a sizeable Tope, what would we do with it? I cant see how we'd get it on board a small boat. Its difficult enough to release a dogfish in a small boat
. Is there an easy way to de-hook them from the water. Or are we simply asking for trouble for both ourselves and the fish. Are we gonna need a bigger boat? These thoughts did cross our minds which is why we switched to spinning for pollock.

I'd appreciate the feedback from the more experienced boat anglers out there.

PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 7:20 pm
by bigcol
The best way to unhook tope us to use a T bar.In saying that I have never tried to unhook a tope at the side of the boat.If you are going to try this I would suggest thst you play the fish on a lightish drag to tire it out as they can be fearsome if you bring them in too quick.Another tip is to use bronzed hooks so if you can't get the hook out you can cut off and the hook will rust away in a few days while leaving the fish unharmed.

PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 8:53 pm
by Tanglerat
Probably a tope, yeah. Or possibly a good sized conger.

I agree with the T-bar. Very handy tool, but you have to know how to use it properly.

PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 10:56 am
by AnglingDan
How much did the boat cost? My out-laws live bout 5 mins away and whenever I'm in the area I fish there and must admit I really enjoy it. Have never been skunked there and even caught my first doggie there.