BOAT ANGLER
Deep Sea Fishing
Paul Burt
As per our normal trips out wide, the night before was restless, always thinking, “What if we catch one? What do we do with it — sashimi, tuna steaks, seared ahi?” The beauty of these kinds of trips is that we expect the unexpected and that is what exactly happened.
Paul Burt heading offshore with his Surtees Game Fisher
I
’ve written a few articles on deep-sea dropping, talking about the so-called ‘last frontier’ and what it brings to anglers. In this edition, I’m writing about a recent trip I took off the Gold Coast. What we saw and caught were nothing short of jaw dropping. It started out a few days earlier with my youngest, Caelan, and a mate of mine, Shane, planning a trip out wide. We wanted to target yellowfin tuna. Our 80-wide Tiagra reels were spooled and ready to tow a bunch of Pakula and Black Magic skirted lures. The Saragosa 20000 spin reel outfits had large Nomad and Shimano Stick bait lures attached and the heavy duty gaffs were sharpened ready for that penetration of a 60plus-kilo yellowfin’s skin.
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With our 7m Surtees Offshore Gamefisher fully fueled, we knew we could travel more than 400k’s on her 325 litres of petrol under the floor. Our plan was to head north off Moreton Island some 110 km away and start fishing in around 1000 m of water. We left the dock pre-dawn and started the long arduous trip out. Conditions were spot on — light offshore breeze, no swell and a mirror-like ocean. The lures were out, and the day began. We trolled around the first lot of birds. Small schools of tuna were busting the surface and we had hopes of a yellowfin to hit the lures. Unfortunately, no luck came our way, not even from a marlin. About an hour later, we noticed a few terns in the air, diving periodically. Nothing smashed the surface, but every now and then, the birds would come together up high then dive down quickly before fluttering across the top of the ocean. We trolled the area again; no luck. Caelan decided to cast a stick bait, which grabbed the attention of a massive mahi-mahi. But still, the fish would not commit. On the next loop past the birds, we decided to throw a pilchard. That did the job — a solid 20kg-plus dolphin fish. Unfortunately, with the current raging, we drifted away from the birds.
SUNGLASSES 22
About an hour later and back on the downhill run with the lures out the back, I noticed what looked like hundreds of flying fish shooting out of the water. I said to Shane and Caelan, “They're squid!” Both boys replied, “No, they’re flying fish!" We trolled past literally thousands of them shooting out the water. Eventually we came close to them, and to our amazement, they were exactly what I thought — squid! Indeed, there is such a creature called “flying squid”. They shoot water out of their tubes and fly backwards, using
Only a mother could love this face
the front of their hood with the wings to steer. The propulsion received from squirting out the water is enough to give them the necessary lift. With our eyes gazing in awe, we continued to head south to a sea mountain some 70plus-km east of the Gold Coast. The winds were still light, and the current had slowed to the point
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