Hanging with Hooch — Kelly ‘Hooch’ Hunt

HANGING with HOOCH

Kelly HOOCH Hunt

Well here we are again another few months and Mike Stevens has asked if I have a story for his magazine. While I didn’t have anything in mind I said a quick fire “Hell Yeah” and would come up with an idea later. Mike is energetic and very pro active. I saw him at the Outdoor Lifestyle Expo in January. He was onsite as a patron checking out what is happening both in his field of fishing and also like minded activity. This is typical of Mike and making sure he is across anything in the state in regard to fishing and the outdoors. He has really invigorated the retail space in fly fishing in Launceston, with his ideas and creativity.

So if you are in Launceston make sure without question, you drop into Essential Flyfisher at 105 York St and make sure next year you check out the Outdoor Lifestyle Expo at the Inveresk Rail Yards.

Where’s the action?

The fishing offshore at the moment is great. All around the state if you have a nice weather report and are organised, you will find fish. Mako sharks are off all coasts at present and many people are taking the opportunity to put some in the freezer. If you are a first time mako hunter you will need a few tips to help in getting one in your trail. So let’s go through a few here. Brook and the crew with Brook’s first broadbill.

Burley

There are heaps of opinions on what makes the best burley, but it’s not rocket surgery and we can work through it. Quite simply you need fish flesh and the best of all time id striped tuna. If you have the chance to get some on board while out fishing then do so. Just leave them whole untouched and when you get home , freeze them. Once you have enough to fill the about 6 of the Square \10 litre ice cream containers from any ice cream shop, that you politely asked for, you have enough for one mako session.

Set a day aside one weekend, put on some old clothes and ring some mates to come round. Remove the tuna from your freezers and lay out on a tarp in your yard. While they are defrosting set up your mincer. Now some people find that the small garden mulchers do a great job, and they do, but you can also make your own machine. Mates Duncan Lowry and Clinton Howe made one 25 years ago and it is a beauty.

Cut your stripe tuna into manageable pieces and feed into your mincer of choice. Get it as fine as you can. Put it through the machine twice if you have to. You want a heap of fine fishy particles to sink and spread in the water. Too chunky and the bigger pieces will just sink quickly down and not get the spread you are after. YES.. we will need some bits going deep but you do that with the chunks you cut up at the back of the boat. We will go into that later.

Once you have your gear sorted and your burley organised you need a spot to try your luck. The Eaglehawk Neck area is fishing very well at the moment. Also all along the coast off the east coast. For me though it is about sea state and what food is about. It doesn’t really matter where you are as long as it is calm and you can get a nice drift going.

The best spots is always the deep water off the shelf on any coast. It is the supermarket of the ocean and that’s where mako sharks like to shop. Big fast swimming prehistoric eating machines need stuff to eat and they know there is heaps in and around the shelf.

The depth of water is also of advantage because it allows your burley to disperse in the water column for miles and miles. If you can’t get out to the edge of the shelf or you are not confident then any depth over 70 metres is fine. Sharks will turn up in less but if you are looking to maximise your chances 70 plus is the go.

Bass Strait has slowed over the years but the mako sharks are out there. You just need quality burley with heaps of blood in it and more time. Off the east coast if I have put a solid hour of burley in the water with a slow yet constant cube trail and a fish hasn’t turned up. I’m crabby. Where is he!

Off in Bass strait you don’t even worry about it. You just take a minimum amount of burley for 6 solid hours of burleying and fish the bottom for gummy and flatties. If a mako turns up then it’s a huge bonus. Don’t be discouraged though. If Bass Strait is your only option just make sure your burly is of super high quality and you have heaps of it.

The west coast is very good as well and you can find fish in close or out on the shelf and the miles in between.

Start your trail

When you pull up set about readying all your gear, but set a waypoint before you do. When finished and you have your burley out the back and a few bigger cubes cut up gave a look on your sounder. Check which way you have drifted and on what angle. Put the boat just in gear and head on exactly the same course direction as your drift has started. Give the burley a tea bag and throw some cubes over the side as you do. Continue this for a nautical mile or two and then pull into neutral and continue your drift.

What you have done there is to turbo boost your trail and give it a real good head start. Once you have stopped really give your burley a good shake and drop a few more cubes over the side. All you have to do now is keep a solid and non broken trail of buley going into the water and remember that with the cubes it’s ‘small amounts often’.

Keep a keen eye out and make sure you have everything on the deck and pre rigged. Do NOT wait for a shark to appear at the boat and then decide to rig your bait and look for the wire traces. It needs to be done slowly and with a bit of thought. Do not close up the gape of the hook by mashing a bait on the hook higgle de piggle dee. Keep the hook gape clear and also make sure the hook is sharp. Good luck! A big angry unit (the mako).

Snapper North West Tasmania

The area in and around Port Sorell has always been a great haven for super keen fishos. The people that go out and explore the place are growing in numbers, and they’re not being let down. The sport fishing for big Australian salmon on light line is well known and so is the flounder fishing at this time of year.

Glen Saltmarsh has again been setting the coast on fire with his snapper catching exploits. Glen is a mad keen fisher and loves all forms of fishing. When I speak to Glen he often says the snapper are going to be around until the end of May when they will start to slow down. This is great news as we still have some awesome fishing ahead of us.

Here are a few words from Glen when I caught up and asked him his secret…

“Well truth is ….I have no secret. I can tell you know for every good session on them there are 5 very miserable ones. I have had plenty of trips for donuts, but putting in the time is rewarded with results. Every trip out off Devonport is a fact finding mission. “There are plenty of others out there that catch as many fish and bigger fish than me, but here are a few tips I’ve worked out.

“There is no secret spot. They have been caught at Port Sorell, in the Mersey and all along the coast in all sorts of depths. There is no magic hole off Devonport where the snapper are sitting there waiting for you to drop your bait on their nose. It’s just where I have had all my success, because it’s where I put in the time. I have had the most success in 25-35m of water. Sometimes I sound fish up. Other times I will anchor on a mark where I have done well in the past.

“Once the location has been decided on, anchoring is a must. They feed on scallops, crabs, shellfish and small baitfish, so areas where these are found are prime. Berley is a must and needs to be deployed near the bottom so it doesn’t drift away, but it attracts and keeps the fish near your boat. Cubes of fish sink quickly and most of the fish I catch have our cubes in their stomachs.

“Fresh bait is best – mackerel, salmon, couta or squid. We have had good success on blue bait as well! I like the Snapper Snatcher Flasher rigs with the smallest sinker possible to hold the bottom.

“Fishing the rod in the holder with a light drag set at about 1kg lets the fish take the bait. Increase the drag to hook the fish. This where the bait runner type reels work the best.”

“The prime times are first and last light and tide changes. I have had the best results with a high or rising barometer and leading up to the full or new moon. Courtesy – give all other boats a bit of space and definitely don’t anchor up in behind another boat, as this is where their berley trail will be heading.”

North East Tasmania

If you are looking to catch some snapper in the Tamar or east of Low Head then look no further than Damon Sherriff. The man is a snapper whisperer of the highest regard and would be as knowledgeable on their habits and movements as anyone ever in the history of fishing in Tasmania. That is a big call I know, but when it comes to snapper in this area I challenge anyone to let me know who can dethrone the king. He has even started a facebook page called Tasmanian Snapper and it is a good wealth of knowledge on where to start.

If you are polite and don’t turn into a serial pest Damon is always happy to help someone out who needs a few tips to get going. Check out the page for sure.

All the areas of the coast from Low Head out past Bridport are prime snapper fishing spots. Good news is there are some really good by-catch to be had at this time of year as well.

Gummy shark and big flathead will come to the burley. So to will big kidney slapper whiting. This time of year you may even get bussed by some big yellowtail kingfish as well. So have a jig or a lure you can rip through the water erratically. They love to be stirred up with a bit of crazy lure movement. Get out and find them they are great fun.

The wild west

We have had two awesome trips to the West Coast so far this year and all three have been absolute crackers. The first was a stripey trumpeter trip where we got some cray as by-catch. The second was a cray fishing trip that had Stripey Trumpeter as by catch. We love the place but you should never forget. This part of the world is wild and dangerous.

There are generations of Tasmanian anglers that know how amazing the rugged West Coast of our wonderful island is. Treacherous and unforgiving as the place can be, it’s just a ruse – a ploy to keep you away from the fishing treasures that can be found. The coast is littered with adventure and seafood bounty, if you have some ability to judge weather and read a weather chart.

Yes, the area needs to be shown the utmost respect, but any stretch of water has the potential to be dangerous if you don’t take precautions. The precautions are checking weather for the time you are going to be on the water, as well as checking tides and swell conditions. These are factors that some without experience don’t take into account.

As boat anglers, we need to check the wind forecast. Wind is the enemy of all anglers, but none more so than the boat angler and his crew. Not only does wind make sea conditions uncomfortable, it can make all activity a real pain. Simple tasks like tying knots and keeping the boat in the right position all become troublesome.

Wind and wind forecast are what we all look at when deciding to put to sea, however, the other weather event we must treat with significant respect is swell. Swell is the wave created by wind that has occurred a long way from where we might be fishing.

There may be little or no wind in the very area we want to fish, but a storm or weather front miles and miles away will build ripples into chop and then what we call a ‘sea.’ This is when the waves are confused and traveling in a general direction. Swell is when these waves combine and align themselves and start to march in a single direction. Now we have something interesting – the swell itself offers a bigger surface area for the wind to press against and depending on the fetch.

Fetch is the distance the wind travels over open water before it hits an obstruction. That obstruction can be your boat or it might be a shore you are trying to fish. The longer that distance is combined with the strength of the wind will determine how big the swell becomes. As the wind has built that swell and imparted its energy into the water, it takes a while for that swell to dissipate and the swell can still be large and marching forward when the wind is miles away or long gone.

That was a long way to say “swell will tear you a new one if you’re not careful.”

If you don’t have an understanding of solid swell that has been generated far out to sea on the west coast, you will strike trouble. Big unforgiving ground swells can be in groups rolling out of the southern ocean and can be spread out with large periods of flat looking sea conditions.

This is what makes places like the West Coast dangerous, as the fetch creating these swells is a long way away and they are spread out. When you come out of most places on the West Coast there are rocky reefs and craggy headlands that look safe with calm water and 2m of water or more over them. Have a few of those big southern swells roll into the area and you have big issues. The swells will stand up and get steep very fast and break powerfully.

If you are in close pulling a cray pot or trying to fish, you will be in strife very quickly. If you are well out to sea and there is a good 2-3m swell rolling with some distance between them, everything will be rosy. Should a breeze get up and stiffen to 20 knots, that sea condition will deteriorate very badly. These are the considerations you need to take into account when fishing the West Coast areas. It’s not a simple case of running for home and getting out of it either, as some of the access points are pretty wild with tides rushing and swell on.

It sounds all a bit wild and in the wrong conditions, it can be that and more. Pick the weather and double check all the variables like swell, wind and tide and you will experience some sensational fishing – every bit as good as the more favoured East Coast locations. Strahan is probably the best place to get a taste of the Wild West Coast. It’s a four hour drive from Hobart and roughly the same from Launceston. Once you get there the accommodation options are many and varied. Get settled in and go through the long list of species you can target from this wicked little town.

You can do this from a couple of pubs that serve great beer and food. If the weather permits to get out the front, you can chase striped trumpeter in water a little shallower than most believe. There are some very big models swimming around the waters off Strahan.

John DeBruyn with a couple of nice snapper.

The snapper whisperer, Damon Sherriff.

Of course, while you are prospecting for them you will find plenty of morwong. These fish are often seen as a poor result, but the bigger models are well worth dispatching and treating with respect. There are far worse fish in the ocean to eat than these. The flake available off Strahan is impressive with not only gummy sharks, but also school sharks as well. These fish always fall to a nicely presented bait fished hard on the bottom. Bigger round or bean sinkers running free right down to the hooks work very well.

If the weather is not perfect, don’t worry as the fishing in Macquarie Harbour can be very good and the scenery is world class. You can fish for the many Atlantic salmon escapees and these fish are massive. If you don’t have one of the old school electric knives, get one – they are sensational for cutting up salmon into steaks. The oils in the skin and flesh are perfect for the BBQ.

There are also some very big rainbow trout amongst them. Fish the headlands for these with slice lures or bigger minnows. Lures with good action helps and will have them strike out of aggression as much as hunger. A landing net is a good option, as these escapees can be massive units and test knots and gear at the end of a battle.

The harbour is a fabulous place, rich with beautiful scenery, but also of historical significance. Something that is not often spoke about or known is that it is the second biggest harbour in Australia. It is only the massive Port Phillip Bay that puts it in the shade. As such, you can imagine the amount of fish and different species that are on offer.

While the area is a boater’s paradise, there are a number of land-based spots that provide great sport. A short drive away from the township is Ocean Beach. This beach is often flogged with swell, making fishing difficult. When the weather allows, the gutters and drop-offs formed by the water flows fish very well.

Large Australian salmon, and by large I mean massive, can be found around here and really put up a fight. School sharks are prowling, looking for these, and are powerful brutes that take some taming. I can remember as a young angler I had a comedy skit on my hands when I had a solid hook-up and the rod was pulled over and dragged down the beach at a furious rate.

Back then I was quite spritely and managed to race after it and grabbed it in a foot of water. That’s where I learnt that all but locked up drags are not such a good idea. I had to fight that fish up and down the beach for over half an hour and landed a very nice school shark.

The Australian salmon will often come in with the tide and ride the saltwater flowing through the Heads, along with couta and mullet. There is no doubt bigger predators are following these and it is only a matter of time before someone cracks a yellowtail kingfish fishery in and around the fast flowing tidal waters of the Heads.

Trolling for the salmon works well. Casting long and turning and burning lures across the channels that form gets some attention. These channel areas in and around the Heads are great spots for targeting flathead on soft plastics, too. Picking times in the tide when the flows are reduced or fishing slower back eddies will produce results.

The area outside the Heads is riddled with crayfish and abalone. The popular pastimes of potting and ringing for crays is alive and well, like diving with both scuba bottles and fixed line hookah. These are prime examples of activities where knowing the weather patterns and having an understanding of swell is crucial. Be safe!

The outside grounds are also building a name for holding bluefin tuna lately. It pays to have an outfit able to take them down on the boat, as they will pop up at anytime, anywhere. They feed hard, too. In close and out wider they come through on their migratory mystery tour. Big slice lures and stickbaits cast to them and worked back to the boat will have them in a tizzy as much as traditional skirted lure trolling.

The commercial anglers have been catching broadbill swordfish in these waters for years and I’m predicting some big fish will come from these waters when anglers start to go after them. Everything seems to grow bigger on the Wild West. I was sent some pics of a massive Sword caught in some deep water cray potting gear recently. BIG FISH

The area in and around Strahan offers a few options for launching. Within Strahan there are two concrete launching ramps – one at Mill Bay and the other at Letts Bay. Macquarie Heads also offers two gravel ramps with quick access to the fishing spots. Great launching facilities and fabulous land-based fishing make it a must-go destination for you to check out and enjoy.

Tuna Everywhere

If you have a keen eye on the social media networks you will have notice there are tuna everywhere. Bluefin and also the tasty and easy to manage and cook – Albacore tuna. The schools have been big and in good number stretching from St Helens all the way down past Bicheno and on to Eagle Hawk Neck. There was even a report with video of a small Bluefin being caught at the wharf at the St Helens township. You wanted a stripey?

Eaglehawk Neck

NOW is the time this gret area really shines and comes alive. The Tasman Peninsular area is holding fish at this time of year that by all accounts it really shouldn’t. Old thoughts of it being too cold, too early, and too late with winds from the wrong direction have all gone completely by the wayside. Big albacore and bluefin tuna from school-size to monsters are now very much the norm.

The thing that blows people away is the yellowfin tuna, yellowtail kingfish and marlin. The ocean surrounding the cliffs and rocky, craggy coastline is teeming with life. Last year saw leatherback turtles, sunfish and shortbill spearfish encountered. Then there was the very late mahimahi captured. That was just plain madness.

The underlying story here is just to be prepared and make sure you make the most of your opportunities and chances when they arise. Don’t let poor preparation turn a great trip into a day you would much rather forget.

Let’s go through a few things that will lead to high fives and not tears. The very first thing you must get into your head before a trip to the Neck is don’t leave anything to chance. It’s pretty simple. Check some stuff. If you have not used your tuna gear in a while and you only get a trip every now and then, this is even more crucial.

Check the eyes on your rods; these can be damaged in transit, no matter how careful you are. If you have a roller tip or rollers on your rods, check these are functioning properly. Rollers, and good quality ones, are great in reducing load on the line. If they are seized up, they’re going to heat your line and destroy your chances of landing any fish, let alone a trophy.

Pull some line off and check your leaders and double knots. Over time, the wind on leaders can get nicks and chafes on them. Double knots coming in and over rollers and rod eyes can get a bit messy. Any that look a bit miserable, do again. It’s great practice. I’m a huge fan of the plait when doing doubles. It does not induce any heat into the process and is quick and easy when practiced. Even smashing one out on the boat in a hurry in a swell is manageable.

Reels and their drags must be checked. Modern overhead reels will hold their drag pressure over a period of time, but you never know who has been fiddling. Overhead reels with all their levers and buttons look awesome and a mate’s fingers can’t help but play with everything. You never know when an innocent fiddle has moved the drag settings on strike setting. If they have been backed off or increased, both will be disastrous.

Lures and their rigging needs to be checked. The hooks and rings can degrade. Even if they are still in good condition, you can bet the hooks will need a little sharpen. Getting a small file and adding it to your tackle box is a must. Check hook points and make sure they are straight and not bent.

File the points up and make sure they are super sharp. You need to make sure they hit the fish on the strike and set with ease. This applies tenfold if you are fishing lighter line. Fishing 37kg hard up to the button on strike, you could set a coat hanger hook into a fish, but 8kg line class is a different story. You are only dealing with 2.6kg on strike drag, so hooks need to be super sharp.

Give your tackle box a going over as well. If it has been a while between trips, make sure you have everything in there that you need and it’s all nice and neat. You don’t want to leave anything behind or waste time looking for it when you most need it. Fishing is a game of moments where at times every second can count. A fish may present itself and only be available to target in a fleeting window of time. You need to be able to get your hand on something at the drop of an Akubra.

When trolling in good conditions for tuna, you can often come across a free-swimming mako. Mako sharks often like to be lolling on the surface just having a cruise, loving being at the top of the food triangle. In these instances it is a good idea to have a shark trace neatly coiled and baited up ready to go in a small bucket. If you have been lucky enough to catch a tuna or two previously in the day, bleeding it out and getting the blood in a container is also of use. Head over slowly, so as not to spook the shark as the crew pulls in the skirted lures and divers.

Tip the blood in the water and lay out the bait. The water quality off the coast is great and if that Mako is hungry, he’ll see it no problem. That’s what he does – he is a lean, mean eating machine. If you don’t put some time into thinking and preparing in such a manner, these opportunities pass us by and we spend a lot of time talking about what we coulda, shoulda done.

When you’re out on the water and you don’t get to be off the magical shores of the peninsular, make the most of it. Breath it all in and keep your eyes wide open. The birds will give you an indication of some action if they start to feed, but don’t rely on them. If you spot bait pushing on the surface or a surface disturbance of any kind, head over and check it out. The ocean is a massive area on just the surface. Then you have to factor in the depth to get a sense of what you’re up against.

The concentration needed to scour the ocean surface is massive, so share the load across the crew and take turns. Make it a competition of who can spot something first and put you onto some fish.

This is where all your checking comes into play and pays for itself in spades. While you are wandering across the ocean off Eaglehawk Neck and down towards Tasman Island, laughing and having a ball, the long rigger goes off. You all instinctively clear the other lines as the skipper keeps the vessel trundling forward, hoping to pick up another strike and keep the tension on the hooked fish. All the lines are in and the rods are stowed neatly as you lean on the fish and feel some weight.

It doesn’t seem like anything special and you decide to push the strike lever that tiny bit further up to strike tension from where you had it. You wind the belly of line up and put your full weight onto the fish as it runs hard, and runs and runs some more. This is when you look at your mates and they look at you with a funny expression on their faces. Could it be? Could a jumbo southern bluefin just have smashed your lure?

You re-rigged it last night and sharpened the hook, retied the double and reset the drag tension. You are in the box seat. You know your gear is in good shape and all you have to do now is not rush or try and get the fish in 20 minutes. Make sure you have a bend in the rod at all times and every time that giant fish runs, make sure you make him run up hill.

Never give it any loose line. Don’t let it sit at depth and have a breather. If there is a stalemate, move the boat and work the fish from a different angle down sea. Don’t come onto the fish upwind or sea, as you can drift and wash over the fish and that will make me cross!

I talk about this all the time. Let the wind and sea conditions help you catch this fish and not be a thorn in your side. Stay off the fish in the early and mid-part of the fight. This tuna is quite happy to use every advantage it has to bust you off, so don’t give it a boat hull and engine skeg to play with.

You will get a sense of when that fish is tiring and this is not the time to bring all of the crew’s hard work undone. Keep the pressure on the fish and start to talk about what is going to happen when there’s an opportunity to nail it with the gaff or tag pole. Don’t be scared to bark some orders and get all footy coach on your crew either. This is where things get serious. It’s the grand final and it’s ten minutes to go in the last quarter. You are kicking with the breeze, but you are still a goal down. There is work to do. You need cool heads and a plan. No one needs the ball to be kicked out of bounds at this stage.

You may think that the first time this fish comes into range, you’re going to get it. Best of luck with that. Just like a salmon or a trout, when this big tuna sees the boat up close and gets an inkling of what’s going on, it’s going to find something and run!

Be prepared and don’t have the drag turned right up or hang onto the leader if the fish wants to really head off. You will get another chance. While the fish is running, it’s wearing itself out. Remember your technique and keep maximum load on the rod. This may go on a few times and then there will be that moment in time when it gets real.

Your leader man will need to be committed and have a good wrap or two on the leader and keep out Marcus Popowski with a good Bass Strait gummy.

of the way of the gaff man. Once the leader man has the leader in hand and the decision has been made to harvest this fish, you can back the drag lever back to just under strike drag. You will be exhausted, but keep your wits about you and position yourself to help what is unfolding in front of you. Keep back from the gunnel and clear the area as best you can, paying attention to the loose line at your rod tip.

When that first gaff goes in, drop the harness off and get ready to help lift the fish into the boat. No one wants a seal mauled fish and this happens too much when the fish is beaten and just being held at the side of the boat. A 100kg tuna is a big fish and people want to stop and hang around, thinking about how you’re going to get the fish on board and in the boat. Just do it and get it in.

If the gaff sets are not in the head of the fish or just under the gill plates, reset them one at a time and lift the head up together. The leader man will have a set of gloves on so he can hand over a gaff handle to the angler and grab in under the gill plates. Lift together. Remember you are only looking to lift its head and shoulders onto the gunnel, as once that happens, with three people on one side of the boat, this bad boy will slip in before you know it.

When the excitement of putting a plan together and catching that fish of a lifetime has subsided, your work has not finished. Pay this wonderful fish some respect and care for it post-capture. If you want the pictures to look good back at the ramp, look after the fish.

Put something underneath the fish to stop damage from the floor. A heap of towels or boat seat cushions work well. Keep the fish wet and if you’re going to keep fishing for the rest of the day, keep it covered and don’t have it bash about the vessel. If you want to take the pictures on the boat, take some time to clean and clear the blood off angler, fish and boat. These simple things will have pictures that you can save and frame and proudly display in the poolroom.

Broadbill fever

The first broadbill of the season always causes a bit of a stir and skipper Brody Corbett managed to put his mate Brook Legosz on to a very nice fish. If you look on facebook there are lots of photos and words written about this fish already. Brook said “it was a small one” and went on to say “thank god, cos it’s hard work, but we got there.” He went on to thank his skipper, Brody and crew Naomi and Johnny. They have dug deep and been involved with many unsuccessful attempts. I was just the winch today. I always say believe in your systems when fishing and the results will follow, and it’s Brody’s system that produced the goods. It was so good to do catch this fish with my great mates Sammy and Liddo on board. Thanks to Bekkles for letting me live my dreams.

Brody said “Early season sword dropping in Tasmania is like rolling a dice. Going back through the motions to prepare for the season ahead with Low expectations for the day.”

The crew were on the grounds early and had the first bait dropping at 8.45. This did not get a touch.

They found some good scatter on the sounder and decided to reset and re-drop. It was only 25 mins into the second drop they had a somewhat aggressive take (for sword standard anyway). The fish didn’t have long runs, more lots of short runs but is was very aggressive with constant head shakes. 1hour and 45 minutes later the battle was won and the job was done.

Xiphias gladius is the sexy scientific name for the broadbill swordfish and it is the time to be looking to hook one off the shelf in Tasmania. They were on the list of fish to target in March, but they will thicken up and the big units are on the prowl.

Sean Tracey is doing interesting work with the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. The tags he and his band of helpers placed in fish last season are starting to supply some awesome details. Once this data is crunched, we’ll know a lot more about this amazing new fishery.

In the meantime, if you are looking to catch one, fish as heavy as you can, as this will shorten the fight time. If you choose to release the fish, they will have a better chance of survival. The early data suggests that these fish may release better than expected if captured swiftly.

The golden depth for these big rats seems to be 500-600m. Also identify some bait on the sounder. That bait looks to be schools of blue-eye trevalla and gemfish. Wherever they are holding, there will be a smorgasbord of big-eyed ooglies for them to feast on. Using a breakaway system to deploy your baits to the bottom can do your head in, but it’s rather simple.

Whatever you are going to use as a sinker needs to be as heavy as you can manage. I only say this, as it is good for the rig, line and bait to head to the bottom swiftly. This will negate any bellies in the line that the drift and current will impact on your drop. Tie some 8lb line onto your hook bend and strip off however much you like. Tie the other end to the weight. Place the weight near your feet and then lay the leader on the water surface and lay out a loop of main line out on the water from the rod tip, with the boat just in gear.

Once you have about 5m of line out, you can lift the weight off the floor and gently plop it into the water. Get your hand back to the reel and onto the spool as the weight drops and takes the line off the water surface. Having your hand on the reel drum while the reel is in free spool will stop the chance of a bird nest. Once the bait is down and broken away, the bait is drifting in the water column. The rig has hopefully done its job and attracted some attention on the way down already. Now it is a waiting game, just like any other form of fishing.

The gear you need for broad billing is very specialist. The amount of line you need to have on your spool dictates that an overhead reel is best and it should have a mix of braid line and a top shot of monofilament. Top shot is just a fancy name for some mono tied to the braid via a PR knot or FG knot to allow some extra give.

Braid is used so it cuts the water and is not as affected by current as mono. It allows you to feel any bites better, but doesn’t afford any elasticity. That is where the top shot of mono comes in. Amazingly, 70m of mono will give you up to 15m of stretch under maximum load. You never get there, because you set fighting drag well under that, but that elasticity of mono helps keep the hooks in place with violent head shakes and jumps.

There have been a lot of 80 wide and 130 wide reels purchased, but this is overkill in the extreme. These big reels are a handful, even in a stand-up harness. With the use of Whiplash braid in either 100lb or 80lb, you can get more than enough line on other reels and you want a size that is more manageable in and out of a harness. The added bonus is that this kind of reel is a great option for big mako sharks and jumbo tuna, so you don’t have a reel and rod sitting in the cupboard that is a one trick pony.

Once you have caught a broadbill, the same goes for treating the fish with respect and a bit of care postcapture. This will have the photos look a million bucks, as dried out and scuffed up fish covered in blood look rubbish. When you decide to field dress a big fish, make sure you have a think about the way you are going to cut it up and even look on YouTube to get some idea of how to go about it. This goes for jumbo tuna and makos as well, because maximizing the meat you take from the fish is very important. Wasting fish that taste as good as these do is sacrilege.

Brook giving his broadbill some care. Kelly ‘Hooch’ Hunt