During our first morning we were greeted
with a strong 15-20 knot southerly wind.
This wind speed and direction is the typical
trade wind during the summer months in
WA’s north-west region and is ideal for gas
ballooning at Steep Point.
I quickly rigged my gas ballooning outfit
and used the offshore winds to position my
skip bait 100m out from the rocks. Spanish
mackerel love to feed right on first light When you’re fishing from WA’s north-
west region there are always plenty of
resident sharks looking for an easy meal,
so cranking hard and getting your fish in
quickly is a prerequisite. When a Spaniard
grabs your bait it will usually take one or two
blistering runs. As soon as the mackerel
runs out of steam I quickly turn the fish and
keep their head coming towards the rocks
by applying constant pressure on the fish.
and it didn’t take long before these oceanic
speedsters moved in for an early morning
raid. During the morning bite we landed
plenty of average sized Spaniards between
8-12kg. These streamlined predators will
often launch well over 2m into to the air to
grab skipping baitfish. These spectacular
aerial strikes really are a sight for sore eyes. The Venom LBG rod proved to be excellent
for this application and I could really feel
the power transfer of the rod working in my
favour when the bigger fish came on the
chew. Throughout the 10 day trip I landed
mackerel up to the 18kg mark as well as
some solid longtail tuna around 16kg on the
Venom LBG rod.
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