RAM ROAD TRIP PART 14

Accompanied by the throaty rumble of My Ram Laramie 1500’s sports exhaust I’ve travelled along the New South Wales Pacific Highway to launch my boat from the snug environs of the Crowdy Head marina.

I spent the morning re-packing the Rams cargo tub. It’s amazing how much luggage, camera gear and fishing tackle we need to transport from location to location.

Fortunately the Ram 1500 Laramie has loads of space with the tubs 1.7 metre by 1.2 dimensions everything we need to carry has a home.

I even have a 50-litre National Luna Fridge freezer combo in the Tub hooked up to a battery box with a 120 AH deep cycle Century Battery powering it with ease. On these long road trips you need to cover a lot of bases.

Accompanied by the throaty rumble of My Ram Laramie 1500’s sports exhaust I’ve travelled along the New South Wales Pacific Highway to launch my boat from the snug environs of the Crowdy Head marina.

I spent the morning re-packing the Rams cargo tub. It’s amazing how much luggage, camera gear and fishing tackle we need to transport from location to location.

Fortunately the Ram 1500 Laramie has loads of space with the tubs 1.7 metre by 1.2 dimensions everything we need to carry has a home.

I even have a 50-litre National Luna Fridge freezer combo in the Tub hooked up to a battery box with a 120 AH deep cycle Century Battery powering it with ease. On these long road trips you need to cover a lot of bases.

The warm East Australian current flows past Crowdy Head. Baitfish school in large numbers out here in these temperate waters. As all anglers know: baitfish attract bigger predators.

I’m on the lookout for birds, which indicate where the baitfish are. Dolphins are often a good sign of baitfish and its great to see them playing and having fun in the wake of my boat as we continue our search.

I angle closer to a shallow reef, which comes up to 3 metres at its peak. Slimey Mackerel are there in there thousands, which immediately gets my heart beating faster in anticipation.

I cast out a soft plastic and work it close to the kelp bottom hoping for a Snapper. My gear is light Shimano Tackle with a 3-6 kilo Shimano Squidgee rod and 4000 Stradic reel. As I’m just about to lift the lure onto the boat the rod nearly gets ripped from my hands as a powerful fish crash tackles my plastic and roars off at a break speed pace.

I’ve been in this situation recently when a large Mac tuna took nearly all my line. The spool is just about empty when I desperately start the Evinrude engine and power after the fish.

I can now get line back on the spool as I wind as fast as I can while still keeping pressure on the fish so it does not throw the hook.

Apart from cameraman Damon I’m alone out here.

It’s a real juggling act. I have to maintain contact with the fish and try not to get spooled and then one-handed reel in the extra rod’s line.

By the way its fighting it has to be a Tuna either a Longtail or Mac.

This cantankerous tuna swam beside the boat but then it screamed off past the bow.

So it’s all the way forward to the bow for me too.

Talk about a tough fight.

My light Shimano gear is holding up well. I can see the fish now as it gets closer to the boat and it’s a beauty, a solid Longtail Tuna.

Longtail tuna fight so hard they will often exhaust themselves and quickly die.

I want to release this beauty quickly. And I’ll have to use the net one handed. Not a simple task with such a hefty tuna.

It’s a good 10-kilo fish one of the best fighting sportfish in Australia’s inshore waters. It’s a race against time now to free this great fish alive. I give the fish a swim by the boat before lifting it up for one remembrance photo. I slide the fish into the water and the torpedo swim’s away, what a great start to the day.

Tuna in numbers are getting stuck into the Slimey Mackerel baitfish and foaming up the water all around the reef. Gannets and Terns are splashing down eating wounded baitfish and cleaning up the torn flesh. I am still casting soft plastics on the edge of the baitfish as surely the chopped baitfish are wafting down to Snapper feeding along the bottom.

I angle closer to a shallow reef, which comes up to 3 metres at its peak. Slimey Mackerel are there in there thousands, which immediately gets my heart beating faster in anticipation.

I cast out a soft plastic and work it close to the kelp bottom hoping for a Snapper. My gear is light Shimano Tackle with a 3-6 kilo Shimano Squidgee rod and 4000 Stradic reel. As I’m just about to lift the lure onto the boat the rod nearly gets ripped from my hands as a powerful fish crash tackles my plastic and roars off at a break speed pace.

I’ve been in this situation recently when a large Mac tuna took nearly all my line. The spool is just about empty when I desperately start the Evinrude engine and power after the fish.

I can now get line back on the spool as I wind as fast as I can while still keeping pressure on the fish so it does not throw the hook.

Apart from cameraman Damon I’m alone out here.

It’s a real juggling act. I have to maintain contact with the fish and try not to get spooled and then one-handed reel in the extra rod’s line.

By the way its fighting it has to be a Tuna either a Longtail or Mac.

This cantankerous tuna swam beside the boat but then it screamed off past the bow.

So it’s all the way forward to the bow for me too.

Talk about a tough fight.

My light Shimano gear is holding up well. I can see the fish now as it gets closer to the boat and it’s a beauty, a solid Longtail Tuna.

Longtail tuna fight so hard they will often exhaust themselves and quickly die.

I want to release this beauty quickly. And I’ll have to use the net one handed. Not a simple task with such a hefty tuna.

It’s a good 10-kilo fish one of the best fighting sportfish in Australia’s inshore waters. It’s a race against time now to free this great fish alive. I give the fish a swim by the boat before lifting it up for one remembrance photo. I slide the fish into the water and the torpedo swim’s away, what a great start to the day.

Tuna in numbers are getting stuck into the Slimey Mackerel baitfish and foaming up the water all around the reef. Gannets and Terns are splashing down eating wounded baitfish and cleaning up the torn flesh. I am still casting soft plastics on the edge of the baitfish as surely the chopped baitfish are wafting down to Snapper feeding along the bottom.

I hook up to a strong fish that is thankfully fighting down deep. The thumping tail of a powerful Snapper can be felt right up my 20 pound Power Pro braid through the 20lb Ocea leader and right along the Squidgee rod. It’s a great feeling to hook up to one the best eating fish found in every state besides the NT.

This fish has found its way into the thick kelp bottom and now it’s a battle to stay hooked up as it attempts to dislodge this annoying thing in its lip.

I find the best tactic here is to give the fish some slack line. After about 20 seconds I hold my rod as high as I can and hope the fish has decided to swim out. Nine out of ten times they do and keeping the pressure on the fishes’ head to get the Snapper to swim out and up is where the battle is won or lost.

This time I won the shallow water battle.

I stay at this spot for a couple of hours as the Snapper keep me busy and the birds are still diving into the water so the baitfish are nervous.

As the morning heads past 10am I decide its time to head out deeper and fish rubble and reef ground in 20-28 metres. The secret to catching fish is simple; find the most likely spot that the big fish can easily prey on the little fish. If it’s close to a reef or structure even better.

This is where my Garmin gps sounder combo comes into its own as it shows me exactly where the most likely fishing spots are. After finding some nice bait schools with big fish sitting up off the bottom close by its time to switch on my Minn-Kota and spot lock close to where I can cast to the bait schools. I am hoping the fleeing lure is something that a nice big Snapper will not want to let swim away. Crunch and my first three casts see me pull three Snapper from the deeper reef.

Snapper are found in large numbers all the way out to well over 100 metres so at 27 metres I’m really still fishing the shallows.

I fish and film a full day and end up with over 20 solid Snapper a 10-kilo Longtail Tuna and Two 6-8 kilo Mac Tuna. My fishing is not always like this but I do work hard on my preparation making sure that I only head out when the conditions are right, with all the right gear.

I take a different path next week when I fish these north coast waters not in a boat but out of a Seadoo Fish Pro and Hobie Compass kayak.

Let’s see if I have the same success on these beaut watercraft. I tow the Seadoo to the Crowdy Head boat ramp in my Ram 1500 Laramie with the Hobie Compas on the roof.

With a sunset like this the fishing has to be good.

So more fun ahead on my East Coast Ram Road Trip.