Rowley Shoals / Broome Fishing Trip

[A Pirate]

Hi guys,

Im just back from my recent trip to Broome, though i had a shocker. We went to the Rowley Shoals which is aout 170nm due west of Broome and other remote reefs and islands. Allot of trolling was done and a bit of bottom bashing.

Before we sailed we chatted to the guys at Tackle World Broome, and was advised Sailfish were a plenty and the record was 60 Sails in one day!!
We purchased a fair bit of gear and look forward to getting out there.

I unfortunatly could not keep it together, 1stly my lures did not attract anything worth keeping eventhough they were the same as the guys catching fish, then the insides of my reel decided they didnt like where they were and exploded while battling a 1.6m shark, i managed to land him and after a few hours of work i managed to rebuild the reel to a working order. The final failure was the roller in the tip of my rod fell out! why meeee what did i do so wrong!

I still ended up with a spanish mackeral, dog tooth tuna and the spangled emperor so it wa not a total loss.

What i have now learnt is buy expensive gear as it will last, my rod and reel were bought in a combo gear buy Now their retired im hunting for a TLD20 and a good ugly stick to replace the broken equipment.

The seas were calm with a maximum of 0.5m seas and wind never got over 14knots sensational!

we hit a few reefs and this is what we came up with.

3x Sail fish
many Dog tooth tuna (20-50kg)
many Spanish Mackeral biggest was 1.39m
few Green Job fish
few Spangled emperors mine 0.60
Heaps of sharks from 0.60m to 2.3m

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/Nice_mazda3SP23/DSCF0908.jpg


http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/Nice_mazda3SP23/sailfish.jpg
i was the skipper that help landing this great fish (me at the tail)

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/Nice_mazda3SP23/IMG_0308.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/Nice_mazda3SP23/spangledemporor.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/Nice_mazda3SP23/139mackeral2.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/Nice_mazda3SP23/139mackeral.jpg

[catchnrelease]

50kg doggies! 3 Sailies! I'd be happy with just that and you guys still got heaps more! Well done. :smiile:

[A Pirate]

thanks but due to equipment failure i was frustrated as hell!!

[Fed]

All part of the fun Pirate, it reminds me of JAWS, "We need a bigger boat".
What brand of reel blew up on you, was it supposed to be suitable for the type of fishing you were doing?

[Mr Potato Head]

yea, definatly wanna know what gear you were using that busted?

[A Pirate]

here is some of the tool i used,

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/Nice_mazda3SP23/23042008023.jpg

2x squid greed sail fish lures
few hard bodies
1 large popper
1 shirt hard head
1x large red/white spoon
and a few more not pctured

and the failed reel "shakesphere Summit 35lb line class" the rod was just a simple lost screw holding the roller in (luckly it was the last night of fishing so only missed the last day)

[A Pirate]

the reel failure consisted of a broken spring mounting and worn crank/spool pin and a bent free spool mechanism plate (next to the crank/spool pin). What happend mid fight with allot of drag on, suddenly the spool free spun giving me a huge birds nest and no way of cranking the line in. After a few hits i managed to get it working again to wind in but no drag (stuck on max), I managed to pull the 1.6m shark in. The reel then needed to huge pull down which took about 2.5hours and 3or 4 attempts, not to mention loss of a few 100m of line.

[xtosea]

What a top report, its a dream of mine to go there, to the Rowley Shoals, Dirk Hartog Island and the Dampier Archipeligo, i would have loved to have fought the fish you caught, a Doggie would be awesome, and thats some nice Sail too.
Well done, you have made me drool
Kamil

[salty fil]

Yeh great report Pirate!
Great part of the world to have your reel fail on you. Couldve been worse. Could have happened in Sydney fighting a king...........

[TomMc]

Great report, congratulations on the captures

[Bass flicker]

Awsome report. I have the same reel. What a piece of crap:astral:

[A Pirate]

Awsome report. I have the same reel. What a piece of crap:astral:

It lasted a few years but failed when the pressure was on. I now know how to pull it apart and repair it and what all the little bits do. Fingers crossed most reels are like this if they are i could start servicing my own reels. A silver lining to every dark cloud.

Do you use yours much?

[imnotafish]

Great report, great pics, awesome as so many others have said.
And congrats on the fish you did get!
The shoals r #1 on my fishing hit list.
Pity you didnt have proper gear (from the pic you were more than a little undergunned :2gunsfiring_v1: ) but the idea of getting into a tld 25 combo is right on the money!

R you going back there?

[A Pirate]

yeah some time in the future. the lures i showed were only a small selection i took.

is a TLD 25 a good reel ive just seen them at KMart for $149.25 (25

% discount this weekend)

[imnotafish]

mate they r awesome for what you are looking for and pretty bulleproof!...
theyve landed unkown numbers of bonnies, kings, tuna ,marlin etc over the years, well tried and tested ....... sweet to run 8kg, 10kg or 15kg..... and at that price they r even better they r normally $199 at the best price online
thanks for telling me that :wiink:

[A Pirate]

this week end only 25% discount on ALL fishing equipment

Just got myself a nipper pump for $29.95, plano tackel box $8.95 hooks $2.20 etc


Whats the major difference between the TLD 20 and TLD 25 i cant see much both are $199 (-25%) specks are same same.

i will be using about 30lb Platypus non streach nono line with 80lb leeders.

To top it off Dad has just given me a Shakesphere UGLY stick rollered tip.

Okies ill be going back to KMart tomorrow or saturday to pick up my TLD 25!

[imnotafish]

line capacity is the difference between 20's and 25's. more on the 25's, they r a bit wider rather than deeper, use the 25 for your 30lb imo...
which kmart had them in stock do you know?

[A Pirate]

KMart Slyvania had 3 of them ill go tomorrow and pick one up so that 2 left.

the other reel i was looking at was the OKUMA 30 titus for $179 at BCF.

[storms72]

Top stuff matey! Better to break your reel catching good fish than not catch anything at all!:headbang: Cheers for the report and the pics!

[imnotafish]

dont buy the okuma

[A Pirate]

okies i have a brand spanking NEW Shimano TLD25 sitting on my table...ooo soo nice!!

there were 3 there at 3pm today and now at 840pm there was only one left (diaplay item).

[Pukunui]

Great read.
Some very nice fish there.
Would love to get up that way one day.

[Pukunui]

p.s. How long did you go for?

[A Pirate]

we were out there for 3-4 days