After reading up on this technique, I played around with some ideas and on Saturday the 22nd May, we made the first attempt to deep drop. My Dad and I launched our boat “Selfish” and we headed north to the ledge. I put out some small lures and quickly caught 2 bonito and a small yellowfin tuna. These were to be used as bait. We then headed out to the 500m contour in an area that we thought looked like right for this type of fishing.
I rigged up the belly shine of the yellowfin with two 9/0 long liner hooks on 300Lbs trace. This was attached onto a windon leader. My Dad put the boat into gear and travelled into the current while I let the bait out. I attached 2 light sticks onto the leader and then the 7kg breakaway weight. I lowered the weight into the water and allowed the line to come tight. I then let the line out at a controlled speed until the weight hit the bottom, I then gave a few turns on the reel and the motor went into gear. This lifted the weight off the ground. We continued into the current every now and then letting line out to touch bottom.
After about a 4km drift, the rod bumped a few times and then the reel took off! A few seconds later the reel stopped and the line went slack. There was over 600m of line out which now needed to be brought in. What a job! Finally, the leader came out the water and we saw that the trace had been chafed and bitten off. Obviously a shark. The reel had begun to make some strange noises and I was not comfortable making another drop with it. We decided to troll for some cuda then head home and prepare for the next day.
After a late night servicing the reel, spooling another reel with 1000m of braid and making up some spare traces, we were ready for anything the deep would throw at us.
On Sunday morning, my Dad, Divan and I launched “Selfish” and headed straight for the same area as the day before. I rigged up a big squid and sent it down on a 7kg weight. The current was flying at about 4knots, but there was not a breath of wind which was in our favour. The bait went down without a problem and we drifted comfortably into the area where we had the strike the day before. The rod gave a big bump and the reel took off. I jumped into the chair and held on. The fish now had about 650m of line in the water which I had to retrieve. It took me over an hour to lift the fish. We were all hoping for it to be a sword, and when the leader came up and Divan said it looked like the right fish, we were all very excited. But, as the fish came closer, the shape started changing into something other than a broadbill. The fish came up inch by inch until we could see the fish properly ... it was a thresher shark that had been hooked in the tail. The long top lobe of the tail actually did look like a bill in the water. The fish was dead by then so we put it onboard. This was the first thresher I had caught, so I was happy with it. But time and tide wait for no man, so we went back up north and prepared another squid to drop again.
The line went out without a problem and we drifted on about the same line as the previous drift. We were about 100m away from the spot where we had the thresher when the rod bumped a few times and the reel ran. This time the fish only took about 50m then shook it head a few times and started coming up. I got into the chair and started pulling up the mystery fish. After about 45 mins, with the 100m marker on the reel, the line started angling toward the surface. We looked back and saw a large bottomfish pop onto the surface. The boat went into neutral and I pulled the fish to the boat. It was a wreckfish of about 20kg. Also my first.
The bait was still intact so we decided to use it again. All the strikes were in a small area so we only ran a short distance north and then dropped the bait. My Dad said that this would be our last drop because he didn’t want to be home too late. We were all happy with this and waited for the drift to end. At 11:55 we had 600m of line in the water when the rod bumped and the reel took off. I jumped into the chair and strapped into the harness. The fish took at a frightening pace and stripped 200m in a flash. Now there was about 800m of line out! Once the fish slowed down, I went to work pulling the fish to the surface, but the fish was not having it! It took me 30mins to get the 600m mark back onto the reel and then the fight started in earnest. The line was now straight up and down and I could feel some big head nods down there. The 2.5m swell was not helping me much either, pulling a few meters of line off the reel every time they came through. At one stage, I was sure the fish was dead as there was no movement from the fish for over an hour. All I could feel was a heavy weight moving through the water column. Finally the 100m mark came out the water. What a relief. I knew the end was near. As the double line came closer, I felt a few heavy head nods, but the fish kept coming up. After 2 hours, the windon leader splice cleared the surface and Divan unclipped the strobe light. We could not make out what the fish was and before we could get hold of the leader, there were a few big head nods and the fish started sounding. Line left the reel at an astounding speed and my heart sank as the 100m mark left the reel, followed shortly by the 200m, 300m, 400m and 500m mark! Impossible! I am sure the only reason why the fish stopped was that it hit the bottom. Everyone on the boat was speechless. Could a fish be so strong? I had no option but to start from the beginning and bully the fish up inch by inch ... again! I upped the drag to probably 12kg and used the swell to my advantage, holding the rod steady when the swell lifted the boat and gaining line when the boat went down the swell. I had been on the fish for 3hours before the 100m mark finally came back onto the reel. By now, we were convinced that this was a broadbill. No other fish could possibly fight like this... surely. Another 15 mins of torture and the double line cleared the surface. I retrieved the leader and the fish came to the surface, about 10m from the boat. Finally it showed itself... It was a thresher shark of probably 250 plus kg and almost 7m long! Divs pulled the fish closer before cutting the trace. What a relief I felt when the pressure came off me. I struggled to get out the chair and my legs were very unsteady. We had drifted almost 15km south and were now directly over the harbour. My Dad took us back and we entered the harbour at 16:00... so much for our early day.
We came away from this trip learning a lot.
Some points to consider:
- Take lights needed for night rating as a fight may extend into the dark.
- Mark your line at every 100m for at least the first 700m.
- Also mark the line every 50m for the first 200m. This marker is to keep the angler positive during a long fight as they can see line coming in and they are making progress.
- Have several baits pre-rigged. This will save you hours on the boat.
- Make sure the harness is set properly for the angler as this could tire the angler more than the fish does.
