Exmouth Red Bass

Exmouth Red Bass

Caught this red bass popping the back of the ningaloo reef. It hit like a steam train so quick that i didnt see what it was so i called it for a GT. I had the stella drag locked up and gave it a few hard yanks to set the barbless hooks in and that turned it so luckily it ran away from the reef so i was able to steer it back to the boat. Was surprised and stoked to see that it was my first red bass and not a bad one at that. Also it was on my birthday and the first fish caught on my new custom calstar popping rod built by matt gates in exmouth. Successfully released it because a red bass that size is likely to carry ciguatera toxins so wasnt going to risk eating it. Felt even better about releasing it after i did some research and found out a red bass that size would be around 40-50 years old.


Posts: 9358

Date Joined: 21/02/08

Top fish and good on you for

Sat, 2011-04-16 15:45

Top fish and good on you for releasing it, even if there is no real ciguatera risk in Exmouth.

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jay_burgess's picture

Posts: 4648

Date Joined: 18/08/05

They certainly go hard don't

Sat, 2011-04-16 15:45

They certainly go hard don't they. We considered switching to PE5 to be a little more sporting but after getting dusted up several times on PE10 GT gear decided it wasn't worth the lure losses we were likely to incur. Was stoked to see such a healthy population of red bass off Ningaloo Reef. Also interesting to hear the age of red bass that size, where did you read this information? Nearly all the bass we saw were either this size or larger... only saw smaller ones when I went snorkelling inside the lagoon. Did you get any decent GT's?

petervb's picture

Posts: 447

Date Joined: 18/12/09

killer! im up there next wk

Sat, 2011-04-16 15:48

killer! im up there next wk so hopefully we get onto a few

 

mitchell anick's picture

Posts: 22

Date Joined: 26/12/10

yeah i lost the 90 dollar

Sat, 2011-04-16 16:06

yeah i lost the 90 dollar popper the next cast to a very angry barrel rolling shark haha, can be pretty expensive popping. i read about red bass on wikipedia says they grow to 75cm and live to over 53 years.

we didnt get any big GT's this trip unfortunately. spent alot of time popping south of tantabiddi and all over the murions but didnt venture any further, the wind limited us a bit. we saw a few big ones swimming with the rampaging weed ball smashing schools of goldens and yellowtail kings and tried just about everything to tempt one but they just werent interested :(

planning to head to new cal end of the year or early next year for a couple of months so hopefully get a monster class GT there haha

PattyT's picture

Posts: 1025

Date Joined: 15/08/10

Awesome fish mate!

Sat, 2011-04-16 17:09

Awesome fish mate!

big john's picture

Posts: 8751

Date Joined: 20/07/06

Nice

Sat, 2011-04-16 20:03

Nice red bass Mitchell, and welcome to Fishwrecked.

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Lucky Tim's picture

Posts: 2536

Date Joined: 28/11/07

nice work on the bass, once

Sat, 2011-04-16 20:07

nice work on the bass, once you snorkel those areas it's suprising how many there are down there. 

TWITCHEMUP's picture

Posts: 274

Date Joined: 12/05/10

Bass...

Sat, 2011-04-16 21:06

Killer Bass bro...

I didnt get one this trip hopefully next...

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SHIMANO PRO ANGLER

Posts: 261

Date Joined: 30/12/09

top fish mate great first

Sun, 2011-04-17 14:28

top fish mate great first too... they are awesome fighters and great looking species well done

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It used to hurt when I got cock in my ass......now I can take three at once and not feel a thing!

SamC's picture

Posts: 2013

Date Joined: 30/08/06

Man, the Exmouth Bass are on

Mon, 2011-04-18 20:35

Man, the Exmouth Bass are on roids for sure...

Good fish mate

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Cheers,

Sam

Pete D's picture

Posts: 1681

Date Joined: 07/06/07

Top fish Mitchell!  Saw some

Tue, 2011-04-19 12:35

Top fish Mitchell!  Saw some XOS red bass whilst diving.  They were hunting in packs through the reef - was an awesome site.  Reef fish flying everywhere.

Cheers Pete

crasny1's picture

Posts: 7003

Date Joined: 16/10/08

Thats one angry looking fish

Tue, 2011-04-19 13:44

Pound for pound they go harder than just about anything on earth. Well so I have heard. Have only landed one in Dampier and it was small and overpowered on the gear i used. Would love to tackle one that size, but as Jay found out it can be expensive as they love the bricks.

Great looking fish, no ciguetera here but great to release such a magnificent beast.

Welcome onboard too.

Neels

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jay_burgess's picture

Posts: 4648

Date Joined: 18/08/05

You got a pic Neels, never

Tue, 2011-04-19 15:00

You got a pic Neels, never heard of one caught of Damps before?