kingtin
26-02-2007, 05:43 PM
First up, I notice that there has been a lot of reports lately so my apologies for not responding to them as I normally try to do, but things have been hectic around here lately and I haven't had much time for the site.
Things have calmed down now and Friday saw the first weekend that me and the deckie (for the pedantic, read "deckie and I") ::) had been alone with our own two kids in 8 yrs.
Saturday morning I just decided to pull the pin on everything so we headed down to Rudy Maas with no particular plan in hand, other than to try an overnighter in the Whittley. The forecast was for the odd shower early so knowing full well that the storm covers let in rain round the targa uprights we took a gamble anyways that it would not rain in the night.
Was down in the seaway for 12.30 pm with plenty of traffic chewing it up, a stiff Easterly to boot, and only 6kg rods married to ambassadeur 6000's and 12lb line..........as per usual.........no bloody gaff or landing net........bloody deckies! ;)
I wasn't really focussed on the fishing as witnessed by my planning and an esky that contained refrozen pillies and squid that had been intended for the manufacture of berley bombs. The only fresh (frozen) bait to hand was a bag of herring which nicely fitted the only hooks to hand which were 2 gang 2.0's to 30lb leader.
There was a nice show of fish over the pipeline so I positioned the rig as close as possible allowing for a soon to be ebb tide pushing against the stiff easterly and hoping the ebb would beat the wind........it didn't much to my surprise! We swung around and up and down for 4 hrs, during which time we had only 3 runs which were absolute scorchers, ripping line off at a rate of knots and resulting in 2 break offs at the leader knot when the brakes were applied, and the other run resulting in one hook straightened out and pulled. The only fish landed was a small trevor by Josh (ex JJ) I'm guessing the runs were large trevally by the way that they zipped from side to side at great speed.
Decided to call it a day there after the trawlers nearly ran over us and so we took shelter against the rock wall of S Straddie opposite Wavebreak. Once the traffic died down, the stove was strategically placed on the bait board which now protrudes from the back of the marlin board, so any accidents end up in the water and not on the engine cowling.
Once again, a lack of preparation let me down and I discovered that the light that I usually plug into the cig lighter had finally given up the ghost and the cooking had to be done by torchlight. ::) After a nice hot cup of tea, the deckie got down to doing the steaks and a grand job she did of it too. They sure seem to taste better when you're on the water.
The rods were again put out for a couple of hours before bed resulting in 3 moray eels and one fish about 35cms which can only be described as a baby hairtail.
Bedded down for the night with the deckie and Josh under the (leaky) storm covers and some ominous black clouds coming over. We had decided that on the forecast we had from friday, of Sun day morning being 5 to 10 we would venture out the seaway and despite the tackle (or lack of it) head for Mermaid. I now know that the forecast for Sunday changed dramatically on saturday ::)
Awoke at 6 to a wet Josh and deckie........yep.........it rained! and within half an hour we were out the seaway and plodding along in the biggest swell we'd been in for a long time. There was only 4 rigs at mermaid so decided to give palmy a go. Just as we arrived, Josh shouted "Shark" and a second later the merc kicked up to an almighty clunk and we saw the sharks head rear out of the water at the back of the boat. It thrashed around and I headed towards it wondering how I would get it in the boat without a gaff. It gave a few more thrashes and then sank slowly below the waves so the problem was solved. It had a long pointed snout somewhat like a reefy but it was too big for that.
Only 6 rigs at palmy which meant one of 3 things..........that they and we, were the only ones daft enough to venture out, or else everyone had bagged out and gone home, or else the fishing was crap and everyone had moved on. Don't know which one it was but the fishing sure was crap. We never saw a fish landed in the 90 minutes we were there and we were plagued by small red scorpion cod. Luckily (or not) we found a float in the locker but never had a touch on this.
By this time the wind had picked up, Jake was berleying as he always does (brave lad), and as the engine sounded different after the shark encounter, I decided that we'd all had enough. The run home was pretty ordinary to say the least, even with 23d deadrise and the kids thought it was great licks surfing in through the seaway...........ebb against wind.............makes for kiddie fun and life jackets, although we didn't see anyone else with lifejackets on despite there being plenty of rigs running for cover.
Headed for the Coomera for bacon sandwiches and to watch the cops booking all and sundry for "No wash" at the entrance. Pity he wasn't further up near paradise.........he could've raised enough revenue for twenty more ramps in SE Qld.
Headed for the hole at tip of Crusoe to spend the last two hours, with Josh pulling 2 keeper bream and a flathead to dad's nil.
OK, the fishing wasn't flash 'cause we weren't prepared , but I'm getting to know my own kids again and we now have room to move in the boat and to try different things. Hopefully, the boat trimmers can find a way of plugging the hole where the targa goes through the storm covers and we can have even more enjoyment of overnighters in the future, once I get the shark damaged prop sorted.
kev
Things have calmed down now and Friday saw the first weekend that me and the deckie (for the pedantic, read "deckie and I") ::) had been alone with our own two kids in 8 yrs.
Saturday morning I just decided to pull the pin on everything so we headed down to Rudy Maas with no particular plan in hand, other than to try an overnighter in the Whittley. The forecast was for the odd shower early so knowing full well that the storm covers let in rain round the targa uprights we took a gamble anyways that it would not rain in the night.
Was down in the seaway for 12.30 pm with plenty of traffic chewing it up, a stiff Easterly to boot, and only 6kg rods married to ambassadeur 6000's and 12lb line..........as per usual.........no bloody gaff or landing net........bloody deckies! ;)
I wasn't really focussed on the fishing as witnessed by my planning and an esky that contained refrozen pillies and squid that had been intended for the manufacture of berley bombs. The only fresh (frozen) bait to hand was a bag of herring which nicely fitted the only hooks to hand which were 2 gang 2.0's to 30lb leader.
There was a nice show of fish over the pipeline so I positioned the rig as close as possible allowing for a soon to be ebb tide pushing against the stiff easterly and hoping the ebb would beat the wind........it didn't much to my surprise! We swung around and up and down for 4 hrs, during which time we had only 3 runs which were absolute scorchers, ripping line off at a rate of knots and resulting in 2 break offs at the leader knot when the brakes were applied, and the other run resulting in one hook straightened out and pulled. The only fish landed was a small trevor by Josh (ex JJ) I'm guessing the runs were large trevally by the way that they zipped from side to side at great speed.
Decided to call it a day there after the trawlers nearly ran over us and so we took shelter against the rock wall of S Straddie opposite Wavebreak. Once the traffic died down, the stove was strategically placed on the bait board which now protrudes from the back of the marlin board, so any accidents end up in the water and not on the engine cowling.
Once again, a lack of preparation let me down and I discovered that the light that I usually plug into the cig lighter had finally given up the ghost and the cooking had to be done by torchlight. ::) After a nice hot cup of tea, the deckie got down to doing the steaks and a grand job she did of it too. They sure seem to taste better when you're on the water.
The rods were again put out for a couple of hours before bed resulting in 3 moray eels and one fish about 35cms which can only be described as a baby hairtail.
Bedded down for the night with the deckie and Josh under the (leaky) storm covers and some ominous black clouds coming over. We had decided that on the forecast we had from friday, of Sun day morning being 5 to 10 we would venture out the seaway and despite the tackle (or lack of it) head for Mermaid. I now know that the forecast for Sunday changed dramatically on saturday ::)
Awoke at 6 to a wet Josh and deckie........yep.........it rained! and within half an hour we were out the seaway and plodding along in the biggest swell we'd been in for a long time. There was only 4 rigs at mermaid so decided to give palmy a go. Just as we arrived, Josh shouted "Shark" and a second later the merc kicked up to an almighty clunk and we saw the sharks head rear out of the water at the back of the boat. It thrashed around and I headed towards it wondering how I would get it in the boat without a gaff. It gave a few more thrashes and then sank slowly below the waves so the problem was solved. It had a long pointed snout somewhat like a reefy but it was too big for that.
Only 6 rigs at palmy which meant one of 3 things..........that they and we, were the only ones daft enough to venture out, or else everyone had bagged out and gone home, or else the fishing was crap and everyone had moved on. Don't know which one it was but the fishing sure was crap. We never saw a fish landed in the 90 minutes we were there and we were plagued by small red scorpion cod. Luckily (or not) we found a float in the locker but never had a touch on this.
By this time the wind had picked up, Jake was berleying as he always does (brave lad), and as the engine sounded different after the shark encounter, I decided that we'd all had enough. The run home was pretty ordinary to say the least, even with 23d deadrise and the kids thought it was great licks surfing in through the seaway...........ebb against wind.............makes for kiddie fun and life jackets, although we didn't see anyone else with lifejackets on despite there being plenty of rigs running for cover.
Headed for the Coomera for bacon sandwiches and to watch the cops booking all and sundry for "No wash" at the entrance. Pity he wasn't further up near paradise.........he could've raised enough revenue for twenty more ramps in SE Qld.
Headed for the hole at tip of Crusoe to spend the last two hours, with Josh pulling 2 keeper bream and a flathead to dad's nil.
OK, the fishing wasn't flash 'cause we weren't prepared , but I'm getting to know my own kids again and we now have room to move in the boat and to try different things. Hopefully, the boat trimmers can find a way of plugging the hole where the targa goes through the storm covers and we can have even more enjoyment of overnighters in the future, once I get the shark damaged prop sorted.
kev