One of the Worst Nights Ever

[jtpython]

Mate and I since being off work decided we’d go and get some bait for a night trip if the weather held out we would head out for the suspected 5 to 10 knot variable forecast for the next day ,
So we ends up with some really good mullet gar and herring with half a dozen prawns as well. After driving around the coast and looking at the water we decides to do the overnighter , not any thunderstorms on the radar we packs boat and off ‘s towards the harbor, after much discuss by my old man saying thunderstorms will come in and us young guys going yeah she’ll be right.
So off we heads gets on harbor and the wind is up to 15 knots NE , so for 14 km we gets thru the sloppy stuff and once behind the Islands the wind drops off to an 8 to 10 Ne so we heads to a favorite mark 60 km off the coast, 1 km off from our spot a heap of bunny’s were jumping out of the water so with a cast I thru a blue slug out on my spinning outfit and bang we scored a nice bunny for bait,
We starts with a drift and nothing so we anchors up just before dark and set our baits and float lines , everything is very slow for couple hours with a nice black king around the 8 kg mark and couple spangles and mate picking up a nice red Jew . Straight after we picked up the black king I brought to the boat a huge whaler type shark after a big fight he was buggared like I was from it.
At 10 pm mate and I decided to have a camp seeing it was a huge tide and the current was incredible, to the north of us and the south of us was a little lightning and after confirming with my dad on the phone about the storms on radar with went to sleep with a little ease big mistake, at midnight we woke to huge thunder and lightning followed by a 30 knot SE blowing straight inside to us , the boat stayed against the current and the wind screaming behind us straight onto our faces(my heart was thumping out of my chest by this stage) Nuthing we could do but sit there , after fifteen minutes the wind eased but the lightning got worse with us looking towards Gladstone we could see the storm working it’s way around us then the wind increased from the Ne to about 23 knots and stayed that way, then an hour later the same thing the wind the rain all screaming like it did before, it continued to do this 5 times aver the next hour, Then at 2.30 am another one hit us but this time the boat was side onto the waves , not a good experience, we started to try and pull anchor to do a run to the nearest island about 30 km but the anchor was held fast and with the huge swells and wind wasn’t fun to do so all we could so was sit it out, one thing I will say is the boat handled it extremely well.
After that we tried to get some sleep then again at 4 30 another big storm came across us and we sat there in the pouring rain this time there was not wind coming from all over directions but still the same not nice, 23 knot we thought it was blowing and we were spot on, by 6 am the wind had eased and the storm had well entirely dispersed .
So we started fishing again but we didn’t get score much more with a couple good grassy’s . After getting no action on the bottom and the 2nd biggest tide for the year wasn’t helping our lines on the bottom we had a troll which added nothing to our esky so we headed home for the hour and 40 minutes .
Then when I gets home at 3 pm a storm hits us here at home 45 mls in 15 minutes everything was running everywhere, and then to add insult to injury I goes and picks the step son up from primary school 2 km from home and a woman in a car comes flying around a corner lose’s it in the wet and slams straight in the side of me , I just couldn’t get a better day could I. No one was hurt but something I could of done well without .

[mattooty]

....Absolute shocker mate! Something to write down in the book to top any of your mates "bad experiences" stories.
At least you got a few fish in the middle. It really would have been a kick in the guts if it was dead out there!

[Local_Guy]

shame to hear that jt.. sounds like you really got thrown around during the night.

[tin arse tony]

No good at all bloke sounds like atrip i had once. Just think mate there is beter times ahead.
Tony.

[ffejsmada]

What a pr!ck of a trip JT!!!!!!!!!!
How many times has your old man said "I told you"?..............yeah ok, you're right again dad! lol

And your car mate....................did you run over a chinaman or something?????????
At least no one was hurt mate.
Next trip will be better.

Cheers Jeff.

[jtpython]

Yes i think i keep running ove rthat chinaman at times but ya right no one was hurt and not that much damage to my car (work car /landcruiser wagon)
And yes first thing the old man said to me was " I TOLD YOU SO" and i'm like yeah well well ah well not much more i could say hey .lol
The first thing the old girl said to me was "NO MORE NIGHT TRIPS" hmm ok i'm nearing 40 mum
AHHHHHH got to love them
JT

[Fishin_Dan]

You found the gold at the end of the lepricaun's rainbow and stole it didn't you

Certainly not a situation(s) I'd like to be in at all mate. Glad you made it through unscathed though...

A big feed of those tasty fish & a few beers might help though I think.

[Scott nthQld]

Just watched the vid you posted as well. Very hairy conditions mate, you'd need balls of steel or brown pants atleast to get through a night like that.
Good to see you got a few for the table, and they should taste oh so much sweeter because of how hard you had to clench because of them.

[camsharkman]

Not a good experience mate! I take it you were out thursday night.. I was heading out at around 4.30 friday morn and went through 3 storms. Heaps of rain but not much wind.
I could see the storms on the radar, looked a bit worse wider out or down fitzroy way.

[jtpython]

Did you go North cam, Were you one of the guys i was talking to on the radio?"

[disorderly]

Sounds like an interesting night there ,JT.
I posted a report last year about a similar night I spent out there all alone.
The worst part I found was I just didn't know how bad it was going to get.
And the waves seem bigger at night as well,dont they.
I ended up with at least a dozen flying fish in the boat(and a few more that I didn't find till a few days later because of the rotten smell.)

But hey mate at least you have a cosy halfcab and can shelter out of the worst of the weather. And you got a feed as well.

Bit of bad luck with the accident but at least no one was hurt.

Some interesting fishing this time of the year.

Scott

[mangomick]

Thank Christ for that.....I thought I was the only bloke who has those type of trips

[camsharkman]

Yes I was up around Masthead/Erskin all day, very quiet day too I might add. Wasn't talking to anyone on the radio though.

[jtpython]

Aw got ya Cam, I was talking to guys North of Us.
Well Mick i tell ya mate thats good to know LOL
And Scott Your right mate you never know what it's going to be like and sitting there with the wind screaming the opposite way to where your are sitting was fairly hairy, We were sleeping on the floor at the back instead of in the cabin i could only imagine what it would have been like beening thrown around in there, Then after it rained i sat in the chair then.
I went fishing again on the sunday for another cobia 77 cm a lipper a 50 snapper and 2 stripey's so there isn't too much around at moment
Cheers JT