Yersss!!
Jeez, what a great night.
Monday night was looking good for a night fish chasing the elusive fingermark and I kept a close eye on the forecast, praying it would stay good.
Come Monday, things were still good although a NE'er had sprung up so I knew it'd take longer to settle out. My usual deckie, Curmudgeon, was up for the trip and I let him know that we'd wait until I was satisified that the wind had dropped out enough. To keep it simple, we packed a couple of rods as well as a bait jigging rod, some bait, the squid light and net and plenty of anticipation.
9:30 p.m. I made the call and we headed down to the City ramp. Heading out of the harbour, there was still a residual 7-9 kt breeze and a chop coming in from the NE so it was going to be a long trip out to Cape Cleveland. I'd decided on this location as the usual haunts in Halifax Bay just hadn't been producing good quantities of squid.
An hour later, we anchored up on the mark and set up for the night. Squid light out, lines in baited up with freshly netted mud herring and pillie. This particular spot really only fishes well with livies but soaking a couple of baits ws a good way to while away some time waiting for the squid to come to the light. Despite a small drop in tide there was a siginificant run here so I started having doubts after the first hour. We pulled in a couple of u/s cod, nannygai, and the first barramundi cod I've ever seen before I finally got fed up and decided on a move.
Perhaps the water closer in to the Cape would be calmer, with less run and hopefully clear enough to get the squid. So we anchored up close to the rocks and set up once again. Well, it took at least an hour before the first squid made its appearance and I was able to net 2 in quick succession which were chucked into the bait bucket. 3/4 hour later with no further squid, I was really starting to get despondent (and tired - it was 3 a.m.). So I grabbed one of the live squid and threaded him onto a hook and chucked him over. We'd been bricked several times so there was something down there. It lost a few tentacles and its life but that was it. We did however, manage to boat a couple of small, legal, fingermark that were despatched to the ice.
Suddenly things looked up - I started catching more squid! An hour later we were zooming back to the first mark with ~9 squid in the bucket.
Anchors away and I reckon I had the first squid pinned and plummeting before the pick hit the bottom. Tap! Tap! Bang! YES, I'm on. Now I'm testing out the Saltiga, sunset the drag a little, jeez they can pull hard. Up she comes... down she goes... up she comes... some colour... colour... OMFG will ya look at that!! Woohoo!! Words just can't describe how I felt, I reckon I could've given 50CENT a run for his money. Good job on the net, Curm.
"Stop stuffing around and get ya bait down there" I say. Plop, plop, 2 more squid go for a dive.... tap.. tap.. Bang! Yes, Im on again and Curmudgeon is spewing
Up she comes and yes, it's another one. Another good net shot and suddenly the esky's looking healthy.
I hear a grunt and there he is holding on for dear life - I try my hardest to confuse him so he loses it but none of that tonight. Your's truly does the job with the net and in she comes. That's three over the 75cm mark. Down go the baits again and it isn't long before Curmudgeon is sweating over his rod again and this one is a real fighter. Curm. wins the fight and a 4th hits the deck. I call it quits on the keepers - any more go back. Tap. Tap. Bang! I'm... OFF. Damn! That shuts the school down; no it doesn't - here's Curm. sweating AND grunting over his rod again.
This one's an absolute prize fighter - long blistering runs, circles, the lot. About halfway thru the bout I go: "That'll be a fine looking cattie-mark you have there my friend". 5 min later, and I'm leaning over with the pliers removing the hook from the 2nd biggest cattie I've seen in a while. The first being the one he caught right at the start. Must've gone 15kilo I reckon. Bookends to the night.
"I wanna go home now, I'm tired" says the deckie. Weenie. What? Is pulling 5-15kilo fish a bit hard for you, son? Pulling anchor in 15m of watera bit tiring?
We sit back, watch the sun come up but, in truth, I'm completely stuffed as well and the cheek (face) muscles were a bit sore from the cheshire grins we were both wearing.
It's taken some serious research, plenty of hours on the water and plenty of fun with good mates but, at last. I've got what I came for.
Enjoy!
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