Monday before Xmas hit the road heading for Brisvagas loaded with Xmas goodies for the extended family and thinking about the fishing trip planned for Tuesday. OH Sh@t just 10 minutes from home I realised I had left my reels on the bench in the shed. Too late, she who must be obeyed wouldn't consider us turning round to get them, I'd just have to borrow one from No2 son. Only trouble is he didn't have a suitable spare so after we arrived I had a one and a half hour round trip to the Sunny Coast to No1 son to borrow his.


We were up early and left Spinnaker near Bribie just after daylight heading for the northern shipping markers chasing Mackies. We prefer to motor up to the marker and drop slugs and then high speed retrieve as we drift away. First drop and No2 Son is on and quickly lands a small Schoolie which is released. We motor back and next drop he is on again, this time a larger version that went into the ice. After boating another two and loosing a couple, things went quiet so we headed south to the next marker where he picked up another one and dropped a couple.

We then tried the next two markers with no luck so decided to return to the first. On the way we stopped at one of the floating beacons and picked up some yakka with the intention of bait fishing but before we used them No 2 son is on again with another schoolie. All this time I hadn't even had a hit and we could only put it down to the fact that the reel I was using was 4.5 to1 retrieve ratio while his was 6 to 1. Next time I'll make sure I pack my own reels.

The son did graciously offer me his gear a couple of times which I finally took up and landed two. The last fish was a just legal spottie which we released. In the end we had five in the ice, released as many and dropped several. Another crew who were anchored bait fishing started chucking slugs when they saw us catching them also landed a couple while we were there.

The water was starting to get a bit lumpy and No2 son was getting a bit green around the gills so we decided to call it a day. We let the yakkas go and headed home with the son spraying burley at intervals. We were back at Spinnakar by 9.30am.

Sorry no photos but I'm sure most of you know what schoolies look like.

Willdoe