Earlier this morning Mark (Tugger) and I launched from Currumbin bar. Having been through this bar once on my own I was particularly keen to get his perspective on getting through the bar and to get some more experience in various weather conditions. Being a Mackerel virgin I was also keen to open the account on these toothy pelagics.
A quick scout of the bar and he decides to wait a while for a little more light to shine through. This guy knows his stuff and it's almost like second nature to him but the experience is invaluable, particularly for a new bar crosser such as myself.
Out onto Palm Reef and he confides in a few hints and tips about the location and techniques, we were quickly onto the schoolies and Mark successfully lands one while I get snipped off on the wire (multi-strand dammit). Soon after we were plagued by the sharks and called it quits to give another one of his marks a hit.
Using his trusty GPS (lining up buildings with mountains and bridges with buildings) he managed to get us into position. While he might not think it's particularly anything special, his sounder was never turned on (broken anyway). His ability to kick it old school with great accuracy is something I (and probably many others) would find amazing.
We were soon back into the fish with quite a few failing to find the hooks. One of the rods went for a blistering run and Mark called on me to take it. Long hard runs in and around the boat coupled with a few heart in your mouth tangle moments (got to have those) and we get the fish boat side, a nice spotty! A quick gaff from Mark which almost drags him into the drink and I open the account with a nice 90+ Spotty. Quickly redeploying baits and Mark is onto another smaller spotty.
The bite dies off and we just kicking back having a chat when our live yakka (jigged up earlier) goes for a blistering run. Mark calls it for a Spanish, only to have severe us off. Another yakka is sent out under the balloon and when we finally decide to retrieve, find the mono all cut up without us even noticing.
He has had better sessions fishing wise but the experience he has kindly imparted with me despite the lack of fish (by his accounts ) is something I won't forget too quickly. Just being out his boat I immediately noticed a few things which I could have done better/was doing wrong myself, and without the experience of an old school salty like him, would have continued to do so.
This was certainly one of those days by my accounts where the fish was a bonus. A big thanks to Mark for his company and experience.
Cheers
Eug
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Originally Posted by daveylad
just not sure how the missus will feel about it considering it's just over a year old.
