Summer mackeral bash

[PixieAU]

Well, Mat and I met up with the fellas at Wayne's this morning - great to meet you all guys. We found the trip out to the channel marks a bit of hard work, but persisted.

We trolled North for a ways then came in and trolled behind the breakers most of the way back.

Saw almost no surface action and only picked up one undersize mac in the channel.

I got pretty queasy with the swell so we had to make a short day of it. Bummed at missing the BBQ. (Wayne hope you saw our note - my apologies)

Hoping to hear how the others got on. Attached is our SafeTrx log for the day if anyone is interested.

Thanks again Wayne for organising, and for your hospitality.

Cheers, Steve and Mat

Pretty much the same for me although I didn't even get an undersized. Found some schoolies but they wouldn't take a pillie or a slug.

Today is the first time I've felt sick in my own boat so by 9.30 I was heading back around the southern end of Bribie

And also from me, thank you again to Wayne and Vicki for a nice lunch and extending their invitation to us.

[Nslfishing]

Thanks Wayne for your hospitality and sharing your local knowledge. Started off a bit slow but once we found em we started picking them up. Morphias and I got a few undersized spotties and one keeper. We also got a bonito and Ben got smashed by something huge on his 40year old spoon. It started stripping line then pop! Bust off. Would have been nice whatever it was. We thought it was my knot that failed but on closer inspection, it broke just below the swivel to the spoon (phew!). All damage done on paravanes and spoons

Good to meet a few more ausfishos pity we didn't see you all after. Count me in for the next one Wayne
Thanks again

cheers Nic

[hungry6]

Thanks for coming along guys, It was good to put faces to nicks on here.
It's a shame the Macs weren't out, did tri my best to locate them for everyone, would have covered a few kays LOL.
We ended up with 5 fishes 3 mac - 1 YTK - 1 mahi.

Went we were round the bottom of Bribie, From the condition I look at Jamie and we both laugh, saying "it's a good day for cruising and picnic."

Don't despair fellas, from the chatters on the radio, plenty of larger boats going wide and scoring donuts.
If you found or raises them yesterday, you have done a much better job than most boat out there.

It is funny, sometime those large gentle swell make people feel average on the day.
It was abit odd for me, had to go at a decent pace to soften the ride.

Anyway, Thanks for coming and have a good Xmas. Stay safe.

Cheers
Wayne

[morphias]

Hey guys,

I had a great time! First time out trolling, first ever mack, great weather, great company - chuffed as.

With the thread on sick deckie etiquette, it got me wondering what sick skipper etiquette is? Nick was doing his best to burly up a school, but to no effect.

One of the macks we landed emptied its lunch all over the deck and Nick (Nslfishing) said "Why'd you have to go spewing all over my boat, it's not like I go spewing in your house...hold, I have been all morning"

It was the typical short, sharp chop and stand up waves you get with swell against tide going around the bottom of Bribie or the top of Moreton due to the pressure of the current. I was waiting for my teeth to fall out. Once we around the corner and into the open, it flattened out.

Spot on Wayne - it's generally the slow swell that gets people.

As Nick said, spoons on paravanes were the only thing we could raise a fish on, but they were few and far between on the day. We did find them in one spot and did laps for a while and picked up 3 or 4 just undersize models before there moved on. Too bad I didn't land that big one - and you read right, he got away with my grandad's 40yr+ old Halco spoon. I re-rigged with an even older B Huntington Drone spoon.

Here is the one keeper for the day:



Holy crap is the actual channel in the Bribie Passage littered with crab pots! You would have no chance at night - it was bad enough navigating through them in daylight.

I think Nick and I bonded a little too well while we were out there - the text I got from him as we pulled out of Wayne's driveway (I was in the passenger seat next to him) as we headed home says it all:

"Hello my love we on our way home now should be a couple of hours xx"

BAHAHHAHAHA - talk about awkward for the next few minutes.

Now, I just need to either train my wife or trade her in a for a new model that comes with the same 'features' as Wayne's girlfriend. That is, take the 4WD and trailer home from the ramp after you launch and have it back and waiting in the water ready for you to just drive the boat onto when you come back in. WTF?! I was utterly speechless!

Thanks again guys - great to hang out with a good bunch of like-minded people.

Ben.