If it's not out-of-control fuel prices that make it hard to even get the boat offshore, then it must be those evil weather gods that plot during the working week to conspire against us at the weekend.
So it was this weekend....when the Bureau, Seabreeze and Buoyweather say one thing....and the seas off Mooloolaba didn't bother to listen. Upon arrival at the Mooloolaba Coastguard ramp at 3.45am on Sunday, Navi, Vin and I were greeted by becalmed conditions. And even after pointing the Haines seaward, I foolishly was calling it a glass out.
We mucked around for 20 minutes trying to gather livies but failed dismally. So we pointed the boat to the Banks and off we tore at a good 20-odd knots. You could have water skied for the first 5 nautical miles. Another 12 or so miles on and it was still looking okay...a bit more swell but still good. Navi even managed to grab 40 winks in the cabin during the trip. Then it turned to poop. The gentle south westerly that blew up our tails on the way out, whistled in our faces as soon as we stopped. The unnoticeable swell was suddenly very noticeable. We tried a drift unassisted by the parachute but our baits never even had a chance to reach the bottom below. So the chute went out and heavier snapper leads were tied on. At least the drift had slowed enough to give us a chance to fish. We had at least an hour up our sleeves before a mate's boat was due to join us. We were confident of getting a great head start on them before they even wet a line.
A few squire and parrot came over the side but nothing spectacular by Banks standards...in fact, they all went back over the side. The undersize reefies then went off the chew and made way for an endless school of rubbish to feast on our baits. We easily "bagged out" on sergeant bakers in no time at all
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Meanwhile the other boat had arrived and we still had a clean esky. The swell had picked up by this stage and we continued to smash the bakers. We opted to try some of our other marks and this proved to be a better move as decent parrot and squire started coming aboard. A few pearlies joined the mix and our hopes of getting a decent feed were buoyed. By this stage our mate's boat had disappeared and we only learned over the radio that they had a medical problem on board that required some urgent assistance. We were on the brink of cutting our losses and helping out but they were a fair way back in and Coastguard were on their way to render assistance as it turned out [smiley=thumbsup.gif] [smiley=wings.gif].
We battled on for the next few hours. The seas were capping, the wind had not swung around to the variable 5-10 knots as forecast, and we had yet to make a serious dent in the esky. Finally, with bait stocks near empty, we drifted over a good show and nailed a couple of decent pearlies and squirey snapper. We had made a generous donation of lead during the day, so much so that Navi was forced to use a 4oz lead as a floater on the last drop of the day. Less than a minute after sending down his floater, it got smashed and after a solid workout he brought the best knob of the trip to the surface. Damn, why were we using floaters all day!
Of course, as soon as we used our last bait, the weather gods smiled and the predicted change came through. At least it made for a speedy trip home.
All in all, not one of our best days and we had to work hard for every fish. Still, we managed a feed in the end.
We'll be back next week to do it all over again
I was a tad lazy as the designated photographer so I don't have too many pics to show.
Navi's snapper....
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Good to see Gav is keen. Would be great to get to the Hards, might need some fuel reinforcements I feel.
