Well, what a weekend it was.
Left the Sunny Coast at 6am on Friday morn, with the girl and boat in tow.
Had a good run up north, despite getting stuck behind a couple of oversize/wide load (mining equipment) trucks with police escort but managed to get up to Agnes Water by 11am.
Was staying with everyone's favourite Ausfish gal "ROZ" and her hubby Tony. Had a bite to eat and a cuppa before setting off for an afternoon fish off Bustard Head (since the reef closure was in effect already). This was to be a prefish to our little 'boys vs girls' comp the following morn.
Conditions were great and so the 4 of us jumped on board 'Black on Blue' and within 40 mins were trolling dead baits (previously rigged by Roz) around Inner, Middle and eventually Outer Rock.
Was a wonderfully calm afternoon with conditions getting better as the afternoon wore on. We picked up 4 average fish (5-6kg) and threw a couple more back. The sun was setting, we were almost out of baits and it was probably time to go home, when Roz decided to test her 'big baits catch big fish' theory once again and so she rigged a 2kg bonito for a biggun!!!
To everyone's surprise, it went off within 5 mins of being deployed ... peeling 100m of line in no time. Roz grabed the rod and commenced the fight. No need for a gaff just yet with the fish diving deep .... 30 mins later and Roz was still sticking it to the fish, which was giving a very good account of itself. By now we were hoping for a big cobe or aj but were fearing the worst ... a big bloody noah. Another blistering run and Roz was spent so we decided to tag team just as the sun had almost completely disappeared over the horizon. I spent another 15 mins on the rod before we got a sight of what turned out to be a bloody 10-12ft Tiger shark. We cut the line and set it free, having satisfied our curiosity and Roz and I both exhausted.
The following morning saw us wake up to perfect conditions .... glassy seas could be seen from Roz's verandah which got all the crew excited. Some friendly trash talking and banter whilst rigging baits at the kitchen sink signaled that today's 'fish-off' would be a lot of fun. My fiance' Helen and Roz in her Seafarer vs Tony and myself aboard my Coxcraft Rumrunner. We left the 1770 ramp at 9.30am and with pond-like conditions arrived at Outer rock by 10am. By the time the girls had decided what sunscreen and make up to wear,
Tony and I had already put our first Spaniard (5.5kg) into the esky. Boys 1 up within 5 mins.
We managed another of the same size shortly after, and a throw back just before lunch. At midday and a slack tide, we made a run into Pancake Ck to enjoy lunch and have a swim. The girls had managed 1 fish aswell, altho Roz must've thought it was a Spottie!
Anyway, a 2-1 lead made lunch taste a little better for the boys. After trolling a couple of hard bodies through and into Pancake without results, we headed back to Outer rock at around 3pm to finish the comp.
The girls made it there first, as Tony and I were still watching the cricket on the tv.
As we arrived, Roz was hooked up to something BIG! Tony and I both thought she'd reaquainted herself with the noah from the night before but 10 mins later we found out that it was indeed a 15kg+ spanish mack that was lost boatside when the hooks pulled! PHEW
That would've tied things up. We continued slow trolling and Tony managed to add one more to the boy's total before we ran out of baits ... having seen the girls also pull a fish, we realised it was still close so we deployed a couple of lures in desperation. This saw us pick up another fish, which unfortunatly was undersize and didn't trouble the scorers. The tide was high and with a lack of current, the fish shut down. It was decided to pull up stumps and head home before darkness set in. We took a couple of pics on the water of the fish and the boats (some of which didn't quite turn out
Final result - boys taking the honours (keepers) 3:2
The Sunday was spent down at Round Hill Creek castnetting. Roz was keen to try out her b'day present and show off her technique. The wind was blowing a good 15-20 knots and not much fishing was done. Hel and I headed home after lunch to do battle with the mother of all storms just south of Bundy for well over an hour. Thankfully we survived and it didn't put a dampener on what was a bloody awesome and fun w.e. with great company and fantastic weather conditions.
Plenty of mack fillets in the freezer with a couple more to be smoked tonight.
Photos will be posted by the losers, errr... girls soon.Roz has the ones of the fish so hopefully she'll post them when she get back home later this week.
Tony and family, sorry to have missed you this time. Roz was too organised, she'd bought all the bait already off Josh the day before. Not sure how she ended up with ALL of the XOS smilies ... luck I suppose.
Cheers,
Herby
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Originally Posted by agnes_jack
