Morning
Twas the night before Armageddon,
and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring,
not even a mouse.
EXCEPT for Stupid Franco & His mate Lynchie, who decided they would try to get a nightshift fishing in up the river targetting jacks and a feed of crabs. Motivated by an inabillity to ever get up early enough to go jack fishing, We'd decided to go for a late night shift and come home 1st light. Got the cobwebs off the pots as well. The southerly change wasn't predicted to come in till around 4 am so we thought we'd be right.
Launched boat, set pots, fresh tuna 4 bait, start trolling. It was hot n sticky and it felt right for some Red Terror action. Just teaching Lynchie how to troll for em in one of my favourite spots and He gets slammed (drags are locked with pliers!) & after a few minutes a nice GT comes to the boat. Go hard they do, but not a chance with a drag set to stop the devil!
Next thing we know there's lightning on the horizon, and within frigging 1/2 an hour Armageddon hits us with Biblical vengence! I knew I should've gone to Church! That bloody southerly came in so hard it was scarey. Thankfully not an offshore trip! We'd only been on the water an hour, and after all the effort of crabbing there's no way we were going home. We thought the jack fishing was bascially stuffed for the night, so we focused on trevors and crabs. Things went from worse to F%$k^%g terrible and in summary it pissed down, I had no wet weather gear, and I froze my arse solid. Had to hole up under a bridge for 3 hours, catching sweet FA. I actually had to put my lifejacket on to stop myself dying from exposure!! Then its first light, still raining, but we decided we'd go check out the next spot for jacks despite the weather and cold.
Water temps 27, outside its freezing still, but there's bait everywhere and it looks good. Birds were actually starting to wok the bait, and it's like offshore fishing!
2 Trolls ..... 2 JACKS!! 1st one 30 something, second one 43cm 1.5 kg. Being the first Jack of the season, He goes "Straight to the Poolroom!" to become even more glorious after His death since its a Biblical sorta night. The bite only lasts 1/2 hour, we can still see em on the sounder, but "No more bets" as they say. Just a few more small trevors. Anyway we're freezing and stuffed so time to go home, albeit with no bloody crabs!
They are definitely active in warm water despite atrocious conditions above water level. Find the warm water boys, with bait and you'll find the fish.
Earlier in the week we took a guest from Hong Kong who'd never held a rod in his life. Lucky tin-arsed bloke ........ gumbies just don't lose fish! 1st troll ...... 51 cm JACK!! Wrapped line around the electric too, but it still didn't brick him! 10 min later He nails a giant herring that thrashes and backflips all over the place but He still lands it, whereas WE only score one from 5 hook ups!!
Photo's:
Me freezing cold with 43 cm model:
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Well done. Bet it tasted GREAT 
