We had a friend (Jesse) come up to Melbourne, he was keen on a quick fishing trip so I took him and Maggie down to the farm. I did elect to spectate (supervise Maggie) but they both had a lot of fun. Maggie can easily cast and catch her own Barra at 40-50cm. However the big girls were biting and Maggie got one for 70cm and one for 76cm! That said, she did need my help with a hand on the rod, she could hold it for a bit but just didn’t have the strength to last the fight.
Went out with Mark today on the harbour. He had just welded on a new electric motor, unfortunately it was a bit far back and couldn’t lock in place. I forgot my lures box. And generally there were a lot of big storms around. We ended up calling it early and not managing to get anything. Still good to be out on the water.
James was up for work so the two of us hired a boat at Tropical Boat Hire. They were great!
Unfortunately the fishing was not. I got a 40cm barra which was the best for the day. Plus a catfish (site cast at a barra and caught that!) or three. James got 3 small cod, a small queenie and some catfish and sharks on bait.
It was a very long time on the water for very little fish.
Went off the beach today for a bluewater fishing charter. I was hoping to go barra but couldn’t get onboard anywhere, it appears most people book them as part of a group, not individually.
The day was pretty good, I would have caught 20 keepers, most of which were sweetlip (tricky snapper).
My best fish was an 80cm queenie. Great fun to land. But a much smaller trevelly was nearly as good.
The highlight of the story was one of the blokes pulling up an albino shark. Or perhaps the antics of the young fella on board who absolutely wrote himself off – kept us laughing anyway.
Found a guy online (Shane) who had been having car trouble but was keen on getting his boat out. The tides weren’t great for shoal bay but we decided to give it a shot anyway and fish the low. However we got nothing! Nor did any of the other boats we spoke to. Its definitely easier to fish the high. We were in at 6am and back at 10am. Ah well, still a nice morning.