Headed out to the FADs this morning, even though it was starting to pick up. I was taking a calculated risk hoping that Seabreeze got at least the wind direction right. Was helped out by the NE winds, so the ride wasn't too bad.

Went to check the spot where I saw the YFT a couple of weeks back, but there was nothing there. On reaching reaching the co ords for the HYC FAD, I could not see it. Drifted awhile to try to locate it visually, but no joy, so I decided to head to Furuno to see if it was there. I figured that if the FADs weren't there, I would head out to the Derwent.

About 5 minutes into the trip to Furuno, I saw the HYC Fad about 500m to starboard, so I headed over. By now the winds and swells had picked up and it didn't look like there was anything in the water. I sounded awhile in the general vicinity and kept throwing cubes of mules over, but nothing appeared, but I learnt something from Andy last week - even if there is nothing on the sounder, you can still catch fish!

I decided to drift a whole squid back and 5 min later, line started to peel off my reel. What happened next really took me by surprise! I fought the fish back to the boat and when I got colour, to was clear that it was a decent bluefin, BUT it was NOT hooked! The braid was tangled round the lower jaw! I managed to gaff it and then I realised that there was another fish at the end of the line! Turns out it was another blue of the same size, this one was hooked in the mouth (fish was released in the water using a dehooking tool). I suspect that when the first one hit the bait the rest went into a frency and in the twist and turns, one got tangled in the line. Never caught a fish like that before!

Did 6 drifts, hooking up each time, all blues and of the same size. I released all except for the one I gaffed. That one I bled and put on ice. The family already had some sashimi and BBQ tuna kama.

What I was really itching for though was mahi, so I went to look for Furuno, but after reaching the co ords and searching the vicinity, it was not to be found. The wind and swells picked even more, so I decided to head in. The wind changed direction, but it only went W with sometimes with abit of N in it, instead of my preferd (and the earlier forcasted, by seabreeze) SW.

All in all I got beat up abit by the seas, but it was a decent trip.

When I reached OR, I was the last boat out of the water! The carpark was empty and that also meant that I didn't have to rush to flush the motor. Infact I decided to clean the whole boat and all my gear there!