FINALLY!

With trying to run two jobs (thankfully I'm now running my own business only) we hadn't had "Dreamweaver" out since July last year! I know, bloody disgraceful!

After our return from Coral Bay (to attend one of our daughters wedding) and two fishing experiences under our belt and with some time to spare, we broke the Dreamweaver boat fishing drought.

With all the signs looking good we rose at a liesurely 05:30 and were in the water, out from the Albany town jetty at around 07:30.

Despite the forcast, the NNW wind gusts made conditions a bit choppy, so we settled for a drift out near the islands.

We were onto bights straight away, but the majority of bring ups were undersized, Breaksea, Squire Snapper and Swallow Tail mainly.

Breaksea Cod, we find are one of the most Baratrauma prone fish, so thank goodness I'd brought our release weight.

I did mange to pull in one half decent pan sized skip:

With most catches undersized, our bait being pecked to death and the wind having moderated considerably, we decided to move further afield to a spot out from Rock Dunder.

It proved worthwhile.

Sandra's first effort was VERY impressive, "I'M SERIOUSLY ON", she yelled as her rod buckled furiously, and the Torium 30 OH screamed in protest.

"TURN IT" I yelled, "I"M TRYING" she yelled back...and "YOU TRY". I grabbed the rod from her hands and locked up the 30 to as much as I could - I might as well had it in free spool!

Sandra "under load":

The braid was heading for Antartica, but, whatever piscatorial beast was on the end of it was coming to the surface, so we'd at least find out what it was.

Moving out from the boat and rising? Hmmm, a large ray or BIG Sambo was my call...

The beast surfaced...a bloody whale! Seriously!

OK, Sandra wins the biggest hook up.

A Cow and calf that hung around the boat, even after Sandra "caught" the Cow:

One hour later, and numerous drifts producing skippy, a black rock fish and an Albatros (Sandra's effort again), the top of my T-Curve 400 shot downwards as one of two Gamakatsu 5/0 Circles had done their work.

Whatever iit was, it wasn't going to go easy as we played "line ownership" during several serious runs. After what I imagined to be about ten minutes, the culprit finally started coming up consistantly.

A further 10-15 minutes and I had the fish to the surface - a good sized Blue Morwong (Southern Queenie) - measure at just under one meter and 7 kilos. That 65 meters of depth had felt like 165 meters:

We were back at the town jetty at our designated 1400 hours, logged off VMR610 (Albany Sea Rescue) and pleased with a good feed, great fun (especially due to Sandra's "unusual catches") and happy that we had finally broken the drought.