With the weather looking good with light winds and low swell forecast we made the call to head over for a three day trip to the Abrolhos Islands .Russel [R Gates] from the forum met us at my place for the trip up to Gero. All packed and on the road for 4:45am with a light breeze behind us looked like a nice trip straight through. Once on the road the sky’s up ahead darkened and lightning started lighting up the sky .Once we were past Lancelin the havens opened up and the wind began to howl .We  were now heading into a 40 knot wind and the boat and car were being pushed all over the road ,not to say foot flat and only doing 60kph.I haven’t seen rain like that for years .Half an hour later and the skies cleared and we were back up to 85kph .We got to Gero around 10:30 and fuelled up and made our way down to the ramp, where we caught with Lyndon [Out doing it] and Andrew his crew for the trip. Rob H met us there and gave us a lift back to the marina once we had dropped the trailers at the yard .Thanks Rob.  We slept at the marina and got off to an early start winds around 10-15 knots made for a comfortable ride over once there .Once there it was out with the rods and a few hours off fishing with dhuies, baldies, snapper and other small fish being caught.

We headed into the bay where we would be staying  the night and tied  up the boat .

Jesse and I headed out for some kayak fun casting stick baits along the reef ,nailing a number of trout up to 450mm long GREAT FUN.

The next day we headed out to gee bank which is between the southern and middle group of islands. The seas were flat and cruising on 27knots was great .we anchored up in glass calm seas and 30+m viz. This was a great dive a large coral lump in the middle of nowhere coming up from 40m to 5m .We were in the water for an hour and had sharks with us for the whole dive at one stage I got separated and wondered of as you do .only to be confronted by up to ten Sharks up to 8 foot. I back tracked and found the others chasing trout around looking for that big one to shoot. The sharks never made us feel uncomfortable keeping their distance and just checking us out, they did show a little interest once we shot a fish but still nothing to worried about .AWSOME place and will be diving that one again.

After the dive we headed out to the middle group of Islands for a look around. Lyndon and Rusty did another dive on a lump as we came into the Island .Jesse and I went in the kayaks and rounded up some more trout. Kevin worked soft plastics of the back of the boat ,catching a dhuie and snapper .After the boys finished their dive we headed into the island ,Cristal clear water .We were going up the edge of the reef which was only inches under the water We were a meter away and we were in 23m This edge ran for miles. We pulled up at one of the public moorings and had lunch.

Then it was into the kayaks for some snorkelling .In amongst the reef were blue hole some dropping to 15m, heaps of baldies and small trout.

We then headed to the top end of the island and found a small bay for the night .Waking early I went for a walk around the island .seemed to be a sleepy hole for some young pup seals ,as I stumbled across a few on my walk

.After some bacon and eggs we headed out to some birds that we had spotted while having our breakfast .throwing stick baits and small plastics at them Jesse was on first with a nice shark Mac and the Kevin with a snapper ,yes a snapper on the surface in 28m of water .Then off  too another lot of working birds. Another Mac and a nice tuna, and a coral trout on stick bait in 28m of warter”.what the.”

The boys were onto some snapper out a little further .so we headed off to the next school of birds ,which had a dozen sharks rounding up baitfish and a couple of big ass yellow tail kings with them .We didn’t get anything of this school but it was fun to see. The sharks turning and thrashing about. Lyndon came over and told us Andrew had put a hook in his finger and they were going to be heading back to Gero, as he was in a little discomfort. We headed off to the rat island and had a look around for a few hours and then headed back to the southern group. By this time the seas had flattened out and we did a little fishing .As soon as the baits hit the bottom we were on dhuies ,baldies,snapper,emperor,and then sharks ,bloody things up came a nice dhuie head  so time to move .

We found another small lump and it was on again the fish were going off. The sun was getting low so back to the mooring for the night. After 10minutes break Jesse and I were in the Kayaks and heading for the shallows, Jesse got a tailor around the 4-5kg and did it give him a good run. We also got a number of trout .

The next day and we were in the water early doing a dive on some shallow ground dropping to 23m Lots of trout and a few dhuies also heaps of sand snapper, we returned to the surface to find the breeze had swung still very light but enough to put the boat onto the reef .after dragging the boat back around to deeper water we climbed aboard and lifted the motor which has a few battle scares on the leg from the coral.

Then out to the fishing ground were we finished the day before .the fish were still hungry and catching fish was full on .I jumped across to Rusty’s boat and showed him a few things with his sounder and how to set up a drift and then he was into some fish himself, landing a good dhuie and numbers of other fish .

Well all good things come to an end and we headed back to Gero .Then on the road for home. Thanks to Lyndon, Rusty, Andrew, Kevin and Jesse good trip and good company .Already planning the next one

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