*2 pics added* 

Well I finally made it up to the Abrolhos for a 3 day trip with a bunch of guys on Abrolhos Island Charters the other weekend. Unfortunately I've just moved house so dont have the net on there so I'm on someone else's computer and therefor have no photos to add to the report just yet... not that I took maybe, too busy fishing! I'll hopefully add a few soon, stay tuned :)

Anyway if you care to read a little report then here you go...

Got up there at 12 on thursday night and loaded all the gear onboard and we all crashed out trying to get a few hours sleep before we left the next morning.

Woke up friday morning to beautiful conditions and we steamed out to the islands arriving around 10am. All geared up on the way out everyone was keen to get into it and fishing positions were quickly picked as we stopped at the first spot. I made my way up the front of the boat to get away with one other guy to get away from the 8 other lines squished together on deck. Within 10 seconds of hitting the bottom 2 fisho's were hooked up and reeling in, a small snapper and a nice 8kg dhuie were first fish onboard.

My aim for the trip was to jig metals and sp's with bait as a last resort. After the first hour of jigging a few different metals and watching the other guys with bait pulling in plenty of good fish I made the switch to a 7inch gulp sp and was instantly rewarded with the biggest coral trout of the trip. Great fish to start and a pb trout for me. The rest of the arvo using sp's pulled in some good baldies and snapper being busted off by a couple unstoppables. The rest of the guys caught our trip limit of 6 dhuies with the best goin about 12kg and the smallest going back leaving us 1 more decant dhuie to be caught for the trip. Also some horse baldies came aboard and plenty of small snapper going back.

That night we got an awesome feast of beer battered dhuie and baldie with beer battered chips and the best mexican salad I've ever tasted... I must say we ate VERY well over the weekend with delicious meals and great meat and cheese platters, cakes and other goodies for snacks during the day.

Sat morning we woke to a constant 20knot wind which hung around all day making conditions not as great as the day before and using the sps and lighter metals hard work. The patternoster with 2 long droppers of sp's was the order of the day and first drop was another great trout. The day was a little slower that the first with a another trout and some baldies going to the plastics and a couple small dhuies (only 1 size). The rest of the guys pulled in the usual snapper and baldies but only a few undersize dhu's.

Sat night after anchoring it was time to bring out the light gear I'd brought up. The 4lb bream gear was out and ready for action. Sent out a drift bait to the bottom as the skipper said snapper and baldies could be about in the area. After 5 mins of no action I handed the rod to one of the older guys to hold while I rigged up another rod with a bait jig to catch some herring that were schooled up behind the boat.... wouldn't you know it he hooked up... big! The little 2500 stradic was singing loudly as a decant fish had taken the occy leg on the other end. Wishing I could have taken the rod back I knew I couldn't, instead encouraging old mate to get this fish in on the 4lb string. He fought it like a pro even though he'd only ever been fishing once before and after a long fight landed a big nosed 6kg pinkie! Awesome capture on the light gear!

With the motivation to catch another I spent the the rest of the night until 3:30am fishing alone off the back deck. I landed a 2kg snapper, big red troat emperor and 4 big morwong (the grey coloured ones?) while being snapped off twice. Exciting fun on the light gear for sure. Also caught over 50 bait fish for the next day, herring and some stonka slimey mackeral!

Woke early on sunday morning with everyone else being up already and 1 guy fishing who pulled in a small snapper as I got up on deck. I headed straight for my little outfit, baited up and sent it 30m down to the bottom. Instant hook up and reel screaming the other guys watched on as I pulled in 3 consecutive nice baldies on the "flicky" until the 4th one burried me and snapped me off. Great fun!!!

Last day was windy... 30knots all day and the fishing was fairly slow with the last decant dhuie kept for the trip and a few more baldies and snapper to take home for dinner. We got to stop off to feed the friendly massive spanglies at some spot called........ something that I forget. Man they were big!

The trip home was exciting with the windy and swell knocking the boat around a bit but we made it home safely. Overall it fun trip with plenty of fish caught, though nothing to really write home about. Everyone got to take a few fillets home though we didn't even make out 10kg quota for the trip each!

In conclusion.... I must suck at jigging metals as I didn't even get a hit.. though I only used them for maybe 2 hours and gave up switching to the sp's which were definately the go on this trip. Also I recommend taking a very light rod to fish with at anchor during the night.. so much fun :)

The End.

Pics - *First fish of the trip - Coral Trout* , *Baldie on 2kg outfit*