Well. the story up til 6 this morning... neighbour and coworker, bought a jeep.. I mean boat(hes got a jeep) spent 5k after sifting through what seemed like endless amounts of shit that people have no idea what there mouldy ol tub is worth kinda boats..

The 560 fiberglass runabout was, just as the ad described, and better, every reciept from the last 243 yrs.. nice bloke too... sat there chatting and going over everything with him(engine happily on the hose and purring away).. Water test!!, yep, but have to wait til next weekend cause his missus had plans.. no worries, it was worth waiting for, my mate doesnt have shitloads of cash to throw around on a lemon.. the next friday we're up at Hillaries meeting him at the ramp for the water test... great bloke... showed us all the ins n outs n sideways things about the tub that he eventually shed a tear for as it was leaving.... Shit weather for boating, but we headed out, got about halfway to rotto, cause he egged us on to keep going(I think he was just enjoying a final blast on it) turned around and came back( shoulda seen the size of the mullet hanging round the ramp!!!!)

So that was last friday night just b4 the thunderstorm.. we worked sat and sun, and every other day in between, just itching for an early knock off(Im self employed so normally can make this happen) same ol story.. weekend comes and BOM predicts disaster, but we figured we'd go have a look anyway, was gonna go pt peron ffb direction but changed to woodies just in case it was a bit like the 2-3m swells as predicted at 430 this morn so we could at least have a crack in the sound if it was shit...

So I knock on ol mates door at 1 degree 6am(gentlemans hours hey)... the dog didnt bite me.. Im gonna have a good day...622am cough cough... ol mate decides to open the door!!(decky still aint there yet with ol mates 4wd!!.. he finally shows up half cut?? hook up and work out the battle plan for the day... off we go.. trailer tryes need air... other owner liked to run his tyres at 28psi?? BP huntingdale forgot to turn the compressor on and fatima didnt know?understand how to... woolies at brooklands auto went to 60psi.. yep thats not gonna work after a few hit and miss tries, so BP success got that one sorted.. oh thats right... BP success was AFTER ol mate realised he'd left the boat keys at home... he's only ever had a tinny so we cut him some slack(after about 30 piss takes)

830!!! we are in the water, idling away, planning the days events, excited, who would christent the new tub etc,, we were really excited!!...and wondering where the hell the newb deckie has gone.. no dunny paper at the public toilets at woodies, so a pie wrapper and a chat with 'someone' on the way down to the boat cost us 20 mins!! anyway ropes off and we're away skipper... not even through the heads and we're in a steam bath!!! wtf... crack the cover steam everywhere... water pissing out!!! wtf... Marine safety boat coming into port as this happened.. oh the shame.. ol mates pretty confident he knew why(after playing with it all week) knocked back the offer of a tow back to the ramp... that woulda been the end of the day right there!!!

Got it sorted cause he had planned well... bottle of oil, bottle of coolant(closed system blah blah) top 'er up, good to go... underway again, the exhaust bellows decides to let go!! were the F did the flathead screwdriver go(it was under the tipped over engine cover??) either way Troy(me) did the mcGyver thing and snapped the tip off a bait knife and made a flat head screwdriver.. yeh I personally was having a good day.. McGyver theme running through my head.. actually it was the Ateam theme cause i couldnt remember the Mcgyver song!!.. better rub it in about forgetting the keys again.. off we go... finally outta the heads.. yep it boiled again... I say 'make the call skipper.. game over'(poor guy, it was his first time hes ever logged on and I made him do it himself even though he reckons cause I jabber on a truck UHf I should do it.. he needs to learn how to)

Newb deckie cracked his first tinny.. not sure how that worked as we both run a dry boat, but he's ol mates bro so he somehow flew in under the radar.... he decides F it Im fishing(cant actually tie knots.. ya woulda loved the granny knot snap swivel rig he tied... ya aint gonna catch F all here bud)

we were gonna give sea rescue a call.. really didnt want to...had plenty of coolant/water on board(he did well), why not just let it cool down some and we'll get back, without annoying sea rescue.. the wind was pushing us towards GI so no immediate rock smashing danger.. deckie is jabbering away about some tart he hooked up with last night etc.. ol mate wasnt happy(as one could expect)... should we just drop anchor he asks.. as yet another tub flies past us... After working out how much fluids we had for the motor I pointed out that we were drifting in the direction of something that looked like it could be structure and at least give us a day out(meh no nagging missus is always a good day out)

We decided to go for a very fuel ecomical drift.. headed straight for a rocky seabed near one of the cardinal markers out from woodies... the wind was perfect.. bout 20 minutes later we ended up right on the edge of it.. the ol' black n white sounder went nuts.. reckon it musta been a monster school of trumpeter.. anyway .. dropped anchor cause at least this was showing signs of life compared the the flat boring nothing that had been showing on the way... we didnt care, we were fishing!! this is living!!!

had a block of mulies for burleying just in case the weather report was right and we got held in close... deckie still hasnt shutup yet and has made 2 other fone calls yabbering about breaking down and ol mate forgetting the keys etc... he shoulda brought goggles cause ol mate was already over that!!... a few wrasse(decky).... meh.. hes like WOW WHASH sHAT.. its the sound.... BAM Im on to something that I called, with tongue in cheek for a baldie...Scorpian Cod.. almost had to wrestle deckie away from just grabbing the damn thing... didnt need that shit right about now!!! my first SP deep species fish.. Berkley Punk prawn jerk shad... Thank goodness for people like Fisho-ron for teaching me how to deal with these little buggers... reckon I caught about half a dozen or so last time I was out with him n Troy....

throw the elevator head back out.. yeh Im new to plastics but itching to get something real... BAM on again... go on.. call it for a baldie this time... nope... Scorpian cod... that actually had a white chin so I was mega excited right up until it surfaced!!! theyre actually kinda bulldog cute hey.. berley trail was working, got to show the now cuddly deckie how it worked.. boga grips, hookout.... inside its mouth/ stomach entrance, was a cube of mulie.. dude nearly passed out.. wish he did!!! 

Hours passed, not another fish came aboard.. I rerigged for bait.. blamed the plastics ;) even though we had other rods with bait attached... used a drift bait rig No 5 bean sinker snelled rig... full cali squid... just like the others.....(ya forgot the boats broken hey.. yep its cool enough to go home now)

Ryan from Oceanside Tackle.. my new best mate!! garaunteed me that THIS rod is awesome, he was right... I matched my sanctum 5000 to this FWA 8-10kg graphite 7' rod.... it looks like herring would scare the shit outta it... but awesome(as far as my 2 hrs of demersal SP fishing goes) even with a sinker and bait rig.. it was awesome.. reminds me of a fly rod... the tip just follows the fish but the butt... we its got a whole lot back... which worked out really well for the next fish.... nibble nibble(picker picker) KABLAM.... best I get that outta the rod holder NOW.... skipper was in the middle of rigging up a squid jig to kill the hours.. 'Here hold this' I said.... 78cm Pinkie!! yep he forgot about the broken boat for now(yep I wasnt expecting that either.. but feel pretty good now!!).. got a pic, but it didnt transfer to the pc like it shows on the iPhone... high 5s all round.. it was his first pinky, and the first 'keeper on his new boat.. onya mate

A few squid and quiet other lines later we check the fluids and headed home.. exhaust bellows blew off again, and it got hot but we're a patient bunch of fellows and we got home in time to do a ripper cook up for what couldve been a dry day... yep... wont even go there, not my boat... he fell asleep on the way home

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