Bonito

Queen Snapper

Harlequin

Boatside Bonito

I took Fishless Pete out today, we trolled the back of staggies and picked up three bonito in an hour (sorry no Spaniards). That was a first for Pete, he had never caught a bonito before. Unfortunately I had some pretty heavy gear out on one rod and that was the one that Pete was using, so the fight was a little one sided. I was tempted to get the whiting gear out and troll with them, but I was really after Spaniards.

We headed out about 14nm west of Mindarie and caught a good mixed bag. Pete hooked the only Dhuie for the day which went back to grow some more. I caught a nice Queenie around 3kg and released him too (too many dhufish fillets in the freezer to be worrying about a queenie.) Pete picked up a couple of blackarse and his first ever red snapper. Meanwhile I picked up three blackarse (one was a horse), a nice big KG, and a big harlequin. We released a few more fish including Pete's first ever Sambo and a small baldie.

We headed in at about 2-00pm and on the way back a big lump appeared on the sounder. We stopped to investigate and realised it wasn't a lump but a massive school of bait fish. After drifting through the baitfish for barely a bite, the sounder showed several larger fish in mid water. I wound up half way and left it there for a couple of seconds then "BANG" I was monstered by what I thought was a big Sambo. After a tough fight I got some line back and as it came to the surface there were another 10 or 12 shapes swiming with it. I signalled Pete to go back down but just before he went in we saw that my fish was a black tip reef shark. Trying to get it to the boat was going to be fun, so Pete put his rod down ad tried to get it in the transom door. The fish was tail wrapped and when it came to the side of the boat the line caught on the ladder and snapped. "bye-bye mr shark". Pete dropped again while I re-rigged and immediately hooked up on one of his little brothers. We landed it and Pete decided he would have flake for tea, so we dispatched the shark to the esky.

Not a bad trip, but no trophy fish in amongst it all. Ah well always next time.

For those who are interested the bonito were caught in 21.5 degrees temp water on a laser-pro in a mackrel pattern.

Cheers
Andy Mac