Bread & Butter Bag Out

The moral of this story is: “if you have a plan, stick to it”.

Yesterday was the first MAAC competition for 2015.  Yes, the weather forecast was crap with fresh easterlies going to moderate south easterly then fresh south west – hardly good fishing conditions.  Me and YPM had devised a plan whereby we trolled the nearshore reefs early for tailor, fished a nearshore lump early for skippy and KG’s, fished the nearshore weedy ground for herring, gar and snook then fished the nearshore sand for whiting and anything else that was around.  Then if the wind dropped off we could head out further and hunt demesals and sambos at spots where we had a tailing SW on the way in.  I liked the plan and we made up the rigs that we needed and got ready.

As we drove to the ramp and logged in, conditions looked a lot better than forecast – plus the wind was supposed to drop from that point on!  There, we made our fatal mistake and changed our plan.  “Let’s go out deeper first up, have a look at it, last time we did this in a comp we cleaned up”.  So, off we go at 6am (the time you are allowed to leave the marina) and for a while it did look good.  Once the lee of the land was behind us, a look at the trailing sea didn’t present a pretty picture.  It got worse when we arrived at the spot  and turned into it to anchor.  Very nasty conditions in the short chop that was building to 1m+.  We got the reef anchor out of course it wouldn’t hold with a 40km+ wind.  Eventually we did, a long way from the spot and got 10 minutes of fishing in before it pulled again – the prongs were being straightened.  Another try and we held again but way off our ground in a fish “desert”.

From there, it got worse - the sun on the sea is a wind pump.  The wind was increasing (over 50km/h), the sea was increasing (short chop 1.5m+), there were no fish and we were taking waves over the bow.  I could hear the bilge working but nothing pumping – must have been a blockage.  With the water we were taking, the forecast decrease in winds had to be ignored and we needed to get to shore to get rid of the water.  A very slow, very uncomfortable tip back was had with the boat sitting low in the water and the motor going under at times.  We had no choice, we had to get out of there.

Back to the ramp, load the boat on the trailer, drive it up on the ramp and open the bungs.  After a good few minutes, the ocean was returned and we were good to go again.  4 hours lost and a few cray bait wrasse was all we had – plus the memory of a nasty little experience.  The forecasters got it wrong all day.

Back to the plan.  Too late for tailor and trolling in the strong easterly produces lots of spray.  Out to the nearshore lump and just more cray bait.  We were feeling quite demoralised by this time but decided to stick to the original plan.  Hooray, some burley in the water near the reef, plus me sending some of my bread roll into the drink, and we were surrounded by gar.  Not having caught these before in WA, it was some hastily made floating rigs with small hooks, squid and/or bread balls and we managed to get a few – some comp points finally after 5+ hours.  Off to the weedy ground - burley up with floats out the back and we soon had a few herring on the boat – more points.  These two spots taught me a bit about burley and the gar and herring – don’t leave the burley in the water all the time as it attracts schools of toads and trumpeter – much better to “pulse” it out and then make sure your floating bait is in the “slick”.  I picked this one up from watching the slick and the fish breaking the surface in it.

With only a couple of hours left, we headed to a whiting spot with not a lot to show from our day.  The burley went out here and within minutes the sounder lit up like I had never seen before (I wish I had taken a photo to post).  The sand whiting were thick and baits were lucky to be on the bottom for 5 seconds before being devoured.  Within the next 45 minutes we bagged out and plenty of them were large sized models.  The biggest went 0.279kg at weigh in and was a quality sandy, along with a few of its mates.

So after a trying day, at least we had quite a few fish to weigh in – nothing compared to MAAC seasoned quality anglers though.  YPM won the juniors and I got the biggest sand whiting which was a small consolation for the events of the day.

The big ones became fillets, the medium ones cray bait and the small ones “upgrade fish”, hopefully.

With the cray bait collected over the last week, and the glass off conditions of today, it was time to check and re-bait the pots after a very extended soak.  I must admit that I wasn’t that hopeful because last time we retrieved the pots, a couple had been pulled (100 odd metres off the marks in a N and NE direction).  Nevertheless, with all the bait we had caught and conditions forecast to be ok for the next few days it had to be done.  Wow, one pot had 6 big berried or tar spot females (throw backs) and another a male jumbo and a couple of other keepers – they were on the marks so it was nice to see that they hadn’t been pulled after a lot of time in the water.  Following Rosie’s useful post about Lowrance Gen 2 settings, I could also take the calm conditions to further “tune” the HDS9 and it was great to be able to identify the pots in the water, and find good locations adjacent to ledges to put them – thanks mate.

Quite an “action packed” weekend really.  A nice dinner for the family tonight, and a few lessons learned. 

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Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it - LH.

 

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Brock O's picture

Posts: 3160

Date Joined: 11/01/08

Classic and So True

Sun, 2015-01-11 18:25

 

 Nice write up and top feed there Mick, the start of that sounds like me on most outings.

 Get a plan and stick to it! Dont know how many times ive tried to cover the ocean at the last minute for SFA!...then to limp back thinking i should have stuct to the plan! Lot more enjoyable than going out bang bang bang!

T_revz's picture

Posts: 45

Date Joined: 30/04/13

 Forecasters tricked me

Sun, 2015-01-11 20:23

 Forecasters tricked me yesterday too. Was my last chance to get out this month after rewiring/painting the boat, weather was good at 5am so dropped in at busso and did about 22knots out to 12mile. GPS came up with a fault but used my phone and persisted. Could barely find my spots and had trouble setting up drift angle. In came the howling wind and phone was dead flat! Ended up going direct to dunsborough to avoid the nasty seas. Ended up with only a sambo and more things to fix on the boat before the next trip...still better than being at work

Matt T's picture

Posts: 875

Date Joined: 19/11/07

Mick

Sun, 2015-01-11 22:30

 Another brilliant post! 

I have to say I envy your brilliant outings with your boy - YPM! - that is the kind of fun that will see you guys close and on the same wavelength for years and years to come. Keep up the good work, you are doing an amazing job as a dad and as a fisherman!