Has come and gone in a flash and reality hit today facing work!

Flew to Learmonth Thursday 14th with 3 of the 4 starters where we were met by a mate who had already taken the boat north with his family for 10 days. The esky was full and cold for us, good start! The speeding fine was not a good start, the excitement was kicking in! Hit CB and the water was like glass. Brief daily summary;

Thurs Day 1- We arrived CB at ~ 4.30 and were on the water 15 mins later. Mate spent further family time and did not attend!! Knowing we had only an hour or so of light, we hit one of my favourite spots south and it did not disappoint. 30 knots we were there in no time. Sounder show had us bursting at the seams. First drop red and red throats, great bait, back down they go. Second drop red and spangle. third drop double header of reds and gold band (first for the spot, and not even 70m!! Just over hour later we were heading home with a healthy esky for what we did not think was to be a fishing day?! 30 knots all way in the dark! Nearly taking out an unlit yacht inside the reef was not cool. Forgot to add the visit by a 4m+ hammer head trying to steal a red! In the dark and with me on the net, I shat!

Fri Day 2- Mate dropping family to Learmonth again unable to attend! Weather looking iffy we headed north. Travelling out 10-12 knots we were looking at over an hour trip so dropped out a red head and a skirt. With 10 mins we landed a ~ 15kg wahoo! 20 mins later hook up on sail, on the red head! Winding the skirt in we saw another sail free jumping, next thing in, second hook up, luckily on each sider of the boat. Both good sized ests 50-60kg, freed boat side. Hitting the spots, struggled to hold bottom with 20knot+ winds so headed home!

Sat Day 3- mate was free of family and after towing a boat around for nearly 2 weeks was free to fish?! So he thought- weather crap, were land based!!! Hit the pub for few off the wood.

Sun Day 4- decided to head back south, had good flare ups but not a great day, just didn't seem hungry. Ended up with mixed bag of reds, spangleds, robo's and honey comb cod. Mate at least got his rod wet!

Mon Day 5- the weather looked the goods so we decided to venture further and wider north to ~ 150-160m. Found the gold bands and they were hungry! Decided to break out the electrics and give them a good run. 12 solid gold bands 6-8kg and it was an early end to the day!

Tues Day 6- weather looked good again so thought that was great fun yesterday, lets do it again!! As always, something had changed and we struggled catching only a few.

Wed Day 7- weather still looking good so call was made to head south to try our shallower (60-70m) red ground that we had not yet fished. Little slow but managed a few reds, robbos, rankin, spangles and honey comb.

Thurs Day 8- we hadn't hit our red ground north so decided to give this a crack. Again we found them hungry and founded a great new patch of ground that I will call the gravel patch. No great flare ups but plenty of small deviations and showing of fish that produced a great catch of reds, spangleds, scarlet, rankin. Mate ex family landed first red of the trip!

Fri Day 9- weather again looked epic so decided to hit 200m+ line for some rubys. Hit 240m and had two drops and couldn't hold bottom. Given we need only 2kg each to hit our limit we potted back to 90m picked up a couple of tuna for sushimi dinner and found some more new ground. 3-4 drops saw us with good reds and rankins so called it a day around lunch to head back to the thought of packing up?!

Saturday saw us head home after next batch of mates taking over the boat arriving! Crusing with car and trailer only we were making good time unfortunately being held up by a head on between a truck and a car. No fatality miraculously but still not a pleasant sight and an unwanted hold up.

Summary of parts reds 4-7kg, gold bands 6-8kg, rankins 4-8kg. 20kg in the freezer, happy times fishing 8 of 9 days anywhere from 60m to 240m!!

Pics, day 1 sounder, day 1 catch, gold bands day 5, gold bands day 5, catch day 8, catch day 9.

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