Yesterday morning bright and early saw us depart the Gero Marina for a spear. Conditions where par - average for majority of the trip to our first spot some 55k out.... Meggsie was along today for her first fish in along time so as we slowed to down approaching the reef i threw a X-Rap on 8kg out for her and the boys and i geared for a dive.... It didnt take long before the rod took off and the little tyrnos was screaming... First call was for a Spanish but it died in the bum pretty quick and meggs soon had a 6kg sharkie along side - despatched pronto ready for burley. She did a fantastic job considering she has never used an overhead before!. We reset the lure and did a few passes over some bait schools on the dropoff for one more hit before we anchored and got wet.. The dropoff was 16m down into 35.. 

Dale and Ryan both hit the water and saw plenty of shark macks and the odd small spanish while i readied meggs for a bottom bash... After the initial mayhem and high hopes it was unually quiet here - no current and no pelagic activity. Meggs landed a good baldie and a large morwong which was released & the boys and i hadnt shot a thing... We burleyed pretty hard with the shark mack hoping to lure in something worthy and then a couple of big spangled emps appeared deep in the trail.... Dale took first drop and leveled off in 22m , fired and got a muzzle wrap - spangleds 1 divers 0.

I dove next and followed a good spango chewing on a monster chunk of fish frame down into 18m before a flash caught my eye above me and too a distance... It was a big trout who had come right up off the bottom for a feed... A tad too far to swim at depth i had a good look for a return dive when suddenly a head appeared right in front of me and turned broadside... Hello Mr Spanish! Aimed and fired - the fish quivered , spewed burley and looked for all money stoned! Until i put some pressure on my reel line which must have just pulled the shaft off his spine enough to bring it back.. It departed pronto! A good fight and a second shot later we where on the board with a 15kg spaniard... Megan in the meantime had managed a good 4kg trout which was released....Into the eski of course!

Not wanting to waste daylight we made the call to head off chasing new spots.... One of Dales mates had given us a tip off for big macks & reefies so the call was made to investigate! Bit of current here made diving hard but the dropoff from 8m into 40m looked unreal... SBT busted up everywhere , bait everywhere.... Spotted some good pink snapper that prefered a 1kilometre radius from my riffe then a closer look and the boys took a nice trout each but still no more macks...

Another move along the edge saw us find abit of a fish bowl effect in the reef edge... Anchored again and i was first in the water this time with a big handful of mulies.... Crushed them up and saw a big school of shark macks approach over the sand followed by a bigger school of big Spanish! Quick load of the double powerbands , dropped , leveled off and sent a good holding shot into the shoulder! Surfaced and cried out school of spanish and ive never seen Dale jump in so quick! Landed mine with a big school hanging around and the clearish water saw Dale pull up short on a 20kg plus fish.. Some good spanish where shot and seen and i managed to loose the last shaft on my riffe gun when a quick change in direction on what would have been my pb and 20kg odd spanish took my reel line past the flasher.... Hung up on the blades , pulled the whole rig under and busted off! I was spewing - lost a good fish , killed a good fish that was now wasted , lost another 100$ shaft and also lost about 50m of dyneema in the process....

Dale then managed a nice little 8kg cobia off a large ray. A fish he has chased for along time and almost lost when trying to iki... Shook the shaft free and got out of his grip , took off with dale screaming in hot pursuit , crew on the boat laughing , the fish dived and hit the bottom obviously abit hurt , dale holding only the shaft has a quick breath and dives... Never thought he would get it but managed to get close enough to stab the cobe again freehand and landed his fish!

Capped off the day shooting a couple of baldies and i was stoked to land a couple of flighty Spangled Emps in the shallows.. One is a new pb and went just on 6kgs!

The trip home was attrocious tho - 40odd mile of short sharp wind chop took 3 hrs.... The closer we got to the coast the wind direction went around to the sth west and turned it even more horrible! Was great to finally reach dry land..... 

That was our day out Far & Wide off Gero...

Cheers Poddy

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