Was planning a trip out for the weekend, and yesterdays weather looked the best out of the two days.Plan was to leave super early around 5.30am from woodies.

With Scano and another mate keen for a trip, we headed out to what is known as 'Mr Reliable'. Which is some ground we recently found, which seems to be just a flat plate of coral, but always produces.

Lets just say the weather conditions were not the greatest, in the sound they were great... out past rotto not so good, pushing 15-16 knot North easters... Made for some sloppy ocean, and being about 5 degrees and in a centre console, tried to stay as dry as possible.

This time we thought we'd take a look around a bit in the same area to try locate some more ground as to not over fish the couple of lumps of coral we already have.

About a alf mile short of our destination i noticed on the sounder a little rise and a little bit of colour, which i see as coral. So dida quick turn around and sounded over the same spot. A few fish showed and when i went over it nice and slow, the coral lit up as well as a 3-4 metre lump. Didnt take us long to find some new ground!.

Quick rig up and we dropped....

1 second... 2 seconds... bang! i am on.. fish felt ok and a slow wind up in case it was a small dhu... but it was not, it was a nice 48cm Black ass... not a bad fish for first drop of the day, and its always good to get runs on the board early. Quick snap and in the eski he went.

Up'ed lines andback we went for another drift...

Lines down... 1 second....2 seconds... bang, my mate mickis on, then im on, then Scano is on...

Micks fish looked the goods, mine felt good but dropped a few seconds later, and Scanos we were unsure.

After a few minutes micks fish came up, the fight looked like a pinky, but to our delight it was a nice Baldy!! up at 60cm long!! Hard to tell the weight but quessed 4-5kgs. Great fish and a first for mick!. Seem to get Baldies every time out on the coral.

Scanos came up and was a swallowtail which was released.

Swung round for a 3rd drift, wind was started to kick a bit now, which made our drift quick. NE winds, with the current pushing NW made it hard work.

None the less down we went again, this time i think it was 5 seconds before Scano was on. Looked like a half decent fish, and what a surprise it was when it hit the surface.. unusual to find these of this size in shallow water in the 40-50m range but a nice red snapper came up! well over size, and in my eyes bloody great on the tooth!

a few more drifts voer the same ground produced another Black bum, small dhu at 48cm which was sent back on the release weight.

Moved on a little over to another small bit of coral, by this time the wind was kicking hard and getting annoying, so we thought a couple drifts then would look atheading in.

1st drift was down for all over 3 seconds and was on.. the sounder was glowing, but this time it was a another small dhu of 48cm which went back on the release weight.

Following drift and mick was on again... first of all he thought he had the bottom, but soon found out he wasnt...
After a few minutes he had his fish boat side, and was another first for him, a nice 60-65cm queen snapper.

we did a few more drifts for a few odd fish and decided it was time to head in.

Now im sure your wondering what the 'Fishwrecked First'... is....

Well, we started on our way in and only moved about a half mile and we came across something i cant say Ive come across before.. It was massive and fully grown, very unusual in 40 odd metres 18 odd miles out. We contemplated casting a lure at it, but decided there was another way we could catch it....

A wheelie bin!!! and a cracker too!!!
Hooked it with the boat hook and in the boat she came.... a few jokes about how we would fillet it, and how we would explain it to the fisheries if we were pulled up, but bought it back and put it in the bin at the ramp.

Definately a first for me.

Bodie