Geraldton Fishing and Diving report.

Over the Anzac weekend we went to stay with the relatives up at Gero for a few days with my Dad salivating for some crays. My uncle had been telling us for months that he has been cleaning up, and with the last few photo's of crays coming though my Dad just had to go up there.
The weather had not been consistent on sites, but we figured we figure we might as well give it a crack and see how it goes. We packed the boat up, dropped in at the local and picked up the gear we needed, mainly leaders and some more jig heads + plastics as well as a new loop as the old ones spring what shot.
We left with the weather looking promising, with the idea lingering of a trip across to the Abrolhos on the Saturday. Although this wasn't to be with the weather forecast changing when we checked it later.

Day 1:
The first day was overcast, we left the boat ramped and headed out into some dodgy looking seas with some very large swell rolling through. The idea was to head out to a do a wreak dive, then come back in for a Cray dive. We arrived at the wreak, secured the boat and they rigged up. I gave Dad the Gopro and they descended down to the wreak. Not being allowed to fish there I rigged up the lines ready for the next spot.
They surfaced after around 22 minutes and my Dad was telling me about the huge crays with no where to go in the wreak and the huge school of around 100 mulloway balled up at the back. With our mouths watering we left and headed back to the spots my uncle had marked. We anchored up in an area with the swell pumping but some awesome ledges as described by my uncle. Again they rigged up, and swam off. I gave them five minutes and started flicking my plastics around. But it just wasn't meant to be. Had a couple of odd pumps but nothing more.
When they returned to the boat a while later I hauled the catch bags into the boat, both very full and heavy.
After remeasuring the sizes of the crays and throwing a few back they were put into the live well and kept fresh. We got 10 that day but they said there was so many more down there and my dad couldn't believe it.

We got home and cooked the Cray fish, as soon as they were out of the water dad and I were into them. To which my uncle gave us a funny look; "It looks like you haven't eaten crayfish before?"

Day 2
We woke up at 4 to leave for the Anzac ceremony where the rain didn't stop but a nice south easterly was gently blowing. With the day looking promising we headed out, my uncle brought a mate he promised a dive, so it was back out to the wreak where the three of them dived again. Then the same as the previous day they headed to the same spot, moved 50m north of the last pick drop and off they went, collecting, not hunting, for Crayfish, again returning 10 crayfish. But the jigs were no good while they dived. We dropped the crays back with my uncle, along with the dive gear and we headed back out in search for some fish.

We headed out to a mark where we new sambos were and just thought it would be good to have something pull some string. After getting there and not having anything show up on the sounder we thought we might as well give it a shot and we started cubing and dropped some burly (Cray heads from previous days).
I continued to jig with a plastic but it was looking grim. But all of a sudden, BOOM a solid take and I though it had to be a sambo, with how much it weighed, but its runs weren't very fast so I was starting wonder. After a couple more minutes I got it closer to the boat and called it for a big shark, when it saw the boat it peeled a little more line off, again backing up the call for a shark. My Static 5000 with PE 3 was almost locked and I was just able to pull it up, the Temple Reef Mytho sure had a good looking bend in it, handling itself nicely. I managed to pull it up a little more and before long it was next to the boat but still a little green and it wasn't a shark.
It was the biggest Cobia I had ever seen, it had to be easily 1.5m and Dad and I looked at each other like; shit, now what?
The net was too small, and with no Gaff on board it caused a bit of panic, with the lip grips running off to narnia it was looking bleak, dad put on some gloves and we tried to grab it in the mouth, but Mr Cobia didn't like this, making him thrash on the surface and peel some more line off. This happened a couple more times as well as attempting to lassoes its tail with a rope but we had no control of her and couldn't manage this. I thought the Cray looks would be perfect!! But they had been taken out with the other dive gear D:
With dad on the back deck next to the motor he decided we would try pull it up on the deck and proceed from there.
Dad grabbed her mouth but noticing the cobia was tail under boat and not in the best position I figured this ain't gonna end well, a solid thrash and she was away but this time, ping out comes the jig head and off the big girl cruised slowly, waving goodbye to the two retards on the boat with her huge tail. The only thing to show for myself and the effort is a bent TT Jig head and some cuts on my Dads hands. The fillet knife nearly ended up in my dad and some choice words exclaimed, it was just going to have to be one of those stories, no photos, no gopro video, no nothing. We estimated it to be around 30-35kg and at least 1.5m long it was an absolute cracker. My dad said when it rolled and thrashed it nearly broke his wrist, he ain't the smallest fella either so it was definitely a solid fish.
The rest of the day was shit with county north west blowies caught.

Day 3:
Day three was called as a Cray diving day, the plan was to back out and head home with a Esky full of crays. The rain had really set in now and being almost non stop the rain passed down all day. Two dives on the area pulled out 16 crays and having to sent heaps more back. But this time, while they were diving I had a bit more luck.
When we anchored I made a good sound over the ground and anchored the boat in a good area with some coralish bottom. Pulled the rod out, made sure the leader was sweet and set the jig down, with some bait school moving though I noticed some nice arches on the bottom, with some more aggressive jigs and working it a little further from the bottom I got a solid hit and the first run the fish screamed off. Thinking to myself awesome if might be a big Dhufish the fish finished its run and decided that it had enough and I pulled it to the surface. A little coral trout, my first ever and it was 44cm. After taking a quick photo I sent the little fella back (after admiring the awesome colours present on the fish).
This really got my heart racing and the jig was sent straight back down, the bottom was still looking good with some lines here and there and a few arches. While I was jigging I thought to myself, if that's what a little trout does on its first run, imagine what a big one does!! And as I thought this BOOOM, the jig was slammed and my reel started to change colour, I started to clamp the drag down and it kept running. IT started to slow and I could feel it was because I was in Mr Fishes hole and the leader was rubbing bad on something. I managed to pull him out and the fish put up little fight on its way to the surface, when it go there it was a solid trout, my second ever and weighing 3kg. With both the guys in the water no one could take a photo of it with me which was pretty gay so in the Esky it went.
No other fish were caught and the guys arrived back and unloaded their crays into the boat, the second dive got the 4 extra crags needed to bag out and we were set. The afternoon was spent jigging sambos.
We went home at around 5 and drove for 3 hours in solid rain.
Needless to say next time I return to gero there will be a gaff aboard the boat.

Cheers for reading and tight lines!

P.s. If you haven't got a gaff buy one, you might think you don't need it now, but you will never know what you're gonna jig up next!

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grantarctic1's picture

Posts: 2546

Date Joined: 03/03/11

Great report

Wed, 2014-04-30 13:10

Great report , pitty about the Cobia would have been a great photo. Thanks for sharing .

Posts: 918

Date Joined: 06/03/09

 Yeh nice write up, +1 pity

Wed, 2014-04-30 14:52

 Yeh nice write up, +1 pity about the cobes! I bought myself a gaff probably over a year ago with high optimism of landing countless mulloway. I took it with me on the weekend almost as an afterthought and, as luck would have it, actualy got to use it for the first time. Would've been in the same boat as you (pun intended) if i'd forgot!

Adam Gallash's picture

Posts: 15652

Date Joined: 29/11/05

Jeez

Wed, 2014-04-30 16:58

 Good crays, oh how i miss them

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Posts: 5807

Date Joined: 18/01/12

I gave some to Grumpy last

Wed, 2014-04-30 22:47

I gave some to Grumpy last time I swung on-guess he didnt share them or the occy

 

Great writeup by the way Bruzo!

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Posts: 5981

Date Joined: 17/06/10

Good write up

Wed, 2014-04-30 22:29

Thank you for your write up real good as are the photos.