Hi all... Been far too long between pics so thought id chuck up me first effort on a report from a trip outta Gero last wednesday...Hope you enjoy... With a glass off forecast thanks to the light easterly then swinging to a very soft sth wester last arvo and a non existant swell the count down to days off took ages! finally i had the chance to wet a line in search of a feed out wide. Heading out thru Hells Gates and crusing along at 25knots the day had the look of a cracker and i was excited and confident! The water was that magic dark blue and bait was marking at regular intervals..Along with me was my sisters partner over from england and this was his last chance to catch a dhuie before heading home after a few prior efforts.. Fingers were crossed, bait defrosted, knots checked and the 40 odd clicks passed away.. Reaching our destination it looked good, fish on the sounder and bait down deep too. Our first baits got molestered straight away with a small pinkie to jon and a 58cm dhu for myself both fish released using the release weight (good things them haha). Setting up our next drift allowing for the fairly strong nth current we passed over the little mark again... Jon straight into another small pinkie and another both let go... We wanted something bigger... Nearing the end of the drift and out onto some shaley bottom i finished cutting some baits and lifted my tyrnos outta the holder and got crunched straight away.. maybe the movement did it not sure? It felt decent.... After a short but spirited fight my eyes almost fell outta my head when a nice 69cm 5kg red emporer surfaced! CRIKEY i was stoked... Great start... Next drift i got smoked on the drop and layed into a big spaniard before it did my 100lb paternoster just outta gaffin range... spewing as it woulda given 20kg a nudge!

Anyhow a number of drifts back over and then 2hrs on the pick didnt add to our talley pullin another legal dhu which was released and a handful of other odds n sods. With time ticking and the sun gettin closer to the west i needed some ideas... What to do??? Head in closer to some lumps i had marked or take a gamble and head towards the islands and hope for something! What the hell trottle up and west we went...

10 uneventful k's passed studying the sounder as the depth dropped to 60m before we spyed a pot then another... having a geez i spied maybe 15pots possibly more staggered around the place not just dropped in a line... Maybe some bottom here i hoped... The depth roze gradually and the first pot showed a small scattering of fish and a smudgen of flat coral... We dropped down anyhow and wow straight into fish! 2 5kg pinks joined us and the red in the boat and a nice baldie and a blackbum before the drift ended..

Marking the spot and dropping the pick got us straight into fish... Jon hooked up bigtime with a good fish taking line off a steady drag.. i prayed for a dhu... Not to be as a nice 6kg spangled emporer joined his cousin the box.. Nice consolation...

And then i got the bite we all know... And a heavy fish moved off with my whole herring bait...YEEHAA into a gooden... It felt dhuish and after a good fight up came 9.5kgs of beaut silver and black and Jon was rapped even if he didnt catch it he had seen a goodone....! With the weight off and some nice fish in the box i decided to move and find more ground... What a decision!

The next spot was looooooooaded up and i got hosed first drop from wat felt like a biiig pink... pulled the hooks after the first run.. Running back up and anchoring got me straight into a 11kg stonker pink (not the one in the pic unfort as jon not so great photographer sorry) and then a lovely 9kg model... Then the dhuies came on big time.... I got a double header of lovely 5-6kg fish the smaller of which went back whilst Jon was into a gooden again! Up came 7kg of Silver! You BLOODY RIPPER... Into the net and up she came only for the net to make a horrible creak and give way! Cant say what i said on here but you will get the pic but alas the hook stayed put just and i had enough time to put my rod which was still attached to a big Redthroat Emporer into the holder and assist the pom! He had done it!.... His next drop finished the day for us with another double of dhuies of aboout 4-6kg the smaller again released giving us our 4 dhuies 2 each!

What a cracker of a day it was with magic weather and great fishing! Bought home a great feed of dhuies kept the 2 big pinkies aswell as 1 nice baldie, a blackbum, some huge redthroat emporer, 1 spangled and the red....

Happy days hope you enjoyed the report =)