Hi all,

Those that saw my earlier post know it was with great excitement that I left for a LB adventure early Friday morning.

Departed at 2am for Hill River and after dodging a couple of roos arrived there soon after 5am for a tailor session. I had big blue macks which I threw out on two 9/0 snelled hooks. I tossed the first bait out and proceeded to rig up the other rod. Thought I felt a bit of weight there so slow retrieved....blue mack was gone. This happened to all four macks in the space of about 20 mins and it was not until the last mack that I felt a solid bite. Struck into it but missed out, the last time retrieving a third of a mack and seeing the nice chomp marks.

Caught a herring on the other rod (5/0 gangs and mulie) and proceeded to put that out. About five mins later pulled in a PB tailor at 47cm. Was quite stoked. All went quiet after that with the sun coming up, but the herring stayed on the bite. My baitcasted mulie was getting follows from half a dozen herring everytime but I knew there would be plenty more chances to catch herring later on.

I packed it up about 8am and decided to head to Cervantes for some ballooning. Unfortunately when I arrived there were a few crayboats on the service jetty, so I headed on to my next destination north of Leeman to see what was around.

With high tide around 1pm the service jetty in Coolimba produced plenty of bites but was a bit slower than previous experiences. Caught a few herring - but these were unusually quiet of not of notable size. Popped a small weight on to see what junk fish were on the bottom and caught a small flounder - a first and very next cast some type of wrasse / cod which was as big as I've ever caught (unfortunately dead weight and very little fight). Some sand whiting around too. Tried the squid jigs but to no avail.

Packed up around 2pm for a break and watching a cray boat unload.

Headed back for the evening sessions about 4pm. A major down turn on the trip when I hit a roo with joey in pouch. It was badly hurt and the joey too young and sadly I had to put an end to things which is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. How some idiots can torture these creatures I will never understand.

Things at the jetty had gone downhill. I was already on a downer after the roo and nothing was biting except for a couple of baby pinks. No amount of burley seemed to get even the herring on the bite. The sundown session produced nothing and it was down on confidence I put out a lump of occy on the balloon. It was cold, and the insects were biting (I left my repellant in Perth!).

This is where some people are going to think I'm crazy. I noticed an orange/reddish light - looked a lot like a star - perhaps 10k or so distant. I thought it was maybe a satellite or star at first but then noticed it was making some really unusual movements. Up, down, left, right, speeding up, slowing down, speeding up. This thing started in the middle of view then made it's way toward the left hand side heading south. I thought, maybe an insect so killed all my lights but it was still there. I rubbed my eyes, thinking perhaps I was seeing things....nope, still there.

So this 'light' then proceeded north again tracking erratically back towards where it started. At this point I was a bit scared, on my own in the middle of nowhere. I kept asking myself "what the f*ck?" - but watched on in amazement. Next the light started to drop towards the horizon, as if it was now moving away at high speed. It gradually faded from sight.

I started sending a text to a mate who was on his way to meet me. Halfway through the text the drag started going on my reel.

Battled something that felt good for a couple of minutes...then started to really give it some and whatever it was let go - I didn't have the hookup. The balloon was right in front of the jetty now and there was no wind to get it back out. Waited a few minutes....and sure enough the fish came back. A few big tugs and the balloon popped. I let it run with the bait knowing that it was a big lump of occy with only the one hook so I needed to give it time to have a chew. Waited a minute or so and struck in - it felt like a hookup.

Whatever it was felt really heavy but did not have that much fight. After a bit of work I managed to get a small shark to the surface with one hell of a lot of weed attached to the bait (the extra weight). Unfortunately the shark was still not hooked and as soon as it surfaced it let go of the bait.

Cut the bait back to improve the chances of a hookup and put it back in the water, now on the bottom.

15 mins later, the light comes back. I watched it with interest for a few minutes before the drag starts creeping again. Another little battle...and whatever it was lets go.

Try again. 10 minutes pass and an aircraft is en route to the spot where I saw the light. The aircraft circles once then heads west. Clearly someone else saw it too.

The drag creeps again....a let it run for a minute or so then set the hook - this time I feel confident I'm hooked up. Within 30 seconds or so I called it for a ray, and it's about now that my mate arrives from Perth. Tell him about the 'UFO' and get laughed at, while patiently working the ray. I've still got the 120lb braid on the reel and even that was straining. The rod was at full flex trying to budge this thing and everytime I took 6 inches it took 6 feet.

Took me about 30 minutes or so to get this thing in and I was surprised to see it surface. It was one of the really big stingrays you see around the jettys up that way - a bonnet size jobby. Cut the line and let it swim. At least I got to fight something and truly test out the tackle.

We fished on for a couple of hours but nothing happening. I caught two herring on the little rod - both were really damaged fish with dodgy tails. Again, half the size of the herring I have come to associate with that area.

We decide to call it a night.

Next morning we head out early to 'Taylor Bay' just north of Leeman. Fished it for about an hour and absolutely nothing happened.

Made a call to drive to 'S Bend' for the day as we have both wanted to check it out for a long time. We stopped at Port Denison bakery for a feed - best sausage rolls in the world. Went for a look on the marina and the outside wall appeared to be teeming with fish of all sizes.

"Stuff S Bend" we proclaim. "Lets have a bash here". Long story short, we spent 10 hours on the marina south wall for a silver bream, a small trumpeter and a few juvenile pink snapper. About halfway through the day someone kindly told us that nobody ever catches anything on the 'reef' side of the marine so we switched to the inside. Went down to the point for sundown and it was interesting to note that the locals who had been down for the afternoon session were all taking off. Apparantly they knew something we didn't because nothing was on the bite all night.

Back to the house at 9pm with nothing to show for our efforts.

I'm a big believer in the lunar cycles and on the Friday the tailor and herring were mostly full of roe. Coupled with the 'dodgy' herring I caught I reckon the tailor and herring are in the middle of spawning which would explain why we caught bugger all. I will be interested to see if LB reports from other people are similar for this weekend.

The fishing was average, but the weekend was extremely eventful so I can't complain. Plus I caught my biggest fish yet...albeit a giant stingray.