Just a summary of the three trips we did last week, bit lengthy, and not a huge amount of quality fish, but an update nonetheless!!

Enjoy.

Trip 1

Went for a run with Mattyoga this morning, ran into Herb and Noel out on the water. Didnt catch a lot of fish, tho a few rays, a Banjo Shark, Skippy, Tailor and Scad gave us something to think about.

Heres how it went down...


Launched at a decent hour for a change, the carpark is a long way from the beach, and you know all about it on the way in...



Few small tailor and skippy kept things moving. The new sounder was amazing, showing all the baitfish shoals moving through. I could even see my berly dropping to the bottom!!


Matt pinched my camera for a quick snap!


Soon my rod took off on a slow run, i suspected a ray, and i was right! This guy liked the Hobie so much, he tried to come onboard!


I soon got to return the favour for Matt, and get a snap!


After the TLD15 took off and scared the crap outta me, on what i'm sure was a good snapper hit, it took off again a bit later, and this fella came in. I think these are a Banjo Shark, put up a decent fight, and certainly are a unique looking fish!


Shortly after moving Matty hooked up a ray, which gave him a good workout!


I managed a quick snap of it underwater!


So all in all, not much action. Scoped out a few great marks tho that warrant further investigation, and christened the new sounder, which i'm more than happy with.

A good day on the water, but struth, did my legs get burnt....

Trip 2

Mattyoga and i went for another look last night. Was a storm due in the early morning but it was a way off.

Headed out to the mark, and dropped some big baits out. An abundance of Scad, Pike and other bait fish kept livies on my lines in anticipation of something huge!

After a while the wind swung to the west and started to pick up, the already lumpy water was starting to rough uop, and Matt and i started looking at eachother sideways.. Matt luckily has internet on his phone, so a quick check of the weather sited showed the wind at Rotto was picking up, and blind freddie could have told me that where we were. So we made the call to head in about 8.30pm, which was looking like a wise move.

The chop and swell at this stage had fairly picked up, and my anchor got stuck, so i yanked the cable tie free, only for it to lock up again, so side on in a decent swell, howling wind, i made a quick call to cut it off, and lost my first anchor. The trip in itself was very interesting, running side on to the wind and swell made it fairly wet and slow going, i was yahoo'ing all the way!! The pitch black night also made it difficult, as you couldnt see the waves till they hit.

So at the end of the day, great experience night. Didn't get the big fish we were targeting, but got home safe, and had fun. Big thanx to Matty for being an ever vigilant fishing buddy.


Matty and the boats, getting ready!


The X-13 at speed, certainly a pretty boat. Looks calm enough here...


Matty on the trip in, between swells you couldnt see his boat at all!


A big squid Matty caught, it was changing colours right in front of us, amazing creatures.

Trip 3

Went out again on Sat. night to the same spot as earlier in the week with Mattyoga, launched about 4.30pm in a solid 15knott S/Wester that was supposedly dropping... apparently.

Bob popped down with his nephew? Jack and said gday, which was great of him after even running into me at the shops that arvo, i think he's stalking me...!@!@ :shock:

So out we went the 3km ish to the spot, in a stiff breeze straight up the clacker, got to the mark and anchored upwind of the reef on good looking ground, and plenty of activity on the sounder. A light berly trail and Matt starts to land a few small Snapper, well below size. I have the bait jigs out and got myself a bunch of scad, and a few squid for baits and we are into it.

A bit into it and my rod slowly sneaks off, and i'm on!! 20 mins of severe arm stretching, and supreme knot testing, and a MASSIVE ray comes to the surface alongside the yak. This thing was over a meter across, and i wasn't even gonna try and retrieve my hooks, so i cut him off. Rig #1 gone.

As the night goes on, we land plenty of small baitfish and squid, most end up as bait. And for me, another 2 big rays later, and another 2 rigs down and believe me i'm thoroughly over getting stretched for the night when LOW AND BEHOLD!!!! RAY NUMBER 4!!!! decides he likes my fresh squid bait, and busts me off after a short one-sided tussle...

So i'm over the big baits for the night and decide to baitcast mulies for a while, and over the next hour or so landed over 15decent sized Pike, dropped a monster at yakside i'd call for at least 90cm ish, and land another 2 Banjo Sharks!

By this stage the wind has only dropped a few knots and we decide to head in. We arrive at the beach near the pumping station and decide, as we both had a Kilkenny left, to throw a few lures around the stirred up water alongside the Pumping Jetty.

Ten minutes or so into it and i land a good sized Flathead on the trusty Bomber lure, which unfortunatley fell victim to the superstructure later in the night and remains there now.. A bit later on Matt lands a suspiciously similar sized Flatty on an old Mr Twisty style lure, and again, he gets his freedom. Same fish? Probably!

Again, another night well spent out on the water, and great company for the trip! Cheers for the Beers Matt! More invaluable rough water experience, watch those open hatches when waves come over the front.....


Matt at anchor, you can see the chop here!



A bunch of good Pike of the 15+ that i landed for the night, fresh baits for later! Decent choppers on the suckers!


The Adventure under lights, calm enough now!


A decent sized Flattie that fell to the slow sexy wobble of a old school Bomber!!