So all the stars aligned last week, time off work, great weather and a mate staying up at Lancelin with a spare bed. So what better thing to do but drag the 4.85 trailcraft up there for a couple of days fishing.

Left home early in the morning and drove the 1 ½ hours there and it was strait out on the water. The easterly was blowing quite a bit but we knew it would drop off later in the morning. As we had only ever fished off Lancelin once in the past we don’t have any real spots so the plan was to head out to the 30m mark and look around while trolling a couple of lures. Good plan until we find weed everywhere so we decided to just drive around. After about 30 minutes cruising with nothing of interest showing on the sounder (no expert though so could have missed heaps) something made me stop and have another look at a bit of ground. Couldn’t really see anything but since we had yet to wet a line decided to drop over anyway. Fishing standard paternoster rig with fresh ocy for bait got hit by picker’s strait away. The bottom didn’t feel overly exciting but it wasn’t long before we scored a just under duie which went back on the release weight. After a long drift went back over the same area again. This time after about 10 minutes I’m on to a sizable fish. After about a 5 or so minute fight my Pb duie (12kg) is at the side of the boat with the hook just hanging onto the outer edge of its lip. After some quick gaff work by Brian it was in the boat and it was high 5’s. As I was dispatching the fish I see Brian’s rod in the holder bending over and line peeling off, he’s now on to a 8 ½ kg Duie. Another couple of drifts and 2 baldies later and it’s time to head back in with big smiles all round.

So we wake up the next day to more calm weather and head out again. We decide on a similar plan and start looking for ground again. Once again we fish ground that isn’t that impressive on the sounder and after a couple of just size Duies that were released I land a couple of nice Baldies. Having mainly fished the south coast this trip enabled me pick up my first baldies with the biggest one going 4 ½ kg. Then with the drift shutting down through lack of wind the bites died off and it was heading towards lunch time when we got another small duie and fox fish which were put on ice and we again headed in to clean the fish and have a swim as it was stinking hot.

I had told the good wife that I was only staying one night but after two great days I was able to get another day’s leave pass and stayed another night. Again we were greeted by a superb day and we headed back out for a quick fish. Again we could hardly get a drift going and we weren’t covering any ground at all. After a couple of hours we had a couple of baldies on ice and decided to have one last drift before heading back in and heading home. Towards the end of the drift got hit hard and another duie was in the esky this one going 6kg.

Vac packed the fish (new Vac pack from Dave at Extreme coolers worked great) and filled an empty freezer with fillets which was good as the next chance to do this will be Easter when we head to Walpole for a week and if the weather gods play ball we will get a chance to chase a feed off shore down there.

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