I've been lucky enough to get some fishing done in the last couple of weeks. I don't have all the pics and some are off the Iphone but thought I would put a few pics and a quick report up now. I'm still getting into the hang of measuring fish for the record board so still missed a few that would have made it but there is always a next time.

The best day was when three of us bagged out on Fingermark (Golden Snapper) in about 40 minutes. Nothing huge with the biggest going 62 cm. Most fish were in the high 40s and 50s. We probably caught around 50 Fingermark for the day. The same day we hit a school of Bluefin Tuna and managed a few nice fish plus some cool bycatch like a 90 cm plus Grey Mackerel which I forgot to measure and a GT. We also got some nice Grass Sweetlip but the catch of the day for me was a 62 cm Black Spot Tusk Fish. I got him in 10 feet of water and was pretty lucky even with 50lb braid. Another trip involved more Fingermark but not as many. Biggest was 65cm. I managed a solid Spanish Mackerel on a popper which was cool and the boys nailed some Bluefin and Stickbaits and Poppers. Craig got a solid Bluefin probably over 9 kilos on a stickbait. All Tuna were released this day. I also managed a half a metre long Grass Sweetlip.

Another trip saw us get some quality Large Mouth Nannygai (Saddletail Seaperch) and Gold Spot Cod. Although the photos are not real good I just pipped Nikko's 83.5 cm fish with one at 84.5 cm. I'm sure he'll pip me soon enough. Both Bold Spot Cod were 84 cm. Another trip saw us get bugger all but we did have a session on some solid Jacks, the biggest went 51 cm so that was fun. We got three and about 4 Barra (all small). I'm waiting for the pics of the result of a double hook up of these.

I managed a 104 cm Barra on another trip to Tinaroo. This trip was frustrating as my brother lost one about 20 minutes into the trip that would have been well over 120 cm. we collectively lost 10 fish, nearly all would have been over a metre.

And now for the fish of the holidays. Moffy and I had a crack at throwing some poppers in the reef shallows before we went home from one of the reef trips. After a solid Red Bass checked Moffy's popper out I was smashed by a fish I figured was the Bass as we were actually tangled and were not looking at the lure simply sitting in the water. It went like a train and in 10 feet of water I could not believe the power or the fact that although I got wrapped around a bommie I still was lucky enough to get the fish out. Expecting a big Red Bass you should have seen the look on our face when a big Yellow Lipped Emperor finally came up. I've caught one or two of these before but it was a real treat and man they fight. We thought that was a fluke but a few casts later Moffy had one zero in on his popper, followed by another. They spooked for no hook-up but again the came up and this time he let the popper sit which let them affectively decide who was going to hit it. Sure enough he got smashed and had an almighty fight on 50lb braid trying to put the stops on it. We landed it again but could not hook anymore. At one stage Moffy had 5 under his popper which was brilliant to see so we just have to sort out how to tempt the strike a bit better. Anyway it was a top two weeks, hope to post some footage etc soon. Between the computer playing up and the kids I gotta go so sorry about the random order of pics.

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