Monday fish. First snapper! - with maps and pics
Well after missing out on a day out yesterday, I took advantage of what was meant to be an relatively OK morning forecast, without much rain forecasted.
Launching at Leeuwin around 10:00, I headed out in what was a fairly light north easterly, headed for the windmills for a couple of whiting for kiddos dinner. Half way out there I copped the first real greany over the bow and had to throttle back. Out near the anchorage the breeze was gusting to 18's and my thought of going to the windmills was over so I threw the drogue out and sent out some of last weeks squid to see what was around.
First cast, whilst setting up a squid jig, my line started twitching and I wound in a small flathead (getting one or two each trip, around 15cm long)
That was all that I landed on a 30 minute drift, and with the seas building, rain coming in, I headed over to Hall Bank.
After using it as a sailing mark for the best part of 20 years, I had always seen people fishing there and was curious to see what it had to offer.
My first drift was slightly west of the marker and resulted in nothing though the next few drifts were over the actual bank which showed plenty of fish, heaps of bait, and plenty of potential.
Managed to land 6 small snapper (10-15cm) which went back, two skippy (turned into dinner) and a couple of wrasse.
After realising that my parking was due to expire, I towed a 7m diver abound the lump and back to the north mole, with a lot showing on the sounder though nothing showed interest.
Not the best conditions out though still got enough for a taste, managed to get snapper on the boat, even though they went back, and entertained the dog.
Looking like heading out on Thursday to have another go.
Jim
Posts: 1321
Date Joined: 05/05/06
How did you get the wave over
How did you get the wave over the bow? just curious for my experience.
Those skippy fillets look pretty tasty and its good to see your sounder working.
Bend over
Swompa
Posts: 3783
Date Joined: 14/10/12
Not paying
Not paying attention.
Cresting wave, me going too fast, bounced over one and tried to be a bulldozer into the next.
just got a bit wet, the dog got airborne and we kept going, with my hand on the throttle.
Madmerv
Posts: 672
Date Joined: 24/01/15
Wave over the Bow
A mate and i were heading out deep in his 18Ft glass boat 5-6 years ago. Weather was easterly all day hopefully dropping to nil in the arvo.
Well it was ok at launch but picked up to pretty strong as we were heading out so the sea was getting pretty choppy. All the elements came together, speed, chop, waves and swell kind of flipping the ass end of the boat up enough to drive the nose of the boat into the base of the next wave. We basically submerged like a surfer to pop up behind the wave. It happened bloody quick and we ended up with water about 50cm deep in the back of the boat. Nothing damaged and motor still running but 30min of bailing needed to get back going.
Anybody with experience will tell you to never turn your back to the seas, but even when looking straight at it shit can happen.
Main reason IMO was the speed. We were not slapping waves but were going just to fast for the conditions. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Sometimes when the water is quiet, you can hear the fish laughing at you !
Swompa
Posts: 3783
Date Joined: 14/10/12
I was holding a magnifying
I was holding a magnifying glass over my raymarine dragonfly trying to find my waypoint.
I am very lucky that my boat has a great amount of flare and rocker so all the bow wants to do is go up. This wave was just starting to froth and I copped about half a bucket of water in my face from it.
Got more water in from the sky though electric bilge pumps are a good investment for $50...
axey45
Posts: 1758
Date Joined: 26/11/13
crasny1
Posts: 6986
Date Joined: 16/10/08
Well done
But cant help myself, Swompa almost got swamped!!!
"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk
Swompa
Posts: 3783
Date Joined: 14/10/12
Golf claps
Golf claps
crasny1
Posts: 6986
Date Joined: 16/10/08
LOL
"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk
diver albie
Posts: 153
Date Joined: 10/01/11
saw you and the hound
pulling back to the ramp about 1ish, I was the dopey sod standing in the rain thinking how clear the water was :)
Swompa
Posts: 3783
Date Joined: 14/10/12
Ha, I was wondering why
Ha, I was wondering why someone would be walking out in the rain.
Cruise Control
Posts: 970
Date Joined: 03/11/10
Its been my experience that
Its been my experience that heading into a short choppy wind wave that is sitting on top of a swell in relatively shallow water invariably leads to water over the bow even if you are going slow. You fall into that almighty hole just as the next one is coming up on you !
Swompa
Posts: 3783
Date Joined: 14/10/12
In chop, I generally like to
In chop, I generally like to turn off to 45 degrees in the particularly big ones, to avoid the slam down the other side though this is a bit of a pain when the breeze is up as all the spray that gets deflected from the bow then blows right onto the helmsman.
randall df223
Posts: 6454
Date Joined: 08/08/11
Haven't all those years of
Haven't all those years of sitting on the rail hour after hour toughened you up?
Fish! HARD!
Swompa
Posts: 3783
Date Joined: 14/10/12
Retired from ocean racing.
Retired from ocean racing. Slamming into 30 knots for 20 hours isn't as fun as it used to be.