Finally the hours have paid off!!

So Ive had my boat for about 5 months now, I installed a new sounder/transducer and wasn't overly impressed with the returns I was getting. I've been spending a lot of time in the sound testing the minor transducer adjustments until I found the sweet spot.

Below is a picture of a wreck in the sound which i was quite impressed with - compared to my original readings (not the D9).

Feeling more confident with the sounder readings I was itching to get out to the FFB to sound some ground and hopefully land my first sized Pink in the boat. I had only been out to the FFB once in my boat prior to this trip so I had no marks.

I left the ramp at 6.30am and set out to the FFB, marked a few fish on the sounder and set up a drift over them. The first drift resulted in an undersized pink and a wrasse, unfortunately the drift was fairly quick so I thought a change of plan was needed. I decided to drop the anchor on one of the marks and drift some baits down until the current slowed.

I started a small burley trail in hope of some larger Pinks following it up. It didn’t take long before I had my first run, straight away I knew this wasn’t a Snapper - with no head shakes, long quick runs and the fish rising up in the water column. As I got the fish closer to the boat it started to do a circle pattern and I knew what it was, up comes a nice Tuna.

I reset the baits with hope that I might still be able to land my first size Pink, unfortunately it wasn’t to be. The Salmon had caught scent of the burley trail and were as hungry as always. I landed 4-5 Salmon with about 10 fish following the hooked fish to the surface.

By this time the conditions had improved so I thought I’d take advantage of it. I pulled the anchor and set out to search for some more ground.

It didn't take me long to find some promising looking shows on the sounder, I marked the spot and set up the drift. The scroll back function on the sounder really helped me pin point this.

I had a rod rigged with a bait and a PE2 set up rigged with a jig, I had the intension of dropping the bait to the bottom and then having a jig. The fish on the other hand had different ideas. As soon as my bait hit the bottom and I engaged the leaver drag I had a decent hit, I set the hooks and immediately felt some very solid weight. Line began to scream off the reel without any big head shakes, I increased my drag and tried to turn the fish. Every time I thought that I was winning the battle it would take long lunges back to the bottom leaving me counting the markings of my braid. At this stage I wasn’t too sure on what it was, I started to think it was a sambo but wasn’t convinced about the call.

After what felt like eternity and backing down on the fish 4 times I was ecstatic when my new PB Dhu at 91cm came to the side of the boat!!

It wasn’t the Snapper that I set out for in the morning but it’s the best bycatch I could imagine and was still a first on the boat.

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