Well have finally got hold of some photos from our trip to the Abrohlos in mid May. What started many months earlier as a trip from Perth to Broome due to many changing circumstances turned into a 12 day Perth to Abrohlos and back adventure.

We left Freo Sunday evening to an absolute cracking glass off. The boat was packed first beers cracked and the boys were all pretty excited about what lie ahead. Having done a few trips togethor to the Monte's before we all new what to expect and packed accordingly. The 'cans only' rule once again applied excpet for Dr Baz who always seems to get an exception. Blocks of Export, EB and VB loaded and we were set to go. Plus the stubbies of Rogers. 

Our home on the seas was Baz's pride and joy. 60 foot of recently refurbished class. With a skipper and just the four boys on board we had plenty of room. 

The steam up to the Abrohlos was textbook - until we hit turtle dove when a storm rolled through. Not to worry we soldiered on with no fishing at Turtle Dove and hit the Abrohlos about 9am. I decided I would convert the boys to artificials (well try anyway). So down went to the jigs and plastics - and these boys are once a year fishers so by no means expert in jigging/plastics technique. The proof was in the pudding though, no need to be an expert in these waters.

A couple of nice pickups early on for the dinner table. The boys were quickly convinced the artificials had some merit. It didnt take to long though and they were back on the bait wagon.

Once we had a feed we headed for a swim. With an abundance of life in the place it doesnt take too much to find some decent grounds for a look around. You get baldies like this one just begging for a straight hook through him. This one was lucky though, the gun was still on the boat.

The next few days followed a pretty similar path, brekky, book club (bit of morning relaxation reading and planning the days adventures) coupla mid morning brews then into it. Diving and fishing till our hearts content. With water like this it was hard not to think you are in paradise. One dive had a sea lion follow us around being very inquisitive for over 30 minutes. He came right up into our faces to check us out before scooting off putting on a show for us.

After all the hard work a bit of relaxing fishing was in order, resulting in multiple triple hookups.

Now we by no means had to try at all to get into the fish, this is an example of a standard days effort. 

The weather gods treated us ok though a few storms did roll through but they tended to pass pretty quickly. We went for a bit of a walk one day to explore one of the northern islands and were pretty happy we arrived by boat. We figured we did better than the bloke driving this thing anyway.

The last few days resulted in a casualty of sorts with one of the boys succumbing to seasickness on a run back to Gero and he left us to it. We spent 2 days up the coast from Gero to Kalbarri doing a bit of exploring for a bit of a side project. Managed to find a bunch of cray spots on the way and had some awesome weather in close to the cliffs. Once we had dropped off a few passenegers who made the Gero to Kalbarri trip we were back to the Abrohlos - destination Batavia. We had all read the book, done our history homework and were pretty stoked to get an absolute corker of a day to expolore the wreck. 

The day started as usual, breakfast on the BBQ in another idylic location.

Followed by a dive on the wreck. There were some huge baldies there and crays galore, you couldnt go more than 5m without spotting another dozen of them, being a no fishing zone they were all off limits.

 Our final run back to Gero saw some serious hook ups to some sharks. These things went like freight trains and ended up with bust offs close to the boat which suited us fine. We were done by that time anyway.

The journey back to Gero was another usual day at the office. Beers, feed and telling a few stories.

The steam back was pretty much text book as well, a little bit rougher at times but all in all a nice run home back to Freo. Here's a final one of me at the wheel doing my stint at the helm.

All in all we had a great trip, caught a heap of fish and released a heap more. All the usual Abrohlos species, coral trout, snapper, spaniards, baldies the list goes on. Another great trip with a great bunch of mates. One notable absentee was Lamby. His deckie skille were sorely missed - because I had to pick up the slack. Next year mate.  

Hope you enjoyed the read as much as we enjoyed the trip.

A few more batavia shots

 This was the how rough it was both days at the batavia. Awesome stuff.

Image Upload: