My usual fishing buddy, FW member aka Goatlobster, and I had planned to head out this morning for our first Snapper bash this season as there have been whispers of good fish being caught in the sound and the break in the weather looked promising in the forecasts. Well he got sick a couple days ago and had to bail and i was iffing and ahhing about going so early in the morning as i didnt knock off work til 12.30am this morning. Woke up at 6am this morning and was pretty wet outside but decided to still head out, it absolutely pissed down on the way to the ramp and didnt let off til i actually reached the ramp carpark.

My aim for today was to try out the Gulp 7inch plastics for the 1st time and learn how to read my new Lowrance HDS5. I didnt venture out beyond 12m all day and found a couple of schools on the sounder but couldnt tell if it was bait or bigger fish as the reading was just solid masses in the middle water column. Couldnt get a strike at all so figured it was bait. By 8.30 I thought i had missed my chance as the sun was getting higher so gave up on the snapper and rigged up my trusty richter plug and started heading out for the islands for some Greenback action! Didnt even get a quater of the way out when I turned around as it was a bit too rough and didnt want to risk it with only me on the ski. I went back to the same area I was at earlier and re-rigged the Satay Chicken Gulp and as I was rigging i noticed the sounder light up like a christmas tree in 10m of water so out went the plastic 20m behind the ski. Sinking sinking sinking sinking then all of a sudden it was as if the plastic was alive and starting to swim away Swimming swimming swimming, the first thing that popped into my head was Dazsam's post and he mentioned the line "stripping" off the reel in free-spool. I cautiously flicked the bail-arm over and the rod loaded up and it seemed I was on?? Surely not that easy I thought, I only just got here?? I started to wind and then pumped the rod a couple times to set the hook and thats when all hell broke loose! Line started peeling off the reel, then slack! I started to retreive the plastic when it got whollopped again! Then slack again! Another couple twitches and i was on again! All this on my first drop! After a bit of a tussle for 2mins I was surprised to see a solid pinkie head-shaking a couple meters beneath the ski! Got him in the net and i couldnt stop yelling, i was stoked! I was dumbfounded by the size of him as i was actually thinking i had an undersize fish when i was playing him. Maybe i need to get some lighter gear but i thought 15lb was light enough!

Want to thank Albee Mangles for the hot tip and all the info and Grant for designing and fitting the transducer bracket

Cheers guys!