Our Easter weekend

 

Bec and myself and Faye and Adrian from Bunbury headed out for a bit of relaxing around some of the islands out in the gulf for easter. Had a bit of a look out there last weekend and thought the Pikes are in town without their boat so why not take them too. 4 adults living on a 24 foot centre console for 3 days/ 2 nights should be easy.

Loaded the boat with rods, dive kit, swags, beer , wine, food and ice and all ready to go. A bit of Qantas inaction at the airport friday meant the 1.30 start was delayed till 4. Finally got the boat in the water and blasted off to the island of choice for the night. Got there at 5.30 and into the water for me so we didnt have to eat chops for dinner. First dive a nice little bluey gave me a look, second dive and he was dinner.

After an awsum feed of fresh fish and a few drinks we rolled the swags out and nodded off under the stars. A wind change in the early hours meant Bec and I didnt get a really good nights sleep, Pikes down the back of the boat slept pretty well though. Saturday morning we moved the boat around to the other side of the island out of the wind and cooked up bacon and eggs for brekky. Faye had never snorkelled before so we got her in the water in the calm shallows and after a bit she was confident enough to try some deeper stuff. Up with the anchor again and off to find some crays for lunch. After a bit of looking we had 5 greens and a nice red in the bait tank , lovely. 3 squid made a tactical error and swam past the boat so they got nabbed for dinner . Someone tell me why we have meat in the fridge ??

A spot of trolling after lunch ( a little sleep for Bec) and a wander around on another island and it was time to head back to the anchorage for a well earned drink and some squidrings. The wind dropped right out just on dark and we spent the night in a total glassoff . . . Best sleep I`ve had in a while .

Sunday morning and a bit of a blast around to brekky bay for more eggs and bacon and then off to look for something to dive on. Bec and Pikeys chucked poppers while we motored around the end of the island and got a few little gt`s at one point . Moving around to the next point and look at the size of some of those , the big ones easily went 25 kilos. Bec hooked one of the smaller ones and after some fancy boat and rod work did really well to boat a nice GT on 14 pound , The leader was split about 200mm up from the lure when it touched on the rock at one stage.

I was pretty keen to get back in the water by then so out a bit deeper to look for a fish. First little ledge gave up another red cray. Second spot had hundreds off buff bream and a few sharks but nothing else. Third spot we found I finally got to pull the trigger and a couple of nice trout went onto the ice. With my urges satisfied we let the boat drift and made some lunch . As luck had it we drifted over a pretty big lump, 12 metres up to 6 with some pretty big golden trevally swimming around under the boat. Bugger lunch lets have a fish.

Bec gets cut off by a mackie and there is mackies to about 15 kilos in sight so I get back into the water to try and get one. Bec hooks and lands one about 10 kilos while I`m loading the gun. I finally get it loaded and none of the bigger ones are in view, plenty of smaller macks but not what I want. Swimming from one end of the lump to the other theres a few trout and blues but nothing outstanding,plenty off buffs and a few sharks. The water is pretty clean and I spot something different in amongst the buffs, quick dive and my first green jobfish is on the spear. Nice. As I put him in the boat a pretty chunky cobia swims under me, this spot is looking good. Follow the cobe to the edge of the lump and there are some really solid fish in with the buffs now. They are a bit deeper and I cant decide if they jacks or red bass. I dive to try and get one and they vanish either out into the gloom or into a cave in the lump, as I turn to surface another cobia cruises past so I swing the gun and after a short but intense contest Ive got my hand in the gills of my first speared cobe . . Not huge but it`ll do . Drop him into the boat and back to try for one of those big red whatevers. After 5 or 6 frustrating dives one turns for a second look and I get the spear into him. I`m a bit dissapointed with the shot and that its not a jack but I`ve got the fish and happy with another first and a pretty good fish. Thats enough for me so back into the boat for a rinse and beer. Pikey nails a very solid golden while I clean the fish and we say thats enough and decide to head back to the marina.

The wind was nonexistant as we blast back at better than 30 knots with a stubby in my hand , perfect way to end an absolutely fantastic weekend.

Magic surroundings, excellent company, perfect weather and a couple of crays and fish thrown in as well. Does it get any better ??

 

 

 

 

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poddyfish's picture

Posts: 986

Date Joined: 01/05/07

trip

Mon, 2011-04-25 16:02

Sounds like a pretty decent trip there mate! love the setup up the front for sleeping , just u described in bluewater! ripper.

nice tub too there mate

Nice to meet ya while in exxie also , have to catch up for a dive or fish when i return bud

cheers poddy

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Fear The Spear............! 

PattyT's picture

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Date Joined: 15/08/10

Pretty good way to spend the

Mon, 2011-04-25 16:16

Pretty good way to spend the easter weekend mate... huge effort getting in that GT on 14pd. Well done!

Cammos's picture

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Date Joined: 30/06/09

Geez Ben, sorry its so

Mon, 2011-04-25 16:34

Geez Ben, sorry its so horrible up there

alfred's picture

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Date Joined: 12/01/07

What a way to spend Easter! 

Mon, 2011-04-25 16:44

What a way to spend Easter!  Thanks for sharing.

Adam Gallash's picture

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bastard

Mon, 2011-04-25 18:43

Much better than my long weekend, Saturday with the hordes in the National Park, yesterday got out and dropped a small black after 30 seconds, had a solid greyband sharked under the boat and got 2/5 guests onto a whale shark but it hit turbo soon as they got close (frustrating day).  Chilled out for most of today and just went down and set a net down the gulf for half a dozen mullet and about three tonnes of weed, wouldn't have guessed Kailis are back at it again.  Half your luck mate!

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marble's picture

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Dont get me wrong Adam it

Tue, 2011-04-26 12:13

Dont get me wrong Adam it wasnt perfect over there. 3 other boats anchored in the bay sat night and we heard one bloke shouting across to another once, spoilt the serenity for a good 6 seconds that did. .

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Adam Gallash's picture

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Date Joined: 29/11/05

hahah

Tue, 2011-04-26 17:04

Mate we had the party house next door with about 20 blokes about 25 years old in it.  Friday was an all nighter, Saturday was about 4am and Sunday was about 2.30, tunes up full boar and language that even made me look saintly.  Don't mind them partying on, language etc, the only thing that pissed me off was the rotting fish carcases in their bin, was ruining my viewing area. :)

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cocokye's picture

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Date Joined: 05/03/09

great report there mate

Tue, 2011-04-26 09:21

easter breaks dont get much better than that

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CB

Faulkner Family's picture

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 sounds like a magic weekend.

Tue, 2011-04-26 09:49

 sounds like a magic weekend. always good to get away from it all and relax. a few nice fish there and a few firsts on the gun .well done to all

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Lamby's picture

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that was a well written

Tue, 2011-04-26 17:21

that was a well written report, trip sounds awesome mate

Lucky Tim's picture

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awesome report Ben, due to

Tue, 2011-04-26 17:51

awesome report Ben, due to someone else reading under my name this one nearly slipped through to the keeper until now.

We had a little overnighter of our own, got into some red crays but it was more the perfect weather and good compaby that made it. That Saturday night weather was fantastic. We were tempted to head in your direction but the crowds put us off. Must've been busy over there.

Nice way to spend the weekend by the report.

marble's picture

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Yeah Tim couldnt of asked for

Tue, 2011-04-26 18:42

Yeah Tim couldnt of asked for better weather. There was 3 boats plus us so not too bad, they all went wide during the day so we had the place to ourselves . Very very keen to go explore a bit more around that lump I speared the fish off, never even looked over the edge into the deeper stuff . Some of the bass where twice the size of the one I got and I`m pretty sure some of them are jacks, gotta have a better look . . added a pic of it to tease myself ;-)

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poddyfish's picture

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diving

Tue, 2011-04-26 18:54

have u managed to try any of that bass yet benno? what did it fillet up like? i managed to see a couple of ripper near nth murion at one of tims spots but didnt even think to shaft one , not that they presented a shot - sooooooo flighty!!

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Pete D's picture

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Great weekend.  Hope the

Tue, 2011-04-26 19:24

Great weekend.  Hope the ladies appreciated the effort gone to create the Hilton on water - top effort!

Cheers Pete

marble's picture

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Date Joined: 03/09/09

Thanks Pete it was a pretty

Tue, 2011-04-26 21:21

Thanks Pete it was a pretty comfy setup we had. . I was a bit worried for a bit there a coastwatch plane would pick us up and drop us at Xmas island but we got away with it. The cover is a $90 thing from anaconda that just happens to fit pretty good. Pikes have the same boat so we all new how it worked, was a very cruisey weekend thats for sure.

 Havnt tried the bass yet Poddy. Fillets are a bit grainy with some red on the lateral line but I`ve seen worse thats tasted ok so we`ll see . Will give it a go in the next couple of days.They are definately spooky,and bloody pull hard too :-)  Took me a while to get a shot and it was the longest shot I`ve ever taken I reckon. I knew it wasnt a good one and he headed into the murk so just held on and dragged him to the top, would have hated to put a heart rate monitor on after getting a green jobby, cobe and then the bass . The jobbies where pretty flighty too  . . Gotta get back there I think. So much for my freediving being pinging a trout now and then.

That mack you got is a ripper too , well done. Saw some on the lump not far short of that. I`m thinking a boys spearing trip in that area sometime . . .

 

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Good report Ben. Looks like a

Wed, 2011-04-27 08:37

Good report Ben. Looks like a pretty successful weekend all round. That's a sounder screen shot to get anyone excited.

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Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?