Organised with John to go squidding in the sound, but weather took a turn for the better (well, its gotta happen sometime) so headed out to the FADs instead.

We headed to the first FAD and started trolling some small skirts around. Johns son, Connor hooked up first and after a pretty good long fight landed his first dolphinfish.

On another pass I felt something hit my lure, then looked back and saw several dolphinfish bustling for it, and hitting it. One eventually hooked up and ended up doing five or six big jumps, then headed straight for the FAD. It must of gone just in front of it, so still managed to land it.

 

We tried chucking some lures and plastics, but nothing was interested. Didnt see any other fish swimming or free jumping. Tried two other FADs, but same thing. We headed to Club Marine to see if we could have some fun with some stripeys, but the FAD was missing. We trolled around anyway, and got one good hit but it came off. A bit more trolling and my deep diver got hit, but then promptly lost, but Johns trolling skirt stayed connected this time.

We then headed to west end to try for some Mackeral. Bumped into the water police, must be a good time for them to head out . Took a while of trolling to no success, till we both reels went off. The fish jumped pretty soon, so we knew we had some salmon. Mine came off at the net, and John landed this one.

 

Did a bit more trolling around to no sucess. John saw some fish that was either a sambo or a salmon, and we didnt have to wait long til a school busted up in front of us. I had just cast out an exploratory cast on a small richter plug, realised it would be perfect to get some fly gear out so ripped the lure in as fast as I could. About 1-2m from the boat, a salmon came out and completely smashed it and headed back. I was using light gear, so had quite a bit of fun while fighting it. Was quite a sight when it launched itself straight up in the air only a few meters from the boat. Ended up being around 6.2kg, so the largest I've got so far.

 

We could see the salmon school erupting over the surface every now and then, and heaps of dolphins in the area. At one point there were two porpoising in synch for a hundred meters or so which was quite a sight. Luckily they didnt put off the salmon.

 

Connor hadnt caught a salmon so started casting a lure around. He had just pulled the lure in and was dangling over the edge of the boat as the salmon were jostling half out the water trying to get it. He teased them a bit more before casting out and hooking up to his first salmon. Definately a big bonus getting two new fish on the same day (especially after going completely fishless down salmon chasing in dunsborough last week).

 

John managed to straighten a jig head on a fish while I tried chucking a fly around. Connor rigged up a dumbell and managed to hook a salmon. After a bit of a fight, the fish jumped clear of the water, did a headshake and threw the lure some 3 plus meters in the air, sailing over Connor, right over the aerial and landed in the boat about 1m from me. We both looked at each other stunned. Something we wont forget in a while.

It was getting a bit late so we headed back. Saw two bait school errupting across the surface. Unfortunately didnt manage to get any fish from them (there must of been something as they were bailed right on the surface). Was pretty cool to watch them jump out in an expanding shockwave when a lure landed in the middle of them.

Did manage to find out what they were at least.

 

We only managed to catch around two fish each, but the day certainly had a lot of excitement anyway. Definately a great day out and certainly one Connor wont be forgetting any time soon.