Hi All.

Went out last night with a mate Dave around Sulphur Rock and Harding Rock, (Just inside Garden Island) hoping to bag my first sized Cockburn Pinkie. On the water about 5.00pm and conditions were fantastic. We were the only boat there to start with, plenty of action on the sounder (well it looked good to me!) so burley bucket was deployed & baits sent down. Wrasse were absolutely thick, we were in about 8m and you literally couldn't get a bait to the bottom. Tried with weights, without weights, casting away from the boat butthe pickers were unbelievable. After dark they dropped right off, and we had high hopes of getting the big Pinkie!

First snapper like fish on board was a little tacker, about 15cm, and looked like a cross between a pinkie and a silver bream. No blue spots at all, and generally silver in colour, but had a definite pink sheen under the lights? Anyways he was the first, followed by plenty more 15-20cm sized pinks over the course of the night, all looking nice & healthy. A few more boats joined us after dark, but nothing substantial landed. The decision was made to try Harding rock, a quick trip over there (conditions were great!) and the sounder lit up like I have never seen! Pulled up on a steep drop off from about 5m down to 9m, with lots of fish on the sounder. This is it we thought!

Burley deployed, baits dropped, hundreds of bites, lots of baby pinks but no larger models. We both had a few more serious bites, but didn't manage to hook up. We tried weighted rigs, floaters, whole baby squid, whole mulies, mulie chunks, squid chunks, single hooks, snelled pairs, big hooks, little hooks all sorts to no avail. There was a kamikaze dolphin cruising around, was very curious and I think he wanted us to feed him (we didn't). I put the prawn light in the water while he was hanging around and had a great view, they are a good looking creature. I found it strange that we didn't get any herring or gardies (certainly plenty of burley), whiting or even skippy. Other than Pinkies & Wrasse, we caught a few snook, a couple of rock cod & trumpeter.

Back to the ramp, tail between our legs, around 11.30pm. Probably a solid five hours fishing, and not one keeper on board. No regrets, it was a great night, boat lights worked beatifully (this was their first "real" test) and good company, but I was really hoping for at least a feed, and my Mrs is giving me grief! She threatened to put my boat on Gumtree unless I can come up with the goods!

So please, for the love of all that is good, somebody help me out? I probably won't get another chance before the ban, but will try the outside of GI or again after the demersal ban.

Failing that I'm gonna have to call past Kailis on my way home next time.

Cheers,

BD.