Seasport Report
It has been a long time coming, but yesterday the old man and I got out with Whitey and his crew from Jurien. It was my first time offshore from the WA coast....so I was pretty pumped as you can imagine.
Arrived Tuesday arvo and had a quick flick around Greenhead LB - knowing the conditions well, when the southerly failed to drop off after sunset I said to the old man "It it's still blowing like this by the time we get back to Jurien, tomorrow is gonna get messy".
The next day was messy. Left the ramp just before 5am and it was very lumpy. Not ideal for fishing, but especially not for a first timer like me. The southerly was blowing hard and by the time we got to the first drop we were all soaked.
First drop started productively. The old man pulled in a baldy within a few minutes. Soon after, the bloke fishing between us pulled up a dhu, then within a couple of minutes he was onto a pinky. So he had two keepers on the first drop. Things went quiet so Whitey made the call to hit up the next lump. That's where it went a bit pear shaped for me.
The next thing I know, I'm on the dunny cr*pping and puking at the same time. I've never been one to experience any type of motion sickness....but there is a first for everything I guess. I lost a good couple of hours but at least recovered to get back into the fishing for a few hours at the end.
Unfortunately the fishing was slow all day after that first drop. There was one you beaut pinky caught and a number of baldies, bluebone, red throat etc. Probably no more than 15 fish on the boat all up - despite the best efforts of the skipper and crew to put us on the spot. One of the deckies caught a nice Sambo - would have gone 15-20kg which was duly released. A couple of pups landed earlier in the day too while I was curled up on the deck.
Short of the long - I caught bugger all so for a first experience, it was enough to make me want to stick to chasing tailor and mulloway! However, I'll take nothing away from the Whitey and his crew. We must have hit 20 lumps of more trying to find the fish - it was just one of those days where they were not really on the bite and the conditions were awful. Whitey said to me on the way back in if the conditions had been forecasted he would never have run the boat that day.
Wouldn't hesitate to go back out with him and in fact will look to book something up for next summer (or next month if the mrs lets me..... :-p). Hopefully the fishing gods are a little kinder then. The boat is fantastic - great layout, lots of space and everything was really well run.
Of note, he is running the operation from Kalbarri this winter for the first time. If anyone is looking for a winter break.....there is your excuse :-)
Cheers
Buschy
OLD BANGA
Posts: 267
Date Joined: 02/04/10
Motion Sickness
Buschy,
I used to own and run a fishing charter boat out of Broome and an old Chinaman in Broome put me onto ginger, he said it was the best thing for motion/sea sickness, i.e. ginger biscuits, ginger crystals, ginger pieces, ginger tea, ginger beer, ginger lollies, etc, they all work, many satisfied punters over the seasons can attest to its effectiveness, worth a try. Let me know how it works if you give it a go, I am sure you will be happy with the result.
Look forward to seeing Whitey operate out of Kalbarri, bit of competetion for Reefwalker, not sure there is enough business for two fishing charter boats out of Kalbarri though, but I am sure Whitey would have sussed all that out. Plenty of good ground out of Kalbarri.
Cheers
Old Banga
OLD BANGA
buschy
Posts: 626
Date Joined: 27/11/09
Ginger
I did take a handful of tablets when I woke up...plenty of ginger in them but still managed to bring them back up. Also had a load of ginger beer but managed to leave without it....I think just one of those things. I've always been the kind of person that can push past any nausea and while feeling ropey was surviving until I sat down on the loo. Closing the door of that cubicle was instant death! hahaha.
Next time.... :-)
kknlk
Posts: 200
Date Joined: 30/12/08
Ginger has reputation for
Ginger has reputation for anti nausea but I think you need to take a lot for it to be effective. You're better to take kwell or travelcalm or something similar until you get sea legs. take tablet at least half hour before trip. Many make mistake of taking it on the way and it's too late for the tablet to work.