Headed out sat morning with my neigbour who i owe most of my fishing knowledge too.
He only fishes bait with heavy gear so whenever we get together it always a bit of fun having a comp between us.
Round 1 went to him as he landed the only fish worth bringing home. This time would be different though.

We arrived at our spot just on sun up and Scott began getting a constant berly trail going. I droped down a 5inch double drift and before Scott had his line in the water i was enjoying a tussle with a small skippy. I was off to a good start.
Scott sent out a floating blue mackeral while i continued with the plastics. I wasnt long before the skippy had found the bait and Scott was on. The next 15 min had Scott landing skippy after skippy while from some reason i couldnt get a hit on the plastic.

I dropped down again feeding line out allowing the plastic to sink. Once i thought i had reached the bottom i turned over the bail arm, gave one twitch and bang......i was on. A couple of good head shakes and a nnice run had me thinking it was a pinky. A few seconds later i could feel the solid heavy weight of what could only be a stingray. Sure enough after a 5 min tussle the small eagle ray was boat side. We removed the lure and sent it back. While i was anoyed at cacthing a flying carpet it was my first on a plastic.

By now Scott had brought out a light rod to use while the blue mackeral floated out back. He rigged on a 1/4 jig head and threaded on a squid tentacle. If the jig head could make it past the skippy small snapper where waiting on the bottom to snaffle it.

I changed over to a Pink 7inch Madeye Double Drift rigged on a 1/2 TT jig head. I too was into the small snapper that still give a great fight for there size. By now we had been there for a couple of hours and while scott was well into double didgits on the skippy we were condsidering a move.
I decided we should stick it out as high tide was approaching and by now we had a nice berly trail.

I continued casting and retriving the pink double drift hoping it along the  bottom. While Scott realeased yet another skippy my rod suddenly buckled over
and i felt then tell tale head shakes that only a snapper can give. After a short but nervously fought battle i had colour. Scott netted the fish and we finally had a good fish in the boat. We put the fish on the lie detector and it messured 71cm at a guessed weight of around 4kg.

We stayed at the spot for another hour but could only manage skippy on baits. The decission was mad to check one last spot before heading back in.
Within seconds of scotts bait hitting the water a Skippy had smashed it. After re-rigging he sent a mullie out back. Once again i was hit well before it could reach the bottom. This was a far bigger fish taking long fast runs coupled with head shakes. The fish kept bolting to the surface and Scott's Experience called it for a Samson Fish. Even on heavy gear Samson go hard and Scott had use all his skill to steer the Samson away from the anchor rope on a couple of occasions. Eventually we landed the samson at over 1m and after a couple of happy snaps released it. Small Samson are very under rated on the chew but the larger fish are dry and often have worms.

Scott continued landing skippy on his light rod but now had it doubled over on somthing alot bigger. To our supprise the 8lb straight through wouldnt let go and at least 10min went past before any line was returned to the reel. Sudenly the line went slack and we thought we had lost it. But no the fish had just headed striaght for the surface. To our disapointment a small eagle ray skimed out of the water. Now we knew what it was Scott locked the drag and went hard. Another 5min latter and the line went slack but this time it was a bust off.
 Time to head back in.

Last Bait Vs Lures We had more fish seemed to fall to the lures but today was the oposite. For some reason the skippy werent interested in any lure i threw at them and Scott must have caught at least 30+ to me only catching 2.
But i had got the only keeper so round 2 goes to lures.