I dont get out and fish metro much anymore because of trips like this.  The fishing is unpredictable, challenging, frustrating and can be very rewarding.  

With cars packed and on the road by 5.30pm, we had a decent run up and got to our campsite before sun up.  Unloaded the important stuff and we made our way down to the ledge at first light.  

Baits in the water and bites are not a question of when, but what.  The reefy ground has seen us pull out pinkies of all sizes, fingermark, baldies and parrot fish.  Not this trip though, we were met with red throats and blue lined emperor.  They were caught all day, but ranged from 25-40cm, so we chucked plenty of them back.  

Whilst having plenty of fun catching these tasty critters, my Live Fibre copped a serious whack and there were some big big lunges.  I fish a tight drag because the fish there love fighting dirty. After a nervous close-in combat, i got a glimpse and it looked liked a decent pinkie.  Hard to tell because we are a fair way up.  Gaff-man did a great job because there was a shark just sitting off the ledge waiting for a free feed.  I was STOKED to say the least!  

Unfortunately that was the only pinkie landed, i lost another good one on the last day at the gaff, and can only assume that some of the 1000s of fish that were sharked were pinkies.  

Also got a balloon out but my skipping gardie fell victm to a big bronzie.

Second morning was something I had NEVER experienced and will be something i will not forget.  The alvey boys were having another bottom bash so i decided to have a spin.  There was bait being smashed all day the day before but way out of casting range.  This morning the bait was in a bit closer and after watching countless youtubes of guys spinning Quobba, etc, the water and conditions just "looked right".  Tied on a 70g twisty and first cast BANG mackeral hooked!  Took some decent runs and i did all the right things to get him to the surface.  As soon as i saw it, sharked. FFS.  I proceeded to hook up and lose 6 metals in 6 casts to sharks.  I went from fishing a lighter drag to give the fish a chance to avoid the sharks to fishing a locked drag just to try and skull drag them past the sharks.  Nothing worked and i only have a head to show for a red-hot spin session.  Lost some very very good tuna and macks and im not sure what else i could of done.  Due to the structure of where we fish, the reef ledge where I landed the pinkie was on the other side.  The gaff spot on this side is just clean (shark infested) water.

The sharks were really bad this trip, we are used to having the odd fish sharked, but this trip they were outrageous.  The old boys were feeling a bit stiff and sore and with work committments, we left Saturday arvo.  Esky wasn't full, but we got a decent feed.

Although sharks were bad, this place is why I love fishing.  It is my third trip and each time I go back, I return a better fisherman.  I've gone from using paternoster to running sinker rigs, improved my knots and learnt to use wind-on leader.  It is the ultimate tackle tester location and i'm sure i'll be back next year a little bit wiser.  Let's just hope the sharks arent!

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