I took up Michael’s (zOOm’s) FW offer for a deckie spot today.  He proposed a long day but after finishing the draft web site and not being out for a couple of weeks due to a blown seal on my tilt and trim (burleying with hydraulic oil is not cool), and with the weather forecast, I was keen to get out there.  What a top day!

We started about 9.30am and first up tried to catch herring and gar for bait not far from Hillarys.  Not that successful really with only a few herring, and plenty of toads.  From there we headed to the back of the 3 Mile to give that a go.  Wrasse, parrot, a couple of bronze sharks (up to 1m), a just undersized baldie, a 5kg eagle ray and a nice squid (Michael’s first) was not particularly spectacular either.  Time to move on and try somewhere else.  We headed South to sound some ground off Scarborough and found a likely looking patch that seemed to be holding bait and fish.

What a nice little spot this was.  We spent the next 4-5 hours there for what could only be described as epic metro near shore fishing.  Once the burley started to work, we had fish in abundance.  Michael landed a “horse” of a black arse (well over a kg) and then the big skippy and tarwine moved in.  You couldn’t keep a bait on the bottom for more than a few seconds before it was smashed.  The floaters were going off as soon as they got down and fish on all rods was common.  Throw in the double headers, some with undersized pinkies, and it was very entertaining indeed.  I reckon we landed 40-50 fish with most going back (especially the tarwine), except the 10 or so we kept.  Michael also put out a live wrasse that got hammered by a big shark to add to the event.

And then it got to the “pinking hour”.  Hopes were high as the ground had been so productive so we switched to the best baits and rigs to try and capitalize.  My floater went off and when I set the hook there was no doubt it was a sizable pink.  Alas, it spat the hook and a predicted 5+kg model escaped.  Not long after, Michael’s gear went off and this one made it to the boat.  60cm, not huge but nice, and we were very happy when it came aboard.  Michael hasn’t caught many pinkies before so this one was special, as was his first demersal bag out.

I then hooked a large ray (15+kg) on the little Gomoku with the 4000 Ci4+ so that took valuable “pinking hour” time to get to the boat on the light gear – my back is still aching.  The pinkies had shut down by then so a bit more effort to confirm and it was time to come in.  It was a lovely day with excellent company and lots of good sport.