Good day out in the Harbour! I won’t say good fishing but it was a good day. Started flicking some mangroves with no success. Went over to a rockbar, on the way saw about 50 fish pouring over the top of each other on the surface. Was the weirdest thing ever, I thought they were trevally, so we put the metal spoons on and chased them around for a bit. When we got a bit closer they were milkfish feeding on the surface algea. Milkfish are vegerations so they wouldn’t be taking the spoons. Flicked the rockbar for a bit and got a small cod. Then hit the gutters and drains where I got a 48cm barra same place as a fortnight ago, then tried to fish an incoming river, went back to the drains and got a 47cm barra. Went home trying to outrun a storm but got hit when retrieving the boat.

Got:
Me: 47cm barra, 48cm barra, smal cod
Marko: nothing

Story of the trip:
The new sounder was great. Also – the GPS on the sounder was amazing. I don’t know how I nagivated the harbour without it. Really useful for the huge tides that we get up here.

Boat problems:
NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t want to jinx it because I thought that twice before.
Lekkie pedal worked great.
Sounder worked great.

Fuel stats
10 litres, unknown km, might be in the sounder I need to learn to use it.

Snap
I thought this photo was funny… sun smart me forgot to take my headsock off for the snap.

Well, well. A reasonable day fishing  at the Adelaide that will be remembered more for what we lost than what we caught. I had an approx 60cm barra inhale by hardbody lure with twin trebles on and spit it out like it was nothing, two minutes later Mud had an approx 80cm barra inhale a gold bomber (triple trebles) and spit it out. Twice in a row. Later we were bait fishing and I put the rod in the rod holder as the boat needed to be sured-up to stop it hitting the rocks…. BANG my line explodes. Wonder if that was the giant jewie we were chasing? 5 minutes later Mud hooks what was certainly a giant jew from the way it was fighting. Unfortunately during its third run it managed to break the line on something.

Got:
Me: Blue salmon
Mud: 57cm Barra, 2x Blue Salmon, medium cod

Story of the trip:
The missed jewie! Also I caught a puffer fish… nothing special there but this thing would have been 60cm. I have never seen anything like it. It was the size of a microwave.

Boat problems:
Transducer was smashed during last weeks retrieval. I thought it was working okay but it was not. I will need to get that replaced, or get a new one. Very annoying, something that could have been easily avoided. The department of fisheries said they would update their website after the email I wrote them, one week later this still has not happened. Just a matter of time before someone takes their advice like I did and has their boat damaged. I’m just glad I have a poly, the hull has lots of scratches after that, but no big deal I guess.

Fuel stats
11.5 litres, 38.2km. Max 41.2km

Snap
I guess it is hard to get a sense of scale….

Interesting day in the harbour. Got some advice off a mate which didn’t pan out that well. The first place we went too looked great and there was bait busting up everywhere… chased by trevelly as big as my hand. Got a few and gave up. Went to the next few places recommended, but they were all out of the water by a metre or two, just got the right tides for it. Boated around for ages before finding a few interesting drains. Very quiet until bang bang, 50cm & 61cm barra. Suddenly the wind kicked up like nothing else and we had to go home. Also saw two sharks fighting each other in the shallows… was pretty cool!

Got:
Me: Nothing of course.. but I am excellent guide!
GT: 50 & 61cm Barra.

Story of the trip:
Probably the boat ramp. The department of fisheries says you can use it on “most tides” what rubbish. I tried to take it out about 2.4m of water and had to wait 30mins. Even then it wasn’t protected by the breakwall and the chop from the 8knot northerly was horrible. A very difficult retrieval.

Boat problems:
*sigh*
During the week when I was playing with my boat cover I noticed the retrieval winch wasn’t working. Luckily my trailer guy (Michael from Promoter Trailers, great guy) was able to replace it entirely on Friday so I could still go. Which means last week wasn’t problem free, must have happened on the drive home.

And when I was cleaning the boat I noticed the seal had come off the bung. I will need to sikaflex that again.

Snap

Broke the drought, sort of at the Adelaide. Mate got a barra, I didn’t. Great trip though, plenty of action in the morning. Bit quiet after the tide changed but got heaps of stuff on baits, all pretty small though. Got some great crabs. And no (new) problems with the boat! Pretty decent trip, given my recent form. Even the road had been graded, haha.

Got:
Me: Lots of small goldies. Two good bucks.
Mate from QLD: 58cm Barra, lost another over 80 easy, kept a 30cm goldie (mostly because it had killed itself swallowing the hook)

Story of the trip:
First thing I did was go to the same place we got that 53cm Barra a few weeks ago. I pointed the branch and said “that is where we got one last time”. So my mate cast, first time, and hooked the 80cm+ fella. He spat the hook, but he looks at me like I a guru and says “well, you called it.” Haha if only he knew what a hack I was 🙂

Boat problems:
Nothing new! The trim was being a bit of a pain, they had fixed it but it was taking a second or two to kick into gear. The lekkie didn’t want to turn left (have nicknamed it Zoolander) but was easy enough to use with magic eye.

Fuel stats
20.5 litres, 74.6km. Max 46.4km

Snap

Had a lot of problems getting someone to go out with me this week, of all the problems I thought I might get in a boat, finding people to fish wasn’t one I expected. Found someone willing to go on a Sunday, (hate fishing on a Sunday) but wanted to go to Corroboree. It is 90 mins from mine, freshwater, no bait allowed, and just a beautiful place. Bloody hard to get a fish though. Known for being just about impossible. And so, we got nothing. I have to admit, when you are in freshwater and no bait, it makes “no fish” a bit more palatable when it is so easy to clean things.

Got:
Biggest cat fish ever. Biggest tarpon ever. No barra of course.

Story of the trip:
Never seen the billabong like it, the lilies were so overgrown in areas.  Very pretty, see pic.

Boat problems:
Gawd. Again.
This time I thought that I would certain it would be my first time without a new thing going wrong.
I had fixed the lekkie. Nothing had any signs of going wrong.
Drove and launched with no worries. Boated with no worries.
Lekkie was working great after I had taken the pedal apart and cleaned it.
Drove back and retrieved it.
Drove home.
Unloaded the first amount of gear and I thought to myself while grabbing a beer to sort the rest of the stuff out “this is it. This time. I am in clear water from here on out”
Came back downstairs and the trim was stuck upwards. No f-ng clue why. I can’t sort it, gotta go back into the shop.
It is like the boat is taunting me… and I have a huge weekend planned next hope it is sorted by then.

Snap