mull dog
30-06-2009, 09:04 AM
Gotta love R.D.O's! Packed up the boat and headed to the Scarby ramp at 1pm yesterday. Headed out to the beacons in great conditions to jig some live bait but they were scarce to say the least. Anyway soldiered on to Shallow Tempest amoured with a couple blocks of pillies. Conditions were what you dream of. Swell was minimal and the wind was non-existant. An absolute pleasure. The fishing was a little slow but a playful humback entertained us in the distance as the sun went down.
Started to get a couple of squire come over the side, with the odd horse being lost on account of gear not up to the task and me being jinxed(or having little ability). Had some tucker and watched the sun slide into bed for the night. With darkness on us the sound of our playful friend seemed to be getting closer and the faint sight of his blowhole in action told me that it was about 200 meters away. As it got darker Dave and I thought "shit that sounds close" estimating the whale to be nearing us quite quickly. 150 meters, 100 meters. "Crap" now its really close and I'm starting to freak. Its probably only a baby but it was a few meters longer and a few tonnes heavier than my 6 meter tinnie. I pannick and get the life jackets out and grab hold of the epirb thinking our friend is going to come up underneath us and flip us. He surfaces right next to the boat, and i'm talking close. 2 meters at the most. by this stage i have resigned myself to the fact that Dave and I are spending the night in the water dodging the sharks off Moreton Island. The heart was pumping and the undergarments I was wearing were getting heavier as we waited in frightening anticipation of where this thing was going to come up next.
Nothing. He has to be close. We were keeping a watchful eye out just as Dave's reel starts screaming. "This isn't the best time to be fighting a fish" I thought, but the life jackets and epirb was ditched while Dave grabbed the rod and let it run while I got the gaff. "Shit, this is a friggen good fish" or something along those lines was exclaimed by both of us at some point while the thought of our humpy friend still pulsed in the back of my mind. Dave couldn't do a thing as he lost meter after meter of line. Judging by the angle of the line, this brute was coming close to the top. Then it surfaced about 120 meters off our stern. The humpack has got the friggen line."Holy shit!!! Lock the drag Dave and snap him off. Don't think I'd be able to get that on the deck with this little gaff. We'll let him go hey?!"
We were both bemused and slightly hysterical from the events of the last five minutes. Feelings of terror interupted by exciting anticipation was followed by, i must admit, pure relief to know where the whale was and that he wasn't going to flip us, for a while anyway.
Comments were thrown around like "fish of the day!" and "wonder if anyone else has caught and released a humpback?" and "we could have made some good coin off that if we'd sold it to the japanese". It certainly made our night.
On the fishing front things went ok for a little bit with a nice spangled and a few more squire coming over the side before it shut down and we moved to Hutchies where we got a mixed bag of squire, spangled, parrot, rainbow runner and a few good misses.
I must say that last night was the most adventurous and entertaining expedition I have had fishing in my boat and wouldn't mind if next time things were a little quieter. Had a dream run home at 30knots and the night was shared with good company, cant ask for more than that. As luck would have it I have another R.D.O. today, wonder if i should go and try for Dave's dropped brute. Nah
Started to get a couple of squire come over the side, with the odd horse being lost on account of gear not up to the task and me being jinxed(or having little ability). Had some tucker and watched the sun slide into bed for the night. With darkness on us the sound of our playful friend seemed to be getting closer and the faint sight of his blowhole in action told me that it was about 200 meters away. As it got darker Dave and I thought "shit that sounds close" estimating the whale to be nearing us quite quickly. 150 meters, 100 meters. "Crap" now its really close and I'm starting to freak. Its probably only a baby but it was a few meters longer and a few tonnes heavier than my 6 meter tinnie. I pannick and get the life jackets out and grab hold of the epirb thinking our friend is going to come up underneath us and flip us. He surfaces right next to the boat, and i'm talking close. 2 meters at the most. by this stage i have resigned myself to the fact that Dave and I are spending the night in the water dodging the sharks off Moreton Island. The heart was pumping and the undergarments I was wearing were getting heavier as we waited in frightening anticipation of where this thing was going to come up next.
Nothing. He has to be close. We were keeping a watchful eye out just as Dave's reel starts screaming. "This isn't the best time to be fighting a fish" I thought, but the life jackets and epirb was ditched while Dave grabbed the rod and let it run while I got the gaff. "Shit, this is a friggen good fish" or something along those lines was exclaimed by both of us at some point while the thought of our humpy friend still pulsed in the back of my mind. Dave couldn't do a thing as he lost meter after meter of line. Judging by the angle of the line, this brute was coming close to the top. Then it surfaced about 120 meters off our stern. The humpack has got the friggen line."Holy shit!!! Lock the drag Dave and snap him off. Don't think I'd be able to get that on the deck with this little gaff. We'll let him go hey?!"
We were both bemused and slightly hysterical from the events of the last five minutes. Feelings of terror interupted by exciting anticipation was followed by, i must admit, pure relief to know where the whale was and that he wasn't going to flip us, for a while anyway.
Comments were thrown around like "fish of the day!" and "wonder if anyone else has caught and released a humpback?" and "we could have made some good coin off that if we'd sold it to the japanese". It certainly made our night.
On the fishing front things went ok for a little bit with a nice spangled and a few more squire coming over the side before it shut down and we moved to Hutchies where we got a mixed bag of squire, spangled, parrot, rainbow runner and a few good misses.
I must say that last night was the most adventurous and entertaining expedition I have had fishing in my boat and wouldn't mind if next time things were a little quieter. Had a dream run home at 30knots and the night was shared with good company, cant ask for more than that. As luck would have it I have another R.D.O. today, wonder if i should go and try for Dave's dropped brute. Nah