gofishin
27-10-2011, 09:58 PM
PBA Annual 1770 trip,October 2011
The annual PBA trip to 1770 was held between 15th to 22nd October. Unfortunately, for the second year in a row it was a blow-out, except for one day – hence there is not too much to report on! Sunday the 16th (which was the first ‘official’ fishing day of the trip), was the only day suitable for fishing! The rest of theweek was 25 – 30kn or more…deja vu October 2010.
I could only get 2 days off work, and when my deckies pulled out, I ended up leaving the boat at home and going up as a decky on Ocean Pearl, a 685 Explorer + Yam 300 V6. They had been up there for the whole week prior (with good weather the whole week), and went hunting for new ground. They got some nice fish including reds to12kg, trout to 7kg and a 12kg Cobia.
With a 5 – 10kn variable winds forecast for Friday, a last minute change of plan was required! I went up a day early, on Thursday night, as did two other club boats. However, a very decent storm up there early onthe Thursday night saw winds at Heron Island recorded up to 85km/h, and this whipped up the seas quite a bit. When Iarrived at ~0100 Friday morning it was still pretty blowy, and I started to have doubts about fishing that day!
Friday 14th
At 0600 at the bar it was 10 – 15kn NE with a run-in tide, but the seas outside were pretty wild, and were obviously carrying a lot of ‘baggage’ from the storm! The bar was OK considering, but for the first few miles out it was pretty lumpy, with the waves/swells closely pitched and standing right up (and often breaking). However, we knew that it would only get better the further away we got from land.
I fired off a few dozen shots of the smaller boats following us out, Hells Bells and Tachyon. The conditions always seem to look better in photos (of what they were – I think anyway), however as the following pics attest, you can see that the smaller boats were working pretty hard. [Look for the Targa/aerials of the 3rdboat – this is sometimes all you could see of the 17 foot Tachyon]. Unfortunately I missed the ones where the HH prop was clear of the water, after a no-back mongrel wave passed leaving nothing under the boat, and without the skipper even trying to get some air. It is interesting to observe the HH hull working in the seas, and the 580 HH Breeze handled the conditions very well. Some of the shots were rapid fire, others were singular etc.
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2478.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2479.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2484.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2500.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2502.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2503.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2504.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2505.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2506.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2507.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2508.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2518.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2519.jpg
Cont… (can’t fit enough images)
The annual PBA trip to 1770 was held between 15th to 22nd October. Unfortunately, for the second year in a row it was a blow-out, except for one day – hence there is not too much to report on! Sunday the 16th (which was the first ‘official’ fishing day of the trip), was the only day suitable for fishing! The rest of theweek was 25 – 30kn or more…deja vu October 2010.
I could only get 2 days off work, and when my deckies pulled out, I ended up leaving the boat at home and going up as a decky on Ocean Pearl, a 685 Explorer + Yam 300 V6. They had been up there for the whole week prior (with good weather the whole week), and went hunting for new ground. They got some nice fish including reds to12kg, trout to 7kg and a 12kg Cobia.
With a 5 – 10kn variable winds forecast for Friday, a last minute change of plan was required! I went up a day early, on Thursday night, as did two other club boats. However, a very decent storm up there early onthe Thursday night saw winds at Heron Island recorded up to 85km/h, and this whipped up the seas quite a bit. When Iarrived at ~0100 Friday morning it was still pretty blowy, and I started to have doubts about fishing that day!
Friday 14th
At 0600 at the bar it was 10 – 15kn NE with a run-in tide, but the seas outside were pretty wild, and were obviously carrying a lot of ‘baggage’ from the storm! The bar was OK considering, but for the first few miles out it was pretty lumpy, with the waves/swells closely pitched and standing right up (and often breaking). However, we knew that it would only get better the further away we got from land.
I fired off a few dozen shots of the smaller boats following us out, Hells Bells and Tachyon. The conditions always seem to look better in photos (of what they were – I think anyway), however as the following pics attest, you can see that the smaller boats were working pretty hard. [Look for the Targa/aerials of the 3rdboat – this is sometimes all you could see of the 17 foot Tachyon]. Unfortunately I missed the ones where the HH prop was clear of the water, after a no-back mongrel wave passed leaving nothing under the boat, and without the skipper even trying to get some air. It is interesting to observe the HH hull working in the seas, and the 580 HH Breeze handled the conditions very well. Some of the shots were rapid fire, others were singular etc.
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2478.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2479.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2484.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2500.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2502.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2503.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2504.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2505.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2506.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2507.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2508.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2518.jpg
http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad140/BrendonTait/1770%20Oct%202011/IMG_2519.jpg
Cont… (can’t fit enough images)