I gave DI a go last Thursday/Friday after cancelling my 1770 plans due to the fin fish closure that started on Saturday. We had never fished the area but had seen "Double Island Point and Beyond" about 300 times so we googled a few GPS marks and set of hoping for the best.
We arrived at the ramp at Inskip point just after midday on Thursday and entered a few marks into the GPS and set out for the night around the Wolf Rock area. The 12kn forecast ended up at 17 to 25kn winds from the NE. So with no protection we anchored and tried to sleep it out.
On Friday morning two tired and rather green fishermen headed east looking for Reds.
It was my new 588 Furunos maiden run and we had high hopes. With not a lot of bait or fish around we drifted over a few isolated rocks for 3 grinners and thought "what have we got ourselves into".
Soon got some undersized reef fish and threw a couple of Pearlies in the esky. After sounding around for a while we hit the jackpot. In about 60m of water I sounded up about 3 rocks close together surrounded by fern weed and covered in bait (about 20m of it) fish arches around and below it and red blobs on the bottom. We mustered up some energy and dropped down some Pillies which didn't get a sniff. We had 5 dolphins come up and hang around the boat waiting for an easy feed.
We upgraded to mullet fillets then reset the drift. I got a good hit but the hooks didn't set and up came some fern weed on my hooks, my mate got a good bite and set the hooks but got bricked, I quickly rebaited and dropped back down and straight away got a 40cm Red Emperor. My mate then rerigged and next drop got a 90+cm Cobia.
Next few drifts were slow but still plenty of life on the screen so we anchored on it and had lunch. After lunch I dropped a whole mullet fillet and got smashed. I didn't give it an inch, cranked the drag on the Tyrnos 30 and it still pulled line. I managed to turn it and keep it under control by thumbing the spool of 80lb braid. The 15-24kg live fibre copped a hiding but got it up until we could just start to see Colour then pop. The 100lb dropper loop let go. I'm guessing it was a big Ambo judging by the fight.
We called it a day and headed for calm waters for a good night sleep ready to hit them hard Saturday but ended up going home after watching the clouds and lightning roll in and seeing Saturday's rainy forecast.
It was a great first trip in a new area and we will definitely be back.
We were glad we could fish a new area targeting Reds and successfully land one and dropping a possible 2 others considering we had never targeted them before.
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