Normally I get up about 3.30am to get on the water early (it's the best time of the day) but I worked out that most other people seem to turn up a couple hours later and still out-fish me regardless. So this morning I got up at 5.30am, had a leisurely breakfast, loaded the boat and was on the water just before 7am.
Nice trip out, the sun was up high already and was starting to warm the day up (another reason why I prefer to go early). Went straight out to the beacons and managed to get a small schoolie on first cast. Let it go but as it swam away it was taken out by a torpedo-dolphin. For the rest of the morning, this dolphin dogged my every move. Whenever I moved to another location, it would turn up 5 mins later and just hang around, stealing my live baits and pillies. This dolphin has pestered me other times too. One of the drawbacks of a mid week fish, there's not enough other boats to distract it. Anyway, I picked up another nice schoolie early and then not much until later in the morning. A few bust-offs here and there. Tried trolling for a little while but didn't expect to get anything, really just wanted to untwist some line.
The rest of the morning was pretty much moving around the beacons, trying to lose the dolphin. Eventually I decided that a problem shared is a problem halved so I went to a beacon with another boat. I didn't see the dolphin after that. Eventually finished with 4 nice schoolies close to the 70cm mark as well as a couple of releases. The day was nice albeit very hot and still. A slight breeze would have been welcome. Very few other boats around, perhaps 3 others fishing...and a few pleasure craft.
Back at the ramp I was talking to a guy who picked up a couple of spaniards out at Hutchisons reef. One would have gone about 20kg I reckon. Big beast of a thing it was.
Was a good day, still feeling the heat from it now.
I got out yesterday to, I did the 3:30 wake up. It was a pretty average trip across in the morning but came good not long after. Picked up a 55cm schoolie first drop and my mate got a one just under sized, was his first mack so he was happy.
We had a hard time finding the fish after that, plenty of bait on the beacons but couldn't find the fish so we went looking for some tuna and found one small pod but never really got a shot at them.
Home by 11am, not the most productive day but still good to get out.