stonecold
18-01-2007, 03:27 PM
I’ve had the opportunity to take a few days off over the last week, which has allowed me to sneak in several offshore trips at Evans Head. To say it’s been frustrating is an understatement.
Friday 12th Jan
Greeted at the Evans bar by a short chop pushed up by the previous evenings N.E breeze. The run to the FAD at 17Knts was a little uncomfortable but not worrying. We deployed a spread of pushers and lone Halco just before reaching the FAD. 300m past the FAD and we began catching a procession of striped tuna which is great for bait but not what I was chasing. We continued our way out to the 32’s and finally landed just short of the 48’s. The 48’s were messy with 15 knts of NE causing a fair slop so we turned back and headed inshore alittle to try and escape the mess. On the way back in a bull dolphin fish estimated at 10kg hit the as yet untouched Halco and promptly jumped itself off. We return to the ramp at 1 with half a dozen tuna to put in the freezer for snapper bait.
Sunday 14th Jan
The weather had improved so climbed back aboard and headed straight back to the FAD. My regular deckies are somewhat out of action at present (ones just leaving to do his 2nd stint training to be a police officer and my young blokes broken his wrist (he really needs to listen to his father when he says mate no more wrestling on the trampoline) Anyway the long and short of it was that I took a mate and his young fella with me, both greenhorn fishermen. The pushers went in again just before we reached the FAD. A few quick circles of the FAD and the patch yielded zilch so I headed towards the 32’s. Just short of the 32’s a little black jethead that I picked up at a sale from Springwood Marine for $8 got nailed by what was obviously a good fish. My mates young bloke picked up the rod and did a reasonable job of getting the wahoo to within 3m of the boat. I estimated him at about 12-15kg. The young fella had struggled a little with his Japanese mud runner thongs on and on several occasions he slipped and lost tension on the fish. That happened one last time and I watched the fish glide off into the depths. Ahh well I thought …..
We recommenced trolling and made it past the 32’s where we pretty much stayed for the next 45 minutes when the SE breeze sprung up, not wanting to get caught out I headed back towards the patch. Just clearing the inside of the 32’s the pen 30 dragging a Pakula mouse let out a howl. We lost about 30m of line against 8kg of drag and I thought we were hooked up…..my stand in deckie mate picked up the rod had 2 cranks and nothing…W.T.F! starting to get a little upset. The SE continued to puff so we decided to head home.
Wednesday 17th Jan
With the SE wind abating on Tuesday and reasonable conditions I opted for gentlemans starting time and left the ramp with my 2 still greenhorn deckies and son with the still broken wrist.
I used the same game plan and put the pushers out just before reaching the FAD, the water looked fishy and I said so under my breath. Gunna get one today! About half a mile east of the FAD the halco was nailed….you beauty, he ran off about 30m of line and all looked solid. Greenhorn deckie picks up the rod and as I turned around he say’s theres nothing there….WHAT? well that’s not really what I said. The scars on the halco told the story. Another “hoo” down the tubes and my boat is still a “hoo” virgin.
Off we go again we reached the 32’s and the little jethead went off again I’ll fix you this time a gave the outboard a squirt and all looked good and I handed the tiller over to the broken wristed boy with strict instructions. I picked up the outfit to be greeted with the weight of the jethead…not allowed to print what was said #@#*
I resigned to the fact that I wasn’t meant to catch a fish this week so pointed the boat towards the bar and slowly made our way in. We had just cleared the inside edge of the 32’s when the pakula mouse was nailed again. I hit the throttle and figured I drag the fish all the way back to the ramp. What seemed like 100m later I could see a reasonable Dollie doing aerobics attached to 24kg Ande. I handed the outfit to my broken wristed young bloke who struggled but kept pressure on the fish all the way to the boat. With one foul swoop I hit the fish with the gaff and dispatched him straight into the fish box. I expected a bit of a stir but I rekon the aerobics while being towed tired him out as he didn’t move. Thank god! A fish in the boat, whatever curse I’ve acquired hopefully its been broken. We continued towards Evans and picked up another small Dollie (3kg) again on the mouse.
All in all it wasn’t a bad week but the hoo I was looking for just didn’t happen!
Friday 12th Jan
Greeted at the Evans bar by a short chop pushed up by the previous evenings N.E breeze. The run to the FAD at 17Knts was a little uncomfortable but not worrying. We deployed a spread of pushers and lone Halco just before reaching the FAD. 300m past the FAD and we began catching a procession of striped tuna which is great for bait but not what I was chasing. We continued our way out to the 32’s and finally landed just short of the 48’s. The 48’s were messy with 15 knts of NE causing a fair slop so we turned back and headed inshore alittle to try and escape the mess. On the way back in a bull dolphin fish estimated at 10kg hit the as yet untouched Halco and promptly jumped itself off. We return to the ramp at 1 with half a dozen tuna to put in the freezer for snapper bait.
Sunday 14th Jan
The weather had improved so climbed back aboard and headed straight back to the FAD. My regular deckies are somewhat out of action at present (ones just leaving to do his 2nd stint training to be a police officer and my young blokes broken his wrist (he really needs to listen to his father when he says mate no more wrestling on the trampoline) Anyway the long and short of it was that I took a mate and his young fella with me, both greenhorn fishermen. The pushers went in again just before we reached the FAD. A few quick circles of the FAD and the patch yielded zilch so I headed towards the 32’s. Just short of the 32’s a little black jethead that I picked up at a sale from Springwood Marine for $8 got nailed by what was obviously a good fish. My mates young bloke picked up the rod and did a reasonable job of getting the wahoo to within 3m of the boat. I estimated him at about 12-15kg. The young fella had struggled a little with his Japanese mud runner thongs on and on several occasions he slipped and lost tension on the fish. That happened one last time and I watched the fish glide off into the depths. Ahh well I thought …..
We recommenced trolling and made it past the 32’s where we pretty much stayed for the next 45 minutes when the SE breeze sprung up, not wanting to get caught out I headed back towards the patch. Just clearing the inside of the 32’s the pen 30 dragging a Pakula mouse let out a howl. We lost about 30m of line against 8kg of drag and I thought we were hooked up…..my stand in deckie mate picked up the rod had 2 cranks and nothing…W.T.F! starting to get a little upset. The SE continued to puff so we decided to head home.
Wednesday 17th Jan
With the SE wind abating on Tuesday and reasonable conditions I opted for gentlemans starting time and left the ramp with my 2 still greenhorn deckies and son with the still broken wrist.
I used the same game plan and put the pushers out just before reaching the FAD, the water looked fishy and I said so under my breath. Gunna get one today! About half a mile east of the FAD the halco was nailed….you beauty, he ran off about 30m of line and all looked solid. Greenhorn deckie picks up the rod and as I turned around he say’s theres nothing there….WHAT? well that’s not really what I said. The scars on the halco told the story. Another “hoo” down the tubes and my boat is still a “hoo” virgin.
Off we go again we reached the 32’s and the little jethead went off again I’ll fix you this time a gave the outboard a squirt and all looked good and I handed the tiller over to the broken wristed boy with strict instructions. I picked up the outfit to be greeted with the weight of the jethead…not allowed to print what was said #@#*
I resigned to the fact that I wasn’t meant to catch a fish this week so pointed the boat towards the bar and slowly made our way in. We had just cleared the inside edge of the 32’s when the pakula mouse was nailed again. I hit the throttle and figured I drag the fish all the way back to the ramp. What seemed like 100m later I could see a reasonable Dollie doing aerobics attached to 24kg Ande. I handed the outfit to my broken wristed young bloke who struggled but kept pressure on the fish all the way to the boat. With one foul swoop I hit the fish with the gaff and dispatched him straight into the fish box. I expected a bit of a stir but I rekon the aerobics while being towed tired him out as he didn’t move. Thank god! A fish in the boat, whatever curse I’ve acquired hopefully its been broken. We continued towards Evans and picked up another small Dollie (3kg) again on the mouse.
All in all it wasn’t a bad week but the hoo I was looking for just didn’t happen!