Subject: Fishing Today Friday 28th Aug 09
Date: Friday, 28 August 2009 4:39 PM
Originally there were 3 would-be starters. One (Harry) retired hurt with a bad back before the event and another (Steve) had an appointment that he could not break leaving yours truly as the sole goer.
I woke up at 4.00am and decided to get up as I felt if I fell asleep again I would not wake up before the alarm and thus wake up dear Carolyn which is a no-no. So after breakfast I went to MG in the dark, arriving at 5.00am. I launched in the dark and let me tell you it is quite a daunting experience as you can't see the sets but you could see the dark shape of the waves which were a lot bigger than I had expected. Anyway I got in and paddled along the groyne. It seemed ok so I made a dash for it and just made it over the top of one wave before reaching the safety beyond the break. As it was dark I just kept paddling, planning to organize my gear etc when it was light. I started out at 5.26am and then took a photo at 5.45am, not realizing I had my flash on but the result does give an idea of the eeriness of the surrounds at that time.
5.45am... an eerie morning
As I paddled towards north sunshine reef I got to see a lovely sunrise.
Sunrise at 6.10am with lumpy seas
A few minutes later
I got to my mark at north sunshine reef, set up my trailing line and started casting my soft plastic with the other rod at 6.30am ie an 1 hour paddle in lumpy seas. I immediately caught a small yellow tail on my trailing line... kept for bait. Caught a striped sea perch with my second cast. Released as too small. I thought this is encouraging but then nothing and by 8.30am after a number of different drifts I was day dreaming when I suddenly had a strike on my soft plastic and after a vigorous fight I boated a 50cm snapper and just as I had put it in the bag my trailing line rod bent over and soon I had a nice sweetlip also in the bag. At this time the wind picked up causing white caps but it was warm and not unpleasant. However, it was causing me to drift much faster and I had no more action and so at 10.30am I decided to pull the plug and proceeded to tidy things up for the trip back home leaving my plastic jig line in the water as the last job before the paddle back and would you believe as I went to pick up the rod I got another strike and shortly after bagged another sweetlip. I had one more cast for luck and then headed home as I had achieved what I had set out to do and that was to get some fresh fish for a meal tonight to entertain friends, a Tassie couple, who are arriving today and staying a few days with us.
The paddle back was uneventful even though it took 1 hour 20 minutes as I had to battle against the wind and waves. The shore entry was exciting as I decided to see if I could surf the waves in, which I did succesfully as the waves were small enough to be able to control the ride.
Here is a photo of the fish.
One snapper and 2 sweetlips
So all in all, a great day.
Jaro
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