Peter: We woke up to calm conditions today with three hours left of the run in tide. The first target species was a GT, it was a little slower than I thought it would be but we still managed to raise a couple and lose a 30kg Doggie on the popper also. When the tide was turning we dropped some plastics and went into the shallows and caught heaps of quality size cod, trout, red bass and lippers. It was time to give the popping a go again and this time we stayed connected catching 8 nice size GTs in a couple of hours. When the boys got tired of popping it was time to drop some jigs what an awesome little session that turned out to be. We actually lost a lot of jigs but in the process caugh some Spanish, trout and a really good size diamond trevalley. As the sun was about to go down we saw birds on the horizon and Nick radioed saying there were yellowfin so we were there in a heart beat and caught a couple of nice tuna and then on the way home hooked a good Doggie and managed to boat 1 of around 40kg. Which was an awesome way to finish!!
Damon:- An incredible morning, and a privilege to wake up and be greeted by such a great day. We've got the film crew from IFISH onboard this week, and trying to find a dogtooth or a mackerel on the incoming tide was first up on the agenda. The first 4 hours of today is really a blur to me because it was complete non stop action, and I actually got to have a little fish myself for the morning, all for the camera of course!! A couple of the highlights were a dogtooth tuna on a cast stickbait of about 30kg that ate my stickbait in 3m of water on the edge of the reef, and then screamed off along the ledge with sharks chasing it, and then turned, swam at the boat and ran at us and then straight down the ledge and busted me off!! Bugger... We had the hooks pull out on the troll on a 60-70kg dogtooth, then turned around, dropped the lures back in the water and hooked a 35-40kg doggie that we landed and released, then there was the 40kg GT chasing Paul's popper and eating it near the boat, the 15kg Spanish mackerel that got airborne 10m out the side of the boat - twice! There was the 40kg Cod that we landed on the troll because the mackerel we had hooked up got sharked, and in the melee of chaos of the sharks eating the mackerel near the boat, the huge cod somehow came up and ate the mackerel head and got hooked up. Oh, and there was the double hookup on yelowfin tuna of about 15-20khg each. And in amongst all this there was action every time we cast a lure at the edge of the reef, with GTs, coral trout, red bass, sharks and dogtooth all competing for the lures, usually all on the same retrieve. After the morning session we came back to the mothership for several hours just to regroup and calm down a little. We then went and lost a few lures in the shallows to big trout and red bass, and then finished the day with a quick, but uneventful troll. An amazing day, and I simply cannot believe how many fish live in this reef! Incredible. Looks like more 10kn winds tomorrow, could not be better!
Nick:- Running off this morning we were out to catch anything we could any which way so we did a bit of everything. Casting for GTs this morning we managed to raise a few packs which were at first a little apprehensive but decided to commit as the morning rolled on. Lynda was having a great start to her trip and out fishing her partner Andy! Nice work! We opted for some light tackle fishing for the latter part of the morning which was a pretty hot little session with some decent trout being landed and lost amongst other species such as Maori Wrasse, red bass and even a doggie chased Josh's stick bait up into the shallows. We headed back to the mothership for lunch to escape the sun for a little and found things to be a little slow until the tide started to push bringing with it some decent spanish and some smaller yellowfin which made for some decent sport.
