Ever dreamed about planning a 3 day trip with perfect weather, dreams come true. With a week to go the weather was starting to come fine, but as we set sail we knew the weather was going to be great. It was that and some more. The tides wernt the best for GT's but nothing could beat the weather.
We launched the contender at around 5pm monday arvo, meet up with the 48 foot riveria in the marina and went through everything over a few cold beers and some pizza delivered to the docks. Ropped the contender of Rob Laspina Sports Fishing to the riveria of Northern Conquest Charters and headed out.
DAY 1-We arrived at our destination around 5am, anchor down and contender alongside loading it full of gear for the days fishing. The boys aboard the riveria couldnt wait to get a line wet, and within 5min already had some trout on board. Luke(soft cock), pete(kermit), Rob(Captain) and myself headed off to a near by reef for some casting. The sun was still at a terrible angle to be able to spot the reef underwater but that didnt matter as all around us bait was boiling up. Luke is on the board first with a nice Cod of around 10kg, I lost my first lure of the trip to a mid size G casting on the otherside of a bommie(it looked too good to pass). Managed to land some healthy looking 10-20kg Gs with in the first hour. The day was looking promising as the 5 knots of wind we had kept dropping. We were surrounded by football feilds of bait, cast after cast we were meet with fish/follows or striks. POW POW lukes on again, its silver, no its orange wait up its a HUGE red bass. 8.5kg @ 80cm to be exact, what a monster!!! cheers and yahoos could have been nearly heard back on land. We were on a mission to make this trip full of highlights, 1 down and more to come. Luke hooked what looked to be another monster red bass, 15kg of drag slowly inching off, bit back, but more off, this thing had some weight by the bend in the fisherman and the strain on lukes face, DAM shook the hook!! only to have a small scale on one of the decoys.. hmmm next time. That day ended up slowing down, bait went deep and fish were enjoying shaddowing the lures. Landed a couple more 10-12kg G before we meet up with the riv for the night. Couldnt have asked for a better dinner, steak and veg(+beer) what more could a fisherman want after a long days fishing.
Day 2- After a terrific sleep we all woke up to a day better than day 1. There wasnt a ripple on the surface, couldnt get any calmer besides the slow small swell rolling in. Huge bait balls as were boiling up on 5-30m ledges, perfect one would say, but the bite seemed harder to find this morning, stickbaits on day 1 to pencil poppers today. Landed 3-4 Gs on spot one, Gs went quiet in the area so we moved on to the neighbour reef. not much action either, maybe too calm we suggest :-) FISH ON, drag screaming action all on 3kg of drag we thing, pete hooks up to what seems to be a large fish only by the line peeling off. The fish hooked pete as he asks captin to drive towards the fish, we are still unsure what happened to pete on this fish as it was all of about 10kg, poor lad was just worn out. back to the riv for some well earnt lunch and half hour of relax. Back into it as the next reef we pulled up too had a nice ledge and bait ontop. 1 red bass, 2 ,3 and 4 good size fish were landed with in 50m of water. Northen End of this reef had bait schools as far as the eye could see, we pulled at least 1 fish off every school, nothing breaking the 20kg mark. A number of macs had been landed on stick baits so far but the best was yet to come, 15kg on drag and a good 30m first run with 2 incredibale jumps, yup luke was onto yet another monster, this time a 26kg mac on his 170g poofter pink big foot orion. Another highlight for the trip. We finished the day with afew more mid size barrier reef Gs.
Day 3- 160m of water + 400g jig = pain. well for most of us. With enough time to release the bail arm and have a drink and something to eat before hitting the bottom we all knew this would be interesting as the sounder was light up like a christmas tree. first drop and 160m of line later produced a nice 12kg dogtooth. couldnt wipe the smiles off our faces as we knew there was more to come, double and tripple hooks ups wernt uncommon as in a 4hour jig session we produced 20 odd nice fish. dogtooth from 8-20kg, yellowfin and a number of amber jack. Biggest going to the man himself luke, weighing in at 18kg. If you ever want to catch a highlight fish on a trip dont take this man as he will out do you day in day out.. but my grandma could beat him in a drinking game tho ;-) soft cock.
The weather started to change about 4pm thu, we ropped the contender back up and headed for home.
Like to say thanks to Rob Laspina(Rob Laspina Sports fishing) and Cliff(Northern Conquest Charters) for making this trip happen. With many more to come. BIGGER and better next time :-)
