Went across to the Abrolhos for the June long weekend with the brother inlaw, planned to drive up to Gero Thursday night, head across Friday morning and back to Perth Monday. However with the weather forecast the possibility of coming back Sunday was floated and likely.

Almost didn’t happen at all after realising the trailer brakes weren’t working on Tuesday night when topping up the boat with fuel ready. Luckily Darren at DTL Industries managed to squeeze me in and get the brakes back up and running. I could see brake fluid leaking from a caliper and asked for a new one to be fitted, however it was found that all the discs were badly rusted and all the brakes pads were down to pretty much bare metal.

The drive up went smoothly, usual roadside critters and we rolled out the swags just outside Gero at about 1am. Woke up in the morning to a 20knt Easterly, decided to head to Dome for some breaky and hope that the wind died down. After breaky decided to give it a crack anyway, being Easterly we would be going with it. Went in convoy with a Trailcraft we bumped into at the servo and logged into sea rescue. Trip over was actually quite nice, cruising 15-20knts and made it to the islands for midday.

We spent the afternoon fishing on some ground we came across, sounder was going off but only got a nice trout and decent pinkie (which was partly mauled by a shark on the way up). Dropped off the pots, anchored up in a sheltered bay in the Pelsaert Group and had some trout burgers with some rum.

Saturday morning was quite windy so after checking the cray pots (for 1 cray), we moved them to a new spot and decided to head down the inside of the Pelsaert Group. Caught some barely size trout and small pinkies (all released). Had plans to give deep drop a go but decided to hit up some dhuie spots that went off on a previous trip, unfortunately they were dead this time, nothing. Had a quick troll for no luck and made our way back to camp.

Had some ‘popcorn’ cray and squid (caught off the boat) for dinner, was meant to be entrée but the 1 big cray and 5 squid was overkill for entrée.

During the night the wind switch from SW to NE and seemed to pick up (blowing 20knts +) so we had breaky and walked along the shore of the island having a flick (no success) but was pretty cool exploring it. Rob H popped into the bay, sheltering from the wind for a bit. We had a chat and he calmed my nerves regarding ‘what if’ wind doesn’t die down, was starting to think of leaving at 12-1 and slowly making our way back to gero (thanks a heap).

Late morning we headed out, it wasn’t too bad. We checked the craypots for 6 keepers and then had a last fish before heading back. Ended up with another pinkie, couple baldies, grassie emporer and losing a couple of fish to sharks. By then the wind had calmed off but the ocean was still a bit messy, left Abrolhos at 3.30pm and made it back to the Gero ramp for 5pm bumping into the Trailcarft guys again.

All in all definitely a great place and great trip, cant wait to do it again.

Put 10hrs on the motor, covered 133.5nm and used 174ltrs for petrol (took 330ltrs). Higher fuel than normal due to trimming bow right down to plough into chop for a bit, cruising at 27knts when possible (knew we had plenty of fuel so wanted more time fishing instead of traveling) and leaving engine idling in reverse when jigging.

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