So 2025 came.........and went..............challenging, rewarding but how can one ever be angry when your sititng there in gods country on holidays...love CB.

As always....not enough fish pics....especially of the good ones, but a few to wet the whistle of anyone heading up there.

As the kids have grown up, 2025 was going to be an  easy year- myself + wife and my mate and his wife..pick the good weather, do activities other than fishing..easy peazy ...or so we thought..

Day#1- Leave Albany at a very respectable 6am [ said wife may have had a hand in the later than normal departure..], moving through some tunes, get a phonecall from our Air bnb Nth of Gero... their toilet hose fell off, its flooded..they felt terrible. 20 mins later, said mate + wife ring while we are feverishly looking for accom on phones- his accomodation has fallen through too....fark me..bringing back memories of 2024 issues!! we finally find one for both of us, all good. Pull into Northhampton quite late, but all ok.

Day #2 Leave Nth Hampton not too early..get to Carnavon...oh dear, my electric brakes on the boat have an issue..cpl phone calls..i do a quick fix to disenable them-worry about it later when we get home..roll into CB 2pm- FARK ME.....it was

hot-real hot!!!! It was the moistest/sweatiest unload i've ever done..then the quickest run to Bills bay to jump in..wowsers it was mid 40's.  as was the norm for every day, frozen margaritas where flowing and plentiful, followed by rum chasers.

Day#3- Good enough to go fishing, but more like Albany conditions..rough as. We go Nth as swell was up. Head to some good red ground I found on the last day in 2024..1st 2 drops we have reds, plus they where hungry. Problem being, so

were the sharks here. 3 on the deck- lets move...fishing was ok but not great. As always on my boat, im a little fussy to what i bring home. we filter through 2 million [ maybe not quite that many]  red throat, tom cods to rustle up a

good 10 fish..but it did take a long time. 

Day #4 - too rough, did the normal CB shit around town and as normal..the thought of ice cold bevvies wore us down-although we promise it was after midday..[ maybe??] Fresh red wings for chow-beautiful.

Day #5 Fishing we go...head sth with no real plan other than to head in a general direction..rustled up some new ground- found a lot of small reds around 43-44cm..Kept throwing them back  but they just never got any bigger. Sharks where horrible

at some spots, then none at the next- this was to be the norm for the week..it was a little unusual to previous years. After chats at fish cleaning, it was common...main red spots the fish where very hungry and jumping on ur hook before hitting the btm...then sharks where thick.  Next spot-zero..rustled up a good bag though with plenty of fillets.

Day#6- Weather looks imaculate...up at 630am, packing the boat- decky comes over. to the coffee machine....says we gotta chat-oh dear...he has gotten a bit of news...got to work through some stuff, we cant go fishing...To be thruthful, i don't think i had ever chilled in the bay on a hollywood day..but this is what we did and would u beleive it..frozen margaritas and rum camé out again..far out life is hard!!  End of the day, i hear the words i had been dreading. Mate + wife need to leave early...oh dear.

Day#7-let the dust settle..think what am i to do when he goes as mumma bear doesn't do further than a few km off shore..we go to Exy to fill in a day with some shopping, counter meal etc.. return to the news my decky is going home tomorrow...weather for the next 3 days looks hollywod..shit, f$%k etc...over a rum with another friend who is a CB regualar who just arrived...his mate's also  just arrived but his son was bringing his boat up in 4-5 days- Light bulb goes off and we hatch the plan..i have a new decky-we r on..

Day#8- [ plus #9 and 10 ]  Decky + wife goes home.. Mood was a little low, so went with easy option of hitting some never fail marks in 180-250m...would rather chase reds but decide it was  easier to do the km's,  go bang, get the bag of good fish and be home early. Turns out to be a great idea. We get a nice red on the way out on 1st drop. then being choosy we end up with a nice mix...day #9 and 10 followed this template..decky was thrilled and reckoned he hadn't caught that many fish in 10 years at CB to what we caught in 3 days..i was been super fussy and returning a lot fish that where in good health and easily swam away....we where done..no more fishing, no more fillets..decky was great and i was lucky [ he reckon he was!!!] to have sorted a solution.

Day#9-Chatting with the wifey..not the same without mate + wife in a big house.., so we decide to leave early too- heading home tomorrow to spend a few extra days with our daughter who just moved to Perth this year for Uni .. We miss her terribly so the lure of seeing her was too great :) We go for a quick squid and slay them...back by lunch and fully clean the boat, pack everything away etc. etc.

Day#10- we leave early and go all the way through to Perth..big day but staying with our daughter for 3-4 days was amazing..nice end to the trip.

Overview

Fishing- was pretty much what i call Average for CB..Had to work hard for good fish, but rewarded if you did work hard. Everyone was pretty much the same at the fish cleaning-Reds where around but a lot in the 43-46cm range...a few bigger ones around the traps. We got some nice ones, but no 8-10 kg ones this year.

Sharks- as always..i think i have said the same for 10 years..don't continue to drop on a spot you get sharked at..it only ends one way..lol.  Once again we found plenty of new ground..but certainly the last 3 days when i hit some ole fav marks they produced quickly. SHarks where not too bad but also we hwere ther eon a good moon phase.

The good- say no more- i wa sin my happy place Coral Bay..farking love it!!!! Loved seeing some familar faces and talking a whole lot of shit with them!!!

The Bad-  It was a shame to see so many houses empty fot that time of year...although if u look at the way they have jacked the prices up- doesnt surprise me..3 yrs ago we where paying $1800/week...now same house $2,600..starts to get expensive..

The ugly- that was just me in the mirror..nothing in the world can fix this face !!!!!

Sad to say my April holidays are done at CB...after 15 years we are changing it up and moving to June..With the daughter now having 6 weeks off uni in the middle of the year [ apparently now she misses CB soooo much, plus bloody boyfriend..]..its ok as he fishes :)

plus it works better for work for  my main crew of fellar's. Seems silly not to change.

Good luck to all who are heading there, fish hard and enjoy life...