At last, an afternoon forecast yesterday that wasn’t a gale.  And, this morning looked the goods as well.  I have been pining for the first post ban legal pinkie so it was definitely time to give it a go.

After numerous discussions with Tim-o about getting out on his Bar Crusher to chase some pinkies, the trip was arranged.  It was a shame that Beau couldn’t come along too, but more about that later.  A day load of text messages about conditions and it was at the ramp about 4ish to head out on a very hot summers day.  The inland storm seemed to calm the conditions down and we were greeted by quite benign conditions – although Tim-o was suspect of barometric pressure impact on the bite.

All of my Metro pinkie chasing has been near shore and although Tim-o’s boat is more than capable of going afar, we decided to stay in close.  Got to the spot, anchored and started to get a stream of burley going.  I brought along some of my “mix” and the new burley bomb I needed to buy as the last one was “lost”.  Given the fish that the home made burley attracts (I have seen the schools in it before) I have been surprised that I haven’t seen more sharks.  Anyway, a week or so ago I dropped the bomb to about 25m as the currents were strong and after about 10 minutes I saw the rope floating next to me?  A retrieve of this showed a nasty bite mark in the rope and I think a grey coat decided it would be a good meal (not sure how it will go passing stainless steel and lead) and I dare say it is in a bit of trouble.

After 20 minutes or so we started to see solid fish on the sounder and hopes were high.  These hopes were not matched with bite rate however and there was plenty of bait switching going on.  After collection of a few undesirables (including Tim-o’s rather large Sgt Baker and baldie that just went 400mm but was released) the anticipation was growing.  Then, Tim-o’s rod goes off with something sizable.  He had been busted off already by what was called for a ray or shark but this one was a little different.  After a skillful display of rod work there was colour and it was silver and black.  Had to love it when a nice 7.5kg dhu found its way to the deck.

I was very impressed with Tim-o’s spiking, icing and general “care” for the fish.  The same goes for his care for the boat before, during and after the trip.  And, most importantly he had awesome stubbie holders that had a sticky base that meant you could put your beverage on the gunnels in a very secure way.  Gotta love that attention to detail.

Needless to say the photo got distributed to Tim-o’s “network” not long after.  I liked the reply from Beau that congratulated him and said he was going to chase the mullas.  I don’t know if it was Tim-o’s response saying the nice dhu was an omen for Beau’s trip but I am sure you have seen the story and we were pleased to see the mulla photo that came in a bit later in the night (although Tim-o’s cursing about how many hours he had put in to try and catch a mulla was very entertaining).

To cut a long story short, we got quite a lot of fish but the bite was definitely slow given the number that we had burleyed up.  A steady stream of skippy, Port Jackson and others kept us entertained but the elusive size pinkie unfortunately eluded us.  My highlight was hooking a pinkie, during the pinking hour, which I called as such and while bringing it up I stated that it was not size and would be about 420mm.  What do you know, we measured it and it was 420mm.  That and a smaller model were the pinkies for the night, but at least they are out there.  We finally relented and came in at about 10.30pm, happy with the catch of an excellent feed for Tim-o and plenty of cray bait.

With the conditions for this morning looking so promising, I had responded to Ricey’s offer of a deckie for Tuesday.  YPM was off with a mate in Denmark so if I wanted to get out and chase the pinkies on first light I really needed someone to come along.  At the time, the forecast was excellent up until about 9am so the intention was a “dash” before sunrise and we arranged a 4.30am start from Hillarys.  I must admit at 11.30pm last night I was doubting my sanity in arranging a trip in a few hours, but I had so needed to be there.  I was a little skeptical about taking someone out that I didn’t know but I reviewed Ricey’s profile before I made the offer and he did look the goods.  General note – including sufficient information in your profile is important – if you ask knowledgeable members for information (not saying that I am one) they will generally want to know a bit about you before they respond.  I note the comment of one knowledgeable member, that I have had a bit to do with lately, that says lots of people ask him for information about the Abrolhos and he will only ever respond if they use their actual name in the correspondence.

Dragged myself out of bed and was a little concerned when the real time data for Rottnest was showing 30+km winds.  The Hillarys real time was 5km so prep the boat, get the bait and off I go – feeling very tired.  To his credit, Ricey was there just before 4.30am raring to go – he said if you want to be a deckie that reliability is very important – I was just glad that I could get there on time and not let him down.  This part of FW is excellent as I had a companion, where as if I hadn’t I probably wouldn’t have gone.

We headed back to the “proven” pinkie ground and after an uneventful tip got there before 5am – the full moon was helpful in navigating the 3 Mile pot zone.  My Minn Kota is currently “out of action” so unfortunately the anchor was required.  After “anchor drifting” on one spot with little success we decided to move another location where the wind still pulled the reef anchor off the spot.  I am completely convinced that weather forecasting is a “black art” as conditions were pretty crap throughout the whole morning.  Eventually we did hold but it was a challenge.

The abundance of fish on the sounder from the night before had disappeared!  The first hour or more was, well, quite disappointing with nothing except a couple of wrasse – I’m sure the pinkies don’t like the anchor in the water and the noise of the boat slap.  At about 7am my “floater” finally went off and with solid head shakes hopes were high.  With light drag the screaming runs did not suggest a solid pinkie and it was no surprise when a rat 3.5kg sambo came to the surface.

A short time later came the highlight of the trip.  Ricey was fishing with “bream gear” and a size 1 when he hooked up solid.  No doubt this was a sambo and a bigger model than the one I had got.  No way, he was not going to land a fish like that on the gear he was using.  To his credit, and after a long fight, a 7kg fish was on the boat.  The size 1 hook was in the corner of its jaw and was very very close to being straightened.  The FW member is not a novice.

Not long after I got another hit and this one was a bit bigger.  1.2m and 13.5kg of sport fish happiness came to the boat as well.  Ricey did a quality job of tailing the fish aboard as it was a little large for the net.  I am still surprised by the length to weight ratio of the sambos.  The 27kg model that YPM got a few months ago was not much longer than this one but was twice its weight?  Ricey picked up a fox fish for lunch and I got a big ray to the boat, but conditions got really crappy and around 8am it was time to come in.  Although I don’t usually keep the sambos, these ones were kept for cray bait filler and future burley.

FishWrecked is a great site.  Got to go out with a mate I had met through the site, and a member that was just keen to come out and lend a hand.  No size pinkies but a really good experience. 

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