With the weather having been ordinary over the past weekends, we decided that to head out when conditions were good during the week.  I also really wanted to conduct a final test of our 5kg Shredded Mulie Block, as we have received some orders for them.  The conditions yesterday afternoon were about as good as you get, so the plan was to leave from Hillarys at 2-3pm and head to some proven spots in the high 30’s that we hadn’t fished for more than 6 months.

It is fair to say our start was disorganised, thanks to me fussing about the shop really.  Anyway, we finally got out about 2.15pm with Dean, Callum (who has been really helping us out with our fish processing – thanks mate) and my boy Luke (YPM is back – first fish for him in well over a year).  It was a bit of a roller-coaster ride out with the big swells coming through but we still made fairly good time. 

Of course, Jill rang as we were heading out with some till questions (had to stop the boat to be able to hear) and she said the GM of Bluewater had dropped in to ask about wholesale prices for our shredded fish products, and specialist bait packs.  Oh well, still glad we went and I spoke to him today about it, and the value of FW sponsorship (for which he enquired).

We eventually arrived and sounded around until there were good shows on the screen.  Spot lock the Minn and we were ready to go, except me who was fussing around with burley bags, weights, ropes, rigs, etc – it really was one of those days.  To make it interesting banter, we also had a bit of a “young guys at the front of the boat v old guys at the back of the boat friendly”.

I dropped the 5kg block to the bottom, pulled it up a few metres and away.  Let’s just say, the burley did good things to the sounder over the whole period.

It was on, and the bottom baits were lucky to last 30 seconds.  I think Dean had half a dozen fish by the time I got myself together.  YPM had a good baldie and a just sized pinkie (released) on the first couple of drops of his “return”.  Callum was tangling with sambos and pulling fish on board.  I finally got going and the old guys were at 20+ with the young ones still under 10.  It was a fast start for the “experienced” ones, although the “snappers” seemed happy with the whole deal.  The young ones never recovered however.

The pinkies were the species in abundance, amongst plenty of others.  They were all between 400mm and 700mm and there were lots of them.  We were starting to lose count of the fish coming aboard and were releasing everything, other than a few “worse for wear” and particularly tasty fish, and some to use for bait.

We had Fisheries come and visit us.  We set up to just hand over the catch bag but an officer boarded the boat to have a look.  There were no problems but it was a real “mission” to get him on and off the boat in the swells.  I’m not sure this is the safest practice, but it really good to see them a long way out making sure the rules are followed.

One issue with having 35m of rope in the water is that it becomes a “target” for line with a decent fish on it.  You need to retrieve it when someone hooks up big and I brought it to the surface early on to find quite a bit of damage to the bag holding the frozen shred.  Not long after Dean got a 1m+ bronzie to the boat, so I think you need to use line that a big shark will bite off and not tow the boat around.

As it got dark the bite slowed.  We had caught 50+ fish in a couple of hours of “mayhem” and had released at least 10 sized pinkies, and 20 smaller ones (the pinkies release really well).  We didn’t even keep our full bag as there is no point in taking more than you will use fresh.  It is a shame that we couldn’t find the 80cm+ models, but a magic day on the water in good company.