Hlokk called me last week and informed me that Craig of Saltwater Charters was bringing the boat back from Gero and was hoping to get a small group together for a charter and the idea was to fish Turtle Dove Shoal on the trip back.  I had my hand up straigt away as I have been wanting to do that for the longest time.  The trip wasn't confirmed yet as he needed to get a few people interested first.  Getting the interest wasn't much of an issue, but the last minute notice made getting time off a bigger problem for most of the folks that wanted to make this trip.  In the end Matt, Brody, one of his mates (sorry the name slipped me!) and myself were the only four that could make the trip.  I almost couldn't make it, as I couldn't get a sitter for the kids, but when Craig said bring them along I confirmed immediately.

The weather forecast look fantastic and after a few minor hiccups, we left Gero at about 12.30pm and the ride out took abit longer then expected as the swells started to build.

We reached TDS just before sunset and Craig slowed the boat down and shouted "lures out" and a mixed bags of lures were launched off the back and we started trolling.  About 2 minutes in, Craig shouted back "Hey guys what's happening, it's been two minutes and we haven't had a hit?" and as if on que, we had a triple hookup and I was surprised that the first three fish on board were Yellow Fin Tuna, I thought the water would have been to cold and that they would all be further north already, but the 3 YFT on board definitely indicated that they were still around.

The first three were bled and put into an ice slurry to ensure that the fish would be in prime condition as we weren't sure if we had spooked the school and would get any more, but I am glad to say that this was clearly not the case, as within 30 seconds of the lures hitting the water, we were all on again and this pattern just kept repeating itself!  I don't know how many we returned to the water, but I would say it was a fair number.  It actually got to a point, where we told Craig,"Okay, enough YFT, let's catch something else!"

I was particularly pleased as I was chasing my first Australian YFT and had cracked it with not just one, but several, one after another - you can tell by the silly grin on my face.  Even though this first one was tiny, we did get into some larger ones later, only problem was the fishing was so fast and furious that we didn' get any pictures in.

As we moved on around the shoal, we started to get into Pinkies and Dhuies.  The first few were small or just size, so all went back in, the small pinks were around in plague proportions, almost like catching blowies at Hillary's

As we were landing at Hillary's, Craig said we will only keep those over 50cm.  As luck would have it, most were just size so we released them, but finally a 55cm fish came on board and by the end of the trip there were several more.

We were getting Pinks and Dhus at about the same time and we released several which were over 60cm.  Below is a pic of my first Dhu of the trip, which was released.

and another, also released

On a side note, this was my first no bait trip.  Every fish was on a jig or lure and Ima Ros did most of the damage for me.  Like the YFT and Pinks, multiple hook ups of Dhuies were common.  We often had two or three on board at the same time and were fighting for the release weight rig.

Here is one we ate for dinner, was a decent size and it was a shame that we could not finish it.

I also managed my PB dhuie on a jig on this trip, not a big fish but  am not complaining. Sorry no measurements (but it would not go straight into Craig's 90 or 100 cm fishbox ) or weights (but say about 7-8kg).  A 120gm Fanky from the Fishing Shop where Brody works did the damage on this one.

All in all, I am a happy camper!  Thanks Matt for putting this together and Craig for being an excellent host to me and my kids!