Hey guys,
Myself, and a few mates were able to get away over the weekend for some offroading, camping and fishing.
We arrived late Saturday arvo and found a decent looking gutter. We rigged up, baited up and lines were in the water with daylight dwindling.
Not much action that night except for a few Shovel Nose rays. With not much happening we kind of crashed watching our rods.
Woke up early Sunday morning just before sunrise and baited the lines and sent them back out.
As the sun peaked over the horizon my mate picked up his rod to take in some slack, he hadn't completed a full wind before the line went off with that sweet sweet buzzing sound. Whatever it was took off 100m down the beach and we gave chase. After that first run the line went really heavy, unsure what it was our initial thoughts were a big ray. After 5 or so minutes of little to no movement just dead weight, the line went off again, this time it went out. Providing what coaching I could I was telling my mate not rush he had time, but to maintain what pressure he could using the old kmart special.
Lift and wind lift and wind in between the sound of beast taking line. 20 or so minutes into the battle, I catch a glimpse of the beast in the waves. The silhouette was unmistakable - I yelled for the gaf and it was brought over by one of the other guys. The battle seemed to last for hours, a couple of missed opportunities and a couple of more runs up and down the beach my moment came. The beast was exhausted, I waded out into the chest deep water and gaffed what would be the biggest fish I have ever seen in my life. I dragged the majestic creature through the breakers and onto shore.
We didn't have scales, but our best guess was in the 30kg range. It measured in @ 142cm.
Unfortunately we weren't able to release the creature, I think it came down to inexperience on our part on not knowing how to best land the fish so the prolonged fight left it exhausted. I was able to get it on ice fairly quickly after dispatching and cleaning so it made it back home to be split amongst 3 of us for the table.
After that Sunday morning though the rest of the trip was relatively uneventful, a few whiting, couple more shovel nose rays and some fun with mullet on unweighted lines caught on bread (everything released as we definitely had enough for the table). Overall it was a memorable trip and looking forward to the next one.
Thanks for reading.
Nick