henno

We are actually based in Agnes now Keepin_TABS. Where is Chookie if you can excuse my ignorance? If anybody with a big boat ever needs a deckie or a place to hang ya hat give me a hoy. I need to get further out to try a few little tricks I have been perfecting on some big trout. This summer's mission is going to be lots of mackerel and at least one billfish in the tinny.

Trundled out my little tinny for my first night fishing attempt ever two nights ago during a lull in the wind that has been torturing us up here at 1770. We grabbed some yakkas just on dark and then slogged our way up to a well known wreck and anchored up with the sounder looking very promising indeed. I have fished here before during the day and the GT's are relentless so the idea was to get passed them and maybe put some grunter or nannygai in the esky. After a bit of a lucky dip on the bottom on cut baits, mostly trevally of different species but one legal grunter, I decided to put a yakka down just off the bottom. He was rigged with a couple of black magics and a big glow bead sinker straight to his nose. It only took a few minutes before the TLD went off and I got back a very sad looking munched yakka. The second one went down and I made the mistake of going back to dead baits when BANG! The rod holder was attached to a handrail and it obviously wasn't tight enough. The first blistering run was taken with the rod pointing straight down and half the rod in the water. A bit of swearing and I got it loose and settled into something bloody large. I called it for a cobe early but feared I had a spirited shark. The head shakes and the way it fought told me otherwise and at the 10 minute mark I was really wishing I had a gymbal belt or at least a cover for the sharp metal gymbal butt on the rod! Towards the 15 minute mark he did the classic cobe thing and started to run horizontal and came out from under me. He surfaced about 20 metres from the boat and went ballistic and I got a look at the size of him and said 'oh gosh!' or words to that effect. My wife yelled shark as so many people do when they first see em but I realised I was going to have to settle back into a slog as the first surface thrashing seems to give them a second wind. My wife was a champ with the gaff and put it under his bottom lip after his 4th or 5th circle under our headlamps right alongside. I heaved him over and will never forget the thud of him hitting the deck. The funny ending to this fish was pulling back into Roundhill creek we saw a few blokes having beers on the back of one of the local charter boats. I pulled up and asked the deckie if he had some scales to weigh a big cobe. He said he didn't but would give me an estimate if we tied up alongside. When he saw it he was gob smacked and put it at about 40kg. I was saying about 35kg at first but he pointed out how long and fat he was. Filled with big squid to bursting point. I jokingly said I would swap it for a coral trout if he had one and he jumped at it. He cleaned it and gave us a 6 or 7 kg trout as trade. Much nicer on the chew and I didn't have the freezer space for the big cobe anyway.