Crookhaven Heads - July 07

[michaelrdoyle@gmail.com]

Hi All

Been meaning to write this report for ages - but didn't get round to it.

So - staying down at Orient Point with friends for a week in July School Holidays. It had been raining hard, and the Crookhaven River was brown sludge. To make matters worse - it was blowing a 30k westerly all week. Andy and I had spent the day working on the boat - or just hanging in-doors. We were going stir-crazy. 3pm hit, and we said "stuff it". We grabbed the kids and headed out. Sure - we wouldn't catch any fish, but at least we would be out on the water.

By the time we hit the Crookhaven Heads boatramp - the wind had dropped. We put the boat in (only one out), and headed round the heads to pengiun head. This meant we were out of the brown sludge - not that the water colour was any good there!

We decided to anchor up on a drop off as marked on the new fishfinder/chartplotter. The kids dropped the lines in - and we were off. Surprise surprise - within 15 minutes Hannah had caught a just-legal Snapper....not bad. Shortly, she picked up a decent siz morwong (40cm). Jack - the 5 yo was calling out "got one" every 30seconds or so - we kept telling him to shut up.

Then - we hear a scream from Jack. We look over, and his rod is bent double, with 30lb braid screaming off the reel. Jack is hanging on for dear life! His dad grabs the rod, and I grab the net - and over the next 5-10 minutes we fight this monster. Finally - we get it to the boat. A 70 cm Morwong (I didn't even know they grew this big!). As his dad and I high fived and whooped with Joy - Jack was standing there with his arms crossed and a bemused look on his face. "What's the big fuss?" he seemed to be saying, "I came fishing - I caught a fish - what did you expect?".

Not bad for a first fish for a 5yo!

We caught another 2 decent morwong and another snapper - not bad for a "stuff it" fishing trip!

Lots of fun.

Unfortunately - didn't get anything else that week, and that spot hasn't performed since!

Here's Jack and the fish!:

Mike

[sanger]

Nice work guys!!!!! Those westerlys were damn stong down there then hey!!!!

[JayKay]

well done to you guys. that is a big mowie. how much did it weigh???

[michaelrdoyle@gmail.com]

well done to you guys. that is a big mowie. how much did it weigh???

The scale said 3kg - but I'm not sure how accurate the $5 scale that's been sitting in the bottom of the boat for 3 years is....

Mike