Saturdays Weather Was Great, But No Fish Dinner

[copafisher]

Got home Friday night to the news my 15yr old son (deckie) was working Sat morning. After some discussion with the , she agreed I could go fishing by my self (I had indicated earlier in the week, that Saturday was the day after waiting for weeks for decent weather), so she would have to get up early and drive him to work at 7:00 instead of me.

Didnt start to well, as I got up at 6:00 with a bad headache (no, it wasnt the ) and had to wait till Kerry & Peter cleared till I could it all together by myself. Took off from Sth Kincumber about 9:30 and made hast (at mostly 4-8 knots due to the zonings, out to Box Head to get some livies). By the time I got there it didnt appear to be looking good, what with all the other boats coming in, the wind/chop/swell picking up and out past Broken Bay it looked like the forcast late weather change was coming in early.

Decided to skip the livies and give it a try anyway. The swell was from the North (as Ray R has indicated) and about 1.5-2m as I left BBay. I changed plans from Boultons to West reef, as being by myself I figured if I had to make a rush back a following swell rather than sideways + wind/storm would be safer & nicer.

What with the headache still persisting (breakfast included a couple of panadol/codeine and the last ginger tablet ) the swell had me a bit . Dropped some baits but decided after about an hour with no bites to go back in to more sheltered waters, leaving a small berley trail just as I was about to leave (I was fine till I started to look down a lot).

Ended up drifting Half tide to Lobster for flatties for about 2 hrs, only picking up 1 small throwback (no pics yet camera wont download). Then tried the big hole on the west of the Rip with one of my big squid (I often get "big fish" on the sounder here and figured after reading up to turn off fish symbols and try different sounder settings while I was out by myself). I had one take but struck early (sorry Jewgaffer I forgot your jewfish advice) and only lost the squid head/guts (happened before here too), the 2nd take slow and found it was a bloody eel so cut him off before he wrapped himself all the way up onto the rod itself.

Just before leaving I had a great, but fortunate, "funniest home videos moment" when I stepped up onto the rear seat and transom to empty my remaining squid bits & liquid off the back, rather than down the side of the boat. Just as I was stepping up on the transom a rogue wake wave rocked the boat and I fell back onto the esky/drivers seat and floor on my back with the bucket emptying its water inside . After extricating myself from the floor I found the squid bits & guts thankfully stayed in the bucket and no apparent injuries . Note to self - be more careful next time.

Motored back home through a seriously choked Saratoga/Davistown/Cochrane Ck. A number of sand bars & the Creek etc had the sounder alarm (I have set to 3ft) going off. They seriously need to stop & do some dredging etc throughout Brisbane Waters through to Lobster, the number of extra warning bouys and shallow depths is in parts quite dangerous, so keep a good lookout if you use these waters .

Not sure why but I seem to find the area around the entrance to BB has worse swell than Terrigal/Copa, I reckon it funnels it up bigger here as the depth decreases. Has anyone else noticed this ?

Bye

[Ray R]

G'day mate, yeah that sounds a bit like the day we had , we found the line snipping jackets at West Reef , so we buggered off, we probably passed you out there somewhere, better luck next time , it can only get better, I enjoyed the saga as well it was a great read.. Cheers..

[Hodgey]

It sounds like you had one very tough day mate

I can fish with a sore back or most other niggling pains, but I suffer headaches frequently and they put a real damper on the trip. You were fortunate not to sustain a real injury when you went A over T ... at least you didn't wear the contents on yourself

Here's hoping the next trip is just as memorable, but for all the RIGHT reasons!

Cheers

Hodgey