Last Thursday - Jervis Bay...

[michaelrdoyle@gmail.com]

There has been a long drought - but last week I was determined to break it.

Grabbed a couple of mates, and left late Wednesday night heading down to Jervis Bay. Arrived about 12:30am. The originaly plan was to grab a few hours sleep, and hit the bay 4am-ish (due to wind forecast, we had decided to forgo the Banks). However - when we arrived, we went: "Stuff it! What's 3 hours sleep ever done for anyone?". Our aim: Kingies. We'd heard mixed reports over the last week or so. Some people said flat. Others (from the LBG crowd) said the Kingies were going nuts last week - and were trapped in the bay due to current conditions. Our hopes were mixed.

Was in the water by 1:30am, and headed to the "never fail" squid spot - Honeymoon bay. A dark moonless night - the bay is awesome at night! The spot almost failed us, only producing 1 squid. Note to self: Must discover some other squid spots in JB.

Headed to Long Nose point to fish in the sunrise - picked up a whole lot of small fry - little snapper, small shark, catfish, large pike, eel, plus a whole bunch of other stuff - nothing really to boast about. There was heaps small stuff on the sounder - but nothing big.

After the sun rose headed to middle ground. Lots of baitfish, but nothing big.

Trolled the cliffs at Pnt Perpendicular, then headed around to Drum & Drumstick. The predicted wind started rising, and so we anchored behind the rocks and put out the light gear. Started to pick up lots of different stuff. Leather Jacket (some BIG ones!), maori wrasse, big sweep, little snapper, etc. All of a sudden my light 6lb rod started stripping line! Lots of fun bringing in a kingie! A small kingie. The smallest kingies I've ever seen! 43cm!

As the wind rose, we headed back into the bay, checked the sounder at long-nose, then back to honeymoon bay for another go at squid (once again - only produced 1!), then back to Callala Bay. Cleaned the boat, fish, and headed home to collapse in bed.

An awesome trip - no real kingies to be found (by us), but it was good to hit the water.

Mike